A lovely and so so English weekend in the countryside

This post is going to be all about my homestay weekend, which was this past weekend. Warning: I'm going to gush like crazy. So a group of about 20 of us Butler kids left Edinburgh around 5:30 on Friday night to head out to Cumbria, in the north of England. It was dark as we drove down, but I saw what I imagine to be the suburbs of Edinburgh, I saw the Ikea and some strip malls. I was surprised that it looked quite like home. When we got to the town of Appleby, we met up with Julian, our host dad for the weekend. There were four is us girls to stay with Julian and Elita Fraser: me, Amanda, Sarah and Allison (who reminds me alot of my friend Holly. It was uncanny). Julian picked us up and drove us to their home in the country, actually in a village of about 17 houses, called Ormside. They live in a huge, beautiful farmhouse at the end of the only real road in the village. Their house is about 800 years old. That was mind blowing to me. When we pulled up to the house, all of us gasped. We didn't get over the beauty of it the whole weekend, I think.

We chose our rooms when we got in the house, I had my own room, as did Allison. Amanda and Sarah shared a room with two twin beds. Pictures of my room are on Facebook, but I think I will choose a a few from the weekend to put on this blog post. We came back downstairs to a wonderful dinner of moussaka (a Greek dish with eggplant which is really popular here in the UK) and salad. It was delicious. Elita is one of the best cooks I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. We were very well fed the whole weekend, they were always offering us more food and more tea. Lots of tea. Anyway, after the main course, she brought out fruit salad and ice cream for dessert. This was the moment I knew we were in for an amazing weekend. The ice cream was some of the best I've ever tasted. We went to bed and woke up to a breakfast of cereal, toast and tea. Julian and Elita are such an adorable English couple. They were probably in their mid to late 60s, had two children who were grown, one living in London and one in Devon (in the south of England). They called each other darling all the time and were very proper, I was always afraid I would use the wrong fork or something. Julian was always making jokes and they were really interested in what we had to say about life in the states.

After breakfast we headed out to see the rest of their property, they have an old church not far from their house, it's very small and cute. They also have a tennis court and a huge garden. Julian trims alot of the bushes to look like animals, he even has made a dragon, which was really impressive. In the front driveway, one bush has a J and another has an E for Julian and Elita, respectively. Adorable. They have some chickens, but apparently not long ago one of the neighbor's dogs got most of their chickens, so they have less now. They also have some cats, who are mostly scared of people but they like to sit in the kitchen window from outside and look at you. It's so cute, they're all sitting there in a row. For lunch that day we had carrot and tomato soup and then grapes and cheese. The grapes and cheese platter was so fancy, there were like 3 different kinds of cheese...amazing. Then we went to an old castle called Brough castle. They don't really know much about it, other than it's really old and falling apart. The day was perfect for taking pictures, the sun was very pretty. On the drive there, we saw alot of the countryside, which was beautiful: mountains in the distance (which are a big deal for a Midwestern American girl like me) and sheep everywhere. I have never seen so many sheep.

We had tea time when we got back. This may have been the most exciting time of the homestay. I've always wanted to have real English tea time, with a tray and biscuits (cookies). Three different kinds of biscuits! And two different kinds of cakes! They were way too good to us the whole weekend, it was amazing. We relaxed after tea time and watched some skiing on TV, it was nice. Their living room has a fireplace and they use real coal (not charcoal) to keep it going. For dinner that night we had ham and potatoes and then lemon pudding for dessert. Heavenly. Confession time: I slept with the light on while in their home. An 800 year old house is sort of scary, how many dozens of people have lived there? I just can't imagine what has happened in that house. So interesting. It's also so quiet out there, and so dark at night. On Sunday morning, we had fresh hard boiled eggs from the chickens of their neighbors. Yum. And we watched tennis that morning, the men's final of the Austrialian open. Julian and Elita are really into tennis, and the final was Andy Murrary (a Scotsman) vs. a Serbian who had won it before. Apparently it's been over 70 years since a Brit has won the Austrialian open. Andy lost though, it was sad, but fun to watch. Julian was joking that if he won, he would be called British in the morning papers, but since he lost he would be called Andy Murrary the Scotsman. 

