...I won't be able to post my pictures today like I hoped to, I have lost my card reader. I will get them up as soon as possible.
In the mean time, I am off to York and then Newcastle for the weekend. I'll catch ya on the flip side to tell you all about it.
Love ya!
Friday, March 4, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
I offically have a place to live next year!!
After a rather upsetting few days of apartment hunting my new flatmates and I were feeling rather downtrodden. Between the massively expensive place that was half an hour away from anywhere we would need to go and the cheaper place with a kitchen the size of a coat closet we approached our last viewing of the day with trepidation (especially since there were no pictures online). We were happy to find that the flat was in a nice neighborhood, very residential and not heavily student-y. On a funny side-note, we had walked by the street where our new flat is earlier and (not realizing that it was the street we were visiting later) I said "Hey, I'd like to live on that street!" and all my future flatmates agreed with me so we were pretty excited when we realized that that was where our next viewing was. Despite this fortuitous coincidence we were still pretty nervous about this place, mostly because it was rented through a private landlord and not a letting service and also because of the lack of pictures online. We also wondered about the place because it was significantly cheaper than all the other places we looked at so we thought it might be really awful inside (but the outside was really nice so we were cautiously optimistic). Then our future landlord arrived, he was a lovely older Middle Eastern man with a long white beard who complemented us on our punctuality and pulled togetherness and lead us into the house...and it was lovely.
There was a nice well lit entryway (and we have seen some pretty creepy/dingy entryways in our search) with an almost spiraling stairway up to the flat we were looking at on the third floor, so far so good (in fact better than anywhere else we had looked) but we sill hadn't gotten inside yet. And when we did, it was pretty great, the flat is old with massively high ceilings and impressively detailed moldings. There were 5 bedrooms of varying size, from absolutely massive to rather small but they were all nice and the smaller bedrooms have lofted beds which are nice and make them feel much larger than they are. There is a kitchen/lounge that needs some work but it is a lot larger than any of the other places we looked at so that is very nice.
We are signing our lease tonight and (with the permission of the current residents) I am planning on taking some pictures so stay tuned!
Love ya!
There was a nice well lit entryway (and we have seen some pretty creepy/dingy entryways in our search) with an almost spiraling stairway up to the flat we were looking at on the third floor, so far so good (in fact better than anywhere else we had looked) but we sill hadn't gotten inside yet. And when we did, it was pretty great, the flat is old with massively high ceilings and impressively detailed moldings. There were 5 bedrooms of varying size, from absolutely massive to rather small but they were all nice and the smaller bedrooms have lofted beds which are nice and make them feel much larger than they are. There is a kitchen/lounge that needs some work but it is a lot larger than any of the other places we looked at so that is very nice.
We are signing our lease tonight and (with the permission of the current residents) I am planning on taking some pictures so stay tuned!
Love ya!
Monday, February 21, 2011
Time Flies When You're...what have I been doing...
Guess what guys! I think I have discovered the secret to time travel...'cause I am pretty sure it is still the third week of January but I have somehow ended up in the end of February...if only I knew how I did it, I think it has something to do with all the work I have had to do lately.
This last couple months have been nuts, I have wrote a paper about a river in Edinburgh that used to power the city's paper industry, then rewrote half of it when I realized some of the stuff I had written was actually about a river by the same name in New Zealand. Quick sidenote: I am typing in Firefox and it keeps trying to correct the Zealand part of New Zealand to Zululand or Zeal-and neither of which make any sense, first of all Zululand was a name for the kingdom of Zulu which hasn't been around since 1897 and is currently a city in South Africa now that is all well and good but New Zealand is a country, it seems like it should be recognized before cities and ancient kingdoms, but maybe that's just me.
Another adventure I had in the world of academia was an exciting and epic search for a book I needed to read before my midterm...I had to walk to three different libraries (all of which said that they had the book) and I still couldn't find the stupid book, eventually I had to camp in a bookstore and do my reading there, which was kind of a hasle.
I also have been readying myself for applications for summer internships and such which has not been very much fun...but on a lighter note, I have discovered what seems to me to be a strange and unholy combination of two slightly silly fads (one from the 80s and one from the 00s no less). Behold the Sodukube the strange offspring of a rubix cube and soduku puzzles. I am baffled by this product (which I spotted in my local Starbucks while on a tea run) can you only solve it once? what do you do with it after? has anyone ever solved it before they chuck it at the wall and decide to go solve a suduku and then a rubix cube for essentially the same experience? also why did someone invent soduku toilet paper (one of the recommended products on the amazon page)? do you sit on the toilet and do the soduku every time you go? that seems like a colossal waste of time doesn't it?
Anyway I leave you to ponder those questions...I'll be back soon (and I mean it this time)
Love ya!
This last couple months have been nuts, I have wrote a paper about a river in Edinburgh that used to power the city's paper industry, then rewrote half of it when I realized some of the stuff I had written was actually about a river by the same name in New Zealand. Quick sidenote: I am typing in Firefox and it keeps trying to correct the Zealand part of New Zealand to Zululand or Zeal-and neither of which make any sense, first of all Zululand was a name for the kingdom of Zulu which hasn't been around since 1897 and is currently a city in South Africa now that is all well and good but New Zealand is a country, it seems like it should be recognized before cities and ancient kingdoms, but maybe that's just me.
Another adventure I had in the world of academia was an exciting and epic search for a book I needed to read before my midterm...I had to walk to three different libraries (all of which said that they had the book) and I still couldn't find the stupid book, eventually I had to camp in a bookstore and do my reading there, which was kind of a hasle.
