A massive catch-up

WARNING:
THIS POST IS EXCEPTIONALLY LONG. PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU HAVE SUFFICIENT TIME TO READ IT AND COMMENT ON IT BEFORE BEGINING. IF YOU DO NOT COMMENT, I WILL SEND YOU HATE MAIL FOREVER. THANK YOU.

I'm a very bad blogger. I'm sorry. It took me about a month to post pictures from Paris, and I haven't posted anything since! That was forever ago! So, here's the plan. This post is going to a be a down and dirty fast catch-up of everything that happened before I went to Greece for the holiday. Then I will immediately make another post containing pics and stories from the holiday in Greece. If I'm reeeaally ambitious, I'll try to get started on the second post tonight, but I'm aiming for tomorrow for that one.

Okay, so, lets pick up from Paris. I seem to have made some promises that I didn't follow up on. Like the whole "I'm auditioning for a show and will tell you if I get cast!" part, or the "I'll post some pictures of the theatre kids." I will now finally follow through with these promises.

First, yes, I did get cast in the show. It's called "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" and it's a very classic Scottish play. I play the part of an American journalist interviewing a nun about a book she wrote and the play for the most part takes place during her childhood while she was a student of Miss Jean Brodie. It's very interesting, but I won't bore you with details that you can read elsewhere.

Second, here are a ton of pictures of my theatre peeps!
Here are three of the 4 kids that I hang out with the most. They live in 142 Muirhead hall, which we all find ironic since I live in 142 Fraser. We think they just made a clerical error and I'm supposed to live with them. Anywho, from right to left that's Rachel, Claire, and Fraser (not the building, that's just his name). Rachel is holding a didgeridoo which they all bought for Alex Mauchlin's birthday. He's the president of SUDS.












The 4th kid in 142 is Alexandra Metaxa (I'm only giving you her full name since there's the other Alex and because she's the one I went home to Greece with and whom I'm currently seeing.) The guy on the left is Simon Hotchfield, another SUDSian. He taught me a bit about Whisky.










Here we have an absolutely petrifying picture of me and Fraser. Does anyone else see Igor? The picture was taken at Alex Mauchlin's B-day party at a cocktail bar in town. So was the one above actually.










And this is Rachel again. One of the first times I met here, this is the party after "Ichibod" which was the first production SUDS did this semester.










On the right here is Kim, who wrote and directed "Ichibod." She was pretty much the first person I met in SUDS. During the first week before classes started, all the clubs and societies have tables and advertising to try to get new members and she was there among about 20-30 other random people both new and old and she immediately started talking to me and asking what I did and telling me about Ichibod. She's a cool kid.

The guy in the center is Alex Mauchlin, the president that I mention earlier. In the beginning of the semester he had really long hair, and now it looks like that. Unfortunately I don't think that I have a picture of him with the long hair. He's also really nice and fun.

And finally the guy on the right is Chris, but everyone just calls him Wynners, since that's his last name. He's very funny. Talk and gangly too.



Here are some of our techies. On the left is Anna, and on the right is Chivoughn (I have no idea if I spelled that right. Someone should correct me.) They're both fun. A little nerdy, but that just helps me fit in all the better.










The girl in the back is Tasha, and that's Alex again in front. I think she's purty. This is during the festival, a random collection of student written pieces and music and stories and whatever else we felt like. Our "just for fun" production.






Oh, and did I mention that for the festival I was lucky enough to play the part of a Robot? Well I was. And my time was severely limited because exams were coming up, so my brilliant plan for my costume was tin foil. I think it worked rather nicely.













Now, this is Calum. He is very Scottish. He has the best accent around. I need to learn it, but it also means that I tend to listen to him talk more often than I actually listen to what he has to say. Additionally, as a true Scotsman, he puts on a very gruff exterior. I only have this one picture of him smiling and that's because I caught him off guard.


He usually looks like this.











Here is a random collection of more people. We're in Studio, the pub on campus provided by our lovely Student Union. The girl in the purple and black shirt is Lynsey. She's crazy, but that's the way theatre kids should be. On the bottom right is Kim and her ex being gross. The girl in the back left corner is Kate, another techie. In the middle is John, a very socially awkward fellow who has found a loving home among SUDS. I think that's the most I can tell you about this picture without seriously confusing you.


Another picture in Studio. James is the one in the blue shirt trying to hide from the picture. And everyone else is just someone cool in SUDS. (I'm having a hard time remembering everyone's names. I've covered all the ones that I see the most.)










Here's James again, Rosalin, and Fraser in the back. We're at Stu's birthday party.













