Rugby Pics and around town shots

Just in case you forgot what I looked like, here is a recent picture :-) Honestly, I think the clouds are really neat in this picture, just ignore me, I get in the way :-)
It was amazing, they just hefted these guys right up in the air so that they could grab the ball and run with it.
Greyfriar's Kirk Graveyard, the beginning of my Murder & Mystery Tour - doesn't look too scary...in the day time :-)This is called a 'Scrum' in Rugby. Each team locks arms and sometimes legs, and tries to get the rugby ball, that is thrown in under their feet, to their side of the group. It's hard to explain, sorry, I guess you gotta be there :-)
The Meadows, where the truck mishap happened :-)

Summer (mis)Fun

Well, I have gotten quite a few e-mails about my references to my summer mishaps and I figured I better get another blog in the works before it got out of hand :-) We'll go right to the good stuff then - my run in with a truck!

Walking through the meadows (the park I have to walk through everyday to get into town) I had to walk around a truck that was backed up over the sidewalk and partially in the road. I couldn't go behind him on the grass because they were pouring concrete, so I had to go around him in the street. Well traffic was pretty heavy so I was standing directly up against the front of the truck waiting to go around him (mind you the truck's front window isn't that tall, so my head could be clearly seen by the driver) when the driver decided he wanted to pull out and I was in his way, so he just started going forwarded trying to move me out of the way using the TRUCK!! He didn't yell anything out the window or ask me politely to move, he just decided to push me out of the way. Crazy, I know.

The fiasco in my kitchen wasn't my fault at all. One afternoon I was walking into the kitchen when I heard an odd noise coming from within. Upon entering, my eyes are immediately drawn to the new waterfall of running water coming from the ceiling above the counter. It proceeded to keep going like this until the ceiling partially came down from the weight of the water! The running water only lasted about an hour, but in that time, my flatmates and I, were frantically dumping buckets of water and replacing them with empty ones. The washing machine in the flat above ours was leaking and I guess over time the water built up until it finally came crashing through the ceiling. Thankfully, we are not responsible, but it still hasn't been fixed... Good ole insurance companies, they are the same no matter what country you are in! :-)

This past week was the last week of the Fringe festival and I decided that I probably wouldn't have another opportunity like this to take advantage of all the "culture" so I had better see something to say I had participated (I've been avoiding it because of all the tourists, I hate crowds). Well, there was quite a lot going on this week that I really enjoyed. I went and saw the play, "Emma" (which I thought more resembled the quality of a high school play then a 9.50 pound fringe worthy event) I also went and saw and Irish Step Dancing Spectacular. The dancers were fantastic, the dances themselves were a bit more modern than I would have liked, but there was still a lot of the traditional step dancing to keep me entertained.

I also went on a Murder and Mystery Graveyard tour of old Edinburgh. It was a lot of fun (although VERY cold) and I learned quite a bit about the more nefarious history of Edinburgh. Like the true inspiration for Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, what happened to Mary, Queen of Scots, murdered secretary, and Burke and Hare, Scotland's first pair of serial killers! After my graveyard adventures, I went to a late night classical music event at Old Saint Paul's Church. It was a great way to end my night. Picture sitting in an old stone church at 10 o'clock at night, with only candles lighting the inside, a warm mug of hot coco in your hands as the gentle caress of Mozart fills your ears, played by an accomplished viola, violin and cello player. Very tranquil.

This week I also got to go to my first Rugby game!! This is something I have been looking forward to ever since I started planning my trip, and thankfully the beginning of the season has just begun! My trusty rugby teacher, Stuart, explained all the weird rules and names they have for the game. I love the fact that the teams can pick up their own players so that they can catch the ball when it is thrown in, and then unceremoniously drop them on the ground in a pile. Rugby players are brutes! They are HUGE! and tough. These guys would just bash each other to get the ball. I love Rugby! You can keep American football, Rugby is a real man's sport!

