What a Drinking Culture..

Not much has happened in the past week or so to regale you with an exhilarating entry. So let me pick up where I last left off. I stood in line for the tickets to Lochness for two and half hours...in the blistering cold. The wind blew at me from all sides, and finally I made it into the hallway they sold the tickets in. I saw the guy in front of me smile widely, then I heard the words, "we are out of tickets." My face fell, Melissa was pissed, Sara was freezing and unhappy. They have this absurd policy where a person can buy a ticket for themselves and a friend. There were 150 tickets for the trip, and there were not even 60 people in front of me. There were the cutters too (French man with red & black striped scarf, you won't be able to evade my wrath forever!) The cutters were the worst. I tried to blockade the line, but alas was unsuccessful. We were RIGHT there, when they sold out tickets. AH! So we are now in the front of the waiting list--so please let people not go!!!

I have a tutorial at 9 in the morning. I went in and there was a guy sitting there, bundled up and asks, "is it five to?" As I confirm it, he proceeds to curse saying he's either too early or too late. We were the only two in the room--and we fell into an uncomfortable silence. Then he broke it with, "I didn't go to sleep." He beckons me with a finger and in a low whisper says, "in fact, i'm still drunk." Then in a small voice goes, "shhhhh, don't tell!" After I reassure him, that it's our little secret, the class shows up. Ed was a riot. Our assignment was to wear our favorite article of clothing. He wore a vibrant hoodie covered in metallic Yankee symbols, and proceeded to demonstrate what his hoodie could do. He zipped it all the way up to his forehead, and on the process of coming down the zipper got caught in his nose and the room was filled with, "OUCHHHHHHH my nose!!!!!!!!!" It was hilarious. He was so intoxicated yet functioning. We then talked about binge drinking--and in the articles we've read, they classified binge drinking as having 6 units of alcohol. Ed said belligerently, "that's a normal run to the pub!" Clearly, Ed, loves to pack it in.

OH BIG NEWS--before I forget (but how could I?) DOCTOR WHO! David Tennant has announced he is stepping down from being the Doctor after four special episodes. GASP. It was extremely upsetting to read.

I'm knitting mittens (or attempting to) and I've got to write more essays. I got to get on that! Ciao for now!

Blown Away By The Scottish Gale

Man, if they call Chicago the windy city, I don't know what Edinburgh should be called. The wind here is intense. I was walking across the meadows (this open field with trees lining the sides) and I felt myself being propelled across the gravel! And when it rains, the wind blows the rain sideways so it pelts you at all directions! It is the opposite of fun.

Yesterday, it was raining and the wind was blowing like CRAZY (the rain can get heavy, but it usually dissipates-but it's the type of rain that you can't use an umbrella, unless you want to be Mary Poppins) so I had my hood up. But the wind was so fierce that it blew my hood down every twenty seconds. As I was walking the wind blew my hood down for the umpteenth time too many, so I raised my fist to the wind and said, "Damn you, wind!" I hear a chuckle behind me. A guy comes up to me and goes jokingly, "angry much?" I replied, "just maybe a tad..." And he asks, "you're not from around here, are you?" and after I tell him no, he reassuringly tells me, "well, you'll never get use to it." And he walks on. I was then left in my agitated state mulling on home. Then it started to rain hard, and the wind died down, so I risked the umbrella. I was nearly home when the umbrella plan started to malfunction. So I said to myself (out loud), "Come on! Don't fail me now!! we're nearly there. Curse you cruel fates!" (I really got to stop voicing my opinions when no one is listening!)The same guy comes by again and chuckles, and asks, "still angry?" As I play it off like the wind is absolutely nothing. It was good times.

Today I was grossly under dressed. I have to queue up soon (and stand in the cold!) for tickets for this weekend trip to Lochness. I get to stay in a castle! To say the least, I am most excited. Plus Betty and Dennis are coming to London and I get to go see them! So yay! But that means I have two papers to write before that...and next weekend is Sara's birthday. So I got to get my act together! Papers, oh how you hate me. I will conquer them and have an amazing November! Hope you're all dandy!

I Miss Chaucer.

There I said it. I miss Chaucer. I miss him & his easy Middle English. If I thought Chaucer was difficult, the Pearl Manuscript is like a nuclear explosion going off in my head. There will be casualties (mainly my brain cells dying a slow and vicious death). The Pearl Manuscript, I am convinced is the devil's work meant to torture its modern reader. I'm not painting a clear enough picture of this monstrosity. Let me see. My teacher introduced the text to us by saying, "Oh, don't be alarmed when you don't recognize several letters. They are no longer in the English alphabet." Er?! No longer in the English alphabet?! What are they? Greek? Latin? The thorn and ezh make me think quadruply as hard as I would have had to in Chaucer. Meet the thorn, þ, its pronounced with a "th" sound. So, þat becomes that. Now let me introduce you to (the extinct letter) ezh, ʒ which is pronounced with either a "y" or a "gh". So for example, lyʒt translates to light, ʒet turns into yet. You may think, well that's not too shabby (i'm not trying to get sympathy, just an understanding of the torture i'm enduring). You sprinkle those throughout sentences and it's barely English. Don't believe me? Try this on for size...

