Edinburgh!!

Friday Oct. 22
We decided to take a 3 day weekend and go to Edinburgh! The train ride only took about an hour and a half and we got into Edinburgh just before 11:00 am. Our hostel was just a short walk from the train station so we dropped off our bags and ate our bag lunches before going out to explore! We decided to get the Edinburgh Pass that was kind of expensive but then we could go to lots of places for "free". We went to the Edinburgh Dungeon which was kind of like a haunted house but with some history thrown in as well, the 3D Loch Ness experience (not as cool as we thought it would be), St. Giles Cathedral (free anyway), the Dean Gallery, an underground tour and a graveyard tour. St. Giles Cathedral was really pretty! It wasn’t huge but it had a really nice and ornate chapel in one corner. At the Dean Gallery, Abby saw many pieces of artwork that she had studied at school which was cool. I enjoyed the two tours we went on. The first, as I mentioned above was an underground tour. We went into some underground vaults/rooms that were originally made as store rooms for expensive shops on the Royal Mile but due to the stone that was used to make them they ended up leaking and not being a good place to store goods. Also, the rent was really high. A few years after their construction they were empty and in moved the poor and homeless. It wasn’t a nice place to live but for those who had nothing else, it was a home. We heard many stories about what went on in the various rooms and the ghosts that supposedly reside there now. Nothing supernatural happened during our tour but the guide claims things do happen from time to time. Edinburgh Castle

We went back to the hostel to officially check in and get ready for the evening. We went to a small restaurant/take away for dinner. It was called Yum Yum and had the typical combination of pizza, burgers and kebabs. Since I had not had a kebab since coming to England I decided it was high time I have one since I really liked them in France. The UK version is a bit different from the France version but it was still good!

After dinner we went on one last tour that we could use our pass for. Sadly the hour and a half walking tour ended up taking place in the rain. It was informative and fun but we were all very glad to get back to the hostel and put dry clothes on by the end.
Day one in Edinburgh was a success.

Saturday Oct. 23
Our second day in Edinburgh was mostly spent on the Hairy Coo Tour (http://www.thehairycoo.com/). It is a free tour of the Scottish Highlands and it was fabulous! This small company started in June and runs tours for “free” 7 days a week. At the end of the tour you tip the guide and pay what you are able/can afford. The tour started at 9 am and lasted until 6:30 pm. It was a fabulous way to spend a day! So many beautiful views!
The first stop was the William Wallace monument.

At the top of the crest there is something that looks like pineapple to me but it is actually thistle which is the national emblem of Scotland and the reason why I saw "pineapple" all over Edinburgh.

Next we stopped at Doune Castle where Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed. The guide had some props with him including coconut shells so we went around the castle clapping the coconut shells together like they do in the movie. It was great.
Our third stop was Aberfoyle. It was a small town and it was our lunch break stop. We ate lunch and then wandered around. There was a Chinese celebration taking place and there were four birds of prey on display from a raptor center.
Then we went to the first Loch, or Lake in Scottish, Loch Drunkie.
On the way to our next stop we had our first hairy coo sighting! It was exciting.
Loch Achray was the next stop. A nice Loch that reminded me of Lake Sag at SJU because there was a small church on across the Loch from where we were and no other buildings in sight…kinda like the Stella Maris chapel.
Since we were on a Hairy Coo Tour we of course needed to see some more hairy coo which the next two stops included. The first was a hotel that had some fenced in hairy coo. (The hat below isn't mine but another prop the tour guide had for us to borrow through out the day)
Next was Hamish, who is a famous hairy coo because he has been in several movies although I can’t remember which. Hamish and his lady coo friend Heather.

I don't remember the details but at somepoint a waterway was built between Glasgow and Edinburgh. Instead of starting in the middle and working towards the two cities the waterway was started in the two cities but never met up in the middle! So the solution was to build this contraption that takes a boat from one part of the waterway to the other.
Our last stop was to look at the bridges across the Forth, which is the river that runs through Edinburgh.

We found a restaurant/pub that had a great meal deal for dinner. For £3.50 we got a hamburger, fries and cider. Yum! So one thing that my flat mates find amusing about me is my ketchup consumption - which just so happens to be a lot more than they eat. Naturally with a meal consisting of a hamburger and fries, I use a lot of ketchup. At one point, Abby decided that if I ate any more ketchup I was going to have sodium level issues and put the lid on the ketchup bottle saying I couldn’t have anymore….luckily I didn’t need anymore! We had a chill evening and talked with some of the other people staying in our room at the hostel.

