Coasteering and Other Crazy Things!

Hiya,

First off, these seagulls are going crazy today!!!!!! And, when I think about it, that is pretty much the only species of bird I have seen here. I guess that makes sense when Aberdeen is considered a fishing city.

This week I felt an outpour of love from those around me, especially from those back home in celebration of my birthday. It's a weird feeling when I took a step back to understand that people care about me so much that they are willing to send something across the ocean (and not cheaply I might add), just to wish me well and give me some extra TLC! Maybe it's because of all of this, but I've really found myself reminiscing about home. I've never actually been homesick, so maybe this is my version. When I think about it, it's crazy, I'm already over 1/3 done here in Scotland- it's flying by :( I still have so many things I want to do and experience!

This past weekend was a pretty crazy one. Saturday was my birthday and my flatmates are particularly awesome so they made me crepes and did my hair. AND because we've been slumming it up (at least according to United Kingdom standards), we decided that it twas a perfect occasion to get dressed up! Mama Moot sent me a red velvet cake mix in the mail (they are quite hard to come by over here) and I baked it up and they sang as I blew out my Bic lighter 'candle.'

The rest of the afternoon was chill, and then a few girls and I went to O'Neill's, shockingly an Irish pub haha. The instant we walked in it was obvious that we didn't belong there- I'm fairly certain the male to female ratio was 30:1 (and by that I really only mean women above 45.) Needless to say, we got a bit of extra attention. When I walked in I wasn't expecting a legitimately Irish crowd (I don't believe I was thinking that Ireland is only a stones throw away from here.) Either way, multiple guys approached our table and we had absolutely NO idea what they were saying, we're still not even sure if it was in English. I did oblige to take part in a dance with a fellow, that was pretty great, and he said he was sure I had to have some Irish blood in me :) After all of that, we left and headed to a bar and then club where we danced the night away, it was a lovely night!

The next morning was not so lovely- for I had to be out of the door by 8:30 AM to depart for my coasteering adventure in Stonehaven. The actual event, however, was phenomenal! You're probably wondering what coasteering is (or maybe you don't care, but I'm going to tell you anyway), it's pretty much a crazy combination of swimming (or attempting) around intense waves, then timing it just right to where you can use the waves' force to try and clamber onto the rocks. Then you climb around for a while hoping not to slip on the uneven, wet surface and then jump back in (while trying to be conscious of the water depth) and do it all over again! That is probably one of the most unique things I have ever done, you really have to interact with nature in that if you time it wrong you can be left dangling on a rock with the water 3 feet below you because the wave disappeared- that is quite freaky. I did that for a couple hours, then headed into town to down a pint and try a deep fried Mars bar. Fun fact: Stonehaven was the originator of this fattening delicacy so it just made it that much more special consuming it :) The rest of the night was filled with tea, sausage, and pancakes (which are more like crepes here) and friends- it was absolutely perfect!

The rest of this week has been filled with paper writing. I found out that in the UK school grades for the first two years are on a pass/fail system...I can't even believe that. Additionally, they don't pay for schooling here...so if you want to be nice to your children, raise them here haha! Speaking of school, right now I'm trying to switch my major back home- this girl is going into geography :) And in continuation (I'm on a roll)- on the topic of geography, people always say 'the states' here, not the US. Shockingly (not at all), people have no idea where Minnesota is...classic.

That's all for now folks! This weekend I'm taking a trip to St. Andrews so for all of you golfers- be jealous :)

Much Love!

Climbing to overlook the picture right below this (I'm the one in the crazy shorts!)

At the overlook- it was gorgeous 

Jumpin' :)

Heading into the cave (I'm on the right!)

I'm on the bottom left!

Me and the flatmates celebratin' my birfday!

Endless Adventures Make Unforgettable Memories

Hello all, I hope all of my readers are enjoying this gorgeous fall as much as I am. The weather is just in time for me to really start craving some warm coffee. And as expensive as life is here, their coffees are quite cheap, which could possibly make it the most dangerous aspect of traveling here. Also, here's a neat little tid bit, the Scots say skinny mocha; it's not that it's really that weird, but I've asked for a mocha with nonfat milk every time and they give me the 'gosh, she's a foreigner' look and correct me EVERY TIME!

Today I got lost for the first time on campus. I had previously scoped out the entire campus and ran across this room that definitely looked like it had been a Senate room, and there can only be one on a campus right? Wrong. I had gone to the NEW one instead of the old one for class. I guess that's what I get for studying abroad in a place that's cool enough to have two senate rooms.