This is Drew. He's not a student. But he's in SUDS because it's just that cool. I think he used to be a student but now he's working and has 2 kids. I'm not entirely sure.













Yes. That's me. I'm at the same party as above, and I have stolen Drew's bandana. I just wanted to show you all that I'm still a doofus. No change there.












This is Laura and Chris. Laura was flat-mates with one of the IFSA kids (Tara, for those of you who are putting this all together.) She's cool, but not in SUDS. She was previously flat-mates with Alex Mauchlin, and is now dating Chris, so we see here a lot anyways. Chris isn't technically in SUDS either, but that's just because he's the president of SUSA (Stirling University Student Association) and it might be construed as favoritism if he was a member of one of the clubs/societies that he was presiding over. He's awesome. Being president is a full time job, so he's not taking any classes right now, but he's a philosophy student and he's very interesting to talk to. He's also got a couple of disease whose names I can't remember which have destroyed all the cartilage in his knees, so it's painful for him to walk. He should probably be in a wheelchair more often, but instead he only uses it when his doctor makes him. He also has arthritis in his upper body for no good reason. He's also one of the most positive, active, and upbeat people I've ever met. He's awesome.

Here we have the annual SUDS Christmas dinner. We all got dressed up in our finest threads and went out to a nearby bar/pub/restaurant for dinner. On the right with the curly red hair is Joe. He's funny. The third guy in from the left is Stu, who's birthday we were celebrating a few pictures ago. He also wrote and directed the third SUDS production of the semester, called Spirit. It was very weird. Didn't make a lot of sense.










And this is me looking nice with Laura. I think we're back at Alex Mauchlin's b-day party.











This one is Mark. He's short. He wrote a sketch called "A Short Date" for the festival. It was really funny. He also looks good in a kilt.













Here we have people being confused by their food. And Erikka is the one staring shock-edly into the camera. Mark (number 2) is on the right. He's the main techie around here. He isn't a student anymore, and he teaches some gradeschool course somewhere. He also works at the McRobert. He's smart. And cool. Very business minded.











Phew! I think that's just about all the SUDS people. Or at least all the pictures I want to show you guys for now. ;) Now to move on to the linear trip diary that you're all used to! (I think I'm doing it this way more for me than for you. It makes me feel better if I cover everything in order so that when I look back on it, it will make more sense. I also have a little bit of OCD and don't want to jump around in time. I'm sure you'd like to hear about Greece though, so I'll just have to be more on top of my posting game!)

The day I got back from Paris was a long, crappy day. A huge series of travel by many different modes of transportation to finally get me back to stirling. And once our train got in, I ended up waiting half an hour in the rain for a stupid bus to get me back to campus. I actually ended up running into Rachel on the bus, so that was nice. But then, as the icing on the crap cake that was this day, as I was walking down the hall towards my flat with my huge backpack on, I was pulling my keys out of my pocket and intended to toss them into the air and catch them. Instead of being awesome and pulling this off, I tossed my keys into the air and watched in shocked disbelief as the soared out the window, directly through the 5 inch gap that was open. I was pissed. Luckily they were easy to find, but it meant going all the way around my building through some mud and back again. Bah!

Anyways, as I said, I ran into Rachel on the bus and she had mentioned that they would probably be watching a movie later if I wanted to come over, so I got unpacked and went over there. They were also making plans the next day to go to a club in Glasgow to see these bands play for a while and asked if I wanted to come. That was Thursday night of fall break, and I was looking for more good times, so I heartily agreed. We went out and Alex and I spent the whole night talking/flirting, and I ended up spending the next five days at there flat. Quite a good break if I may say so. The next week we all went out to a Halloween party in Glow on the day after Halloween because nothing interesting was going on on the actual day. So, I was out late partying, and the next morning I went to Edinburgh to meet Elyse at the airport! It was pretty crazy. I got up around 7am to get to the airport by 10 when her flight landed.

It was really nice to see someone from home, and luckily for me it was a day for sleeping for both of us.


We stayed at this nice little hostel in Central Edinburgh. Their mascot was a donkey with sunglasses and all the paint was very very . . . colorful. Lots of primary and secondary colors. Everywhere. All in one room. We loved it!











We spent the first weekend in Edinburgh. Mostly just exploring and see the sites. They were just starting to put up the Christmas decorations when we were there. Some were pretty, and some were super tacky. I guess that's pretty much the same is the US.






Elyse had read about an exhibit of Robert Mapplethorpe's photography at one of the museums in Edinburgh, so we grabbed a bus to go see it. When the bus dropped us off we were very amused by these signs. We weren't sure what they were for, but a picture was definitely required. Maybe they were just for fun . . . ?