In my next blog I'll start recounting some of my adventures when my two friends from Florida came to visit. Edinburgh, London, Roslyn Chapel, Linlithgow, Fireworks, lots of good stories to recount. See you all later!

Pictures from Golfing and the Military Tattoo

Yeah! Golfing for the first time :-)
My great golfing coach - Stuart. Patience is always necessary when teaching an Eelman to golf!
I always seemed to hit the ball to hard when putting, I have to work on that...

A view from the Argyle Steps of the Castle - so pretty! The picture really doesn't do it justice, you'll just have to come over and check it out for yourself!
The 2009 Military Tattoo - a really NEAT experience, again, you have to come over and watch it!

I'm so far behind, where do I begin?

Hello, Hello! I can't believe it's been 3 weeks since my last post! Sorry about that! I have had SO much going on in my little Edinburgh world that the time has just flown by. I had 2 great friends visit for 10 days and it was a whirlwind adventure with no sleep! After that I took some classes through Edinburgh University and also helped out my local church with some Fringe events that they were hosting. Maybe I'll start with some current events and then back track to my friends visits and our adventures down in London. Sound good? Good.

August in Edinburgh is an insane time! There are so many festivals and events that are going on its crazy. The population swells to immense proportions and you can't even walk down the Royal Mile with out wanting to kill people because you just can get through all the swarms of tourists! The 2 biggest events are the Military Tattoo and the Fringe. The Tattoo is put on nightly within the castle walls and it's a mix of talent from different country's military groups and also local pipe and drum bands. Here is the web-site that can do a much better job at explaining what the tattoo is all about. http://www.edinburgh-tattoo.co.uk/tattoo-experience/castle.html. Check it out, there are some great pictures that look a lot better than mine!

The fringe is a HUGE festival that encompasses everything from comedy shows, plays, music, exhibits, dance, opera and children's shows. The fringe book, which lists all the shows and when they are happening, is over 200 pages long! My church sponsors Christian plays and music that people can attend during the festival. They have had a great turn out and I've gotten to see some great shows after helping out before the shows begin. This is the last week and I'm helping steward (usher) for 2 nights this week. We saw an expert of the play during church on Sunday night and it was hilarious. It should be a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to it

The past 2 weeks I took 2 classes, The History of Scottish Clans, and the History of Edinburgh Castle, through Edinburgh University. I got to go to the castle everyday and have my classes there. It was SO neat! The teacher was a local writer, I think he has penned over 10 books on Scottish history and stories. He was a bit scattered in his teaching, but was interesting non-the-less. He could rant and rave for an hour about how all history is biased and how we shouldn't believe anything that we read, quite ironic since he is a writer of history :-). He is hugely patriotic to Scotland and was a lot of fun to listen to. My favorite part of class, and this is going to sound funny, was leaving the castle. I would come down the Argyle Steps, from the top of the castle rock, and the view was simply amazing. I could see all of Edinburgh, over the Forth and into Fife. It just takes your breathe away.

I also had my first golfing experience this past weekend! The weather was perfect, albeit a bit windy, so take advantage of the good weather while you can and play golf! My favorite part was the initial teeing off. I love hitting that little golf ball and seeing how far I could get it to fly off into the distance. (more often than not, I missed the ball on the first swing and then after contact it would usually veer off to the right side of the course) All in all though, I think I had a decent showing and I managed to get under par on a few holes on the course. I would definitely play again if given the opportunity.

Well, I'm going to sign off but I am planning on blogging again this week since I have 3 weeks of adventures to catch up on. I'll tease you with a bit of what is to come: following the castle trail in the northeast corner of Scotland, sleeping in a castle, getting hit by a truck (I'm OK, don't worry, no injuries, promise! It's just more of a funny story than anything :-), the misadventures of trying to see the fireworks in Edinburgh, and the ceiling crashing down in the kitchen of my flat. Intrigued? Good, see you later!

