Horses, Hikes, and Haggis!

Well Hello Again!

I have experienced many new things since the last time I posted!

For starters, I attended a dinner hosted by the International Society (which I am now a member of) and sampled food from all over the world (there were 40 different dishes). Someone made haggis (two kinds) and I tried them both!! One of them was spicy but tasted alright and the other was more mild and tasted really good! Maybe I will order it at some point when I go out...!

The International Society is hosting an event on Wednesday (the 29th) called Ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee). It's a traditional Celtic dance with partners and they will bringing in a live band. It will take place at a huge hall in a hotel downtown and is sure to be a really amazing night - it gets great reviews from everyone I have talked to!

On Wednesday, the 22nd, I want to a trial event for the Polo Club at Uni and for £5, I got a lesson on how to play polo and then was able to get on a horse and ride out to the arena and participate in a game! It was a ton of fun! I managed to hit the ball quite a bit and when I got some decent hits, the current team members told me I was doing really well! My horse was an old lady named Wildy and I was just quite happy that she didn't try to buck me off (that seems to happen every time I have ridden a horse.) I asked one of the girls to take a picture (I am pretty sure she thought I was a bit crazy but oh well!)


(It's a bummer that you can't really see the stick or the whip I also have...it made me look like I knew what I was doing!)

Saturday I went on a hike up Dumyat (pronounced dumb-eye-et) Dumyat is the hill that surrounds our campus and this is what it looks like when you are crossing the bridge to get back to the dorms:


And this is Airthrey Castle which is on campus and I believe the castle is home to the law department:


View of Dumyat from Airthrey Castle:


The hike up the mountain was beautiful! We had a very nice day in Scotland - the sunshine was warm, the wind was a bit chilly, and there weren't too many clouds in the sky! I somehow managed to get a little bit of a sunburn on my forehead...

Wind farm - there are loads of them here!


Friendly sign?


Halfway Up! You can see the William Wallace monument and the buildings on campus!



Various Views





The Top!


I made it!


Saturday night, I went out salsa dancing with my friend Anja who had found a club in Bridge of Allan. We walked about 35 minutes to get there but it was a nice night and we met some kids on the street who could give us directions! To start the night off, we got a merengue lesson and then moved on to the social dancing! They dance differently than we do in the states so it was hard to get used to but by the end of the night it felt normal. Anja and I made a few friends there and will probably be going back for some lessons or socials.

This coming week there are a couple of events planned and Jessica's sister is coming to visit for a few days so the place should be pretty busy!

Class work has been going really well; I've been keeping up with the work and putting a lot of effort into class participation. (Although, I did get lost on the way to one of my classes last week and walked in late but to my credit, I wasn't the only one!) I also did some laundry here for the first time and I believe that I am allergic to the laundry detergent that we bought...haven't figured it out yet but I think it is going away. I may have to take a trip to health services Monday. I also got invited to go on a trip to the highlands with a group of friends so we will see what comes of that!

Sending a lot of love from Scotland!

Sha =]

Week 1 and 2!

Hi Everyone!!

So, I have finished Week 1 and started Week 2! Classes started Wednesday but my first class was on Thursday. Most professors wait until Week 2 to start lessons. During the first week, I continued to have orientation meetings and learned a lot more about the school. I went to the club and sports fair and signed up for too many things! The emails keep pouring in so we will see what I take the time to do!

I got a chance to explore the city – I met some people downtown and went to a study abroad meet and greet event. Later, I ended up taking the bus in all by myself and explored all of the small shops, restaurants, and the mall. (As a side note, I don’t like shopping that much in America and European fashions make shopping more … enjoyable!) The only issue with going downtown is that everything closes ridiculously early!! The only night places stay open late is on Thursdays (until 8pm). (Quite a bit different from Worcester.) I’ve also been out to a few clubs/bars with my new friends and everything is really neat – a lot of local pride here in Stirling.

