A view from the Aberfeldy graveyard...
We saw a complete rainbow (part of it is cut off in the picture, obviously).
The lake (or loch) by the crannog...
The forest near the Hermitage...
The waterfall as seen from the balcony of the Hermitage...Sunday, 22 February 2009
More Pictures from the Highland Tour
A view from the Aberfeldy graveyard... We saw a complete rainbow (part of it is cut off in the picture, obviously). The lake (or loch) by the crannog... The forest near the Hermitage... The waterfall as seen from the balcony of the Hermitage...
February Week 3 - Highland Day Trip
So, about my day trip to the Highlands... WARNING: Nerdy history facts to follow! To begin with, there were 30 of us JSAs on a bus belonging to Haggis Adventures (no haggis-eating required). Our bus driver/tour guide was a Glaswegian named Tony (apparently he is half-Italian). We left St. Andrews and drove over a massive bridge to Dundee and then on to Perth. We ended up at the Hermitage, which is near the town of Dunkeld. 
The scenery of the woods and waterfall was absolutely beautiful. The trees in that forest are almost entirely non-native because nearly all of the native Scottish forests were destroyed during the Industrial Revolution. One of the dukes that lived in the area then recruited botanists to go around the world and collect seeds that could be used to regrow the forests. One of these botanists was David Douglas, for which the Douglas Fir is named. After our trek into the woods at the Hermitage, we pressed onward to a town called Aberfeldy, where we saw the Black Watch Memorial. 
Also known as the "Highland Watch," this regiment was commissioned in 1667 by Charles II to secure peace in the Highlands through clan chiefs and their men. After our stop at Aberfeldy, we went on to Kenmore, home of the oldest inn in Scotland, and to one of the ancient dwellings known as crannogs. 
After Kenmore, we drove to the oldest distillery in Scotland, the Glenturret, established in 1775. 
The tour was great - we learned all about the whiskey distilling process and about the differences between the various types of whiskey. Glenturret single malt whiskey is one of the components of Famous Grouse blended whiskey. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of inside the distillery because they are afraid that someone will use their flash and blow the place up! We went to Crieff (hometown of Ewan McGregor; his parents still live there) to grab some fish and chips for dinner. Our last stop before heading home was Ardoc, the location of an ancient Roman fort. There's not much there now, but you can still see the rows of trenches they built to try and tire out the Picts (as the ancient Scots were then known, because of their tattoos/body paint) before they could attack. 
That's it for the history lesson... Hope this was informative and not too boring. I will put some of the scenic and not historical pictures up in another post as well - it was a beautiful day!
The scenery of the woods and waterfall was absolutely beautiful. The trees in that forest are almost entirely non-native because nearly all of the native Scottish forests were destroyed during the Industrial Revolution. One of the dukes that lived in the area then recruited botanists to go around the world and collect seeds that could be used to regrow the forests. One of these botanists was David Douglas, for which the Douglas Fir is named. After our trek into the woods at the Hermitage, we pressed onward to a town called Aberfeldy, where we saw the Black Watch Memorial. 
Also known as the "Highland Watch," this regiment was commissioned in 1667 by Charles II to secure peace in the Highlands through clan chiefs and their men. After our stop at Aberfeldy, we went on to Kenmore, home of the oldest inn in Scotland, and to one of the ancient dwellings known as crannogs. 
After Kenmore, we drove to the oldest distillery in Scotland, the Glenturret, established in 1775. 
The tour was great - we learned all about the whiskey distilling process and about the differences between the various types of whiskey. Glenturret single malt whiskey is one of the components of Famous Grouse blended whiskey. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of inside the distillery because they are afraid that someone will use their flash and blow the place up! We went to Crieff (hometown of Ewan McGregor; his parents still live there) to grab some fish and chips for dinner. Our last stop before heading home was Ardoc, the location of an ancient Roman fort. There's not much there now, but you can still see the rows of trenches they built to try and tire out the Picts (as the ancient Scots were then known, because of their tattoos/body paint) before they could attack. 
That's it for the history lesson... Hope this was informative and not too boring. I will put some of the scenic and not historical pictures up in another post as well - it was a beautiful day!
February in Scotland - Week 3
Hello again! I've just passed another fabulous week here in St. Andrews. Last Saturday, Albany Park hosted a SAD (Singles Awareness Day) Rave Party in the common room. It was a blast! 