Gilofre, gyngure, and gromylyoun,
And pyonys powdered ay bytwene.
Ʒif hit watz semly on to sene,
A fayrre flayr ʒet fro hit flot,
Þer wonys þat worþyly, I wot and wene,
My precious perle wythouten spot.

Enough said. What does that mean? Well, you've got me! I have spent the entire day reading this (I started at 9, it is now 2) and I have gotten through 5 pages. Even if that much. Chaucer, G-dawg, how cruel I was to mock you and scoff at your dream literature, how I wish we could be reunited! Pearl Manuscript, ergh! Bring it on. I will conquer you and you will succumb to my literature prowess! (insert evil laugh--BWAHAHA!) Wish me luck. God knows i'll need it, in LARGE doses.

A Foggy Day In London Town?

The Parentals & I in front of the Tower Bridge

A foggy day in London town? No, not really. It was more like Mr. Sun (Mr. Golden Sun) smiled down at the Chews. The weather was trying to make up for the last (miserable and wet) London adventure seven years ago. The weather was crystal clear blue skies with puffy marshmallow clouds. But when my parents leave Wednesday it's going to start pouring. Mother nature is looking out for the Chews!

We left at the butt crack of dawn on Wednesday to get to the Luton airport (an hour outside of London) The flight was painless (as it was only an hour long) Easyjet airways has a system where they have a first come, first serve policy. It was intense. The queues were pretty hefty--but luckily we were special, and had priority passes (where we passed the queues! SCORE!) When we got off the plane, waiting for our luggage I caught sight of the BEST thing ever. A little boy of three was wheeling a suitcase. Not just any suitcase. No, this was much more than a suitcase. It was a TARDIS case! It was the best thing my eyes have ever beheld (well, maybe with the exception of the Great Wall, oh and maybe James McAvoy). It was AWESOME. I was so tempted to snuff the little kid and make off with his tardis (except that would be a) horribly cruel and b) I would have to kneel to wheel that suitcase as it was made for little people. It wouldn't have been a clean get away).

We made our way to London and immediately went exploring (after a hearty Chinese lunch). My godfather, Charles' wife, Sai Pin was our incredibly able tour guide. She took us to the Thames (where Little Ben resides). Since it was such a gorgeous day we thought we might go to the London eye (the giant enclosed Ferris Wheel) but it was literally, £15.50 (what a laugh!) We obviously looked elsewhere. We instead went on a boat ride up (or maybe down?) the Thames River. A crew man of the boat told us that he was not a tour guide, but would try to give us a little taste of the history regarding the buildings along the Thames. For someone who claimed not to be a tour guide, he was pretty darn good. He was hilarious. We saw the remake of the Globe theatre, the London Tower, Tower Bridge, the gherkin (the financial rocket shaped building) and many others. We attempted the Westminster Abbey (where the G-dawg, Chaucer is buried in Poet's Corner) but it was too expensive. Instead, we sent my mom in (who managed to obtain an unused ticket) to take photos of the wondrous church. Unfortunately, photos were not permitted, so not being a religious person it was not worth the £12 to look at it myself. It was a glorious first day in London town.

London Eye with Pretty Clouds!

Little Ben

Westminster Abbey

The next day we went to Borough Market (an open market with a variety of stalls set up selling scrumptious food!) My dad was in heaven. It was quite an experience. We proceeded to walk by the Thames, seeing the ship Francis Drake sailed around the world in (It took him three years, and a crew of 80 on the teeniest boat ever. They must have slept on top of one another). We went into the Tate Modern (just the the gift shop!) and walked across the scariest bridge. It was made entirely of metal and does not seem stable (in fact, they had to close the bridge down when it was first open, because so many people were on it that it began to wobble and shake. Yikes!) My dad and I walked up the 582 stairs to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral (which took a ridiculous 35 years to build, but it was absolutely stunning) It was a bit of a hike! But it was breath-taking!

Saint Paul's Cathedral

Pops & I on top of the 582 steps!
Francis Drake's Ship!

Friday, we went to Primark (the target of the U.K.) and I was expecting to kneel down on my knees and kiss the ground. The prices were beyond reasonable and quite inexpensive (but for some reason I didn't go CRAZY, as I would at Target) We saw my godfather's office and ventured to Buckingham Palace (where we found a rogue beefeater!) The palace itself was nothing to write home about, but the gates guarding it were intricate and extremely interesting. Later that night after some GOOD Malaysian food, we went to go see the 39 Steps. If you have seen the Hitchcock movie, you know that it is far from a comedy, but the production was rip-roaringly hilarious. I loved it. If you can get tickets (in London or New York) I highly recommend it.