I wasn't allowed to take pictures of the Mapplethorpe exhibit, but it was pretty awesome. The rest of the museum was cool too, and I had no idea that these wax sculptures were held in Edinburgh!! I've seen them in a couple textbooks and was very shocked to run into them on accident like this. Pretty cool. They're very real looking.




We saw some other funny things. There were cows spread out around the city all decorated differently. I think it was one of those things like the fish in Baltimore. I don't know much about it though, so I just took pictures instead.











We also got to partake in one of my favorite past times: graveyard wandering. This was a new one for me, on the west end of the gardens. (You'll notice that Elyse is wearing my jacket. This is because the clothing that she brought was either too thin, or made of plastic which caused her to sweat thus making her colder. Silly girl!)





We also went to "The End of the World" Pub (at the edge of the old city wall, which was effectively the end of the "world" to people living in the city at that time) and had a delicious lunch. This is where I first tried haggis. I'm happy to report that it was quite delicious! It just tasted like really yummily spiced and seasoned hamburger meat. Or mince. It was good. I'll need to have more to effectively compare it though.










That Sunday was the 5th of November. Now, can anyone tell me what holiday Nov 5th is? Anybody?

That's right, it's Guy Fawkes day. The day when Brits celebrate a failed attempt to blow up the parliament building by burning effigies of Guy Fawkes. At least they are supposed to. Most people just settle for fireworks and a bonfire. Elyse and I hiked up onto Arthur's Seat to watch them before catching the train back to Stirling since I had classes the next day.


While we were back in Stirling, I showed her around to the local stuff. Here's the Wallace monument, but in fall this time. Oooo, pretty!










This is a comparison-contrast of what my campus looks like from the monument in the fall and in the not-fall (I can't really call it summer when I first got here, but it wasn't fall either). It was really pretty when all the leaves changed. Right now however (Jan) the trees are all bare and ugly. I'm ready for spring.






Some night or another we were out in the Robbin's Center, which is the Student Union section. This is one of the two pianos I'm aware of within a mile radius of me. It's in the Chaplaincy which isn't always open, and that makes me sad.





Those of you who are particularly astute may have noticed that Elyse's hair color and style have changed drastically since the first shot. That is because one morning while I was still asleep and then in class during the day, she went into Stirling to a hair salon and got it done! I had no idea what she was up to until she came back later than afternoon. It was pretty funny.


We also went to see the Stirling castle. The direction Elyse is looking right now is a nice view when the weather is right.










The next weekend we took an overnight bus down to London! The bus was kinda crappy just because it was hard to sleep, but we got there safe and sound and took a little nap in the social room of our hostel.

The first day we mostly wandered around and saw some markets and had some delicious paninni's. We also bought tickets to go see Avenue Q that evening! Yay London theatre!! To make up for the expensive tickets, we ate grocery food that evening before heading out to the show. Needless to say, I couldn't take any pictures of the show, but it was awesome! Absolutely hilarious.

The next day we got up early-ish and went to a museum near to the hostel to see a Leonardo Di Vinci exhibit. This was in the lobby of the museum. A model of one of his flying devices and what I assume is a more permanent piece: a Dale Chihuly blown glass sculpture.










We of course also went walking along the river Thames and saw big ben and the eye of London and all that touristy stuff. It's still pretty even if it's touristy.







I don't know what across the river here, but it's a nice reflection. And I needed a few pictures with people in them!









On Sunday we went to see a matinee of The Blue Man Group, which was really awesome. And odd. It mostly just seemed like some techies wet dream, but it was still interesting to watch. They made a mess with a lot of paint and ended up having a ton of black light paint everywhere, and they did do some cool music things too. It didn't seem to have much of a point though other than to show off. I liked it, Elyse was a little disappointed.

That night we had an overnight bus back to Edinburgh so that I could get to class the next morning. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, we missed our bus. (I won't point any fingers, but let me just say that I got to watch the bus we wanted drive away while I was waiting for Elyse to catch up.) A small argument ensued as we tried to figure out what we were going to do. Trains to Scotland cost about £100, and there didn't seem to be any more buses that night. We were starting to think about looking for a hostel, but the tube wasn't running anymore since it was late. I was about to explode when we tried our last idea which was to go look at the megabus stand and see if there was a bus there that someone had told us about. Indeed, there was a bus there, and it was even headed to Glasgow! This is the same megabus company that Laurel and Freddie use to get to Minneapolis. We were supposed to buy tickets online, but something finally went our way and someone seemed to have some extra tickets and the driver let us buy them for about £13. Not bad seeing as how we thought we were going to be stuck there for the night with still no idea how to get home the next day.

