An EPIC Day!

View as I was hiking up the MOUNTAIN!

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mommy! <333 class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">YAY! When I told one of my former flatmates, she said, "oh we haven't heard you around at all. We can only hear you laughing through your walls. That's how we know you're home." Ahahaa. My new flat seems much more my speed, and it's pretty. I have a better view and I have decorated it very nicely. =)

Yesterday in class there was a girl whose name I didn't know, so I asked where she was from. She said Boston. And we know how I feel about Boston (WORST city ever) But I was willing to be perfectly friendly. She would not give me the same courtesy. When I told her I was from New York, her eyes narrowed and she basically declared, "well you suck." I sarcastically said, "Well, i'm sorry you already hate me." It was awkward. This is why Bostonians SUCK (I LOVE you Christine!) but seriously.

Last night was the ISC (International Student Center's) Chinese New Year celebration. The event was for food and socializing. I was excited. I salivated at the thought of having chicken and broccoli. Lies. As soon as Sara and I walked in (it was crowded) a guy approached us yelling, "COME IN, WELCOME WELCOME!" with enthusiastic hand gestures. We then proceeded to play awkward get to know you games (and since we came late, we did not know many people--and the game tested you on people's names) But it was fun. Then I went and mingled a smidge. I talked to Stanley, from Tai Pei (who had no concept of personal space--he was practically talking on top of me) He was extremely nice though. I ran into Maggie who I had met several times before (and thought her name was Becky for the longest time) Sara overheard her talking to a kid saying, "For the longest time, during high school my English name was grape." Then the person replied, "So after high school you fell off the vine?!" Ah that right there is a Popsicle stick joke! I was sitting down when I felt something hover over my head (a pencil) and this kid was circling my head with it. I looked up puzzled. Maggie told him to stop, and I introduced myself (being polite) and once the introductions were made he asked me, "where are you from?" As I replied, "New York," his expression changed as he firmly told me, "I don't like New York." I asked why and he told me because he hated all Americans. We got involved in a civilized debate (at least on my part) as I asked him, "why, Billy, why, do you hate America?" It ended him walking away from me while I was in mid-sentence even after I assured him that not all Americans were idiots like George Bush. His hatred though stemmed from WWII. It was weird.

Okay. Now for the epic. Sorry this entry is going to be ridiculously long. Today was the trip to Castle Campbell with the ISC. I woke up at 7:30 and walked out my door with my lime green converse (which are now a muddy shade) We drove for an hour outside of Edi, and the leader yelled to the lot of us "Okay! Follow me to the castle!" Uh...follow her to the castle. It was up a MOUNTAIN! She neglected to mention that! So here I am in my converse, climbing steep rocky, muddy slopes. I was unprepared. Completely and utterly. Don't get me wrong, the scenery was beautiful. The walking uphill in less than ideal shoes and terrain was not. There were running brooks, mossy green trees, and mountains. Finally, after have been drained all my energy we made it to the castle snuggled in between mountain passages. Sara, Claire, and I took a zillion pictures of the grounds. There was a beautiful city view and it was literally breathtaking (in more way than one!) We got to go up to the castle itself. I passed the latrine closet (there was one on every floor, classy castle this one), the prison pit to get to the top. It was another spectacular view. The mountains on one side and the town on another. When I walk by this kid. I saw him take a lighter. Then I thought to myself, impossible, but there it was, a big fat joint. Soon the windy air was filled with the smell of marijuana. He came to the castle, and he smoked up. It was hilarious. Sara commented, "Alex, he's going to slide down the mountain." And I go, "Slide? He's going to freaking fly off it!" We made our way back on a different road, this one paved, and saw some new angles of the castle. It was quite a hike, but it was worth it.

A brook through the mud!

Nature!

Castle Campbell nestled in the mountains!
A face carved into the ceiling at the castle. CREEPY!
pretty self explanatory
just in case...
Claire, me, & Sara on top of the castle
Pretty Sky
the view.

Next we went to the William Wallace Monument. That again was another hike, zigzag up gravel roads, I was ready to lie down and take a nap (I am going to be SO sore tomorrow) Everything was uphill! Though we were at the monument it cost too much money to go up, so we walked around the grounds, even listening to a man talk about Wallace. It was windy, but lovely too. I bought myself a pen!

The monument itself
Stirling
PURDY
Wuddup, Will?
Normal men's Restroom sign...
UH? Why does she have horns?!?!

After the monument we went to Stirling. By this time, Sara, Claire and I were going to eat a sheep from one of the fields. We were famished. We ate pub food and went shopping. I bought a dress and a hamper from Primark! Yay! We stayed around the area where our bus let us off, we were too exhausted.