My flat mates are fantastic and we spend most nights together. We were talking about something fun to do for my birthday and it looks like we may be taking the bus in to Edinburgh and spending the afternoon and night there. I’ll let you know about the final plans!

The library here is fantastic! The amount of money that they put into it over the summer is crazy – almost everything (journals, essays, abstracts, etc.) can be electronically downloaded so there is no need to go to the library and hunt for it and all of the current journals that are as recent as last month are also available to download online. If a book is required for class and you don’t feel like purchasing it, there are at least 2 copies in the short loan section which you can take out 24 hours at a time. You can renew everything online and there are self checkout stations all over the library. Everything is brand new and clean, bookshelves are full and you can turn a wheelie thing and the bookshelf will move across the floor giving you as much space as you need to look it up (I might just have to take a picture because I think it’s really impressive!) The library hours aren’t that extensive (since nothing is open late!) At Clark the library is open until midnight every night (except Friday). The latest it is open here is 10pm…I guess I’ll be getting my work done before then!

Here is what my final schedule looks like:

Monday – History Seminar (Wallace and Bruce) 9am-11am
Linguistics Lecture 1pm-2pm

Tuesday – Spanish Oral Seminar 9am-10am
Spanish Written Seminar 11am-12pm
Linguistics Lecture 4pm-5pm

Wednesday – Linguistics Seminar 10am-11am

Thursday – Spanish Culture Lecture 11am-12pm

Friday – Spanish Culture Seminar 10am-11am

Also, if you want to find a better way to stay in touch, I posted my address on this blog but here are some other ways:

Email – scarey@clarku.edu OR shc00028@students.stir.ac.uk
Skype – shalyn.carey
Facebook – Shalyn Carey (to see more pictures as well)
AIM – shakay104

I am going on a hike Saturday morning to climb the mountain, Dumyat, which is located right near Uni and when at the top, will overlook Stirling. (Here is a link to check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumyat

I had my first History seminar – the course is about William Wallace and Robert the Bruce focusing on the Scottish Wars of Independence. The module (what they call courses here) is almost entirely an independent study. Each week, we have a seminar topic with 1 or 2 pages of readings (some books, some journals) and we can decide what we want to read and how much. We are required to pick one topic to do a 10 minute oral presentation on throughout the semester and there are 2 essays that we need to write (which will be 80% of our grade, the other 20% is based on oral participation). The professor is very knowledgeable and does a ton of work in this area of study and has a light Scottish accent! The course topics are quite interesting and I seem to have a good group of people in my seminar. He also told us that if for some reason we couldn’t make it to our particular seminar, we could attend one of the other two as long as it is for that given week (this works since I plan on taking some time to travel) For this course, I will definitely be spending a great deal of time in the library.

I also started my linguistics course (technically titled Language and Society) – it is focusing on how there are many different ways that language can be interpreted through accents, vocabulary, how one arranges a sentence, etc. I think it is going to be a really neat course especially since we have a ton of students speaking English from all parts of the world (our first class looked a lot at the differences between Scottish, British, and American English). There will be two papers in this class worth all of my grade(!) and a decent amount of reading. I have a friend who is in this class which will make things more exciting.

And today began Spanish…the professor walked in and started talking! Ahh! I haven’t taken Spanish in two years so it was a little rough but I think she liked me because I volunteered a bit and talked to her about flamenco (although she may really just be laughing at my awful grammar and vocabulary…) The oral and written sections will be taught only in Spanish and they each last an hour. It’s great practice but it kind of makes your head spin when you just woke up and try to speak a new language. I am really excited to be taking it because I wanted to get back into it.

THE BEST NEWS – I don’t have any sit down finals and my last paper is due on December 6th which means that I get to spend the last 2 weeks I am here on vacation!!! I am so excited!

Some fun facts:

A fresher has been playing his vuvuzela for the last week and will honk it at very random hours of the night and then use it to sing along with songs passer-bys are humming.

Instead of saying twelve thirty, people say half twelve.