My room that I stayed in

A barn on their property

The tennis court

Their backyard

Ruins of Brough castle

The lake

Julian and my friend Amanda

We then had lunch: chicken, carrots and green beans. And the best apple crumble (crisp) I have ever had in my whole life. Holy cow. I want cooking lessons from Elita. I was so full though, I couldn't finish it, unfortunately. We then packed up our stuff and said goodbye to Julian, which was sad. I'll miss them, they were so sweet. Elita took us to another castle that was built for a Lord in the 1800's. We couldn't get real close because it's private property, but I have some nice pictures of it. Then we went to a lake, which was absolutely gorgeous. I have amazing pictures of that. After that, Elita took us back to the bus station so we could head back to Edinburgh. I was so lucky to get to stay with them, it was quite literally like something out of a dream. When I get rich (ha, right), I'm going to buy my parents a house in the English countryside just like that. I would also really like to buy a house there myself and grow old with my boyfriend AJ in the English countryside. It was so beautiful and...breathtaking.

I want to become a Pub Quiz champion

I went on a great ghost tour on Wednesday night. Becca is really into ghosts, as is another girl from IFSA, Sarah. And they introduced me to Fernanda, who also went with us. It was a tour of the underground vaults of Edinburgh. Apparently some underground tunnels were built back when they were building a bridge a long time ago. They were first used for storage for the many businesses along the street, but I guess they kept flooding so all of the vendors moved all there stuff out of there and the tunnels were abandoned. Then people started living down there. Living in the dark. Our guide turned out all the lights to show us how dark it would be. You couldn't see anything at all. And it's pretty wet down there too. Something's always dripping. Anyway, since they didn't have to pay rent people started living down there. And dying down there. Eventually the police wisened up and kicked most people out. Then in the 80s, I think, some guy bought the vaults for really cheap and now tours go down there all the time. Ghost tours included. So we went down there and he told us all about the tunnels and told us some ghost stories about the ghosts who live there. Then he gave us some EMF (Electromagnetic Frequency) meters to play with. They're supposed to detect ghosts. We got to wander the tunnels by ourselves and see if we could find any activity.

I wasn't sure if mine was working, because you're supposed to be able to test it with your cell phone, and mine could barely pick up my phone when I put it near the meter. So we wandered off, avoiding the corners of the vaults because we were scaredy cats. But then my meter started ticking. Slowly at first, and then it got more and more frequent. I was holding it completely still. This lasted for about a minute and then the ticking started slowing down again. And stopped. I had called all the girls I was with to come listen to it. We're convinced it was a ghost. Funny thing is, I wasn't scared. Not really at all. I believe in ghosts, for the most part. Maybe it's silly, but I don't think it's too silly to believe that souls get trapped here when their bodies die. After we gathered back up as a group, our guide took us into a room where he told us there was a little boy ghost who liked to try and hold peoples hands and follow the tour groups with children. He had us put our EMF meters on the floor to see if they would pick up him running around, but nobody's did. As we were leaving the room, my meter started ticking again. Really fast, and then as I was leaving the room it got slower and slower. Maybe he was trying to follow me, but can't leave that room. The tour was really fun, we're planning on going on more for sure. Becca wants to find one where you stay overnight or go really late or something. That would totally work for me. I love being scared. As long as I wasn't doing it alone, I could do it.

On Tuesday night, we went to our first Pub Quiz. We were terrible, we came in last place out of five teams. But it was for charity, it was for one called Mary's Meals. They provide school lunches and breakfasts to low income kids in primary (elementary) schools. It was donation only, it was nice. All of the questions were children oriented, like children's literature, children's TV, etc. I think we were so bad because we had no British people in our group. Our team was all IFSA girls: me, Becca, Amanda and Julia (Julia number 4 here, there are so many here!). So there would be questions about British children's TV, and we had absolutely no idea. But the category we totally owned at? Disney songs! They would sing some lyrics, and we had to complete them. We rocked it. Becca had just watched Pochantes super recently, so that helped alot. We're actually going to another Pub Quiz to benefit Amnesty International tonight, a girl I met at ChocSoc is doing the questions, she says it will be really good. I hope we do better than on Tuesday.