Overall the day was very tiring but wonderfully scenic and eventful. After we got back to EDI Sara and I went to eat Malaysian! YUM! I found my new favorite place. I had a roti! YUMYUM and Chow Qui Tue (Spelling?!) So delicious. Yes, it was an EPIC day.

Just Call Me Toni Morrison...

or William Faulkner...

Well, let me explain. I am in a creative writing class, and we have these ALG meetings (where four students meet up in a place and discuss each others work--we elect to meet in a pub). It is quite hilarious. We send each other our stories via email before the ALG. I got there early and Ali was sitting there with a pint in his hand reading. I approached him and we talked before the others arrived. It had the potential to be awkward, but conversation casually came...until he goes, "Alex..." I stare at him, "Ali?" "Your story was amazing. Absolutely amazing." As I thank him, he continues, "No, you don't understand. It was "A-M-A-Z-I-N-G" Then it becomes a little uncomfortable...when he puts the icing on the cake, "Do you know who you remind me of? Toni Morrison! Yes! You're the next Toni Morrison." I tried to keep a straight face. No one has ever called me an angry black writer before, much less one so talented. It was a nice enough compliment...but I was taken a back. Then I went to class today. Oh, and that was eye-opening. I elected to read my story out loud. After I finished the class was silent. You have to understand, the assignment was to write about an eye-witness to a crime using details. I wrote about a lynching, and a batty old woman retelling the police what she saw, and I placed it in the old South. When I was done reading everyone was trying to think of how to approach my story. It was awkward for a minute or two. When Ali reiterates his feeling that I am the next Toni Morrison. My teacher nods in agreement, but takes it one step further. "Actually, Alex, you really remind me of William Faulkner. Not by the way you write, but your very distinct attention to detail." WOW. I really had no idea that I was like these two GREAT American writers. Which, i'm not. But just the idea makes me chuckle. Clearly it is a beginner class, not that i'm not a good writer, I am, but I am no where near two American greats. That's just comedy.

Other than those overwhelming compliments not much has been happening. I went last week to the knitting club where we knitted facial hair. That was pretty awesome. Sara knitted a fantastic beard (sort of Colonel Sanders thing going for it) while I knitted a mustache. I'm going to attach a paper clip to it so I can curl it. It will be awesome.

I also have a new love of my life. Hyun Joong, a Korean actor/singers is wonderful! I will go to Korea and meet him. Seriously, don't doubt it. I am so dedicated that I watched this one reality show he was on, We Got Married (where two celebrities are randomly paired up to act as a married couple, living together, and they have missions to complete, dumb, but ADORABLE!) I watched from episode 9 to 38, all of them that he was on over the course of three days. Yes, dedication. Not at all pathetic...cough. He is the best! =)

Happy belated New Year! For Chinese new year instead of getting those fulling hong boas and delicious food, I made some chicken lo-mein. It yummy. There is hope for me yet.

Finally, the most breaking news. I might be moving. I looked at another flat in the same complex. The girls seem nice (i've met one and she was super nice, and only said good things about the other) It was the cleanest apartment I have ever beheld. Not like mine now, where there have been three HUGE garbage bags of recyclables (from their Time Machine party, THREE weeks ago) lying smack dab in the middle of my doorway. No one has bothered to take them out. I've mentioned it once...still nothing. I guess they're waiting for it to take itself out. Who knows. But hopefully it will come through. If it does i'll have hard wood floors, a better view, and hopefully a better living situation all together. Keep those fingers crossed!

=)

Snow! Snow! Snow!

The view outside my window earlier today.

An entry dedicated to the pretty snow. Well, pictures of the pretty snow, that is. =) There's not much to report on except that i'm a semi-cripple. I sprained my back (and not just because of the ceilidh) but because I slept on Sara's floor Saturday night...so I am in a bit of pain. I am using a hot-water bottle. It's actually comical. Yesterday Sara couldn't walk normally, she had to shuffle. She was gradually coming down the stairs like a 88 year old grandmother. Not that I laugh at others in pain, I made a slight exception. But she totally got the last laugh. Today I was in the library and I was walking down the stairs painfully slow. I was the 88 year old grandmother, with a humpback. As I crawled along the staircase, a guy was coming from the doors and saw me coming down. He held the door open. I thought the chivalrous were a dying breed, but the guy was holding the door open for me even though I was at least 10 steps from the floor. And let me tell you, those were some long 10 steps. Yet, this guy stood patiently and waited as I hobbled down. And once I reached the door, finally, I awkwardly sighed an appreciative, "thank you." I apologized for taking so long and regaled him of my woes, and he said brightly, "you should get one of those hot-water bottles!" and I shook my head in agreement and said, "yes, I have one, some good it seems to be doing." Oh dear. Hopefully, it'll be all better tomorrow! Fingers crossed!

