It snowed today, and we're expecting about 8 inches over the weekend! It was funny with all the people who had never seen snow before (from Australia, Argentina, Singapore) running outside to take pictures of it all. All of us from Nashville were just as excited, since we never see it either!
The weather's all around pretty blustery and drab here. The wind has been gale force at about 25-30 mph every day. Lots of rain has now turned over to some snow, but it's still pretty nasty outside.
I feel better about all the assessment assignments now, as I've had some time to process everything and it'll be a lot of work, but should be interesting at least. Everyone is very helpful and the course leaders are very knowledgable and available. We'll even have these online help sessions to discuss things. Overall, they've done a good job creating a real academic, interesting environment where we all can relate and discuss items. The only real criticism I have right now is that it's very much UK-only focused, so that only helps one of us overall. It'll be good knowledge in the long run when looking at global studies, but I think with everyone being so global they could have focused things a bit more in that direction. It's sort of the overriding critique from everyone, and everyone is receptive to critique, as they really want to make this class great.
We have a big assessment tomorrow where we have to role-play as a CRA interviewing a PI, and have to cram 3 days worth of material to cover in about 6 minutes, so it should be pretty realistic ;-)
We're taking a bus tour this weekend of the city, and then we have Sunday completely off, but I don't know what I'm going to do yet...we'll see!
It's nice to be here, but it is a long time. I do really miss being home. (Shout out to my wife!) This has been the longest we've been away since we've been married, and it's definitely no fun. I really, really love being married, and I really, really love Kristin, so this is just entirely too long of a time ;-) It's just so different having your life totally entwined with another person. It's just amazing to be apart and realize how much you've come to rely on one another and how much your life has changed. Only one more week until we meet up in London, though! I can't wait!
It's funny to hear us pick up some of the intonation...the accent is impossible to duplicate, but I'll catch myself drfiting into a Scottish or British intonation every now and then.
Now, for some highlights:
Kilt watch: 2 seen - none worn by Ryan or Tom. Status pending.
Bagpipes heard: 1
William Wallace impersonators photographed: 1
Strange/local items eaten: Haggis (Twice!), Lamb, Fish n' Chips, Biscuits (Cookies), Brown Sauce, Salad Cream, English and French Mustard, Cranachan, Sausage and Mash, and a really good steak.
Strange American items explained to others: Biscuits and Gravy, Gravy in general, American football, FDA guidelines
Time difference: +6 hours from Nashville time.
All the pictures are uploaded now, enjoy!
Time to sign off for now from Edinburgh.
Cheers,
Ryan
P.S. Thanks for the comment Renee! We're working hard! ;-)
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
THE INTERNET!
Hello everyone!
After a long lay-off, we found a coffee shop where we can use the internet for an hour if we buy a coffee drink. So I bought this really good chai latte.
So much has happened since the last post, but most importantly, check out the pictures I was finally able to upload! http://picasaweb.google.com/deboard
There are loads of pictures up there!
We hope to have internet at the university tomorrow, but it is a painful wi-fi process, so we'll see!
Overall we're very busy at the univeristy, and the work is going to be way more than I anticipated! We have a practical assessment on Friday which is part of our grade where we practice a situation of a monitoring visit and they grade us against a rubric.
Then we have 3 "reflection" essays with drafts due by March and final due by May. Then, we have a second module that will begin in June and we have a semester to write another, longer paper. In the end they said it will count 1/3 toward a Master's degree (although I don't know how that transfers) and we'll have a certificate degree of some kind, so it'll be worth it, but a lot more than I expected!
We went to the castle this weekend and it was so cool! We saw as much as we could and got through pretty much everything. We saw the honours of Scotland, which is the crown, scepter, and sword, and the destiny stone that every monarch in England is coronated while sitting over.
We also visited Mary King's Close (Close being a street-alley sort of thing) which was underground because the city was built up over the old streets. It was all underground and really old!
I love exclamation points!!!
The next day we vsiited the ultra-modern Scottish Parliament building, and then the ultra-old Holyrood palace where the Queen lives every summer for a bit, and Mary Queen of Scots once lived here. It was incredibly cool.
I better run as the internet time is running out, and it's about bedtime over here across the pond. That time difference is intense!
From the heart of MidLothian
Ryan
After a long lay-off, we found a coffee shop where we can use the internet for an hour if we buy a coffee drink. So I bought this really good chai latte.
So much has happened since the last post, but most importantly, check out the pictures I was finally able to upload! http://picasaweb.google.com/deboard
There are loads of pictures up there!
