Alex Krogh-Grabbe

Couchsurfing. Exciting philosophy class. More music sharing. ISC. Train tickets. FolkSoc.

So, immediately upon getting off the bus, I met my couchsurfing friends at the reception centre. We went back to my room, dropped off our stuff, then they went to the Crags and I went to dinner. They’re from Lincoln, Nebraska. The girl, Ashley, is my age, but has changed majors and traveled so much that she’s a sophomore. She’s now studying textiles, design, and fashion. She spent last semester in Spain, or Italy, or something, and that’s why they’re over here. Her boyfriend Tyler is a few years older, and works in an advertising company. His company works with the likes of RedBull and SPAM. They were visiting Scotland for a few days before flying back to the States. After dinner I met them in the Crags, and Tyler bought me whatever drinks I wanted (2 VKs over the course of the night). Apparently the previous night they had stayed at a hostel in Edinburgh and had had a really creepy experience there. That proves that hostels can be sketchy just as much as staying at the place of someone from couchsurfing. As far as I know, their experience with me was great; mine with them was. In the Crags, there was a pub quiz, which we participated in. Those questions are hard! And British-oriented; we came in last. It was fun, though. They slept on my floor on my sleeping bag. Monday morning, they had a 9:30 bus, and I went with them to the bus station to find out about tickets to London. I saw them off, and the guy there said that you can only buy the cheap London tickets online or on the phone.

My Philosophy and the Environment class that day was great. We talked about intrinsic value, and how the author of this paper differentiates between different kinds of it. But he made a good suggestion, I think: something is good for an object if it contributes to that object’s flourishing. Groups as well as objects. This is good because, while we still have to define what flourishing means, I feel like it’s a step toward fact-based value, instead of purely subjective value. Once you have value based on fact, you can start talking about it in logic more meaningfully. Also, in the small group discussions, this old smoker guy in our class was very adeptly arguing for nihilism in relation to objectivity, and indeed a greater nihilism. It was very interesting, and I think that to a point he’s right, but I think there’s something in there I don’t agree with, although I’m not sure what it is.

That night I met up with a friend from FolkSoc, on the pretext of sharing music. We did so for a little while, I showed her some videos I have on my computer, and we talked for a long while. Her name’s Bria, and she’s from Wisconsin (I don’t know if I mentioned her before). She likes Stan Rogers and Loreena McKennitt, amongst others. She’s studying Celtic Studies and Linguistics. She’s a 3rd year. She likes Firefly. She seems to be very academically diligent. She was brought up catholic and then briefly went to an evangelical school. She transfered here from Beloit after freshman year, and had a class with Natalia Wobst there. She’s nice. And her room is pretty. I was there until about 2:30am, and, realizing I actually had some homework due the next day which I hadn’t done yet, I came back and went to sleep then.

I got up early, went and searched the library for this Wittgenstein book, and, not finding it, bought it at the bookstore. I then did my homework for two hours in the International Student Centre (ISC from now on, ‘kay? ‘kay.) There were a good number of people there, which was distracting, and there was one distracting conversation particularly that was going on most of the time. One tidbit: I heard that about a month ago, there was a Wellesian (Orson) occurrence in I believe Flanders? A major news network intentionally erroneously reported that Flanders had declared its independence, and it had wide ranging consequences. A number of planes were grounded, and borders shut, because people were unsure as to whether they were supposed to have customs or not. The stated purpose was to spark national discussion, which certainly it did, but it also led to the resignation of the guy who had planned it. Huh. Wonder why I didn’t hear about it.

Before dinner, I got fed up with online ticket-booking not working, and went up to Waverley Station and bought my tickets to and from London there. I’m leaving Thursday night on a sleeper, then coming back Saturday afternoon. A short visit, but a worthy one I’m sure.

FolkSoc was shortish, ended at 11:30. There were a lot of people there because it’s Student Festival or something, which I suppose is like Fresher’s Week in the fall, in that people sample lots of different societies. Huh. But there wasn’t a whole lot of rousing music this week; not enough fiddles and energy at the right times. Some nice music, no doubt, but not as exciting as possible. I did get some good tune playing on my whistle, though, and figured out that if I stuff my fleece inside my drum, it dulls the sound enough that it isn’t overpowering.

Oh, and I bought a nice big Scottish flag. Yay.

Today, I went to this Student Festival event, a trip to Lazer Quest. Yes. It was fun. Some of my friends went too, as well as a load of French people. The guy who was running it played too, and won by a lot both games we played. I ran into a wall at one point. I came in third out of 15 the first game. Didn’t do as well second game. But it’s interesting, people wearing lots of makeup look like zombies or some other appropriately grotesque creatures under a blacklight. Perfect mood for lazer-questing.

Pictures soon, then next, probably the lowdown on London.

#it’s a holiday, a getaway, runnin’ round in London, no work, just play#
-5 points if you can name the source of that line of song. Make that a billion; it’s obscure even if you would recognize its source. No points for parents, they heard it in the same context I did.

Oh, I’m thinking about how I can go about making a Speed Scrabble computer game to play with my friends back home.

First of all, what is a homestay? Well, on my study abroad program, one of the things you do is you go and spend the weekend living with an “authentic Scottish family” somewhere other than where you’re studying. Well, some people went to a place in northern England, so it wasn’t all Scottish. I went to Stirling, about halfway between Edinburgh and Glasgow and a little north. Read on.

The uneventful bus ride took about 45 minutes. We got there, and the coordinator lady divvied us off to our host families. Mike (my roommate for the weekend, from Tufts/Westchester) and I were the last ones there. Apparently, our family had the flu or something, so we were staying with the coordinator and her husband instead. Her name’s Mary Napier, and she and her husband are in their late 60s or so. Most of the families were about that age, I think. Her husband, John, is a retired taxi driver, and they have 3 grown kids, who all still live in the area. It smelled like cigarettes in their house, though I never saw either of them smoking. Our dinner was very processed, as we watched a coastal rescue show where none of the people (and a dog) being rescued really seemed to be in too much danger. Turns out Mike is a Philosophy and Environmental Studies double major; I can see why they put us together. Our family has a startlingly large collection of new DVDs, and movies that were surprising to find, as they are more aimed at younger people (Alien vs. Predator, The Descent, etc.) Mike and I watched the Davinci Code that night. It was better than horrible.