Sunday Oct. 24
We got up at a decent time since we had gone to bed fairly early and lounged around before getting going around 11. Abby was meeting a friend and Melissa and I went on a free walking tour. Although we heard a lot of repeat information we did learn some new information and see some new sights including the coffee shop where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the school/castle she modeled Hogwarts off of.

The picture above is of an old fashion buglar alarm, or a trick step. Apparently lots of staircases had trick steps in them. The home owners would know where the trick step was and be able to help guests avoid this step. However, if a burglar was trying to sneak up your steps to rob your house, they would not notice the step and fall noisily down the steps.

We met up with Abby in the afternoon and walked down the Royal Mile to hike up to Arthur’s seat. Boy was it a hike! It was definitely more of a work out than I was expecting. There were several paths you could choose and I think we picked the most vertical one! But it was worth it! The view was great!!! Of course, none of the pictures do the view justice.

For the rest of the day we wandered along the Royal Mile and Princes Street stopping in many tourist shops and Build-A-Bear to get Pandanick’s pawsport stamped (Melissa’s boyfriend gave her a bear from Build-A-Bear before she left).

For dinner we ate at a restaurant called Zenobia and I had falafel for the first time. It was great! It is definitely going on my list of approved foods and I hope to have it again soon!

Our train didn’t leave until 9:00 pm. After dinner we didn’t have too much time before our train left but we did have enough time to get our stuff from the hostel and for Melissa and I to apply for youth railcards (Abby got her card online).

I had a great time in Edinburgh!

Hi!

I haven't been keeping very good notes on what has been going on so I have forgotten many of the day to day details that I normally write about. I have included what I do remember or info from the days I did journal or jot down what I did.

Wednesday Oct. 6
I was planning on checking out the rowing club in Newburn again since the forecast looked favorable. However, when I woke up it was pouring rain! I decided the trip wouldn’t be worth it to spend 45 minutes on an erg and then head back home so I went back to bed. When I got up an hour and a half later it was sunny and looked beautiful outside! Frustrating! I don’t understand weather at all.

Friday Oct. 8
We had prayer and breakfast as usual with the sisters and did random things until it was time for bike repairs at KK. We had decided to go to Hadrian’s Wall on Saturday so after dinner we looked up information about getting there and things to do. Basically in the process we figured out that it was way to last minute to figure it all out. So then we thought maybe it would be easier to go to Alnwick Castle instead. Figuring out how to get there wasn’t easy either. So then we decided it would be a Newcastle weekend. We were all bummer but definitely learned our lesson about trying to plan something last minute!

Saturday Oct. 9
On Friday I got a notice saying I had a package to pick up at the post office but it was too late to get it on Friday by the time I got it. Since the post office was open until 10:15 am on Saturday I decided to go there and get my package. When I got there I was shocked to see about 15 people ahead of me in line! I was pretty sure I wouldn’t make it to the counter because I got there about 15 minutes before it was closing. I ended up making it in time only to find out that it apparently takes 48 hours for the packages to be brought to the post office! Crazy. Oh well.

Melissa and I decided to go to the Center for Life science museum for the afternoon. Since a year pass was about the price of going to the museum twice we both got year passes. From the website and the outside it looks like a very large museum so we were both a bit surprised when we were walking through to find out that it was much smaller than we expected. I was expecting something the size of the science museum in Minneapolis and it probably wasn’t even half as big. They have a big Doctor Who exhibit right now. Doctor Who is a big TV show over here but Melissa and I haven’t watched it but apparently it is very popular! Later in the year it is going to be a Wallace and Gromit exhibit which I am excited for! They do have a planetarium and theater with a variety of shows/videos about topics from astronauts to ice. Although it is not as big as I was expecting, I’m excited to go to the different exhibits and shows throughout the year. They also have a big skating rink during the winter and although it costs extra, I’m excited about that too!

Sunday Oct. 10

I went to the Tynemouth rowing again today because they were planning on having a mini regetta....sadly it was too choppy for rowing. So instead we had many relay races and competitions (including a sand castle building contest). It was fun and a work out! After all the competitions we had a barbeque. It was quite the site watching as they attempted to light the charcoal for the grill in the windy weather. Eventually the charcoal was lite and lunch was served.