Almost all of the toilet paper dispensers are filled with tissue squares…a roll is uncommon on campus.

None of the windows here have screens and they open all the way which means crazy kids and large spiders…

And…

You’ll never guess what I am doing tomorrow (Wednesday) so I will tell you – I am learning how to play polo (on a real horse and everything!) There is sure to be an entertaining story from that especially since I have never ridden a horse without it attempting to get rid of me.

I think that’s it for now! I’m off to enjoy the foggy Scottish day we are having! Enjoy the pictures of my flat!

Love, Sha =]



Hallway (looking towards bathroom and front door)

Kitchen

Kitchen

Room (view to hallway)

Room (view from hallway)

Wallace Monument (view from window!)

View from Window (behind those trees is the loch but it doesn't show up in this picture)

Another window view!

Pictures from London

Here are all of the pictures I wanted to post from London! I finally figured it out AND the nice gentleman from IT Services has fixed my internet!!

(If you want to see more pictures of Iceland or Scotland, I put loads up on facebook so just check under my albums and you should see them!)

-Sha

Address at Uni

I finally figured out how to write the address!

Miss Shalyn Carey
Room 4 Flat 2/4/1
Polwarth House
University of Stirling
FK9 4LQ STIRLING, SCOTLAND

SO confusing!

London and Getting to Uni!

Hello Again!

Internet has been very unreliable so I haven’t been able to send out a blog!

LONDON

London was pretty amazing. We did the usual Big Bus city tour and sat on the top of the open air double decker. We saw all of the big sights (Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Tower of London, the London Eye, Parliament, St. Paul’s Cathedral, etc.) It was hard to get some good pictures cruising as fast as we were going but we snapped up some good ones! Right now my blog isn’t letting me post pictures so I won’t be able to post those just yet =[ My favorite place was Parliament. The architecture was beautiful and the building was majestic. Pictures will never do it justice but it’s worth a shot!

We spent some time just walking around the city – the main shopping districts where all of the ‘edgier’ Londoners hang out and the more modern restaurants are. The department stores are huge and everything is much more fashionable than what we have in the states. I’m not a city girl so the two days in London were just right! We also went down to the east side of London to experience more of the real local flavor and found a nice pub there. That district is very popular at night and it gave it a nice city vibe. The tube wasn’t hard to figure out at all and the city buses were nice. I am a fan of the public transportation they have there!

The London Eye was pretty cool because we got it on a pretty fog less day and had great panoramic views of the city. It doesn't move very fast so you get a good chance to see everything. From up top, we were able to see some of the impressive courtyards the buildings had. After the Eye, we went on a walk down the streets they had and saw a bunch of neat street performers and the preparation for the Thames River festival.

Our apartment in the city wasn’t as nice as the one in Iceland was but the patio and the gardens off the back were beautiful. The apartment complex surrounds a 3.5 acre garden that has a nice walking path and playground equipment for the kids. It was real neat to have that in the city. The amount of money that Londoners have is a bit crazy- people park their Porsche's and Lamborghini's on the street, bumper to bumper, with Nissan's and Toyota's! These people definitely spend a lot of their money because everything is so expensive over there. To and from London were both nice airlines and made the travels easier. (The first one was maybe 3 hours and the second flight was just about an hour).


SCOTLAND

Saturday the 11th we arrived here in Stirling. We moved all the stuff into my dorm and then headed out for some food. The initial impression was unenthusiastic regarding the living arrangements but now that I have unpacked and rearranged, everything is much nicer. My room is long (think band-aid strip) and on one side it has a built in desk, wardrobe, and bookshelf. The other side has a sink and mirror, shelf, and my bed (which came with linens!). The best part about my room is the view – I look out the window and can see the loch, Wallace Monument and most of the dorms and other kids on campus with all of the rolling green hills in the background! The flat that I am in has 3 other girls (2 from Germany and 1 from Ireland/France) and they are all very sweet and we get along well. The flat is a long hallway with 4 bedrooms, 1.5 baths (2 showers and 1 toilet) and a kitchen which is actually a decent size and even comes with a double oven and a tea pot!