Saturday we all went on an open-topped bus tour of the city. First we went to the Bannockburn Memorial, and learned all about that famous battle between Robert the Bruce and Edward II of England from the tour guide. We went to the castle, but didn’t go in. We stopped at a museum for lunch, but the lady in the little cafe said we couldn’t eat there the lunches our host families had packed for us. That made me angry; I hate it when people don’t let you do things for silly reasons. Some of went outside, but it had gotten really cold, so before my lunch was over, I came back in. In a slightly rebellious act, I went back into the cafe, and semi-sneakily ate the last half of my sandwich. It felt good, but a lame gesture. After that, we went through Stirling University to the William Wallace monument. We went up through there, and saw things, most notably Wallace’s actual sword, and the view from the top. I finished a lot quicker than everyone else, and came back down and had a cup of hot chocolate in the coffeeshop while people finished. Then we walked back to the bus, and then finished the tour. Oh, on the way to the monument, we’d passed the spot on the River Forth where Wallace’s Battle of Stirling Bridge occurred. Turns out that was the only battle that Wallace won, and Bannockburn was the only other battle the Scots ever really won against the English. Bannockburn was big, Stirling bridge was small but significant. Culloden and Falkirk were both big defeats, I guess.

Saturday evening we went to a pub, which was full of drunken under-20 and over-50 people. Sat around for a while, taking it in. I didn’t get a drink, but instead ate a lot of the crisps Mary had bought for us all. At one point an older guy fell asleep on the bench next to some of our people. After a while, some sorority, plasticky (in the Mean Girls sense) girls forcefully suggested that we go find another pub. People said whatever, and we all set out. The girls were sorta vague about where we were going, and some of us rebelled, and turned back, to go to the pub right across the street. This pub was mellower, and we sat around there for a while, and I had an Irn-Bru. Apparently, though, there’s some possible carcinogen in it, and that’s why it’s not sold in the US. Sad. But after a little bit, the other folks came back; apparently they had to walk really far, and the place they had found was rubbish. I smiled; my judgement was right on this count. The Vicar of Dibley and then Mishal Hussein (newscaster) were on the TV in the second pub, ice dancing and Star Trek: First Contact had been on in the first one. I have difficulty not watching if there’s a TV on in the room. That night, after getting home, Mike and I watched Superman Returns.

On Sunday, Mike and I walked into town. We went to the castle, but didn’t go in (it cost 10 pounds). Took lots of pictures of all sorts of stuff, and browsed the shopping mall. Came back, got on the bus, came back to Edinburgh. I’ll post those pictures sometime.

Here’s what I did at the end of last week before going on our Homestay. Short, a couple significant things. I’ll keep it brief.

Thursday evening I got an email from Nick (my dad, but I don’t think many people are reading this who didn’t know that) saying that Kathy Kyker-Snowman, my ex-girlfriend’s mom, died recently. She’d had cancer (ovarian, I think?) for a while, and when I was with Kelly about 4 years ago, she was doing all right. She worked at Hampshire College doing outdoorsy, athletic stuff; she was in prime health, aside from the cancer. I hadn’t talked to her or Kelly’s dad at all since Kelly and I broke up Fall of 12th grade, and I think that’s probably part of why I was so surprisingly floored by the news. The surprise of it, and the regret that I hadn’t kept in good enough touch to even be aware that it had come back. I hesitate to say it, but I think it might have had a more immediate and noticeable effect on me than the deaths of either of my two grandparents. I didn’t really know my grandfather very well, and I was only 13, and when my grandmother died a month and a half ago, we had all known it was going to happen somewhat imminently for years. So, I sent a condolent facebook message to Kelly, as I don’t have her email. I walked to dinner in a mellow, shaken, contemplative mood. I had decided to skip the middle two of my events that night, partly out of justifiable laziness and partly just so I could eat dinner.

Thursday night I saw the FilmSoc showing of A Cock and Bull Story. It’s an adaptation (or is it an adaption?) of the novel “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy”. I really enjoyed it; surreal and realistic at the same time. A lot of it I was unsure whether it was scripted (I think it was), or just filming of the actual interactions between the cast members. It was sort of a movie about the making of itself; very self-referential (naturally). As I said, I liked it a lot. Later that night I watched Talladega Nights on Peekvid. It was very funny; same type of humor as Anchorman in a different context.

That night I played with maps regarding my travel plans, and confirmed plans with this couple from Nebraska whom I met through Couchsurfing. Did I tell you about Couchsurfing? It’s this really cool site where you can find people who live in a place you want to travel to, and sleep on their couch or floor for a night, with the expectation that you will extend the same courtesy to someone else someday. Free accommodation, mostly young people, huge, expansive network. Very cool. Sound unsafe to you? You’re not alone; talk to most parents and a lot of young folk. But I’ll talk more about that later.

On Friday I prepared for the Homestay…

So, I’m trying to figure out where I want to go in Europe when I’m done with my semester. I’d love any suggestions that you all might have about where to go. I’ve already got a list, but I want to hear where you think. Basically, if I came back and didn’t go somewhere, and you’d go “oh, you traveled around Europe and didn’t go to ___?!?”, I want to hear about it. Let me know in the comments, or if you’re having trouble with that, in an email, at aekro (at) conncoll (dot) edu. That’s how all the cool bloggers write their emails to avoid spam. Meh. Why not. BUT SEND ME YOUR SUGGESTIONS, if you please!