After the Pub Quiz was over, we went to Cupcake Decorating with ChocSoc. There were alot of people there, so it was hard to talk to people. We mostly just stayed in our group of Americans and Julia's (Julia number one, the one I know from high school) Dutch friend, Lara. They had some really good frosting that was chocolate and vanilla all in one frosting. Yummy.

I'm afraid of ceilidhs.

Sorry I haven't written anything new in a while, I've been busy. School here is alot of work. Tons and tons of reading. And thinking. They have a sort of "work hard play hard" mentality here. Today I went to my Armed Force and Society class. It's one of those classes where I don't know too much about the subject material, but I'm learning alot. So I reckon that's good. Last night me and Becca went to the library bar (which is not actually in the library, funny enough, it's in the Hogwarts-looking student center) to meet some blokes who were supposed to give her her next scavenger hunt clue. She had a friend studying here last semester who left her a scavenger hunt to do, and she had to meet up with these guys on a Monday night to get her next clue. It was pretty fun, they were both British, one was even Scottish (SCOTTISH FRIENDS!). I don't know if I've told you about me and Becca's quest for Scottish friends. We seriously haven't made any yet. Everyone here is either English or American or Asian. But Cameron is Scottish! And he has other Scottish friends to introduce us to. How exciting, we thought we'd never meet our goal.

Besides going to a club called 'City' on Friday night, I didn't do much this weekend. We were really tired after hours and hours of dancing on Friday night. It was pretty fun, I like to dance sometimes. But the girls there were all dressed sort of...how do I say this...suggestive? Tons of make up and short short dresses. I had a misconception that British club girls would be more classy than American girls. I was wrong. Both are equally pretty gross. I actually ended up wearing my converse when we went out, because all I had were those, sandals and wellies. So Becca, Hanne and me went shopping on Sunday to buy some more going out gear. I got some black flats to wear in the future. Clothes are alot more expensive here. Becca had been asking some British girls where they get all their cute clothes, and they've been saying this shop called 'Topshop'. We checked that out and quickly left, it was too expensive. Maybe I'm just really cheap (we went on over to H&M and felt more in our price range there). Next time I go shopping I'm going to check out some charity shops. They have them all over here, and for every possible cause you could imagine: cancer, heart disease, homelessness, animal shelters. Alot more too. It's like having 10 Salvation Armys. Except better. I'm not too fond of Salvy.

Speaking of clothes, a fashion trend I've spotted here and think I'm going to attempt: wearing shorts with tights. Now, I know if my friend Molly reads this, she'll have a fit. She hates when people do this. But I think I can pull it off, and it's everywhere here. Good thing I brought my black tights.

Things I'm planning on doing this week: Cupcake decorating with ChocSoc tonight, Pub Quiz with Amensty International on Friday and possibly the Yule Ball tomorrow. Except I'm sort of worried because I found out the Yule Ball is a ceilidh.That's a Scottish dance. I've heard it's really intense. And I cannot learn dances. It's just impossible for me. So sorta disappointed about that. They had one on Saturday night, and Becca went. She said it was okay but really hard.

Harry Potter town is Edinburgh's other name =]

I finally went to a pub last night. How strange to be able to order alcohol. And sit in a pub with my friends. It was a pretty fun time, I met some other Butler girls I hadn't met yet and there was a cover band playing while we were there. For some reason I find it sort of strange that they accept my American driver's license here as my ID. I don't know why I think it's strange. Anyway, my neighbour Becca and I have already began to plan our weekend, since we didn't get tickets to the aquarium this weekend (they were sold out by the time we got there). Next time I want to go to an ISC (International Student Centre) event, we'll have to get there super early. But yeah, about this weekend, we've decided to try and go clubbing. So we'll see how that works out since both of us can't dance to save our lives.


Today I spent most of my time reading for my Gender and Development class. Since I'm in all third year classes (unlike many of my Butler counterparts), I'll be reading quite a bit. Which is sort of alright with me since my classes are on subjects that I'm pretty interested in. I also took my first trip to the library. I wanted to figure out how to use the computers so I could print my receipt for my camera and send it to Sony tomorrow. The library here is huge. And there are actually multiple libraries. University of Edinburgh has even more students than UIC, at 28,000. 30% of that being international students. I honestly feel right at home. UIC is the third most diverse uni (university) in the U.S.
 
