Obama Day!

It's 5:30 in the morning on November 5th, 2008 and the world is different. But let me back up. I met Barack Obama 4 years ago when he delivered a speech after the last presidential election. I remember Aunt Claudia saying to watch out for him, he was going places. A few years later he started running for President. I started learning about what he stood for and fell in love. I saw him speak in Denver before the Caucus. I did a call bank to make sure the students at CU knew where and when to vote. I registered for a mail-in ballot this summer. When my parents went to early register they inquired into why I had not received a ballot. Something had happened, of course. So after a few e-mails and days of searching for a fax machine, I took all my paperwork and headed to the office in Pollock Halls. I needed a fax machine. They weren't really sure if I could use it. Three women in this office weren't really sure if I could use it. I explained that I needed not only to send my paperwork, but that I needed to receive my ballot and send it back. They weren't really sure. I explained that I was voting for Obama. That this was an important election. Did they really want to know what would happen to the world if McCain won the presidency? No, I thought not. They faxed my paperwork. They charged me 3 pounds, but it was worth it. I went back every half hour to see if my ballot had come in, each time chatting a little with the office ladies, so by the time my ballot came in they all stood up when I came in and exclaimed "IT'S HERE!" I couldn't sleep that night I was so excited. I was a 5 year old before Christmas kind of excited. I returned to the office the next morning and the office ladies were in a twitter when I came in to send my filled out ballot in. We stood around talking politics until my fax had gone through and it was time for class. November 4th was the warmest and sunniest day since I've been here. It was the perfect Obama day. All day I tried to get work done, but I was too giddy. I tried to go to sleep at 10 to wake up at 1 and go to the student union for the election party and just managed to fall asleep about 15 minutes before Aidan called me to go. I got out of bed to check if any states had voted. Barack 3, McCain 8. My stomach dropped. It couldn't end before it had begun! Then it was Barck 3, McCain 16! NO!!

Almost worried...
Phew... this is looking much better. Barack 77, McCain 34.
Aidan and I headed over to the student union. It was killing me being away from a computer or TV for that long. When we got there it was at capacity and we had to wait until someone came out before we could in. And there was a line infront of us. I made Aidan leave, I had to know what was going on. Obama was closer to the 135 range when we got back. At about 3 in the morning we settled in for the long wait.
But it's okay, because we all have crushes on Obama.
To keep ourselves busy we painted in our map (with the help from the Americans of where all the states are) and got into the Obama spirit with a little face paint.
This is Hazel- our American-elect for the Evening and Mrs. Obama...


Aidan started getting sleepy...
But the polls kept coming in and Obama's numbers went higher and higher. We listened to James Taylor and Paul Simon and Elton John until 4:03 in the morning, when we watched the number go over 270 and watched Barack Obama become the next President of the United States of America.
We were ecstatic . I was beside myself. I didn't know if I wanted to cry or laugh or simply stop breathing. I think I was doing all three at the same time for a little while.
Then we jumped up and down and screamed at the top of our lungs and hugged everyone in sight.
Victory!
The excited American girls- Jamie, Emily and I. And a thoughtful boy in the background for good measure.

Yay America! Yay Obama!
McCain's Concession.
Barack and his family. The next President of the United States!!!!
My hero.

We watched Obama speak for the next 20 minutes or so over the crying of Mara and the distraction of all the hugging and congratulating. I had goosebumps for 20 minutes straight. I have never been so inspired by someone in my life.
I hope you all voted and are excited for the future of this country. I know I am!

Tonight is Guy Fawkes Night (a.k.a. Fireworks or Bonfire Night). I'll try to put some pictures up tomorrow or the next day!

Samhuinn- Celtic New Year

Since Halloween is celebrated here just like at home, I decided to find something a little more cultural to do with myself. I discovered Samhuinn (pronounced sah-ween) and it is the Celtic New Year and the combination of All Saint's Day and Halloween and a Harvest Fest. Historically, it was a time to celebrate the past year, the end of the harvest and to welcome the Winter. Samhuinn is performed here by the Beltane Fire Society. It starts with a parade of all the characters from the Castle, down to Parliament Square on the Royal Mile.
I immediately creeped myself out after taking this... Halloween is SO much scarier in a place with old churches and castles...
I was getting the impression that each of the characters had a season they belonged to... I still can't figure out the Blue People, they were everywhere...

Fall, definitely.Creepy Usher... of Death... I don't know, he's pretty scary though.

Similar Characters to the Blue People... The Red People hang out in Winter and fight with it, but seem more like demons than anything...
Winter, definitely.

Wolves in Winter.