So I’m back from my first big trip. All of a sudden, I’ve got a rhythm. I have a relatively set schedule. Weird. Still, I continue to do new things, and maybe you’d like to hear about some of them.

I got back around 2pm on Sunday. I didn’t mention this in the last post, but I bought a new voltage converter, from a different store this time, and the highest capacity so it won’t die like the last one. But, the new one hasn’t worked yet either. Bum. I’m going to have to talk to someone about that. I want to use my speakers, darnit!

Monday evening I went to People & Planet, an environmental/general activism group on campus. They were having an extra-ordinary meeting, with three presentations instead of one theme. I went to the one about non-violent direct action, which was nice, but poorly organized and not extremely educational. Met a few people there, and there was one guy who had done a lot of direct action stuff, and he interjected a lot of experiential advice (I also think he was high at the time). Apparently there’s a thing in Scotland now that a lot of people are protesting: Faslane, a naval base or something, contains all of the UK’s nuclear weapons, and people are blockading it every day of the year. Or something like that. I’m not going to be here long enough for it to be that important to me.
The second meeting I went to was about media stuff (the one I didn’t go to was on anarcho-feminism). It was actually not in the same building (Potterow), but rather across the street in the Forest Cafe. This place was intense. I was reminded of one of those scenes in Forrest Gump where the camera is weaving through the drugged-up hippy crowd with whom Jenny is hanging. In the front is a small coffeeshop or something, then behind a curtained door there is a bigger space with couches, a bar-like place, and a small stage (there was a little concert going on when we went through). We went down some stairs to the basement, where there was a little room entitled “Info Seed”, a hub for independent media in the city. There were all sorts of smoky, dreadlocked 20- and 30-somethings all around. Anyway, in the workshop we learned about press releases: what they do and how to write them. It was interesting. There were a few more than ten people at this presentation, and a few less than ten at the first. I left the media one when the guy said “All right, now I’d like you to practice writing a press release.” Ick like school. Also, at that moment a girl who had been at the other presentation, and seemed nice and decidedly less sketchy than a lot of people there, left. I walked with her out and back down south. Her name’s Rosie and she was born in Wales (Snowdonia) and grew up in Shetland. Wacky. She’s studying environmental protection, is heavy into juggling/fire-twirling society, and I think she’s a first year. Anyway, when we got to about where her flat was, I left in a Pollock-ward direction.

<-This is the completed version of my picture. Hope you like it. I like how it turned out.

At dinner, one of my connections here, Liz Finlayson, had accosted me (not in a bad way) as I was leaving the dining hall. We arranged to hang out tonight. As I was in as good a mood for it as any while returning from P&P, I gave her a call, and met her and her friends at The Crags. The Crags is a pub that’s right across the street from Pollock Halls, and has wonderfully inexpensive drinks. It was packed when I got there, all with students. I found Liz and her friends, and sat with them for a good while. I had a sip of her friend’s drink, a VK, which was lovely. From my perspective, the best kind of alcoholic beverage is one in which you can’t taste the alcohol. And it’s only a pound there. I may get one in the future. Anyways, I hung out with them for half an hour to an hour, and then left. It was too comfortable to really be awkward, but too awkward to really be comfortable. A decent time, though.

Oh, so I forget if I said: I lost my passport (well, misplaced) sometime between arriving in Edinburgh and recently, and it was beginning to worry me a lot. I looked all over my room, and couldn’t find it. But Tuesday morning I looked in the last place, and there it was, under my suitcase on top of my bureau. It honestly made my day; I was in a good mood for a good portion of the rest of Tuesday.

Tuesday night I went to see FilmSoc’s showing of Good Night and Good Luck. I unfortunately got there after it had started, so throughout the movie I felt like I was catching up. It was also not quite what I was expecting, though I don’t know what that was exactly. Perhaps when I think George Clooney I think Ocean’s 11 and Syriana, not 1950s journalist (not even the main one) in black and white. Regardless, I’d like to give the movie another looksee sometime.

After the movie, I went to the FolkSoc Burns Supper! Honestly, there’s not much that’s more Scottish than a Burns Supper. Really. Think of something Scottish, likely it’ll be present or thought of at a Burns Supper. There was an old guy there with a bagpipe. Both he and Paul (did I mention Paul?) were decked out in full kilted regalia. Paul was a president of FolkSoc, has a university folk radio show, is still somewhat socially alpha in FolkSoc, has long, straight hair, and a yummy Scottish accent. If you know CurrentTV (and Conn people, you should, channel 17), he looks (aside from the long hair) kinda like Joe Hanson, who does the Joe Gets stuff. Wow tangent. Anyways, people were just kinda bopping around, and then the haggis was done heating up in the microwave. The old guy played for a sec on the bagpipe, as Paul processed with haggis held high around the center of the room, setting it down on a stool. He then recited Burns’ “Ode tae Haggis”, in a suitably theatric and comical yet reverent style. We applauded, then queued up to get our haggis, neeps, and tatties. (That’s turnips and potatoes for you silly American people). I was kinda full, but it was good food. Haggis is actually really good, as long as you’re not vegetarian (although there was a veg-haggis option). It’s just like spiced ground meat. Tasty. And if you eat meat, you’re not thinking about what it is you’re eating anyway, right? So who cares if it’s got gross origins, as long as it’s tasty? QED all meat eaters should like haggis. Wow I’m a philosophy geek.