There was a large group of people with camo cameras all crowded on the sidewalk by towards the priory. We learned that there was a small bird that some how got off course from Siberia or somewhere far away hanging out in a tree on the hill and lots of bird watchers came to see it.

Wednesday Oct. 12
I got up early to head to rowing since it was going to be a nice day. It was a nice day and walking over the bridge to the rowing club I noticed that the water was perfect! Flat as glass! A great day to learn sculling! However, when I got to the rowing club I was told that the coach quit and there was no one to teach me! I was bummed! Then I remembered that there was another rowing club across the river that had a learn to row course starting in half an hour. This club never got back to me when I was contacting the 3 clubs nearest to me but I figured I should check it out anyway since I was already there. I’m glad I went because there were 2 other women there learning and a coach so we took a quad out! Sculling was a bit more complicated than the sweep rowing I’m used to but by the end I was getting the hang of it. I will be purchasing a pair of Wellies in the near future though because we walk into the water and it is cold and muddy! I was really glad I got to row although nothing compares to rowing on beautiful Lake Sag!

After Kids Kabin Melissa and I went to a talk “Where will Science be in the next 10 years” at the Center for Life. There were 4 people talking about their prediction for what science will do in the next 10 years. It was interesting but different than I was expecting. It was good to have a bit of brain stimulation!

I watched some of the Chilean miners rescues online and was very happy for the miners and their families!

Thursday Oct. 13
After the normal KK sessions, another worker and I went to visit many of the kids who attend KK to invite them on some of the half term trips that are coming up in a week and a half. We were invited into many of the houses when talking to the parents and dropping off forms . It was really interesting to see where many of them live. I was surprised by how nice many of their houses are. This brings up a point I have been meaning to write about for awhile. We have been told time and again about how poor of a neighborhood we are in is and yet I look around me and see a lower-middle class neighborhood…nothing like what I would expect to see in a poor neighborhood in the US. During our orientation week a local man who has lived and worked in the area for several years talked to us about the area, poverty and some problems the area is facing. During this time he showed us an interesting map online and it ranked each about 100 house area by income. According to this map (which I want to find again), we are in a very poor area of England. The welfare system seems to be much better in England than in the US. Even though there is a lot of unemployment (many men trained to do specific jobs and then those industries moved out of the area) everyone has a house and gets money for food. Last night (Saturday Oct. 16) we were over at the Pendower Good Neighbor Project where the other Newcastle AMA volunteers are located and we were talking about this topic with them and three guys who are Geordies (1 current volunteer, 1 past volunteer and 1 friend of the current volunteer). Homelessness is not a big deal here at all. There are no homeless shelters or soup kitchens that I know of, I just don’t think they exist here. There are homeless people but it seems like it is pretty hard to lose the government housing you are given. Healthcare is also free which seems to work pretty well here and this means the poor have the same access to healthcare as the rich. It is taking me awhile to get used to this new view of “poverty” and I’m having a bit of a hard time doing this. Well, I’m not sure I did a good job explaining my thoughts on this idea but time to move on.

Saturday Oct. 16
We took the bus to York for the day. Abby was an RA for two years in college and one of her RDs was in York on a trip with grad students studying student development so they were on a trip visiting universities in England and Scotland to compare them to universities in the US. Melissa studied abroad in York and we all wanted to go there at some point so we took this opportunity to go to York. Abby had lunch with her RD and Melissa went to the York Minster to get in free by going to noon prayer. Unfortunately there was some special service going on and then a wedding. You could still pay the £8 pounds to get in but we really just wanted to get in for free so we settled for seeing what we could see from the entrance and the outside. I have seen several big churches from study abroad, family trips and one while I’ve been here. I know I will see more big churches so I don’t feel like I missed out on too much by not paying to go into “the Minster” as they call it. We spent the day pretty much just wandering around the town. We walked over to Cliford’s Tower but didn’t go in because there really isn’t much to see inside according to Melissa. It is pretty small and doesn’t look like there would be much to see inside. I really liked the Shambles street! York is a medieval city and this is an area where the streets are especially narrow and it is said that people would pass things to each other across the road through open upper story windows! There were lots of old cool looking buildings! It was a fun town to wander though! There were lots of fun shops to go into and browse around! There were some stores that I really liked although I did resist the urge to buy lots of things and only bought two small items which might end up as gifts for others. It is pretty small and I feel like I walked down many streets multiple times but I didn’t get bored! There is also a wall that surrounds the city and we walked on two different parts of it. The wall is about 3 miles which is totally doable but we didn’t feel like it was necessary to walk the whole wall. We also stopped in an art museum and there was a neat exhibit on hats. We had good weather for the most part but it did rain 3 times but they were sun showers/sprinkles and didn’t really cause any problems.