We hope to have internet at the university tomorrow, but it is a painful wi-fi process, so we'll see!
Overall we're very busy at the univeristy, and the work is going to be way more than I anticipated! We have a practical assessment on Friday which is part of our grade where we practice a situation of a monitoring visit and they grade us against a rubric.
Then we have 3 "reflection" essays with drafts due by March and final due by May. Then, we have a second module that will begin in June and we have a semester to write another, longer paper. In the end they said it will count 1/3 toward a Master's degree (although I don't know how that transfers) and we'll have a certificate degree of some kind, so it'll be worth it, but a lot more than I expected!
We went to the castle this weekend and it was so cool! We saw as much as we could and got through pretty much everything. We saw the honours of Scotland, which is the crown, scepter, and sword, and the destiny stone that every monarch in England is coronated while sitting over.
We also visited Mary King's Close (Close being a street-alley sort of thing) which was underground because the city was built up over the old streets. It was all underground and really old!
I love exclamation points!!!
The next day we vsiited the ultra-modern Scottish Parliament building, and then the ultra-old Holyrood palace where the Queen lives every summer for a bit, and Mary Queen of Scots once lived here. It was incredibly cool.
I better run as the internet time is running out, and it's about bedtime over here across the pond. That time difference is intense!
From the heart of MidLothian
Ryan
Saturday, January 26, 2008
The First Adventure
Greetings from Edinburgh!
I figured out dial-up, so I hope it keeps working! We're going to look for a local wi-fi spot, too, since the hotel charges an outrageous amount for it. When I get broadband access I'll upload pictures.
So far it's been cold and rainy. Yesterday we were pretty tired from the trip and took it easy. We walked around for a bit in the rain, but then came back to the hotel and ate. Then we all went to bed and slept - getting over the jetlag isn't the best fun ever, but I'm glad we got here early to adjust.
Today we ate the breakfast at the hotel which was pretty good - eggs, bacon, sausage, croissants, granola, fruit, and other things. Then, we went exploring a bit around the area to find a bus information place where we found the bus line to Rosslyn and bought a day pass. Then we walked around Princes Street, took copious amounts of pictures of the castle, and then hopped on a bus to Rosslyn chapel!
Rosslyn was incredible! This is the church made famous in The DaVinci Code as the place in the end where the "holy grail" was found. In reality, it was an incredible piece of architecture that featured innumerable amounts of different carvings and lots of Templar Knights history.
Unfortunately, you couldn't take pictures on the inside of the chapel, but I could have taken 1000 pictures in there, so it's probably for the better of everyone that they don't allow it.
The chapel was constructed by some freemasons, and it's rumored that the templars used it as a base since scotland was one of the only places tolerant of the templars.
One of the coolest things was this one carving around a window of some corn (or at least it looked VERY much like corn) The carving was from the 1300s, which is well before corn was ever known to Europe when Columbus made it to America in 1492). Did the templar knights make it to America first? Who knows?
There were knights buried in the chapel as well. One (the founder of the church - St. Clair) was said to have died carrying the heart of Robert the Bruce to Jerusalem. Robert the Bruce was the leader of Scotland who betrayed William Wallace but became a good guy in the end. Pretty cool!
After this we walked down to the remnants of Rosslyn castle, which was mostly just chunks of the outer walls and overall kind of disappointing. We then went to a local pub and ate some lunch. Erin ordered haggis to get a taste of the culture, and I had a small taste of the culture by trying a bite. It tasted kind of like seasoned ground beef, but it was just gut wrenching thinking about what I was eating (chopped up sheep liver, lung, and heart stuffed in a sheep's stomach). It really didn't taste that bad, though!
Then, we rode the bus back to town and walked back to the hotel. It started raining on top of being cold and windy, so we all ended up hanging around and didn't head out again tonight. I took a nap that was too long, but hopefully it will do me good getting over the jet lag. The weather looks like it will be pleasant the next couple of days, so hopefully we'll have a couple of full days ahead!
That's about all I've got. I'm going to sign off for now and watch some British comedy on the tele. Oh those Brits!
Signing off from Auld Reekie.
Ryan
I figured out dial-up, so I hope it keeps working! We're going to look for a local wi-fi spot, too, since the hotel charges an outrageous amount for it. When I get broadband access I'll upload pictures.
So far it's been cold and rainy. Yesterday we were pretty tired from the trip and took it easy. We walked around for a bit in the rain, but then came back to the hotel and ate. Then we all went to bed and slept - getting over the jetlag isn't the best fun ever, but I'm glad we got here early to adjust.