The family spent a lot of time hanging out without me while I got settled with the exception of meals and grocery shopping! They were very sweet and even got me a pay as you go phone which has come in handy. I think they explored some of the Scottish highlands and got a good look at the city. Their report is that it is more touristy than they thought but they have some really neat little shops. It’s a very old city (and is the heart of Scotland!)

Campus is beautiful! Everything is a pretty short walk (it is much more spread out than Clark is) and it is all very green! The golf course is only 3 holes but I haven’t tried that out yet. The loch has kayaks and things you can rent to paddle around and is always filled with beautiful white swans and ducks. All of the lecture halls and buildings on campus are pretty modern and the library just underwent a £13.2 million renovation! It’s really neat and it will be easy to spend the day in there doing school work.

I am taking 3 courses here at Uni (no one calls it Stirling). One is an upper level Scottish history course on Wallace and Bruce, a basic course about linguistics, and an intermediate course for Spanish and Latin American studies. I will have class almost every day (I am unsure yet because it is almost impossible to figure out how they schedule things) and every Wednesday from 1pm-6pm no courses are allowed to be scheduled so that you can go play sports! We are very big on sports here (and we were voted the safest Uni in Scotland!) The courses should be just the right amount of challenging with the exception of the history course which will be very hard.

I have made a lot of friends so far – most of them are international, a few local and one from the states. We’ve been going out a lot and have enjoyed getting lost around campus and the city together =] Some of them have mild to serious language barriers so it keeps things interesting! The great thing about being here is that everyone is so kind and helpful! They always smile, wave, shout hello and when you are talking to yourself about how nothing makes sense, they get up and come across the library to help you out!

I will keep you posted on other things going on – I just joined the campus gym and today and tomorrow are club and sports signs ups and tomorrow starts classes!

I hope everyone is doing well!

<3 Sha!

P.S. – If there are any weird spelling errors, that is probably due to the lack of sleep OR the fact that my computer is now set for UK English…

Iceland!

Hello Everyone!

We made it through Iceland! Some fun facts – Iceland is heated by geothermal heat due to all of the natural hot springs which helps to make it the greenest nation on the planet! Tap water is the purest water you can get around here and locals find it funny when people have bottled water. Water pressure and the showers here are awesome – the kind of fancy shower heads that make sure the entire shower stall is covered. Everything here is expensive since the island has almost no natural resources – all the food is shipped in so prices climb.

Icelandic Krona (Their currency. 126 Kr = $1 roughly)



Wait staff here don’t expect tips since it is included in the price of the food at restaurants. A lot of cars here run on diesel. There are certain parts of Iceland that you are not allowed to drive to unless your car is equipped properly and you are driving in a certain season (which takes away a large part of the island). 60% of the population is near the capitol area (Reykjavik and the nearest towns/cities).

Icelandic Lullaby on pillow



Day 1 began with a safe arrival in Reykjavik airport (and yes, I can spell that without double checking it now!)

Sunrise from the plane



We had a lovely standard car for our journey. We rented the apartment from a woman named Edda who had a feast waiting for us when we arrived at the apartment.

Apartment




After a nap to recharge us (a 4 hour time difference and a 5 hour flight), we drove downtown then headed out across Iceland. We journeyed very north east that brought us to a tunnel that crossed under one of the fjords, Hvalfjorour (I think Dad said about 4 miles?) We ended up seeing two of Iceland’s big waterfalls. The smaller one of the two, Hraunfossar, was a series of falls dumping into the river. The unique thing about this one is that the water is all coming out from beneath a lava field. The other waterfall that connected to the same river, Barnafoss, was a bit more impressive with some really neat drops and shapes carved into the stones. This waterfall happened to get its name because two children climbed the natural rock bridge that used to span over the river, but did not return. The mother had the bridge destroyed and the falls have since been referred to as Barnafoss (Children’s Falls). (A new bridge has been built and it is quite high up and gives you goose bumps when you look down even if you love heights!)