When we got back to Newcastle we went over to Pendower to visit the other AMA volunteers there. It has probably been a month since we have seen them! They are really nice and we all want to get to know them better! Sadly one of them leaves in January! It was a fun night with lots of laughs and cultural comparisons since there were 4 Americans, 3 from England, 1 from the Philippians and 1 from the Czech Republic.

I hope you are all enjoying the fall colors in MN!!

Laura

Wednesday September 29

I got up early and ventured over to Newburn on the other side of Newcastle to check out a rowing club. It was kinda rainy and I was the only person who showed up to row! It was too choppy on the river so I just did an erg work out instead. It was nice anyway and I hope that more people will come! For now I will try it a few more times and while I am learning sculling it will be fine if there aren’t many people but a main part of why I wanted to find a place to row was so I could meet other people, hopefully some around my age. There is another rowing club I found and want to try out as well.

Kids Kabin was a pretty normal day. Melissa and I were in art and of course the activity we had out as a suggestion no one wanted to do. Oh well. We like having ideas out but they can really do whatever they want to do.

Thursday September 30

Today was my 23rd birthday! The day started out with a nice table display! On the table my flatmates put all my “favorite things” include the jar of Nutella and bottle of ketchup! They had a bagel for me to eat since the nickname I got during our AMA training was “bagels” (I was the only mid-westerner and they all thought I said it funny). They also had a massive “Birthday Girl” button for me to wear and I did wear it all day.

I went to common ground and got many happy birthday wishes from the clients and the staff.
At Kids Kabin, I had cake #1 during the staff pre-session meeting that Abby and Melissa made.

Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, so good!! I was in art again and part way through the session the cookery group came in with two more cakes for my birthday! There were 4 kids in cookery that day, 2 brunettes and 2 red heads and they made the cakes according to hair color. The red heads made a “ginger cake” that didn’t actually have any ginger in it but they dyed the icing orange. They must not have mixed the food coloring all the way or something because it honestly looked like there was a cheesy pasta sauce on top of the cake!! The brunettes had normal chocolate frosting. Another special touch to these cakes was the chocolate covered chilled corn flakes they put under the frosting.

After Kids Kabin Abby, Melissa, and 4 of the staff/volunteers from Kids Kabin went out. Our first stop was the Salsa Café where we got nachos and sangria. After the massive nacho platters were cleared we went to two other pubs for a drink at each one. It was a fun evening.

We parted ways and headed to the bus stop at about 11:30 pm and ran the last few feet to catch the 39 bus but upon requesting a ticket to Walker (the neighborhood we live in) were told that this bus was only going to Byker (neighborhood before ours but about a 20 minute walk from our flat) and were told that the 40 is the one we want so we got off. Upon consulting the schedule we found out that there were no more 40 buses and that was the last 39 bus of the night!! So that meant walk or take a cab….we all decided to walk at least part of the 3 miles home since that would be an expensive cab! It was a beautiful night and we knew the way home. It was well lit the whole way and actually didn’t seem like that long of a walk. We were all a bit upset with the bus driver for not knowing there were no more buses we could take!

About 30 seconds after I got home and turned my computer on I got a Skype call from my parents that quickly turned into a conference call with Emily and Patrick! It was great to talk to everyone at the same time!!!

Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone!!!!!

Friday October 1
As we normally do, we went to the sisters’ house for morning prayer and breakfast. This is where I got birthday cake #4! Lemon drizzle…yum!! I can say with certainty that I have never had 4 cakes for one birthday before!

After we got back from prayer/breakfast my flatmates gave me their gifts….a big tin of Cadbury chocolates and socks they decorated! I love fun socks! They think my Central Minnesota Federal Credit Union socks are hilarious…can’t argue with free socks that you get in your school mailbox!
In the afternoon we went in and learned about bike wheels and then helped out with bike repairs.