Anyways, after the food was finished, there was some stuttered tune playing. There were a number of Burns poems and songs (Oh, that’s Robert Burns if you didn’t know, Scotland’s national poet and hero…hardly comparable over here, but kinda like Pushkin in Russia). I sang a Stan Rogers song, and was beat to two other songs, (Tatties and Herrin’ and Is There for Honest Poverty) because I was chickening and was too slow. I can’t decide whether it’s good or bad that I didn’t sing them, because both songs were sung much slower than I’m used to. Oh, I also sang another song later. Yay FolkSoc. The highpoint of the night, however, was shortly after the haggis, when Paul recited the Burns poem Tam o’ Shanter, with much gusto and great storytelling theatrics….”Weil done, cuttysnark!!”…

Today (Wednesday), I woke up early for class at 9, and had great difficulty staying awake. I succeeded, but it was a struggle, let me tell you. I’m going to have to look to that, staying up late Tuesday night before class the next day. May not work so well all the time. It’s certainly not pleasant, the sort of class I had today. Anyways, after class I came back to my room and took a three-hour nap. Woke up, went to dinner with some increasingly-close friends: John, Emily, and Laura, all here through Arcadia. I think I mentioned them before, no? Last night (Tuesday) we had dinner as well, and beforehand Emily, John and I watched cartoons on the internet (so much fun) and talked about politics. Who would you vote for first, McCain, Clinton, or Obama? Now, for those more politically informed than myself, I know that there are other, more likely or suitable candidates perhaps, but these are the three we were talking about. Tonight, Emily told me about this website where you can watch whole movies for free online, albeit in segments most of the time. And I found the quality wasn’t that great; the sound was pretty much fine as I watched Ocean’s 12 tonight, but the picture skipped constantly. Oh well. Probably the soddy internet connection here. Let me tell you. It’s complete (toast). Ick poo.

So, other things: I bought Salsa Celtica tickets, and the guy at Queen’s Hall box office remembered me, after a week and a half. I started using Google Calendar; it’s nice, but we’ll see how long I keep it up. I started tangifying (like tangible?) my plans for my trip to London, and started thinking about places I want to visit during my spring break and before & after. Lots of places. See next post.

This weekend we have our homestays. I’m ambivalent, but I wouldn’t say that I’m dreading it. It’ll be a different experience, another adventure, and then it’ll be over. For good or ill. Hopefully it’ll be fun. Leaving at 5:30 on Friday, returning 6:30 on Sunday.

Oh, and just looking at my calendar, it appears there’s a philosophy society lecture tomorrow (“Quantum Sex and Conscious Robots”, one of the two of the semester that I want to go to), and also a FilmSoc movie, “A Cock and Bull Story”. Should be fun. And I have a shift at the ISC, as well. Busy busy. Seriously, it’s going to be a busy day. ‘Cause there’s also another P&P meeting. More than two extracurricular meetings in a day is busy. Tomorrow has 4. Fun times. Hope y’all are enjoying yourselves.

Left Alexandra’s company in the morning, and began an even more adventuresome day, culminating with a manic Shooglenifty concert and a long walk across the city, talking to strangers, and then calm. Finally returning home, and resting.

Woke up around 11, and walked with Alexandra, Aly, and Lindsey to the University gym. I walked to a tube station, and bought the cool ticket that lets you take as many trips as you want for 1.90. I sat on the tube, and on a whim, went around the loop twice before getting off, making note of how many people were in my carriage on each leg of the journey. A loop took about 25 minutes. I got off, and went to Borders again. I sat down and read a few change-the-world and environmental books. One of them was really good. Some tips:

• change some lightbulbs to energy-efficient ones
• walk, bike, or take public transportation to where you’re going, at least sometimes
• reduce the amount of material you use: eg reuse shopping bags, use both sides of paper, etc.
• don’t leave the water running unless you’re actively using it

I know most of the people reading this share my sentiments about environmentalism to one extent or another, so time for a wee bit of choir-preaching. Why don’t people do these things and more to do what they can? I know many people who are great, smart people, who think the environment is important (to quote Al Gore, “On one side we have gold bars. Don’t they look nice….On the other side we have the entire planet. Hmmm….”), yet they don’t do everything they can to help? What are they thinking? I mean, there’s so much really easy stuff you can do. I mean, if it’s pessimism and cynicism (those are so chic), fine, but I’m pessimistic and cynical about the future of the environment too, and I do as much as I can. At the risk of the bastardly “why isn’t everyone more like my virtuous self?”: I don’t do everything I could either. But I try. Why doesn’t everyone? Okay, tangent over.

After Borders, I went back to the concert hall, where me mate Ewan was playing at some youth concert. I snuck in at intermission (aren’t I bad), and saw the second half. It was good, especially the Martyn Bennett tribute, but unfortunately Ewan had played only in the first half. I saw him and his friends afterwards though. I bought Shooglenifty’s new CD, Troots, before leaving. I caved to my hunger, and got a sandwich at Gregg’s, a Subway-like chain (although they have Subway here too). I got a text from my other Hogmanay friend, Andrew, inviting me to dinner at 6. I went, and met some new people (Leigh, Laura, and John(?)) and my Hogmanay mates. We went to a newish italian place called Zizzi, where I had one of the biggest single-person pizzas I’ve ever seen, and odd garlic bread, some of which I stashed in tupperware for later. Afterwards, I took the tube to the West End, trying to find Murray’s place. But, it was later and harder to find Murray’s place than I thought, so I turned around and took the tube back to where my concert was. I didn’t get a chance to listen to the CD before the show, sadly. Come to think of it, I still haven’t. I should get on that.