This past weekend started off pretty crazy. A couple of my flatmates and I decided that pancakes were in order for Saturday morning, the catch: no milk. So, what's a poor college kid to do? Grab my Bailey's and use it as a substitute! Not going to lie, those were absolutely delicious. Our next venture that day sent us to a gorgeous little village called Stonehaven just 20 minutes away from Aberdeen. Our main focus: Dunnottar Castle and a fish and chips shop. What makes the castle here so unique is that it's practically its own island, and it's right alone the coast of the North Sea, I don't think the view could have been better! When we walked back into town we stopped at the restaurant, The Bay, which was awarded the best fish and chips shop in the UK; needless to say, it was amazing. As we were eating we witnessed this continuous line outside of the next-door ice cream shop, and even though we were full to the hilt, we couldn't help but test it for ourselves. It was definitely worth the wait- I got a flavor called Scottish Token (which is like a more brittle vanilla fudge), which I devoured happily :)

The next day my flatmate, Savannah and I set out at 5:30 AM to begin our excursion to Ben Nevis- the tallest 'mountain' in the UK. I put it in quotes because it was more like a hill elevation wise, a mere 4,409 feet tall. However, I rudely underestimated its difficulty- the entire hike up was basically large stone stairs (it ended up more like lunges for me though!) After the fact, I discovered that it was an ancient volcano, which made sense because the top 1/4 of the hike was completely comprised of small stones. All in all we covered about 10 vertical miles that day. We were able to hike it on a rarely sunny day, which was a blessing! One of the neatest parts was seeing all of the cute sheep roaming around the hillside. A side note about my experience on the eastern side of Scotland (where Ben Nevis is located)- there they speak Gaelic as well as English, so all of the signs have both languages!

Continuing on I was able to do my very first geoarchaeological dig at the site of Bennachie. It was the site of an old farming community from the early 1800s. My partner and I dug a test pit to analyze the soils and compare them to other test pits in order to identify how the landscape was used back in the day. Our data is actually going to be used in the research project, which I think is pretty exciting- we even found a cute lil piece of ceramic in our pit :)

A couple of random side notes before I wrap this blog up: I've discovered that few people have middle names in the UK, let alone a fair portion of mainland Europe, to me that just seems absolutely crazy! Less strange, and more exciting though, is Aberdeen's plethora of pubs with quiz nights. It's some good fun where you can win prizes, and make some friends, as well as have a good excuse to go out on a Monday :)

And here's my last notable thing. I was watching Netflix last night and came across an American movie and while I was watching it a guy got out on the right side of the vehicle. All was normal until I realized that he hadn't been the one driving- I was actually THINKING that the driver was going to be on the right side of the car. I think this is probably my first truly notable cultural impact that I somehow got into my brain. Along with that I've learned not to say, 'What's your major?' but instead 'What are you studying?'- and never say that you're a sophomore, because to them it's 2nd year. You don't say you're going to class, but that you're going to Uni, and finally it's not, 'Where are you from?', but 'Where abouts are you from?

Well, that's about the craziness of the last week in a nutshell. Word has it that Scotland's supposed to have its worst winter here in quite some time so we'll see if it lives up to it.

Blog to you soon,
Emily

At the summit of Ben Nevis  :)

My roomie Anjali and I in front of Dunnottar Castle

My fish and chips meal in Stonehaven

Near the peak of Ben Nevis

A Day in the Life: Part One

Hiya!

Well I've had classes for a week now and OOOH my goodness it's different here! For example, 2 of my classes meet just once a week...that is crazy to me, and I'm not really sure if I like it either. I'm one of those people that lacks the motivation on their own to do the readings and such, but in class I can give the prof all of my attention. Needless to say, I have 6 chapters of Geoarchaeology that I need to read before tomorrow, whoops! But the good/scary thing is that I really don't have to know all of the material before the main paper is due, which is about half way through the semester. And then I can forget it all until the final paper/exam at the end of the semester. By the way, those last couple sentences were complete sarcasm, I need more structure than this! Additionally, most of my classes have around 25 students with lectures having around 130; the weird thing is that I went to my Petrology & Mineralogy lab and it had 60 people with only 2 professors as guides. Sadly, after having 6 hours of combined lab and lecture I decided I couldn't handle it...even though I was supposed to have been able to take it, the class was far beyond my knowledge, even the 'review' part. At home, a class like this would have 30 students and meet everyday with the good chance that you could ask as many questions as necessary. It looks like I'll have to grow up a fair amount in the next few months to manage the schooling aspect. However, the bonus of having so little class is now that I have a 4 day weekend- yup folks, I have managed the impossible. Now all I need is a person to travel with...

I've already started growing up in a few ways, school aside: like I've learned how not to burn the chicken in the oven unless I want to be scraping the pan for 45 minutes. Also, even though this skill was mastered when I was a wee lass (I'm becoming Scottish people!), I've learned that to get what you want you need to just flat out ask every single question to the porters on campus (they might already recognize me when I walk in...now that's pretty embarrassing.)