So I was doing laundry today and I looked out my window and saw the flurries of snow. I just hope tomorrow the slush won't freeze into ice or else that would be a dangerous path to class tomorrow. It was beautiful, especially Arthur's Seat decked out in white. Lovely!

My Window!

Snow! Snow! Snow!

Arthur's Seat dressed in white.

The Pretty Clouds/Church on my walk home.

Back in the Burgh!

Scottish Sunset!

The Moon!

I have had my first official week of classes. Eek. It will be rigorous and intense. I am taking a Literature course entitled, "Subjectivity, Modernity and the Novel." We spent the entire first two hours discussing philosophers and their ideas towards the novel. Loaded stuff. Plus, it's at 9 in the morning! I will be sleep-walking to that class. And apparently the professor who teaches it is a hard ass. He once told a kid in a lecture to "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" So hopefully I will stay clear of his wrath and keep up with the reading and be nothing but studious. The second class I am taking is American History 2. I thought it'd be awesome to get a different opinion...man, my tutor, a Scotsman, was all about his American history. When I opened my mouth to speak, he got all excited and asked me where I hailed from. I replied New York, and he was most impressed. Later during the class I was minding my own business (the assignment that I was unaware of, had been to read the Narrative of Frederick Douglas...gulp) when out of no where he went, "Alex, you're American, what's the fugitive slave act?!" And I wish I knew. I told him I had studied that in high school and said winningly, "something about runaway slaves?" Oh that's me all right, the authority of all American history. Later we'll have to do a presentation about a certain time period, I got the Civil Rights! Yeah, me, Malcolm & Martin will be real tight. That is going to be one intense course. Finally, I am in Creative Writing. Raj, my professor announced it was a beginner course and was not designed for American students who have previously studied creative writing (oops) We went around the room discussing why we wanted to write and there were the snobs who claimed, "I was writing stories before I could read." Uh, lies. If that was true, how'd you know what you were writing? Pretentious! But our weekly assignments are going to be only 500 words. Eek...

Semeli, Me, Sara, & Claire

So tonight I went to a ceilidh, a traditional Scottish dance. It was amazingly fun and excruciatingly tiring. There was a live band playing the fiddle, guitar, and drums. The number of kilted men was just a wondrous sight to behold. It brought together Edinburgh students with the locals. Every song would be a new dance, they'd go from fast hyper types to slower waltzes. And boy, did we sweat! I don't think I have worked that hard in a long long time. There was one dance that two couples got together in the middle and men had to lift the women and swing them. It was crazy. My feet lifted off the ground and I was just like "wahhh!" There were various dances all extremely fun. At our first attempt at the dance, Sara and I were completely puzzled until we figured it out! Semeli and Claire also had an amazing time. But by the end we were sweaty messes! The final dance took the cake as one of the most tiring yet so lovable part of the ceilidh. Mind you, there were 250 people there. There were four lines. Two split by two. Men on one side of the line and women on the other. Then at the head of the epic line, the first couple spun each other round and round eight times, and the proceeded to spin everyone of the opposite sex on the gigantic line. So if you were the male partner, you'd spin your partner then spin another female in the line, and spin your partner once again then the next female, and so forth. You get dizzy. I had been spun 8000000 times by the time Semeli and had to go through the line. EPIC. There were some cuties spinning me, a madman in a kilt who spun me so hard that I nearly fell over, and general awesomeness. By the time I nearly reached the end, I was ready to give up, as I stared I saw only three men left, YES! But fate was cruel and a forth was hiding. It was immensly fun but tiring. The Ceilidh is absolutely rip-roaringly hilarious and just oodles of fun. I will definitely be going again!

All By Myself...

Pretty Sun/ Park

All by myself

Don't wanna be
All by myself
Anymore
All by myself
Don't wanna live
All by myself
Anymore

All by myself...the song has never held such meaning for me as it does now. Fiasco is not even the right word to qualify the past 48 hours of my life. After two days of travel, I finally made it to Edinburgh in one piece and miraculously with my luggage! First let me say one thing. NEVER fly Delta. Delta ruins lives. It is evil. EVIL. With that said, my journey back was an epic adventure to say the least. I felt like Odysseus minus the whole coming home from war, having a dedicated wife unraveling a tapestry, and facing a Cyclops. Okay, so I really didn't feel like Odysseus at all, other than the fact that Homer wrote about his EPIC tale, something I could relate to. My original flight was scheduled for Saturday, January 10th at 10 p.m. And because I didn't have Athena clearing the path for my metaphorical journey to Edinburgh, snow was predicted for the NY area. Talk about rotten timing. I called Delta and after having been on hold for an hour I was booked on a 7:20 p.m. flight to Frankfurt, Germany and then from there i'd be a skip beat away from Edinburgh. Lies. Nothing but lies.

