York! with Ellen!

After spending the first few days of spring break alone in my house, I left for York on Monday.  As usual, I inadvertently made things much harder for myself by bringing my duffel bag, rather than my small rolling suitcase.  The walk from my house to the bus station was tough, as were the walks between the Edinburgh bus station and rail station, and the York rail station and Ellen’s house.  I also got splattered with bird poop.  And the bus to Edinburgh broke down at one point (although, we only had to wait 10 minutes or so for a new bus).  So, it was a rough day.  But, the train ride was great, as I had a seat at a table all to myself, and it all ended at Ellen’s house.  Also, on the way, I discovered Phizzy Pig Tails, my new favorite candy.

This is Ellen’s house.  It’s a real grown-up house.  It has a sun room.

My train arrived at midnight, so when we got to Ellen’s house, we just had some smooshed (oops) pie and went to bed.  

On Tuesday, we explored York.  There was lots of shopping (but not actually buying things) and York history.  We walked along the wall for a bit, and strolled through the Museum Gardens.  Then, Ellen brought me along to cricket practice.

That’s Ellen batting.

We stayed in that night with her housemate Raine and Raine’s friend from water polo.  We watched Madagascar and ate ice cream.

On Wednesday, we planned on going to Whitby, but reached the rail station too late, and discovered that getting to Scarborough would be much faster and easier.  So it was off to Scarborough for a day at the seaside.

Scarborough is on a big hill.  The town bit and the castle are at the top, and the beach and boardwalk-type area are at the bottom.  The WAY bottom.  We wondered through town, glancing at the stores, and then walked down the steps to the boardwalk.

Queen Victoria is at the top of the steps.

It’s very Jersey Shore-esque.  Not in the sense of the tv show, but the actual shore.  There are lots of penny arcades and ice cream shops, and candy and souvenir and cheap clothing shops.  Unlike the Jersey Shore, Scarborough has a lot of fish and chip shops.  We walked along a pier, and ate rock candy (which is not the same as the rock candy I’ve gotten before.  It’s more of a candy stick).  We walked up (and up, and up, and up) and up to the castle, but decided to not go in to save money.  It’s perfectly nice to see from the outside.

 

Scarborough definitely needs lemonade stands.  I would have paid any amount of money for lemonade after all the stairs.  We walked back down through town, stopping at a small graveyard, where Anne Brontë is buried.

Once we were back down to the beach level, we stopped for lunch at the Princess Café (fish and chips, obviously).  Then, we stopped for ice cream, and saw a real TARDIS.

We went onto the beach for a while, and I dipped my feet into the North Sea for the first time.  I live right next to a beach, but I have yet to actually go on it.  I only ever walk along the path.  It was very cold.  

Then we made a dam.  Then a dog came up, sniffed it, and peed on it.  Apparently, he didn’t like our dam.

They have donkey rides for little kids on the beach.

After my feet had dried off and I was able to put my shoes back on, we wandered back up into town to stroll a bit more.  We stopped in a few stores, and suffered through a terrible rendition of “My Heart Will Go On” by some pan pipers outside.  Then it was back to York.  I fell asleep on the train a few times, while Ellen was reading (we drew on rainbow scratch-off pads on the way there), but I did manage to see a few baby sheep while I was awake.

We stopped at Marks and Spencer on the way from the rail station to Ellen’s house to get stuff to make shrimp stir-fry, and now I know what I will probably be eating several times a week from here on out.  It was fantastic.  Also, Ellen managed to make it in the amount of time it took me to go upstairs and check my email and facebook.

After dinner, we headed out to go to Ellen’s knitting club.  They knit in a pub.  One of the ladies there lent me needles and some yarn, and taught me how to knit.  I’m not a terrible knitter.  Every time I’ve tried to learn, I find that my main problem is that I knit too tightly.  I get way too serious about it, rather than relaxing and enjoying it.  I make it really difficult for myself.  After a couple of hours, there was a pub quiz, which we did as a big group.  I knew a few of the answers, and I was able to settle whether the Statue of Liberty holds her torch in her right or left hand with my passport (it’s her right hand).  We headed out before the answers, so I don’t know how we did, but I think we did pretty well.  