Buckingham Palace

Saturday we ventured to Stonehenge. They are definitely not just any ordinary stones, they are amazing and organized in such precision. What made it even better was the clear weather! Wicked stones!Stonehenge!

On Sunday we went to Oxford. Oxford was also beautiful. I saw Ashley (for a millisecond) and it was LOVELY! She's being worked to the bone. 700 pages of Middle English. Painful! After Oxford we ventured to Woodstock which is the Duke of Marlborough's massive estate. There we came across Chaucer Lane. Oh Chaucer.

Prettiness in Oxford

Well, that's how I feel about you, Geoffrey!

Well that pretty much wraps up the whirlwind adventure in London (where I did no work, boy, am I screwed) Overall, London is quite nice (especially the diversity!) but I would have been overwhelmed if I went there. Edinburgh remains more beautiful architecture wise. Hope you've all been swell!!!

The Chews Conquer Edinburgh!

The Chews + Yee!

Chaucer & Asian politics since 1884 want me dead. The work load here is intense and overbearing. With that said, I have to meet up three of my classmates to discuss Chaucer at a pub. We sit down on the comfy leather seats of the Pear Tree and exchange our insight on the good ol' G-dawg. Lyle (I just want to be his friend because his name is Lyle!) has his pint. And as the pint progressively diminishes in the glass, Lyle gets gradually more insightful. Good times. Discussing Chaucer while inebrieated, oh the English/Scottish drinking culture...

On Friday the parentals flew in from Dublin! After class I walked to their apartment (literally the opposite side of town from where i'm living. Luckily, the bus system drops them right off at my door!) It was actually quite a lovely walk. I had never been to their part of town. I brought them back to my flat with two giant suitcases filled up with all the requests I made. We dropped the suitcases off and took Sara out to Lemongrass, a Thai restaurant (that always tempted us, but due to the fiscal crisis and our ever-shrinking wallet, Sara and I never dared to enter) It was down right expensive. Outrageously so. 2 pounds something for a bowl of rice?! How can it not be included with curry?!? How are you supposed to eat curry without rice? Later I returned to my room. As I unpacked, Melissa, Semeli, and Sara were astonished at how much ramen, tuna fish, and macaroni and cheese the suitcase held. It was quite hilarious.

The next couple of days was a whirlwind of walking and exploring the quaint town of Edinburgh. I took my parents to Grassmarket street (where they used to trade livestock AND watch public executions. There is nothing like killing two birds with one stone. Person 1: "Hey, let's go pick up some chickens as we watch Burke hang!" Person 2: "That sounds like a bitchin' good time!") On a side note, for you history buffs, William Burke and William Hare were two Scots who went on a rampaging murder spree to collect bodies. This was around the time when they were really into disecting bodies for medical research. A doctor, Robert Knox bought each body (depending on condition) for 10 pounds (most men back then made roughly 25 pounds a year, so the Williams were rolling in the dough!) Unfortuantely for the Williams, they were not too bright and were caught. Burke was hung before a crowd of 26,000. Oh man, what they did for entertainment before the clever invention of television...

A little street, Victoria's Street, connects to Grassmarket where there is a delectable eatery called Oink. It literally has a roasted pig in the window (head and all!) You go in and order pulled pork on a roll with crackling. Yummy. It was GOOD. We then perused the Royal Mile, Princes Street, my campus, the writers museum, and various other Edinburgh highlights. Sunday we went to the Walter Scott monument and climbed the 287 steps. It was marvelous. Excruciatingly narrow once ontop and really weird vertigo, but it provided a paraonmic view of Edinburgh. It was wonderfully sunny, and bright out the whole day which made everything more vivid and worthwhile. We also went to see the Impressionist exhibit and Ocean Terminal (which is a mall with that the Britiannia is docked at--the Queen's private yacht) In addition we went on a bus tour around Edinburgh which was helpful, and took me to new places I had never seen. It was a wonderful day!

Tonight my dad is cooking for my friends and I (Sara, and her entire apartment!) and i'm quite excited! Wednesday we're off to London for another adventure! =)

Victoria's Street, ain't it cute?
Yum!

Ocean Terminal, look at the clouds reflected in the water. Gorgeous.

Do you understand? This WHOLE telephone booth belongs to Lionel Richie. I thought it was HILARIOUS.

The Jolly Judge Pub! & look, there's a jolly judge standing in front of it!

The Parentals!
Part of the Castle, can you imagine scaling those rocks?
Prince's Street from the Walter Scott Monument
Another view from the Monument!
The Walter Scott Monument, Look at those spirals! I climbed em'!
The Monument at Dusk.

Hope all is fantastical!
<3