The opener for Shoogle was a band from Brittany called Skolven Big Band. Not many of them spoke English very much. They were really good, but I was sleepy. That changed when Shooglenifty came on stage, though. How long have I been waiting for this concert? Years. At least five years. More like eight or so. The youngest member, Luke Plumb, from down under, playing mandolin, was wearing an Aussie hat and tails. And of course the fiddler Angus R. Grant with his crazy wild dark hair and beard. Several times throughout the concert, he stopped playing his fiddle for a bit and just held it. I was just like, laughing, what the (toast) is he doing? Garry Finlayson didn’t say much of anything, just sat there being awesome with his banjax (electric banjo). The absolute most awesome thing that happened during the concert amongst the fellas was when Luke’s mandolin string broke in mid-song, and he had to restring it. A crucial mandolin part came along, and seamlessly, Angus just played the rapid-fire, plinkety mandolin part. I doubt many people in the audience realized what happened. However, even more amazing was the guest Shoogle had. She stole the show, if that’s possible. Her name is Tanya Tacaq Gillis, and she’s an Inuit throat-singer from Yellowknife. First of all, she was one of the more exotically sexy people ever. But her singing was like nothing I’ve heard before, both in the new and amazing way. She sang with the band on a number of songs, and did one bit just by herself. It was percussive, kinda like a drum solo, but also sometimes melodic, sometimes gruff and creepy, sometimes light and childlike, sometimes carnally sexual-seeming, sometimes pure musigasmic scream. The crowd loved it; I think she was a little surprised at how positively we responded. But really, she was amazing. (Toast)ing mental. And the dancing at the front of the audience was ridiculous, all that I could have asked for. So afterwards, I got my stuff from coat check and came down to get Troots signed. All of them signed it, but I talked with James Mackintosh, the drummer, for a little bit. He said that Luke and Angus sometimes make it in to Edinburgh for sessions at Sandy Bell’s, but the main session they play is at a place called Burnam Hotel in Perthshire, on Monday nights. I’m going to have to check that out. I met two other folks getting something signed, and they said that Burnam is really hard to get to without a car. So, I may have to enlist a friend. I’ll get there one way or another. Oh, and apparently my copy of Troots was the first copy of the new album to receive their autographs. How am I not the coolest…

I left and called Murray, and he gave me directions. I couldn’t find the road he told me to get on, so I just meandered my way west. When I had about gone as far as I knew I should, I asked some folks I saw walking by how to get to where I was going. They said they were going that way too, so I walked with them for a bit. He had long hair, was kinda quiet, from Orkney, and a grad student in physics. She had a pierced lip (which it seems practically EVERYONE has over here), was really nice & helpful, from a little Western Isle, whose name sounded like Tammernorie (a Shoogle tune), and which she said not even Scottish people have heard of. Anyway, I got to Murray’s fine (he came down and met me at a nearby tube station). He offered me some juice, and showed me a cool board game he’d just gotten. After a while of journal writing, one of his roommates, Andy, came in for some tea. He seems really cool: he wants to design sustainable household items, and he also wants to start a commune in the highlands, where apparently land is really cheap. I went to sleep on the nice comfy couch.

Sunday morning, I headed out before anyone else was really awake (said bye to Murray, though), and made off for the bus station. I could have taken the tube, but of course that costs a pound! So I walked the distance, and caught the 12:45 bus back here to Edinburgh. I pulled the stunt with the ticket, and the conductor looked at it more closely this time, and my heart pounded. But all he did was rip it in half, not to be used again, and let me on the bus. I imagine that’s what the last driver was supposed to do, too. Okay.

So, since I’ve gotten back, I’ve just been relaxing really. Went to dinner early, ate up, looked for the mail room in vain, then went back to try the trick of going into the dining hall twice. The lady at the door sorta recognized me, but I lied to her and she trusted me/didn’t care enough, and let me in. I was full, and nervous that she’d call me out, so I didn’t take a whole lot. Besides, there wasn’t much good stuff. I took out just four small items, and brought them back. Been chillin ever since. I have class tomorrow. Started making plans for two weeks from now, going down to London to visit Bethany. This Tuesday, FolkSoc is having a wee Burns Supper, as is traditional this time of year. I’m excited. Like I’ve said before, my weeks are going to revolve around these things. Anyway, hope you’ve all enjoyed this bit of the saga. There will be more. Woohoo.

Experiences like this past weekend are the kind you remember in fifty years, I imagine. I went to Glasgow, no clear plans, two concerts to go to, and a flaring frugality more vicious than a whirling snowstorm. So…

I bet a lot of people don’t read all of these long posts, or don’t want to skim them, or whatnot. So I’m going to try something this time: I’ll bold the bits that sum it all up. Let me know if you like that. Well, especially if you’re not reading regularly anyways.

On Thursday morning I called my friend Murray, who I spent a lot of Hogmanay with. He’d offered to put me up, and said I could stay at his flat this weekend. So, I trekked over to St. Andrew Square, where the buses are. The bus station was closed for repairs, so the buses were just parked around the circumference of the square. I had a hell of a time finding the one I wanted, but I found it. I still had the return ticket I’d bought to get to Edinburgh for Hogmanay, and I hadn’t used it to get back, so I was able to use it for this journey. The driver barely glanced at it as I showed it to him, though, so I decided I’d try to use it on the way back as well, see how that went. Upon arriving, I wandered across the street from Buchanan bus station to the Concert Hall, one of the main venues for the festival. I chatted with a nice attendant, and saw that Coda Music had a booth. Katie, from FolkSoc, had told me about them: they sell just folk music, and it’s the best place to buy it. I left and called Murray again, and we agreed that I’d call him after finding out what my other friends were up to, because he still had exams to revise for and take. I called my friend Tess, from orientation (Becca’s friend), and went to her flat. She gave me long directions, and I was a little unsure of my location by the end, but I followed the right path and made it to her flat. On the way I stopped by the Botanic Gardens, and went in to the pretty greenhouse. It was pretty inside. Tess met me outside her flat and we went up to her room. She was pretty out of it, but she fed me and I played her some music from my iPod on her computer. We sat around for a while, then went and found the venue where my concerts were, and I picked up my tickets. We met up with Alexandra, the friend from Colorado, who suspiciously has several things in common with Alex Pressman (not really suspicious…), and got looked around for the cheapest place to get a good dinner. We settled on a Chinese takeout place. We left with two bricks of food contained in styrofoam. We went back to Alexandra’s flat and ate. I decided to stay on her floor for the night, as she had offered too. I dropped my stuff off in her room, then we went to visit some other Americans, including two Butler kids and two kids from Oklahoma. Most of us went out then to this REALLY crowded pub. After slowly weaving through the crowd and standing around really close to lots of drunk scottish 20-somethings, Alexandra and I decided it wasn’t our scene, so the two of us left. We went back to her room and talked for a while, then she got a call from a friend in India, and took it. I read for a little, and when she came back we got ready for sleep and talked for another while. I think I said before, her dad was Cherokee and her mom’s Swiss. She grew up in Albuquerque and goes to school in Colorado. We talked about all sorts of stuff, and it was really interesting, but eventually we went to sleep.