That next week I went to school and showed Elyse around Stirling some more, and the next weekend I had a trip to York with IFSA. Elyse wasn't leaving until Monday, so she stayed at Stirling and hung out with my friends and got ready to leave.

Meanwhile, in York, we got to see some cool sites! I was here about 2 and a half years ago with Mom and Dad when we were visiting Laurel. It was cool to slowly see stuff that I remembered from my previous visit. Celeste's post has a little more detail on the IFSA plan, but for the most part we had dinners with the group and free time to explore on our own the rest of the time. We of course took a ghost tour after dinner on the first night which was pretty cool (same one I took last time actually!). The next morning we went on the York Walk which just toured around and showed us some of the more prominent historical sites.

Here's my main IFSA crew waiting for the York walk to start. That's Fredrick, Mary, and Celeste.











This is a good example of the history of York, the bottom half of this octagonal tower is roman and the top half was built somewhere between the 12th and 14th centuries.







This is St Mary's Cathedral. It was pillaged by Henry the VIII and then quickly degraded after that. Apparently many of the "newer" buildings in the town are built with stolen pieces of this church. It's still impressive, but the York Minster kinda dwarfs it.





Which is where we went next! We walked along the old walls and saw some other stuff, old gates and such, and then we came around to the Minster. Soo beautiful. The north side was completely covered in scaffolding for restoration because the wall was sagging and the huge stained glass window there was in danger of breaking. And since the window accounted for some huge percentage of the stained glass in the church, and the church contained a huge percentage of the stained glass in England, they were fairly concerned with preserving it.



The picture on the right isn't the north wall, it's just some of the other stained glass. Purty.







This is the Shambles, one of the most well known parts of York. The buildings all jut out from their bases because people had to pay taxes according to the amount of land occupied. That meant they could have extra square footage without paying for it if they made the second floor larger than the first.


It was also the meat market and was really gross back in the day, but now it's a nice little tourist lane! Woohoo.









We also got a nice pub lunch in the shambles. This is still the IFSA crew, one of our last adventures together.










This is the dinner on Sat night. Only 6 of us from Stirling came to York, but we are definitely the coolest of the all the IFSA groups. For example, after dinner the IFSA staff had arranged for a dance. They had a DJ and everything, but no one was dancing. After dinner all the Stirling kids went to dance and occasionally one of the other kids would come in to get a drink from the bar and laugh at us. Eventually they all finished dinner and slowly wandered out to do their own thing and left us all to enjoy the party! We even got the staff to come dance with us for the night. It was a lot of fun.










I left York Sunday morning by train and got back in time to hang out a bit more with Elyse before saying good bye to her the next morning and seeing her on her way.

I'm not quite sure what I did for the next week or two, but I'm guessing I hung out with the kids in 142 and finished up my last assignments for the semester.

Our very last IFSA outing was a nice Christmas dinner followed by a ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee), a traditional Scottish dance. I was surprised by how much it felt like square dancing, but it was an absolute blast! We danced for about an hour and half, and I was a mess by the end of it.

I was completely covered in sweat (I'm the one in the blue shirt). Gross, huh.










I am proud to say that Fredrick bought a kilt and was awesome enough to wear to the ceilidh, even if he did have boxers underneath. Cheater.







This is our bus ride back to Stirling after the ceilidh, which was in Edinburgh. I saw these kids one more time for a final farewell in Studio. It was kinda sad to see them go. Except for Celeste, which is good. At least I'll have one person I know when we do IFSA trips in the spring semester.












Wow. I think that's it! I think I've finally gotten everything covered up to Greece! I just took some finals, slept through one final (which still hasn't gotten resolved yet, keep your fingers crossed for me), and then got on a bus-train-bus-plane-taxi to Athens!! YAY!!

Right now I'm back at University and it's completely dead. There's no one around except Celeste, so she's going to take me out for a birthday dinner tonight which should be fun. That means I've got lots of time on my hands which I intend to use productively for two things.

First: planning things to see and do with mom and dad after Nate and Karen have gone.
Second: Posting a blog on Greece!! Tons of pictures and tons of stories to tell!

I love you all. It was so great to see the videos from the family Christmas. Technology makes the distance seem so much smaller. Oh, and Nate, that's a nice Viking beard you got going on. What's that all about? Haha.

Okay, I need breakfast and a shower. I've been on the computer way too much lately. Have a wonderful break if you're still on it, or a wonderful January if not!

Lots of love.