Finally

I feel so bad for not blogging in such a long time but I really do have a good excuse. I have been very stressed out at trying to find a subject for our communication ethnography project. It has been very frustrating picking one that my professor thinks is exciting enough. I have written a couple of proposals and he finally picked the one that he liked the best. I will now be spending an abnormal amount of time looking at people in Hyde Park around the speaker’s corner and talking to them about free speech in London. This project will be tons of fun . . . not. Oh well at least the paper isn’t due till the end of March.
Well I had a fabulous time in Scotland and am certain that I will be going back again before I leave here. Even though I got really sick there it was still a memorable trip. We left early in the morning on Friday and had to walk to the station since none of the transportation was running so early in the morning. The train ride was about 5 hours and not bad at all. I spent my time talking to LL (Laura K.), drawing in my journal, and listening to my iPod. We had a bus tour of Edinburgh after we arrived then spent a little time getting use to our accommodations at the B&B.
We ended exploring before we had lunch at an Italian restaurant and some really yummy desert. LL and I chose to have dinner at Wannaburger which has been the closest thing to a real hamburger I’ve seen over here. We then decided to take a haunted cemetery walk at ten and had so much fun. I don’t believe in ghosts but still found the walk to be kind of creepy. She basically locks you in a dark cemetery while she tells scary stories. LL was chosen to be put in a mausoleum by herself and tell us if it was safe or not. Nothing happened but it was still entertaining and LL claims to have pictures of the ghosts. We got out of there around ten but got lost and didn’t get back to our room till after 12. We then had to get up before 7 for our highland tour.
The highlands were amazing and absolutely beautiful but I had eaten something at breakfast that didn’t agree with me and all the curvy driving made me completely ill. Not to mention that they don’t sell any saltines or pretzels because they try to use as little as salt as possible. It wasn’t until we got to Loch Ness, with all that open space and fresh cool wind blowing, that I felt loads better. That night I staid home while the girls went out to dinner and watched Robin Hood the Disney version on Laura’s laptop.
The next day we spent the day at the castle and I picked up lots of souvenirs and then had lunch. I forgot to pick up Rebecca Jean’s gift so sent the others ahead of me and walked to the royal mile for shopping. I had only about 20 minutes to get back to the B&B from the royal mile before the bus left without me so I sprinted the whole way. But I ended up getting lost and was certain that the bus was going to leave me behind in Scotland because I was already 10 minutes late. Luckily for me they were still there and Laura was very relieved. The train ride back was slow because it was snowing and for safety reasons we couldn’t go fast on the tracks. It was my first time seeing snow fall from the sky and all I can say is that I don’t enjoy it. The tubes were closed when we got back to London and we got the last bus of the evening at around 11:30 at night, then still had to trudge through the snow to get to our flat. I was still not feeling great so I staid home but everything was closed and the next day classes were cancelled.
We headed to Rochester Castle and Canterbury on our fieldtrip for Friday. I almost lost my life on the wet narrow stone steps of the castle but other than that it was fun. We had lunch at a fish n’ chips shop but I had chips and nuggets. This Friday were going to Oxford and doing . . . I’m not sure yet but it will probably involve another amazing architectural wonder. Well I must finish my homework, decide what to make tomorrow for dinner, and get ready for our tour of the Globe Theatre in the morning. I miss everyone and love to all!
Teresa Vargas