Friday we got up around 9:30, because she had class at 10. I walked around for a while, determined not to spend any money I didn’t have to. That translated to no subway, and no breakfast. Although, to be fair, I went into Costa Coffee (sort of the UK, or at least Scottish version of Starbucks, although that’s ubiquitous too), expecting to get free toast with a coffee. Alexandra had said that they do that. Unfortunately, she was wrong and there was no free toast. No free toast makes me sad. I ended up sitting in Costa for about 3 or 4 hours. I finished Hide and Seek, the Edinburgh-located detective novel I had been reading. It has a very unsatisfying end. I did a couple sudoku puzzles, and looked around for half-finished coffees to grab before the workers did, so I could finish them, filling my empty belly and preventing waste. Huzzah! I only got one, near the end. It was satisfying though. At one point, a woman who I think had Downs Syndrome sat at the table next to me. I was listening to my iPod, so I didn’t interact with her a whole lot, but at one point she was talking about how Cherie Booth is lucky to be married to Tony Blair, and how she was not lucky. There was a guy on the next table over doing a difficult-looking sudoku too. I chatted with him briefly about that as he was leaving. I finished a really hard one I’d been working on for a while, and then left. I walked around more, then went to Borders, where I looked at books and DVDs, writing down some stuff I wanted to get or to watch. Then I swung by the concert hall again, and went to a free show that was basically an open mike. I saw three groups, the first, a fairly young fiddler named Emma Donalds or some such. Then a band called Dumb Instrument who had really depressing songs. Then, finally, a young sing-songwriter called KTB (who I since realized is named Katie Bennett), who sang some really great songs very well. I then saw Alexandra had called, so I left and went back to her place. I met some of her friends, Alissa, Aly, and Lindsey, all American. Alexanda, Lindsey and I made dinner in Lindsey’s kitchen, after sitting in her room for a while. We made spaghetti with cheese and broccoli. Yum, for not having eaten all day. After dinner, we chatted for a while, and they decided to go see Pan’s Labyrinth. We set off, and I went to my show. It was pouring, and I got soaked. I was kindof casting about in terms of finding the place again, and was literally about to give up, making one last turn, before I looked at the map, when there it was. I actually did that several times this weekend. I impress myself. Anyways, I saw the Duhks first, then Session A9. Both were good, though my expectations for Session A9 were a little high. During the Session A9 show, the banjo player from the Duhks and his girlfriend were standing right in front of me. After the show, I went back to Alexandra’s, and we talked more, especially about environmentalism and relationships.

This was all well and adventurous, but nothing compared to Saturday. Well. Still exciting. But Saturday was good too. Very good.

So today was fine, tomorrow will be finer. I depart for Glasgow and the Celtic Connection music festival. I’m going to see my favorite band of all time perform on Saturday. Um, can you say THE COOLEST THING EVER? I’m really excited. It’s going to be an adventure. More after the fold.

Today was a normal Wednesday: I got up super early for class at 9, then came back to my room. I took a brief nap before frisbee at 2. It was some of the muddiest Ultimate I’ve ever played. Not the most. I think that honor goes to a game between one of the JV teams I was on and I believe Amherst College B. Ridiculous. Anyway. It was very muddy today. I didn’t play as well as all that. Oh, but one of the guys on the Edinburgh team was on the UK junior worlds team, so I likely saw him when I went to see that tournament over the summer. His name’s Scott. He had an Amherst HS jersey, was how we made the connection. Yeah, I kinda flipped out when he took off his sweatshirt and there was a hurricane logo peering out at me. Number 7. He traded for it at junior worlds. Do any Amherst varsity guys read this? Know who 7 was, who went to worlds? A biscuit (cookie) for whoever gets the answer. I don’t know it.

Anyways, after frisbee I came and washed my socks, ’cause I was out. I’ve now done two hand washes in my sink, ’cause I’m super-frugal like that. Underwear and socks. The bigger stuff is going to be more difficult, but I’ll figure it out; a tshirt wash is coming up very soon. All my frisbee stuff, and my legs, were very muddy. I took a long shower. Went to dinner later, been putting stuff together for tomorrow since then, and listening to the music that I have of the bands I’m seeing this weekend.

So here’s the plan for tomorrow. I’m getting a 12:00 bus into Glasgow, and calling my friend Murray when I get there. I’ll be crashing at his place, at least at first. I found where the venue (and hence my tickets) are on a map, so I can find my way there. I may have a lot of time on my own. It’s gonna be pretty awesome. An adventure of the same caliber as climbing Arthur’s Seat by myself on the second day. Or coming to Hogmanay with no place planned to stay. Foolhardy, do I hear you say? Hell, no. Well, maybe. But these adventures are what this experience is for. Anyways, I’m going to stay until Sunday morning, and then take a 12:00 bus back here. I’m not going to bring my laptop, so I won’t do much until Sunday.

Oh, did I mention there’s supposed to be a big storm tomorrow morning? And then it’s supposed to get cold, and may actually feel like winter, instead of this gloomy wetness from hell that it’s been since we got here.

If you want to call me and check up, my mobile number is 0794 719 7649. From the states, that’s what, 044 at the beginning?

Anyway, a lot of things to think about and do before tomorrow. Love you all.

