Today, I Spoke

Hi Everyone
This week has been crazier than usual so I didn't have as much time to post but I finally managed to have time today!  This week is my first full week of all my seminars and lectures in the same week so I had a bunch of readings to do to prepare. Some of the readings topics were*:
- Pacifism in France
- Balinese cockfighting (Yes there were penis jokes included. Yes they were terrible and corny and I giggled at all of them.)
- Symbolism of Cat Massacres in post-revolutionary France. Yup...Cat. Massacres.
- How to write a Literature Review

*I'd like to take this time to remind you that this coursework will contribute to my Master's Degree.

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Edinburgh Tours!

Welcome back! Sorry for the delay but I was exhausted posting last night and decided to take a break before I posted some more.  DON'T FORGET there is a post from last night so please scroll down and read that one first :)

Saturday - Edinburgh Free Walking Tour

We woke up refreshed on Saturday morning and made our way back up the streets of Edinburgh in time for our free tour.  In many European cities, they offer Sandman's Free Tours and they are fantastic! And free! So we jumped at the chance to take one of these tours. Our tour guide was Steve and he was hilarious and knowledgeable.  He's the ginger guy with the red shirt in my photos.  The highlight photos are here and the majority will be on my Facebook page

The former location of the tax collection building in Edinburgh. Many people still voice their disgust for the tax man by expectorating on the brick heart in the middle of the sidewalk.  If you look closely at the circle inside the heart, that's not drops of rain, it's actual lugies hocked by the taxed and disgruntled of Edinburgh!

As we left the area, our tour guide wound up and spit a monster right into the center of the heart.  Carly and I were horrified...but not nearly as horrified as the mother with her baby in a baby carriage that had stopped not 1 foot in front of Steve (the tour guide) as he was spitting.  The little girl started giggling like crazy and the mother said "In front of my child, really?" Clearly she was angry so we made a quick exit to the next important site.

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Scottish Adventures

Helloooo :)
So this post is gonna be kind of long because I have A LOT to share from our trip to Scotland this weekend! Carly and I left Newcastle on Thursday afternoon and we got  back Sunday afternoon.  There are many great stories about the gory history of Scotland as well as some hilarious things that happened to us on the trip so you're definitely going to want to read the whole post if you can! And the very final bit will serve as a warning to all who don't heed the advice of their Scottish tour guides.

Thursday - Arrival in Edinburgh
Carly and I decided to visit Edinburgh after we heard from some of our other international student friends at Newcastle.  They recommended a great hostel and awesome tours for us so we jumped at the chance to go.  We left a few days before they did so we were able to do some touring/exploring on our own (my apologies for the rhyme).  Here are some pictures from the train ride to Edinburgh, our hostel and the surrounding area when we walked around after we got set up in the hostel

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The Pumpkin Episode

I totally forgot to write about this until Haley (hey little!) reminded me of it. *THERE IS A POST AFTER THIS ONE TOO SO READ BOTH PLEASE :) *

My favorite roommate was in the kitchen when I walked in last night and she was boiling something on the stove.  It was BRIGHT ORANGE so I asked her what she was making. She was boiling pumpkin.  I asked her if she was making pumpkin pie (maybe that's all the rage in China?) and she said she wasn't and that in China people eat pumpkin boiled all the time.  I was kind of weirded out because pumpkins don't really taste good unless they're in pie form but I chalked it up to cultural differences and finished heating up my rice packet and went back to my room.

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Classes Wah

So after almost 3 weeks of being in Newcastle my first full day of classes is tomorrow. I start bright and early at 9am in the library for some good ol' Research Skills and Dissertation Training!  I'm basically going to be taught how to use a library. Boring, yes, but extremely necessary considering I have a dissertation (50 page essay on whichever topic I choose to obsess about) due at the end of the summer.  I've been to the library a few times and it's kind of out of the way but its gigantic! It has multiple floors and classrooms, a Skype Lounge and a cafe.  The cafe has drinks, sandwiches, cookies - the works.  When I hole myself up in the library this summer, it's nice to know I'll be able to get a snack every once in a while.

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Angel of the North

Hellooo friends!

I’ve survived another week in Newcastle! Pretty soon I’ll be starting my Master’s level classes and I am definitely nervous!  The higher education system in the UK is SOOO much different than in the US.  Most of the classes have large lecture hall sessions and then separate seminars or labs to do more focused group work. And they meet very infrequently. To give you an idea of what my next semester is going to be like, here is a graph of my tentative schedule:

Semester 1 Schedule
	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
9am		9am-11am Dissertation Training	9am-10am POSSIBLE Conflicts of E.H. Seminar
10am			10am-11am POSSIBLE Conflicts of E.H. Seminar
11am
12 pm		12 noon – 1pm Practice of History
1pm
2pm		2pm – 4pm Conflicts in European History
3pm
4pm		4pm-5pm POSSIBLE Conflicts of E.H. Seminar
5pm
6pm

Read it and weep, mortals.  I’ll have classes only Tuesday and possibly a seminar class on Wednesday.  The seminars are in italics because I’m not sure which one of the 3 groups I’ll be placed in.  Whichever group, I would only attend those seminar meetings and not the other 2.  I’m shooting for 9am Wednesday just so I can get out of my room a little more.  Next semester I will probably have a similar schedule so look forward to that post J

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