My Other MisAdventures

I have no idea what these little beasties are! Rams? Sheep? I don't know, but with their ears hanging down and their horns sticking out, they look a bit odd...
The Front yard of Hopetoun House
The path along the side of Hopetoun
The Backyard of Hopetoun - I would hate to cut that lawn every Saturday afternoon :-)
Newhailes House

Clan Gathering Pictures

The Clan Village sitting underneath the Salisbury Crags
There were kilt clad men everywhere!
I LOVE the bright yellow wellies paired with the kilt - what a cute brother and sister!

The 2009 Clan Gathering and aother Misadventures

July 2009 was the BIGGEST Clan gathering since 1822, with more clan chiefs in attendance since the Battle of Culloden in 1745! Over 30,000 from around the world descended upon Edinburgh to rediscover their roots and explore their ancestors lands. It was a 2 day affair with a clan village (over 85 clan families were represented, with the Hay's and Duncan of course :-), highland dancing, caber tossing, stone throwing, hill racing and much more. I have never seen so many kilt clad men in my life :-) Everyone was proudly displaying their family's tartan. Even Prince Charles showed up for the occasion. While I hate crowds, it was a neat experience to be around all these people who were so excited about their history

While, I enjoyed the clan gathering, I was even happier to escape the crowds and head over to Musselburgh to explore Newhailes house. The day got off to a rocky start though, as always I missed the train to Musselburgh by about 2 minutes and the next one was in 1 hour. So I had a decision, wait an hour to take a 4 minute train ride, or hop a bus and arrive 40 minutes later in Musselburgh (yup, you read that right, 4 minutes compared to 40! Insane!) Anyway, I opted to have lunch in town and then get the next train. This would have been fine, had the way to Newhailes been marked properly on the maps at the train station. But, having learned from experience, the best way is to ask people, so I stopped in a bakery and asked for directions. The kind women sent me down the street about a mile. There was NO Newhailes in a mile... I stopped at a gas station and was told - "Oh, you need to go BACK into town about a mile, then continue on about 2 1/2 miles in the OTHER direction to get to Newhailes." At this point, what could I really do? So an hour after arriving in Musselburgh, I arrived at Newhailes house in the rain. (yup, it got better when it started to rain :-) The house is an old country estate house that was built in the early 18th century. The Scottish National Trust just took it over and their motto is "Conservation not restoration" so everything is a bit threadbare and dingy, but you can get the idea of what it was supposed to look like. My favorite room was the library, where there were floor to ceiling bookcases. Unfortunately there is a no picture taking policy, so you only get to see the outside of the house (unless you take a look at this web-site: http://www.nts.org.uk/Property/47/) Thankfully I asked the caretaker for directions back to the train station, and he sent me on a little shortcut and it only took me 10 minutes to get there :-)

My next little adventure took me to Hopetoun House. This is the huge family estate of the Hope family that has been in their possession since 1709! It is a huge house with 150 acres of land out back. This time I knew I was in for a 2 mile walk to the house from the bus stop, but it was a pleasant walk along the coast, so I was happy. The house is absolutely amazing with vastness of the rooms and the beautiful land outback. I got to have afternoon tea in the tea shop (which used to be the stables) and it was great! My new favorite treat is a ginger oatcake slice - very yummy! They have a 10K the end of September that I think I might enter. That would be a fun way to end my stay in Scotland :-) If you have time checkout their web-site, there is absolutely no way I could do the house justice in trying to explain it to you - it is absolutely palatial! http://www.hopetounhouse.com/

Since beginning my stay in Scotland I have had to learn a lot about Scottish appliances. The stove, for instance needs to be started with a match (definitely not used to that). There is no dryer, so all my clothes have to be hung up all over my room to dry after being washed. The shower, needs to be switched by a little pulley next to the sink, and then you have to be careful not to soak the bathroom, because there are no walls around you! Since being here I have realized even more how thankful I am to have ALL the modern conveniences that we have in the states. Shower curtains are a wonderful thing :-)

See you all later!