I have found my life anew. This experience tonight struck to the core of my being with its level of fun, camaraderie, comfort, informality, and friendliness. I have found my niche at Edinburgh. My weeks will now to a great extent be in anticipation of the coming Tuesday night. This was the most fun I’ve had in a good while. Ogh. You don’t even know. And you won’t unless you click “Read more”…

So, we’ll start with the start of the day. I got up, blah blah, had breakfast, blah blah, went to class, fine. This was my first class of Wittgenstein. It was fine; it’s complicated stuff, but it makes sense if you get pass his reiteration and complicated technology (I would say ambiguous or vague, but I don’t want to accuse Wittgenstein of that, as it’s a big part of what he’s criticizing). The professor is American, and reminds me a lot of Paul Giamatti from Sideways in how he presents himself. He’s clear, though, which is the important thing for Wittgenstein (in both senses)(aren’t I witty).

After class, I went about some errands while listening to my new Martyn Bennett music on my iPod. As my voltage converter blew the other day and that means no speakers, I went to get a new one, one that won’t die on me. Turns out the one I got probably just wasn’t strong enough for the volts pouring through it, so I didn’t buy one today, just so I could come back and find out how much I needed. But I did buy a 4-quid microphone for my computer, so anyone with Skype I will shortly be able to talk to. Huzzah for communication!

After that stint (at Edinburgh Bargain Store, recommended by a tour guide on International Students day), I went to buy tickets for some concerts at Queen’s Hall, which is just down the road from me. I bought tickets there for Phil Cunningham and for Peatbog Faeries. In the morning, before class, actually I had bought my tickets for this weekend, at Celtic Connections. The concerts I’m going to there are Session A9/The Duhks and Shooglenifty. Did I already say that? I feel like I’ve typed that already. Oh well. I’m excited, so it’s okay I told you twice if that’s the case.

Went to dinner, then straight from there to see the FilmSoc showing of Serenity. Yes, I own it, but since I bought the season pass, I get in for free. At the beginning, the FilmSoc person was like “Before we start, we’re going to have a wee trivia question with prizes of these two movie posters of the Bourne Supremacy and American Beauty.” And I was like, awesome, I know all a lot about Firefly and Serenity. I was so prepared for some obscure question. She continued, “What TV show…” and I was like, oh wow. Okay. “…is Serenity based on?” My hand was up before she finished. So now I have two movie posters from good movies, though not my favorites. Whatever. Free stuff is not bad. And of course the movie was great. Until it stopped working about half an hour from the end. If you know it, it was immediately after Mal gives his “They’ll think they can make people better” speech and says “Oh, they won’t be expecting this”. Throughout that climactic scene it had been skipping, and they paused it right after that line to fix it, and they never did. We all got free passes, though, which means, as I already have the season ticket, I can bring friends for free. Awesome. So, I had another event that had started half an hour earlier, so I went to it, right next door:

FolkSoc. Edinburgh University Folk Society. This is my new life. I went in, and there were a bunch of people sitting around a disparately-furnished room. Basically, it’s a tune and song session, with few excellent musicians, a lot of competent musicians, and a lot of beginners/people who don’t play anything, but enjoy the scene. I fell somewhere between the latter two categories. It was amazing. Need I say again, this is my new life. At the start, all the fiddles (referring to the musicians by the name of their instrument) were off getting pints in the Student Union bar upstairs. So, it was a disorganized coagulation of whistles and plunky stuff like guitar. One guy had an autoharp. A bunch of people were just sitting around on the couches and chairs. One girls was knitting. I came in and sat down. I moved over to one of the other whistles and we all kinda muddled around for a while, because us 3 whistles would try to start a tune, and the plunky people would be fiddling around doing their own stuff. I felt like they were more interested in folk songs. Meh. But then, the fiddles came back. And here was the leadership of the group. Not just fiddles, mind, but guitars and bodhran and stuff. So the evening went on with much more gusto. Numerous tunes I recognized were played, some I could play, and joined in. Some songs, surprisingly, I knew, and joined in as much as I could. I did a lot of foot stomping, for lack of my drum. Oh, for my drum. It will have to join me, I barely need to even say it; of course it will. But then. A girl across the room opened her mouth and began singing Northwest Passage. I joined in after “Ah for….” If you don’t know the song, learn it. Stan Rogers, Northwest Passage is the name of the album. I was singing so noticeably that I was encouraged to lead a song. I stammeringly said most of what I knew well enough was Stan Rogers, and they said fine. I pleaded for a minute to pick one, and in the interim another girl led The Wreck of the Athens Queen. Another Stan Rogers, for you unintroduced. When that was over, I didn’t really have anything, because I’d been singing along. But I led Free in the Harbour, which at one point was my favorite. After that it was mostly coming off of the music high, but I then went to work on networking aka learning everyone’s names and meeting people. There’s Paul and Ally, two guys who have a radio show on the college station, called Fresh Folk, and play everything from the kind of stuff I play on my show to more traditional stuff. Paul used to be president of the society, but now Eilidh, a girl who was there just at the beginning, is (that was a poopy sentence). Charlotte, the girl who led the Athens Queen, has blonde dreads and is the treasurer. She’s studying some sort of Scottish/Celtic studies course, as are a number of people in the society. One I talked to, Katie, is from Raasay our beyond the Isle of Skye. The first really friendly person, Clair, is a first year whistle. She seemed kinda flighty and slightly socially unstable. The other whistle is Oisin, a very good musician at whistle and bodhran, but can’t play with other people worth a darn. He plays too fast; no one except very experienced musicians can keep up. Scott, who came in wearing just boxers (as slight flurries were coming down outside; first snow I’ve seen all winter) was the most welcoming of anyone. The explanation for the lack of trouser was that he had been running earlier, and it had happened that he hadn’t had time to go home and change before coming to FolkSoc. He was very nice, knew Stan Rogers and a lot of other stuff I knew. There are two other Americans in the group, about 6 Scottish or Celtic Studies people, and 2 other international students: Anna from Austria (the one knitting), and Carmen from…Bulgaria? Romania? There was one song in Gaelic, sung by Katie and Charlotte.