(I borrowed the neon leggings from my flatmate Jen and improvised the jewelry.) Additionally, this week was RagWeek for the University, which means that there were tons of fun events hosted by the university to raise money for charity. (I am told that we regularly out-raise Oxford and Cambridge - take that England!) On Monday, we went to the Mr. St. Andrews competition, where we supported Albany Park's candidate, Gordon (he made it to the top 4, but alas he did not win; we suspect the contest was rigged). 
We also went to the ragweek fashion show (no pictures, sorry). On the academic front, this week was pretty uneventful since my Political Theory of War and Peace class was cancelled because the professor was in NY attending the International Studies Association Conference. My other class went relatively well, however, and I had my first actual tutorial. I felt very much at home in the tutorial setting; it is much more like the discussion-based classes I'm used to having at Augsburg. I actually managed to say one intelligent thing during the discussion, which means I met my goal for class this week! :) I have been spending a lot of time reading in the library(I'm less likely to fall asleep there), but any Lindell Library workers can rest assured that I prefer Augsburg's. 
It is much more aesthetically pleasing (St. Andrews library = the ugly square building seen above) and we obviously have more diligent shelvers - go circ! 
To be fair, though, the St. Andrews library has a much bigger collection. In other news, I went on a day trip to the Highlands yesterday, but we didn't actually go into them much; we mostly just drove around the edges. I will make a new post about the trip with pictures and fun stories so I have more room to discuss it. That's the news for this week (sorry it's not more interesting, but next weekend is my trip to London, so hopefully that will yield many delightful travel anecdotes). I miss you all and will post again soon! 
(The sunset from House 33).
(I borrowed the neon leggings from my flatmate Jen and improvised the jewelry.) Additionally, this week was RagWeek for the University, which means that there were tons of fun events hosted by the university to raise money for charity. (I am told that we regularly out-raise Oxford and Cambridge - take that England!) On Monday, we went to the Mr. St. Andrews competition, where we supported Albany Park's candidate, Gordon (he made it to the top 4, but alas he did not win; we suspect the contest was rigged). 
We also went to the ragweek fashion show (no pictures, sorry). On the academic front, this week was pretty uneventful since my Political Theory of War and Peace class was cancelled because the professor was in NY attending the International Studies Association Conference. My other class went relatively well, however, and I had my first actual tutorial. I felt very much at home in the tutorial setting; it is much more like the discussion-based classes I'm used to having at Augsburg. I actually managed to say one intelligent thing during the discussion, which means I met my goal for class this week! :) I have been spending a lot of time reading in the library(I'm less likely to fall asleep there), but any Lindell Library workers can rest assured that I prefer Augsburg's. 
It is much more aesthetically pleasing (St. Andrews library = the ugly square building seen above) and we obviously have more diligent shelvers - go circ! 
To be fair, though, the St. Andrews library has a much bigger collection. In other news, I went on a day trip to the Highlands yesterday, but we didn't actually go into them much; we mostly just drove around the edges. I will make a new post about the trip with pictures and fun stories so I have more room to discuss it. That's the news for this week (sorry it's not more interesting, but next weekend is my trip to London, so hopefully that will yield many delightful travel anecdotes). I miss you all and will post again soon! 
(The sunset from House 33).
Friday, 13 February 2009
Cathedral Information Plaques
Here they are...
I hope they are big enough to read, but if they aren't and you REALLY want to read them, just e-mail me and I will e-mail you the bigger versions so you can! I will also label you a nerd forever, but since most of you are nerds anyway, that won't really matter... :)
P.S. Actually, I just discovered that if you click on the photo, it opens up an enormous version of it in a new window, so you can read all the fine print!
I hope they are big enough to read, but if they aren't and you REALLY want to read them, just e-mail me and I will e-mail you the bigger versions so you can! I will also label you a nerd forever, but since most of you are nerds anyway, that won't really matter... :)
P.S. Actually, I just discovered that if you click on the photo, it opens up an enormous version of it in a new window, so you can read all the fine print!
More Pictures of the Cathedral - February Week 2
More cathedral pictures, as promised... Here we see the view out towards Albany from the Cathedral graveyard.
More of the cathedral ruins... The church was finally completed and consecrated in the 1300s.