Remember how I'm terrified of wolves? Well this one comes over to us and I can see his head through the mouth and he smiles at me and jumps at Ellen (who came with me) and she screamed and stepped back, except we were on the street, so she fell right over the curb. He felt bad and went away. She was fine, so I think it was the highlight of the whole parade.
After the procession had gone by, everyone joined in on the road and followed them down to Parliament Square for the Fire Fest!

This was a girl in front of me... I was trying to take a picture of her wing for about 45 minutes. Finally!
The other side of Parliament Square.

I know, I know, you've seen about 67 pictures of this church, but this is at night! We stood on the steps of the church to watch the show.

Ellen and I waiting for the show to start- in the freezing cold!
You can watch the video, but I couldn't see anything of what I was taking. Basically the story is the crowning of the Winter King and welcoming him. Fire throwing is key and the torches were blowing smoke and ash onto everything. And oh was there dancing!



This is by far the best Halloween I've had... except maybe the one where I was 3 and discovered trick-or-treating... That one was pretty good too...

Things I've Learned About Scotland

This week was fairly uneventful, so instead of telling you about all the great studying I've been up to, I'll tell you some things I've learned about Scotland.
1. There are more people with dreadlocks here than in Boulder.
2. No one knows what Mexican food is and I can't find it anywhere.
3. Only English people live here.
4. People don't actually wear Wellies. This is a complete myth and I feel like an idiot for dragging mine (which took up about half of a suitcase!) half way across the world with me. So I'm going to wear them anyways, just to spite the myth.
5. Don't bother using an umbrella. It will break. It will flip inside out. It will blow away and hurt someone. It will, under no circumstances, keep you dry from the rain.
6. Traffic cones are ridiculously easy to steal. And the law here is that if traffic cones are not in use you can take them.
7. There are more tanning salons than I know what to do with.
8. Window shopping is all the rage. To be done properly, one must walk ridiculously quickly to pass by slow walking pedestrians, then see something in a shop window and veer infront of the slow walking pedestrian, completely cutting them off, and upon arrival at the window of choice, come to a dead stop. In front of the slow walking pedestrian.
9. Z is pronounced "zed." If you say "zee" people will laugh at you. Trust me.

My new favourite words are "awez" and "faffing around," meaning "come on" and "doing nothing/ wasting time," respectively.
I'll never spell correctly again.
I trip over cobblestones at least once a day.

Here are some new words I've learned:
1. Toasty- A Grilled Cheese Sandwich
2. Sorbet- A weird powdery substance that you eat with a lollipop which fizzes in your mouth. Like fun dip. But white and fizzy. I was going to send it to Mac but Robert pointed out that a white powdery substance sent in the mail may not get to it's intended recipient. Sorry Mac.
3. Lemonade- Soda Pop
4. Dungarees- Overalls (this is my favourite too. Liz was so concerned that I had never heard of dungarees and it took about 15 minutes of describing for me to figure out what she was talking about.
5. Trousers- Pants. (This is terribly embarrassing as I always refer to my pants as pants, which in Scots English, my underwear).

This weekend I was supposed to be going to Melrose and Abbotsford to the historical home of Sir Walter Scott. But the trip was canceled. So I went to the National Museum of Scotland instead. Maybe not as cool, but almost.

The main entrance.

Yes, I took a photo in an art museum. The flash was off... But I was completely paranoid for the rest of the time.

This is the last picture before I go to the beach. We saw it at night and decided we had to see it in the day. So we're off. Yay ocean!

What We Do When We Should Be Studying

Classes have gotten underway and everyone still feels like they are on vacation. Like Fresher's Week hasn't stopped. This week we all realized just how much we should have been doing for the last two weeks and decided to procrastinate for another week just to be safe. So this is what we did instead.
MONDAY: Robert has no door handle. So instead of someone getting him a new door handle, they gave him an extra key because he is automatically locked out of his room with no door handle. Robert trusted Liz with his spare key.
That's what he gets.

TUESDAY: I found out that Aidan had never heard of a quesadilla. Being an absurd thing to not know, I marched everyone down to Tesco (the local grocery store) in the middle of the night to buy things to make quesadillas and we had a little Mexican food party in the pantry. Needless to say, they loved them!

WEDNESDAY: Julia from Germany, and I went shopping and explored Princes Street. Everything is far too expensive and all I fell in love with was a green jacket that is not warm and not waterproof. I can't find a rain coat. Everyone wears mini skirts and uggs. I need a parka. Trouble. These are all pictures of the other side of Princes Street. I think I would shop more in the States if this was the view every time I went to a different store.