Today was the 300th anniversary of the Treaty of Union between England and Scotland, and it was all over the news. It showed itself at FolkSoc by a number of Scottish nationalist songs. I think that’s where I fall, for the primary reason that an independent Scotland would likely be able to better preserve its traditional culture, including its imperiled native language, Gaelic.

The group usually goes to Orkney in late May, at the very end of exams. I would love to go with them, but I would also love to get home and see all my senior friends graduate. Can’t do both. We’ll see how things stand in a month or two.

On a lighter note, I’ve started eating all of apples instead of just the outer, most accessible part. The goodness goes all the way down to the core. I don’t eat the core, or the stem bits, but actually the area between the core and the external stems is quite fine. I eat it almost like a peach now. That’s what starving can do for you; you get more efficient in what you eat.

The explosion of pleasure in my mind tonight is spectacular. Like, if you could see mental things, these fireworks would be visible for miles and miles. But I have to wake up for class tomorrow at 9. Ick. But it’s okay, it’ll be fine. I love you all, and miss you, but this is so amazing. Catch you in a few months. Though of course I’ll keep updating this. Mwah.

Did you know that JM Barrie made up the name Wendy? That’s what someone told us during orientation (Barrie was Scottish).

Anyway, here’s my summary of the past few days:

After going to Ultimate on the wrong day on Saturday, I stayed in for the rest of the day. Because I hadn’t exercised that day like I meant to, I did some stuff in my room. I did some pushups and situps, and lifted weights (in the form of full nalgenes) for a while. I’m planning to do this semi-regularly, maybe get a little more fit. That night I watched the movie Blade on my computer.

Sunday I went to Ultimate at 2. This time it actually happened. It was good. Windy, and muddy, but there were enough people to play. I haven’t played in such a long time; it felt great to be playing again. Amazingly, despite being out of shape, I was able to play the whole game. I think when the weather’s really miserable, it helps distract us from other kinds of discomfort. But the people I played with on Sunday were pretty good, some about as good as I am when I’m in shape. Someone said right out that Americans tend to have more experience than other people on their team, just because programs in the US are likely to be more developed than British ones. I don’t know whether they have Ultimate at all in their schools. Regardless, if I get back in shape, I think I should be able to make team one, and they go to a lot of tournaments. I’ll find out more about that at practice tomorrow, I imagine.

Sunday evening I went to An Inconvenient Truth, put on by Film Society and People & Planet, an environmental group on campus. Since I’d seen the film before, I took notes this time. It was great; I took a good page of notes in my moleskine, and with my miniscule writing, that’s a lot.

After the movie, I cam back and met up with this guy I’d met online over the summer by way of our shared musical interests. He actually lives in my dorm. His name’s Ewan, and I hung out with him and some of his friends for a while. Ewan and I each gave the other about 1.5 gigabytes of music. That’s more than 300 songs. This is stuff I’ve been looking for for upwards of 5 years. The rest of the Shooglenifty albums, Peatbog Faeries, Croft No. Five, Martyn Bennett, Capercaillie, Paul Mounsey, and then some stuff I’m more newly interested in: Session A9, Boards of Canada, Blazin’ Fiddles, and Sigur Ros. It’s all great stuff; I don’t know what to do with my excitement. Imagine you attained a long-term, high-desire goal all at once. It’s something like that. I decided to start a playlist of “Trad/House” music. That’s a term I just made up, but basically it’s music that has some connection to traditional music, but sounds more like House music. That’s the kind of music you hear at dances and clubs and stuff, in case you didn’t know *cough*oldergenerationreaders*cough*. It’s one of the kinds of music people above 40 complain about.

I started trying to buy tickets for the Celtic Connections festival, which starts this weekend. I was having difficulty getting the online booking to work, but I eventually got it to work just now. Turns out I’m only getting tickets for two shows, both this weekend: Session A9 & the Duhks, and Shooglenifty. I’m hoping to stay with one of a few friends I’ve made in Glasgow. It’ll be a blast, especially the Shooglenifty concert. There are some other concerts that are in Edinburgh that I’m going to instead of their Celtic Connections equivalent, because they’re cheaper and not sold out, as the Peatbog Faeries Celtic Connections concert is. Those ones are at Queen’s Hall, which is on my walk to class, and they’re spread out over the next few months.

Monday morning I overslept my 8:00 alarm, but it was okay, as I didn’t have class until 2. I missed breakfast, but I went to a diner for brunch that had been recommended in my Lonely Planet guide. It wasn’t as inexpensive as Lonely Planet had touted it as being, but it was good. However, good food is fine, but the most important thing in a food-place is cheapness. So, there are two other places that have been recommended to me as being good and cheap. I’ll check those out next time I’m hungry around lunchtime.

I had Philosophy and the Environment class, which was fine. It’s a good class, consistently comfortable and fulfilling; I really like the professor, one Pauline Phemister. She’s short and has short white hair, wears fashionable but tasteful clothes, and has high round cheeks split by the dimples made from her wonderful Scottish accent. She exudes an air of total confidence without arrogance, and smiles and laughs regularly despite being very serious most of the time. I enjoy the class muchly.

After class I went to the International Students Center (ISC), and got my free cup of tea before it closed. I’m going to be volunteering there Thursdays at 1. It’s a nice place, small and quiet, but with free coffee, tea, and biscuits. It’s the closest I’ve found to Coffee Grounds here.

And yes, today it’s not windy. For the moment. It is rather chilly, probably the coldest it’s been so far, but without the wind it’s not that bad. It’s actually lovely out. What am I doing inside? I should go for a walk before class at 2. Maybe I will. Fine.

Oh, and I’m feeling a lot better than before, from just a little social interaction and just settling into my routine a little. Buying these tickets to Celtic Connections took some pressure off my shoulders. It’ll be nice to take this little trip to Glasgow.

Hope you all are doing well. I know some of you are preparing to (or have already) gone abroad yourselves, and I wish you the best of luck and happiness with that.