Yesterday, we did more wandering around York, but more importantly, we went to see The Hunger Games.  It was excellent.  I kind of want to see it again.  And/or read it again.  It was SO GOOD. We also went into the foyer of the Minster (always saving money by not going in), and I took some photos of the outside, too.  Then, we went back to Ellen’s house for dinner (lamb roast, peas, mashed potatoes, Yorkshire puddings), and to gather my stuff, to get ready for my departure.  Then at 7, we hopped on the bus to the rail station, and said our goodbyes.  So far, an excellent week.

ZOO!!!

On Friday, at 11:45, I turned in my last assignment for the week, thus ending the worst week ever.  The plan was to wander around town a bit, enjoying the weather and being happy about not being stuck writing essays forever, but then it RAINED.  On my (metaphorical) parade.  So, I walked home, because I had left some stuff I needed to run errands with there, anyway, but, after I got there, decided to wait to go into town until the rain stopped.  And I took a LONG nap.  Well, only a couple of hour, but I hadn't slept at all the previous night, so it was quite nice.  When I got up, I forced myself to go into town, to get to the post office before it closed.  It's a very bizarre post office.  It's like a CVS, with a post office in the back.  Maybe not a CVS.  They sell books and stationary and mostly various paper goods, and some candy and soda.  I converted the last of my American money to pounds, because I really needed £5 and didn't want to have to take money out of an ATM, since it's rather expensive to do so.  I also bought some postcards and stamps.


Also, I learned yesterday that ALL ATMs give out £10 notes here.  I thought that it was just the one by the Union that did, so I always used that one, even thought it's often out of £10 notes, and now I feel really silly.  Especially after finding out that the ATM near Tesco offers £5 notes.  I was astonished.  Also, now I'm mad about all the times I couldn't take out exactly the amount of money I wanted, just because I used the stupid Union ATM.  Oh well.  Now I know.


So, the zoo.  Yesterday, the Albany Park Committee hosted a trip to the Edinburgh Zoo.  It is the only zoo in the UK to have pandas and koalas.  Those are two of my favorite animals (I also love otters and big cats).  We got on the bus at 9am, and off we went.  It takes about an hour and a half to get to Edinburgh, and luckily, we didn't run into much traffic.  Upon our arrival, we were informed by Dan, the head of the committee, that we would not be able to see the pandas, as we had not reserved tickets to see them (it's free to see the pandas, but you have to get tickets for viewing time slots).  That was a bit upsetting.  Upon receiving maps of the zoo, we found inserts telling us that, as they were doing major renovation on the penguin exhibit, there would be no penguin parade.  That was sad, too.  But still, we were at the zoo!  We were told to meet back at the bus at 5, and into the zoo we went.  The zoo is on a huge hill, but there is a bus that will take you up to the top or back down.  A group of us decided to take the bus to the top, and then make our way back down to the bottom.  Some of the animals were hard to find, but the way the zoo is set up, you can view most enclosures from several sides, so often a quick walk to the other side of the enclosure will enable to find an animal.  The animals were all feeling particularly frisky (except the koalas, they're lazy bums), and a few seemed rather keen on mating.  There were also quite a few babies.  The zoo has a TON of monkeys.  They have at least 4 different areas with large monkey exhibits.  Monkeys are usually my least favorite animals, before reptiles, but I actually enjoyed most of them.  Sometimes I think it's a bit weird to have monkeys in zoos, because they're so much like people, and it feels invasive watching them in their exhibits.  Anyway, by about 4:10, we had seen all of the animals, and were back at the entrance.  We decided to go to the panda exhibit and ask if they would let us in.  When we got there, there was only a small group of people waiting for the next viewing, so we got in line.  They announced that that group would be the last viewing of the day, and that it was a nice small group.  When they started collecting people's tickets and letting them in, we asked if we could go in, even without tickets.  They said that there was plenty of space, so sure.  We all did little jumps for joy, and went in.  They have a keeper give a short talk about the pandas, and how the zoo got them, and conservation, and then they take you into the pandas' indoor area.  They had just gotten their dinner, and so were sitting inside, eating.  We stayed there for a bit, and then, as the pandas went outside, we went around to the outside viewing area.  At about 4:40, we left to stop in the gift shop before going back to the bus.  I considered buying some postcards, but the line was way too long.  