There was also a society fair yesterday. I went and put my name on the list for the Harry Potter society and the Cocktail Society. The Harry Potter society has a Yule Ball next week. I'm really hoping I can find some fellow nerds to go with me. Speaking of Harry Potter, guess where I had lunch yesterday after the fair? The cafe where J.K. Rowling penned the first book. It's called the Elephant House cafe. There are elephants all over inside. It's really cool. I can't wait to go back and take pictures. I had a quiche and salad. The food is really good and the coffee is supposed to be even better. It makes perfect sense that she wrote the first book there, from where we were sitting we could see Edinburgh Castle. Beautiful. I cannot wait to take a tour. I believe that's something me and my family will do when they come visit me.

 Anyway, I also got put on the Film Society's email list. They have 3 films a week, and you can see them all for like 10 pounds a semester. And they have pub quizzes about movies every month. A pub quiz is what they call bar trivia here. I'm already planning on going to two next week. Alot of the societies are putting them on and giving the money to charity. I've always, always wanted to be able to do bar trivia at home. But I can't. For obvious reasons.

 You know what's sort of not cool about the dorms/dining hall here? There's no lunch. Now, I'm not sure if British students just don't eat lunch, or maybe they all grab stuff while they're out at class? That makes a bit of sense because the dorms (where I live) are at least a 15-20 min walk from the university. So some days I've been having lunch dates with some of the girls I met through Butler (tomorrow I have one with Lauren, a fellow Harry Potter nerd) and on the days that I don't do that, I either tough it out and eat a granola bar or if I really can't make it, I grab a sandwich by myself. Maybe that's lame, but sometimes I'm super hungry and there's no one around to eat with.

It's just like American Pie

Yesterday was the first day of classes. I only had one, and actually, I only have one each day. And none on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Apparently this is how Sociology classes work here. Most people I've talked to have lectures and tutorials (what are called discussion sections in the U.S.) on separate days and times, but mine are back to back. Anyway, I had my Popular Music, Technology and Society class yesterday. It was quite great. I like my lecturer (professor) and learning about pop music is going to be no problem for me =]  After class me and Julia headed out to Princes Street (the main shoping street  here in Edinburgh) so I could buy some Wellies (sp?). The boots I brought from home were just not cutting it, there's snow all over the sidewalks here and it's melting and turning into slush quite rapidly since it's warm here. They also seem to have no concept of snow removal. They don't use salt at all. Or even try to remove the snow. I keep being told "oh we don't usually get this much snow here" like they're surprised to see it or something. But they've gotten alot this winter so far. So they should learn to deal.

I never told you what wellies are, or do you already know? Wellies are rubber rain boots. The ones I bought weren't my first choice, but apparently all of the arriving Americans bought all the good ones already. They were also slightly expensive, but they were certainly a need. I couldn't deal with wet feet anymore. After seeing Julia off to class I went and bought a tea mug and some dish soap to wash the mug with. They have the most fantastic fruit tea here, I don't even need sugar or honey with it. I bought one that is raspberry, strawberry and loganberry and another that is strawberry and mango. Exciting stuff. We also had a new dorm residents meeting. I finally met some other Americans in my dorm, even one other girl on my floor, Logan. So now there are more people to go to the dining hall and eat with...although I am really craving some British friends. That's sort of what this whole trip is supposed to be about, no?

Well today at 5 there is a outing of the Chocolate Society (societies are what clubs are called here) at a chocolate shop called Chocolate Soup (there's ALOT of chocolate in that sentence). Julia and I are going, along with several Butler kids as well. Butler kept telling us joining societies was the best way to meet Scottish/British students, so hopefully it pans out. Also the idea of a chocolate society is the best thing ever.

Becca (my fellow Butler neighbour) and I met her neighbour on the other side a couple of days ago, her name is Julia (different Julia than the one mentioned above) and she's from Redding, England. We're hoping to maybe knock on her door this weekend and perhaps tag along to some sort of outing with her friends. She seemed really nice, (I just used an Oxford comma!!! Look at me, adapting) and said we could knock on her door for a cup of tea or whatever whenever we wanted.