I also have been readying myself for applications for summer internships and such which has not been very much fun...but on a lighter note, I have discovered what seems to me to be a strange and unholy combination of two slightly silly fads (one from the 80s and one from the 00s no less). Behold the Sodukube the strange offspring of a rubix cube and soduku puzzles. I am baffled by this product (which I spotted in my local Starbucks while on a tea run) can you only solve it once? what do you do with it after? has anyone ever solved it before they chuck it at the wall and decide to go solve a suduku and then a rubix cube for essentially the same experience? also why did someone invent soduku toilet paper (one of the recommended products on the amazon page)? do you sit on the toilet and do the soduku every time you go? that seems like a colossal waste of time doesn't it?
Anyway I leave you to ponder those questions...I'll be back soon (and I mean it this time)
Love ya!
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Whether the weather is cold...
...or whether it is unseasonably warm (like it is here). It has been strange to hear about the crazy snow y'all have been getting lately seeing as it has been in the 40s and 50s here. The springy weather has been quite nice but it is messing with my internal calendar, I can't figure out what time of year it is anymore!
Sorry I haven't been posting much. I have been pretty busy lately with work and figuring out what I am going to do this summer and working out where I am going to live next year.
Anyway, here is an interesting video dissecting the British Empire and explaining all the distinctions between the different regions and the terms that describe it. It is interesting and should be helpful for all you Yanks who would like to understand which bits are countries and so on.
Anyway,
Love ya!
Sorry I haven't been posting much. I have been pretty busy lately with work and figuring out what I am going to do this summer and working out where I am going to live next year.
Anyway, here is an interesting video dissecting the British Empire and explaining all the distinctions between the different regions and the terms that describe it. It is interesting and should be helpful for all you Yanks who would like to understand which bits are countries and so on.
Anyway,
Love ya!
Friday, January 21, 2011
Annoyance
So the batteries in my building's fire alarm have died (or gone flat as they say here) and it has been chirping every 30 seconds (I clocked it) for at least the last 3 hours...I am going to go insane!
Exams...both foreign and domestic
So as my exam results come trickling in (VERY slowly) I am again struck by the differences between this system and the American one.
The first shock is that anything between 100% and 70% is an A (I still can't quite wrap my mind around that). Another strange difference is that 40% is a passing grade. This might seem strange for anyone who is used to the American system but they do grade much harder here (makes sense doesn't it when a 50 is a B). This leads to strange phenomena like finding that the highest grade anyone got on your exam was a 74% (and it was multiple choice).
By far the most confusing thing is seeing that it is possible to get a 13% on an exam, I am not even sure how that works, that is a worse percentage than chance could account for so that poor person actually would have done better if they had done the answer sheet blindly, without reading the questions and just guessed. I really want to know how something like that comes to pass, was it on purpose? Or did they take the wrong exam? Did they have a terrible case of brain freeze? What?
Off to ponder that one for a while
Love ya!
The first shock is that anything between 100% and 70% is an A (I still can't quite wrap my mind around that). Another strange difference is that 40% is a passing grade. This might seem strange for anyone who is used to the American system but they do grade much harder here (makes sense doesn't it when a 50 is a B). This leads to strange phenomena like finding that the highest grade anyone got on your exam was a 74% (and it was multiple choice).
By far the most confusing thing is seeing that it is possible to get a 13% on an exam, I am not even sure how that works, that is a worse percentage than chance could account for so that poor person actually would have done better if they had done the answer sheet blindly, without reading the questions and just guessed. I really want to know how something like that comes to pass, was it on purpose? Or did they take the wrong exam? Did they have a terrible case of brain freeze? What?
Off to ponder that one for a while
Love ya!
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Hello again...
...sorry I've been away but with the holidays and air travel woes and having caught a nasty cold and getting back into the swing of things here in Edinburgh I haven't had much time to write. Anyway, here are a short series of updates on my life since I went radio silent.
Before I left Edinburgh we had a Christmas dinner at the dining hall complete with Christmas crackers and free whiskey (everyone was very jolly). I learned about yet another word that has a different meaning here than it does at home (technically its several words, but you know what I mean) pigs in a blanket, which at home are mini hot dogs wrapped in puff pastry, here means sausages wrapped in bacon (the UK may be the only country that can compete with the US in terms of love of bacon).
I then had the pleasure of waking up at 5 am to make my flight (it was reeeeeeally early, I don't like 5 am very much) and then remaining awake for the next 22 hours (I was lots of fun to be around for a while there). Thankfully, I got to spend most of those hours in the company of the lovely and sympathetic Hannah in fabulous New York City so that was lots of fun.
Then I headed home for the holidays, it was absolutely fabulous to see everyone and get to hang out with my lovely family, even if we had to drive for ages through a Noreasterner to get there (there were moments where I was quite jealous of my friends who went to Dubai for their holidays).
Anyway, sorry its been forever since we talked, I missed you!
Love ya!
Before I left Edinburgh we had a Christmas dinner at the dining hall complete with Christmas crackers and free whiskey (everyone was very jolly). I learned about yet another word that has a different meaning here than it does at home (technically its several words, but you know what I mean) pigs in a blanket, which at home are mini hot dogs wrapped in puff pastry, here means sausages wrapped in bacon (the UK may be the only country that can compete with the US in terms of love of bacon).
I then had the pleasure of waking up at 5 am to make my flight (it was reeeeeeally early, I don't like 5 am very much) and then remaining awake for the next 22 hours (I was lots of fun to be around for a while there). Thankfully, I got to spend most of those hours in the company of the lovely and sympathetic Hannah in fabulous New York City so that was lots of fun.
Then I headed home for the holidays, it was absolutely fabulous to see everyone and get to hang out with my lovely family, even if we had to drive for ages through a Noreasterner to get there (there were moments where I was quite jealous of my friends who went to Dubai for their holidays).
Anyway, sorry its been forever since we talked, I missed you!
Love ya!
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