I did not even get to have my final home cooked meal before I left home. No more cuisine by chef George for six whole months! Once at the airport, I waited. I only had two hours (less than actually) from when we were supposed to land until my connector flight. We were on the runway for roughly four hours. Boarding took forever (there was no plane!) When we finally were on the plane we sat at the gate for another hour. We had to wait to get de-iced. What made it worst were the two devil children in front of me (adorable Aryan German children, until the screeching began...). They were wailing without any consolation. Dripping noses peeked at me over the seat, eyes filled with waterfalls and mouths unable to close. It was horrible. After we waited three hours to get de-iced, we had to wait for the runway. It was just awful. And we were expected to arrive two hours late. Oy!

Landing in Germany was just ridiculous. We got there at 11:55...exactly when the other plane took off. Honestly, Athena, why did you abandon me?! I got a ticket (after rushing) at the Delta kiosk, saying i'd be on the next flight to Edi, which was 10 hours away! Uck. What was I to do? Obviously, go to town. I met another Asian-American girl in line, Stephanie from South Carolina. We hung out all day together. But this was a Sunday. Virtually everything is closed in Frankfurt on a Sunday. Starbucks was the only open shop. It was blistering cold, and I wandered around a bit downtown. Asking for directions from random Germans who in return had no idea what I was saying. But I was such a tourist, taking a photo of nearly anything I ran across. Finally, it was time to head to the airport.

Stephanie and I hung around the airport for the next three hours, eating dinner and such. When I went to the final boarding gate (there were like six different check ins! Annoying) We both checked in, Stephanie two seconds ahead of me (two seconds i'd later regret). The woman took our tickets and checked us in, without seats. We were on stand by. Flash forward. It came down to this. Stephanie, me, this guy and a girl named Gabby were the only ones left. We were all on standby, sweating. When the board flashed only three more available seats. Right then, I knew it. I was out. My name was last on the board. The woman came up to us and told us that we could decide amongst ourselves and we only had two minutes. We were going to draw straws. I stupidly joked how this was like Survivor, and how I wanted to kick them off the island. They all had been trying to get to Edi on Friday (long story short, some volunteered to get off the over-booked flight to Edi, and one person missed it entirely) So, Gabby (majorly dislike her) said we'll just go by the order on the board. She sacraficed me without a second thought. And gave me a look, not even an apologetic one, one filled with gloating glee. Stephanie was about ready to sacrafice herself when the guy behind the desk already printed her name. I was left. I started tearing up. Stephanie gave me a hug and said I would be fine. The guy pat my shoulder and said, "I'm sorry it's you. Good luck." while Gabby smirked at me and did not say a thing. Bitch. They boarded as I broke down at the gate. I'd like to say I was mature about the situation and did not cry. But that'd be an outrageous lie. I panicked. Stuck overnight in a country that I didn't know how to say anything in except, "ja ja" or "danke". I was sobbing uncontrollably as the German workers looked desperate to help. They tried everything to get me on the plane, suggesting i'd take the place of the stretcher. A woman asked if I minded sitting in a bin, and I ate the idea up. Unfortuantely, it was not so. My cell phone was dying, and I just did not know what to do. It was terrifying. I stopped crying. Delta could not even be reached because they closed up at 10. The kind woman brought me to the hotel and advised me how to complain effectively. At the counter at the Sheraton I told the sympathetic receptionist of my woes. I told her how I was stranded, alone. As soon as she checked me in, she slipped me a slip of paper across the counter. In a thick German accent she whispered, "Don't tell my boss." I looked down at the slip, it was a voucher for a free drink at the Hotel bar. She smiled and told me, "Feel better!" But instead of drinking a mojito or anything on the rocks, I went up to sleep. I was wiped out. Completely sapped of all my energy.

I complained, but was insulted, and got meal vouchers. But Delta, be warned, this will not be the last time you hear from me! You will succumb to my wrath! Bwahahaaa. I will get you! I got onto the flight (missing my first class of the semester) but I slept blissfully the entire ride to Edinburgh. I finally arrived. A chapter of life luckily closed. Oh Athena, how come you had Odysseus' back and just neglected mine? At least i'm here now, and that is something I cannot complain about. Talk about a new start for the semester. Wild. And Delta, you won't even know what hit you. Watch out, I am, after all, Marilynn's daughter. My wrath will be great and mighty. BWAHAHA!

Me at a Frankfurt street corner.

An Opera house that was destroyed during WWII, restored.

The Old City Gates
A Church in Downtown

German McDonalds!
German Garbage!
Burger Bar. Yum.
Asian Unity!
I am an exclusive member!