And a back view of the above stucture, complete with part of the cathedral wall.
This is East Gable of what was once the Presbytery and Choir. And below is a ground-up view of the tower of St. Rules's church, another part of the cathedral ruins.
Eventually I hope to have pictures of the castle ruins as well and a view from the top of the cathedral tower, but it costs 7 pounds to get in, so I am biding my time on that one to make sure that it is a nice day when I will not freeze if I am out for a long time... Oh, and for all you history or religion nerds, I will put up the pictures I took (I am a nerd, too) of the information plaques, if you want to read them. Enjoy!
February in Scotland - Week 2
Hello again, all ye blog-followers! Life is good here in St. Andrews. My classes started on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively. I am taking Politics and State Formation in the Middle East (for which I have a presentation about democratic capitalism in Turkey and a paper about political Islam due this semester) as well as The Political Theory of War and Peace (for which I will have to do two papers about political philosophy). They seem interesting enough so far, but they require tons of outside reading and research. I am still trying to figure out how much of the reading we are supposed to do since we are not expected to read all of the list for each week (sometimes there are 20+ possibilities), but are expected to be prepared to discuss the topic in the tutorial... I will let you know how that is going at a later date. I have finally met all of my flatmates: Becky, Connie, Jen, Charmaine, and Hanna. Charmaine and I went to a dress-up party on Tuesday night (we got both dresses for only 5 pounds). I think I employed the school marm look to good effect... Charmaine's dress had a distinctively mermaid-like shape, though, so I can't complain...
I have many more photos of the cathedral, but I will have to post them separately for those who would like to see them. It won't let me upload any more to this post. That's pretty much all for now... Happy Friday the 13th and Happy Valentine's Day from St. Andrews!
Yesterday it snowed here, so we all went on a sledding adventure in the evening, which was a crazy fun time. The 20 minute walk to class was less fun - I was soaked by the end of it! The rest of the week was beautiful, though, and I went on a walk to take some photos of the beach, 
the harbor, 
and the 12th-century cathedral ruins that I pass every day on my way into town.
I have many more photos of the cathedral, but I will have to post them separately for those who would like to see them. It won't let me upload any more to this post. That's pretty much all for now... Happy Friday the 13th and Happy Valentine's Day from St. Andrews!Saturday, 7 February 2009
February in Scotland - Week 1
Okay people, I am going to make a valiant effort to do one post a week, no matter what. So here goes. I arrived safely in St. Andrews at about 1 in the morning on Tuesday. The snow in London created all kinds of delays and cancellations. My flight from Minneapolis (we flew right over Augsburg!) was re-routed to Amsterdam. 
Then we had to wait for a new flight to London. I finally arrived and was then able to take 2 trains to get to Leuchars, a town about 15 minutes away from St. Andrews. My study abroad coordinator picked me up and delivered me to my accommodation in Albany Park, right on the North Sea ( I can literally walk up a little hill outside my apartment and be on the beach). 
Albany Park is pretty nice. There are 6 of us in house 33; we each have a single room, and there are 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, and a common room. 
The 3 roommates I've met so far are great and all 5 of them are Scottish, which is good for attuning my ear to the Scottish accent. They are going to teach me about the "real" Scotland! The only minor hiccough is that we currently have a mouse in our kitchen, but hopefully that will be taken care of soon... The other JSAs (Junior Semester Abroad students) seem very nice. A bunch of us went to a ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee) last night and learned traditional Scottish dancing and ate haggis. It was a blast! Classes don't start for me until Tuesday, so not much to report on the academic front yet. I'll try to post again soon... Until then, love from Scotland!
The 3 roommates I've met so far are great and all 5 of them are Scottish, which is good for attuning my ear to the Scottish accent. They are going to teach me about the "real" Scotland! The only minor hiccough is that we currently have a mouse in our kitchen, but hopefully that will be taken care of soon... The other JSAs (Junior Semester Abroad students) seem very nice. A bunch of us went to a ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee) last night and learned traditional Scottish dancing and ate haggis. It was a blast! Classes don't start for me until Tuesday, so not much to report on the academic front yet. I'll try to post again soon... Until then, love from Scotland!P.S. My address here in Scotland is:
AP/3302 St. Marys Street
St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland KY16 8BP
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