In the evening we went to a mass for Fr. Bill, who led the Holy Island retreat, since it was his 40th anniversary. It was a nice mass and it was fun to see people we met the weekend before. We were also introduced to many new people and socialized for awhile before heading back to our flat.

Saturday October 2
Unlike most Saturdays, we worked today. A group called the Art Fanatics came to KK from 10:45 -2:15 so we were there from about 10:15 to 3:30. For some reason there was a power outage about an hour into their time and we were all confused! We couldn’t tell if it was a power outage or if we had blown a fuse somehow! After checking the fuse box we decided it must have been a power outage. Luckily most of what they were doing did not need electricity. They were a fun group and did some nice work!

We had wanted to go to “Romeo and Juliet” that was showing at a theater in Newcastle but didn’t get tickets in time. So we decided to go to “Eat, Pray, Love” instead. It was a good movie but we all left craving Italian food!

Sunday October 3

I got up pretty early for a Sunday because I wanted to go to Tynemouth and try the rowing club there that meets at 10 am on Sundays. It was sprinkling/raining but I figured that I would go anyway since rain is pretty common and rain doesn’t necessarily mean the water would be choppy. The water was a bit rough so we didn’t row but I erged for a little bit and then went on a jog with the group. I have not been running/jogging in a long time but it felt good! I was much happier with the atmosphere/group dynamics here! There were people my age (as well as older people) but most importantly, there were people unlike the other club I tried earlier in the week. I took the metro to Tynemouth which was clean and fast! Apparently there is a huge market in the Tynemouth metro station on Sundays and I had a good time wandering around the market when I was done even though I didn’t buy anything.
I went shopping with Abby in the afternoon. I was on a hunt for a cheap flat sheet since we don’t have any in our apartment (all our beds have a fitted sheet and a duvet) and they are just apparently not very common or cheap here! It is just so strange but I am not willing to pay £7 for a piece of fabric! The search will continue but I doubt I will find one! Melissa went over to the big shopping mall in Gateshead (across the river from Newcastle) and she even looked in the Ikea but they weren’t cheap there either.

For mass we went to the chaplaincy in Newcastle for Newcastle University and Northumbria University. It was their welcome mass and we liked it the best of the masses we have been to so far! The music was what we are used and there was no Latin! We will definitely be going back but are also going to try out the Sunday evening mass at one or two more churches just to give them a chance as well. We met a student studying abroad from the states which was fun and were able to tell him where to find ranch dressing! Apparently no one in his group had successfully located ranch in the 3 weeks they had been here.

Monday October 4
I slept in and did various things around the house like cleaning my room and vacuuming the flat as well as finishing the preparations for the cookery session with the local primary school. I went to the school to help walk the kids over to Kids Kabin with their helper teacher. The session went really well and they all gave me hugs at the end! They are so cute! When we were walking back to the school one of the kids asked me if where I was from and I said America. Then she asked me to say “hello” how I would say it at home so I said “hello”. She then said “No, like say hello in your language”. Haha. Apparently she was under the impression that we spoke a different language in the United States so I explained that even though we have some different words and a different accent we speak English in the United States.

Tuesday October 5
I normally go to Common Ground on Tuesdays but we had a training session at Kids Kabin from 9:30 -3:15 so I had to skip Common Ground for the day. The training was interesting and it was all about child development and things we can to do help build them develop in positive ways. It was a very interactive training session which was nice! The two ladies doing the training session were very nice and we will have another training session with them in 2 weeks.
Melissa and I ran cookery today. It was a bit chaotic but still fun. One of the volunteers has a gluten allergy so we convinced the kids to use the gluten free flour to make one of the pizzas but they were all a bit weary of it! No one else seemed to mind when we handed it out though. It is amazing how much of a mess 4 kids can make though! I think I can safely say this was the messiest I have ever seen the kitchen after a cookery session.

The last few days have been really nice out with more sun and warmer temps than we have had recently. It is on days like these that I miss MN falls and having a back yard and lots of outdoor space to use! I am inside most of the day either at Common Ground or at Kids Kabin and by the time we get home it is getting dark or it is dark if it is a street session night.
That is about it. It seems like a lot has happened since I last wrote but when I sit down to write about it, I can’t really think of anything interesting to share!