Oh, quick story about our conversation with Julia from England: She told us that it's quite common for kids to "predrink" (what Americans call pregaming) in the common room of our dorm before a night out. We told her what we call it in the States, and then she asked if we actually use those red solo cups. We said yes, we do. She was quite amused by this and said "It's just like American Pie!" So this is what you're known for, Americans. The movie 'American Pie'. Lovely.

Moved in!

I moved into my dorm today! I'm still not completely done, as me and the girl next to me (she's part of the IFSA-Butler program too) seem to be missing our bedding packs. This means I have no pillow...and the sheets that I did find on my bed are sort of strange, what I think is the bottom sheet only has parts to tuck under the mattress on one end of the sheet...so...we'll see if I get something different in my bedding pack when I do get it. So I'm quite enjoying my room. It's perfect size and has it's own sink. I honestly don't have much stuff (yet) so it's sort of empty. Random fact: lots of people say "perfect" here in response to things. Like, when the cop was taking my statement after our room was robbed, I would tell her what my parent's names were, or what I was studying and her response was "perfect". To everything. The IFSA people do it too.

I was quite excited to learn that there's someone else from my study aboard group living in my dorm-and right next door to me at that! Her name is Becca and we're Midwest buddies, she's from Iowa =]   As soon as  my other friend Julia is done moving in, me her and Becca have plans to go shopping. I need so much stuff. But a towel is at the top of the list. I'm sort of afraid the walk to the shops may be far, Google maps says like 30 minutes. But walking to places here is so much different than at home. Everytime I go outside here it takes my breathe away. There's so much to see and marvel at. I really wish I could show you some pictures. Today I found out I need a copy of my receipt to send my camera in. Well that is in the states...so I emailed my mom and asked her to scan it and send it. So it's looking like it might be a week before I can show you this beautiful city.

Something I didn't realize before moving here: Scotland is so far north that it gets dark here at around 3:00 in the afternoon. And it's not light until at least 8:30 in the morning. It's sort of sad, I hardly ever see Edinburgh in the daylight because I'm so busy with things going on inside during the day. That should change now that classes are starting Monday. I'm told that as it gets closer and closer to summer solstice that the days get longer and longer and in the summer it stays light out until like 10:00 at night! Maybe I'll see a bit of that before I leave at the end of May. I don't know what to do now since my stuff is pretty much all put away...I may nap. Or read.

Guess what? Haggis is yummy

Sorry I haven't written yet, but, as many of you may know, my hotel room was robbed last night and my netbook was stolen, along with a few other things. I bought a new netbook right away because I don't think I can function without one. Seriously. It's how I connect to home, and my classes start Monday...so it's a need. I'm hoping this Toshiba was a good choice. So a couple pretty bad things have happened since I got here, the robbery being one of them and the other one being that my digital camera is broken. So I will not have any pictures of this GORGEOUS city for at least a week. I have to send it in to Sony to be fixed.  This, however, has not affected my view on Edinburgh, because I fall in love literally every time I walk outside. I can't believe I'm here. I LIVE HERE.

I guess I'll tell you what I did today. We're still staying in the hotel for orientation, so we get free breakfast and it's a pretty amazing one. Seriously everything you could ever want. Eggs, bacon, fruit, mushrooms. Yes, I said mushrooms. Apparently they do that here. Then it was time for academic orientation and they tried to scare the crap out of us about how hard uni (university) is going to be. It worked. At least on me. Oh! Something exciting: my dorm is RIGHT next to Arthur's Seat. That is a dormant volcano. And it's breathtaking. And you can hike up it! That's on my to do list for sure. I can't wait to get a picture of it.

Another exciting thing  happened tonight and it will be the last thing I'll talk about because I'm quite tired and have to be up early tomorrow to move into my dorm. Anyway, I tried haggis! It's AWESOME. Seriously. I really loved it. Maybe it was just because it was a very good restaurant that made it, but it was delicious. I'm planning on eating it again soon. This restaurant we went to, called Howie's, I think, was really good. A bit expensive, but some of the best food I've ever eaten. I had "free range Scottish hen" with some sort of cheese potato on the bottom. Alright, I'm going to get ready for bed. Thanks for reading.