Hvalfjorour



Barnafoss (top half only)




Day 2 brought a late start as we tried to make up for more lost sleep and a late night. Dad and the kids explored the city in the morning with a stop at the local bakery, information center, and several shops.

Downtown Reykjavik



The shops around here all feature a large selection of clothing all made from wool that blanket the gazillion sheep grazing around the countryside. (Sometimes you can see the sheep grazing way up on the hills and wonder how they haven’t tipped over and rolled down yet.) Our drive took us more east and much less north today however it decided to steadily rain all day with a lot of wind.

Sheep!



Our first stop was at the crossroads of the continental plates. Iceland is made of two plates; the North American plate and the European plate and the national park, Þingvellir, pronounced Thingvellir, provides information on this. The oldest form of Parliament, aka the Vikings!, actually convened at this location!

Parliament members made speeches here!



Our next stop was at the Geysir. This particular geyser is how all the others got the name. On the information sign, it is said to be higher than Old Faithful. We waited around and at about three minutes in, there was a small eruption and after about five more minutes – WOAH! We saw it explode a total of three times and it was really neat! Ryan ran down to the stream of geyser water and it was still very hot.

Geysir



Up the road was stop number three – a waterfall that is known for the massive amounts of water it dumps and its power. This waterfall was named Gullfoss and was huge! The riverbed it carved out was very deep with straight sides; nothing at all like the Grand Canyon in that respect. One could walk down a trail that brought you almost even with the river at the first drop off point. When you looked to your left, you couldn’t see over the river since it was still two feet higher than your head! You could watch it continue all the way down to the final riverbed. Mom wouldn’t go near it for good reason – there were no ropes or railings holding you back from the edge!!! One slip could send you to an untimely death and in the rain, it was a bit unsettling. Definitely a ‘once in a lifetime’ experience.

Gullfoss



A surprise stop on the way home was at a crater formed by an old volcano. The hole in the Earth is impressive and the water that now resided at the bottom could range from 7-40 feet deep and was a beautiful blue color.

Crater!



Evening allowed for Ryan and I to get some lessons driving a standard and we both did pretty well according to Dad who is still alive and well =]

Day 3 involved an insane hike to Iceland’s tallest waterfall. The parents and I headed out once more to look for Glymur Falls, said to have a 2.5-3 hour hike to get the best view. Well, after getting lost and driving through some kind of power plant thing that looked like it was straight out of “The Hills Have Eyes”, we found it! It started with a relaxing climb in, through a cave, and over a log bridge. (Mom opted to stay on the other side of the log bridge). Dad and I carried on almost straight up the face of a cliff and walked for another 45 minutes up one of the steepest climbs we had ever been on. It was unsettling to look down and then when half of the hike involved crossing various waterfalls, it became a bit scarier. Point is, we made it all the way to the top and man was it worth it! One of the most beautiful sights either of us had ever seen. I took a bunch of pictures and videos but they can’t portray just how gorgeous and terrifying everything was. We made it back down in record time and met up with mom once more!

The top half of Glymur



View looking back at where we came from!



Back in town, we went to a fancy restaurant and then headed to a hot spot – geothermal pools. These pools are heated by all of the geothermal waters and are both outside and inside. This one came with the coolest water slide ever! We also saw the house where Reagan and Gorbachev signed the peace treaty that ended the Cold War! Overall, a wonderful day in the country and we had some great weather!

The House!



Tomorrow morning we are exploring the town one last time, heading out to Blue Lagoon (the hot springs which are a big attraction) then hopping on a 4:10 flight and landing in London around 8ish (3 hour flight, 1 hour time zone change!)

P.S. -- I tried to get some videos to appear of the Geysir and Glymur Falls but they don't seem to be working. Bummer!

Viking Style?