Today we ate the breakfast at the hotel which was pretty good - eggs, bacon, sausage, croissants, granola, fruit, and other things. Then, we went exploring a bit around the area to find a bus information place where we found the bus line to Rosslyn and bought a day pass. Then we walked around Princes Street, took copious amounts of pictures of the castle, and then hopped on a bus to Rosslyn chapel!
Rosslyn was incredible! This is the church made famous in The DaVinci Code as the place in the end where the "holy grail" was found. In reality, it was an incredible piece of architecture that featured innumerable amounts of different carvings and lots of Templar Knights history.
Unfortunately, you couldn't take pictures on the inside of the chapel, but I could have taken 1000 pictures in there, so it's probably for the better of everyone that they don't allow it.
The chapel was constructed by some freemasons, and it's rumored that the templars used it as a base since scotland was one of the only places tolerant of the templars.
One of the coolest things was this one carving around a window of some corn (or at least it looked VERY much like corn) The carving was from the 1300s, which is well before corn was ever known to Europe when Columbus made it to America in 1492). Did the templar knights make it to America first? Who knows?
There were knights buried in the chapel as well. One (the founder of the church - St. Clair) was said to have died carrying the heart of Robert the Bruce to Jerusalem. Robert the Bruce was the leader of Scotland who betrayed William Wallace but became a good guy in the end. Pretty cool!
After this we walked down to the remnants of Rosslyn castle, which was mostly just chunks of the outer walls and overall kind of disappointing. We then went to a local pub and ate some lunch. Erin ordered haggis to get a taste of the culture, and I had a small taste of the culture by trying a bite. It tasted kind of like seasoned ground beef, but it was just gut wrenching thinking about what I was eating (chopped up sheep liver, lung, and heart stuffed in a sheep's stomach). It really didn't taste that bad, though!
Then, we rode the bus back to town and walked back to the hotel. It started raining on top of being cold and windy, so we all ended up hanging around and didn't head out again tonight. I took a nap that was too long, but hopefully it will do me good getting over the jet lag. The weather looks like it will be pleasant the next couple of days, so hopefully we'll have a couple of full days ahead!
That's about all I've got. I'm going to sign off for now and watch some British comedy on the tele. Oh those Brits!
Signing off from Auld Reekie.
Ryan
Thursday, January 24, 2008
The Layover
Anyone ever see The Terminal? That's kind of been our lives for the last few hours, since we flew to DC from Nashville and then have sat here for about 5 hours! Our flight leaves at 10, so we'll be rolling soon, but it's been strange wandering around the terminal and trying to figure out the internet. Finally we were able to bum off of Tom's ATT account somehow.
Anyway, magic! Internet is here. It's been a long day of hanging out, watching Europeans smoke in the smoking lounge, and eating food in airports. but, for now, it's time to embark on the adventure. Our flight leaves in less than an hour! Only 8 hours in the air, but +6 time change from Nashville. Here comes Jet Lag!
I'll post some more when I have real news. I'll have cool pictures, too!
As I ponder the weeks ahead, I want to take a moment to stop and reflect on my thoughts:
Here, I see a whole army of my country men, here in defiance of tyranny. They've come to fight as freemen, and freemen they are. But what will they do without freedom?! Will they fight?
No . . . they will run . . . and they will live.
Aye. Fight and they may die. Run and they'll live, at least a while. And, dying in their beds, many years from now, would they be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance -- just one chance -- to come back here and tell our enemies, that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!
Anyway, magic! Internet is here. It's been a long day of hanging out, watching Europeans smoke in the smoking lounge, and eating food in airports. but, for now, it's time to embark on the adventure. Our flight leaves in less than an hour! Only 8 hours in the air, but +6 time change from Nashville. Here comes Jet Lag!
I'll post some more when I have real news. I'll have cool pictures, too!
As I ponder the weeks ahead, I want to take a moment to stop and reflect on my thoughts:
Here, I see a whole army of my country men, here in defiance of tyranny. They've come to fight as freemen, and freemen they are. But what will they do without freedom?! Will they fight?
No . . . they will run . . . and they will live.
Aye. Fight and they may die. Run and they'll live, at least a while. And, dying in their beds, many years from now, would they be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance -- just one chance -- to come back here and tell our enemies, that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
The Journey Begins
Top o' the morning to ya.
This will hopefully serve as a blog for my trip to Scotland and London!
All pictures can be found on my picasa album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/deboard
Enjoy! See you all again soon!
This will hopefully serve as a blog for my trip to Scotland and London!
All pictures can be found on my picasa album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/deboard
Enjoy! See you all again soon!
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