Here's a couple of this uniquely Scottish: all of the taps on the faucets are separate, so there's never a possibility of having the 'perfect temperature'; they drive on the left side of the road here- it literally scares me every time we get in a car and I NEVER know which way to look before crossing the street!; I learned that if a kettle isn't included in the flat furnishings people will get furious; the outlets have switches so make sure they're turned on before waiting 20 minutes for the stove to heat up when really it's been turned off the entire time; girls in sweatpants= hobos, sad day; just because the weather is always grey doesn't mean that every day can be a lazy one; their typical donuts are a lot denser than back home and they have this delicious filling in them (there's a social every Tuesday that I can go get free ones so that's going to become a ritual :) ); Seaton Park is frightening at night- even in a group; never underestimate Mother Nature- she changes constantly; haggis is good; Irn-Bru is more popular than Coke-I'm not sure I agree with that though; even though I'm almost 2 years older than the drinking age, they just don't believe I'm old enough and require me to pull out my ID EVERYTIME (like seriously, I don't look old enough?! haha); cake mixes don't exist here; everyone thinks I'm Canadian; when they flip a coin they use the 2p piece because it's the biggest; and my spelling has taken a downturn with all of the UK spellings I'm getting wrong.

I hope you've been able to follow my randomness, I don't want to say it's going to happen a lot, but I'm sure it will...

As always, let me know what you think and for now, cheers!

Me and my roomie, Savannah, taking a stroll through the woods on campus!

Freshers Week

Here goes my first blog completely dedicated to Scotland!

So when I arrived in Aberdeen this past Saturday, I was living out of my carry-on from my previous Euro venture (because I put my full luggage in storage and the storage facility is closed on the weekends.) Needless to say I looked gross... but my flat looked grosser. The place I'm staying at reminds me of a comfortable prison- minus the creepy cellmates (mine are really nice :) ) I recently heard that this semester is its last in commission, oh well, it's a place to sleep, and much cheaper than everywhere else! The rest of my flatmates are from North America- one from Canada and then 4 others from the US.

The Aberdeen campus is gorgeous- it seriously looks like Hogwarts. And what's even crazier is that the school was established before the US was even a country! It takes around 20 minutes to walk to campus, but it's okay because I get to walk through a gorgeous park and cemetery (kinda weird, but perty neat!)

So this past week was something called Freshers Week, which is just like a big party before school starts up again. The best part though: the free food- gotta love that on a tight budget :) Pretty much everyday they had a big tent where students could look around at societies and sports clubs and pick which ones fit their fancy. Right now, I'm signed up for the Highland Frontier Society, which takes regular adventure trips around Scotland. We're scheduled to hit up Ben Nevis, the highest peak in the UK, this next week.

During Freshers they were definitely emphasizing the clubs around campus. Sometimes they're pretty funny- they try to draw kids in through the 'typical American party scene' by theming some of their nights 'Frat Parties' with 'red Solo cups' and everything! But because the drinking age is 18, that's literally the focus of societies' social events...it's something so foreign to me. They also have student pub discounts, which are genuinely a good deal so I may or may not have taken advantage of those already :)

My favorite part of the week though was probably the ceilidh, which is a traditional Scottish dance. It was open to the University students and it sold out because it was so darn popular. We got to experience a guy playing the bagpipes and some actually good Scottish dancers (before the whole crowd ruined the quality!) There was a free whiskey tasting, but I don't think there's any way that I could ever get used to the potency...then haggis, neeps, and tatties were tasted and the world was good. The greatest was witnessing and taking part in the epic dance- I've never seen such an energetic, clumsy, and sweaty crowd of people in one room. You just couldn't help but smile at everyone while dancing.

A group of international friends and I went to explore the city centre and came across the greatest pub, and that's where I fell in love with their hard cider. It's the perfect 'look like a beer, taste a lot better' drink, and it's even reasonably priced! That night we were comparing cultures and it really surprised me how much people think American accents are great. I guess I think everyone else's accents sound sweet, so it makes sense, but for my whole life I've never really been the one with a unique accent- I like it :)

Another day I took part in a sailing venture to Stonehaven- about a 20 minute drive from Aberdeen. Being my first experience sailing, I couldn't have asked for a better location- in a quaint Scottish village on the North Sea. It was there that I saw a puffin swimming right next to the boat- simply adorable! One of our guides even said he saw a dolphin, but I guess I'll have to wait until my next trip there.

This week was just lovely. I'm pretty darn satisfied thus far- and it's only the beginning :)

View amidst the North Sea

A couple of my flatmates and I at a society social