Then, we went to dinner at Zucca, a fancy Italian restaurant near the Lyceum theatre.  I think most of us were in agreement that we'd rather have gone somewhere less fancy (typical Albany sentiment - cheaper is better), but it is nice to go to fancy restaurants sometimes.  We were allowed to get a two course meal, or pay £3 extra for three courses.  I decided against dessert.  I got bruschetta as a starter, served on fresh baked focaccia.  It was really good.  For my entree, I had grilled chicken with gnocchi and rocket (arugula) in lemon and thyme sauce.  It was okay, but I wished  had gotten something else.  Gnocchi isn't really my thing.  The chicken was good, though.  After everyone who had gotten any had finished their dessert, we headed back to the bus to return to St Andrews, getting back to Albany at 9:30.  Overall, a most excellent day.

Hell Week

It has come to my attention, via facebook, that pretty much everyone is having the worst week ever, in terms of workload.  As much as some days here feel like vacation, I also have more than enough work to keep me up for the next several nights.  This week, I have a 2,500 word essay dues for one class, a 2,000 word essay for the other, plus an 800 word reading response due.  And, like the good student I am, one of those assignments is already late, and the other two, well, I've penciled them into the schedule.  We'll see if they get done on time.  It's just very easy to get distracted here.  People either don't do a lot of their work, or they go to the library or Albany computer room during the day, so that they can play video games and drink and go out at night.  I prefer to sit in my room doing work on weeknights.  It doesn't help that we know have a Playstation 3 hooked up in the common room, separated from my room by a very thin wall.  I know that I should just head to the computer room to work, but it's easier not to.


Hm.  Not the most fun post.  Although I never promised they would all be sunshine and daisies.  Really, I'm just procrastinating.  I promise to post something more interesting tomorrow or Thursday.

Settled In

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've posted.  At this point, I'm totally settled in to life here, and so I just haven't really been able to think of anything to post.  In the past two weeks, I've managed to do a lot of reading for class, watch a lot of tv, shop for groceries, cook...not exactly exciting stuff.  I mean, I love cooking, but I don't think it's the most interesting of things.  Also, our kitchen is GROSS.  So, cooking is not as fun as it is at home.  Just a bit more necessary.  I did go to my first ball on the 24th, so I guess that's something.  It was fun.  It was held at Kinkell Byre, which is a few miles south of here.  The ball was held by DRA, one of the other halls here, and they had a bus to take you from there to Kinkell, but it's also the furthest hall from Albany, so we had to take taxis over there.  Luckily, on the way home, we were able to get the bus driver to drop us of at Albany, as it was on the way from Kinkell to DRA.  We were on the first bus to get to Kinkell, so when we arrived, we took advantage of the free champagne and ice cream before the ceilidh started.  The ceilidh band was there for a while, and was later replaced by a live band, and later a DJ.  It was not as serious and formal as I expected, but we had a lot of fun.


I've also been doing Irish dance.  The Dance Society here offers classes in a lot of different sorts of dance, from beginning to advanced levels.  The Beginning Irish class fit into my schedule, and it sounded like fun, so I joined.  Last week in class, we managed to get to the end of the dance we will be performing in the show in May.  Next week we will probably be videotaping the dance, so maybe I'll be able to post it (if I don't look absolutely awful in it).


Next Saturday I'm going to the Edinburgh Zoo, and the following week I'll probably be going to York, so I'll have something to post about.


Alas, I must get back to paper writing.  I have two fairly big ones due next week.