Thursday: Liz and I were hanging out in the pantry eating grilled cheese sandwiches at about 10 at night, being our usual late night activity, and I asked if they ate s'mores here. She said she didn't know what they were. I was trying to explain them and she was all caught up on graham crackers. Because they don't have graham crackers here! So I marched Liz back to Tesco to buy things to make S'mores. It was worthless. I had to buy tea cookies instead of graham crackers and they didn't have any marshmallows so we had to go to another store for those.
As we were walking back from the store we ran into Aidan and Robert. They are both in the Mountaineering Society and were going to a party. We were dragged with. The s'mores would have to wait. The party was jungle themed. We were unaware. And very out of place.

We returned home to jungle ourselves.
I have limited jungle attire being that I only have 2 suitcases worth of clothes in the first place. I am a tourist stranded in the jungle. It's really all about the hair. I was still made fun of.

FRIDAY: Finally time to make s'mores.
Step 1:
Rich Tea Biscuits=Graham Crackers. Kind of.
Step 2:
Cadbury Dairy Milk=Hershey's Milk Chocolate. Kind of.
Step 3:
Mallow Cocktail=Marshmallows. Kind of.
Notice the multi colored and multi flavored marshmallows. Not good.
Step 4: Pre Microwave

Step 5: Post Microwave
Step 6: Results
Liz loves them.
Ellen loves them.
Christopher loves them.
I would consider this to be a success of integrating American food into the Scottish diet. Yes.

WEEKEND: Instead of my usual activities such as castle scouting, going to different countries, seeing football matches and the like, this weekend was spent studying to make up for the week. I only saw my friends at meal times or if we were going on Library dates, although there were plenty of those.
I still haven't finished everything, so I'm off to learn a little about statistics.

Carlisle in All it's Glory

This is Liz. She is sad because she is wearing Aidan's glasses...? She is mainly sad because Aidan doesn't like football (soccer) and is coming with us all the way to Carlisle to see Carlisle United play anyways. And he's being a pain... but in a funny way...

We woke up at 9:00 in the morning (I know!) and tried to get everything ready for the day. I had my raincoat out because it was pouring in Edinburgh. I decided that it's not cute and I didn't want to bring it. So I grabbed my North Face, threw in my camera, some money and chapstick. And headed to the train, which we barely made. With sandwiches and tickets in tow, made it on the train for the hour and fifteen minute journey to Northern England to a town called Carlisle- the Border City. Liz grew up in a tiny town like mine called Wigton, about 20 minutes from Carlisle. She supports Carlisle United. They play in the first league (which is the third- after the Premiership and another one I can't remember).
Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself. Liz wanted to take us around the town. I was thrilled. Aidan is from London so this is like going to a very small town in Texas. He was not thrilled. We first went to the pet shop looking for a gold fish... or perhaps a hamster. Liz wants a pet badly and is pretty sure that she can hide it when the cleaners come every week and not get caught. We'll see. We didn't end up finding anything to suit her needs and our needs of lunch were getting stronger. Aidan vetoed the adorable coffee shop down the road in favor of KFC. That's right. I'm in England for the day and am forced to get KFC. It's worse in England, if that's possible. They love it.
After lunch Liz agreed to show us the sites.
First on our list was the Carlisle Catherdral. Liz's dad is the Vicar in Wigton and holds a seat here. The seats were made in the 14th century. How great would that be?!
I'm pretty sure I studied something like this in my Humanities class. Perhaps a vaulted ceiling? I wish I had paid more attention...
The stained glass window at the front of the Cathedral.
I was walking underneath this ceiling in awe when a woman flagged me down, or should I say hunted me down, and told me that she was pretty sure I had missed the mirror. I turned and followed her asking what the mirror was. She brought me to a mirror facing upwards to see the ceiling. I could have just as easily looked up. She told me to look more over it and I would see a face. I'm thinking, well obviously, I'll see my face, but when I looked, there is a small circle in the middle of the ceiling with a painting of the Virgin Mary- she is holding up the stars. I thought it was pretty cute. Aidan and Liz had moved on long before so I had to leave the mirror and the mirror woman and find them.
They were done with the Cathedral so we were off to the next site- the Millennium Bridge. Liz goes "here is Carlisle's poor attempt at the Millenium Bridge. The first person to try to use it was in a wheel chair and got stuck in the elevator. Should we go?"
The Bridge is about 20 yards long. And white. But it has a nice view of the Carlisle Castle.
It's maybe not the most exciting castle, but then again, I may be getting jaded.
I think I forgot to mention the best part of the whole day! It's been literally dumping rain the entire time. My pants had absorbed water up to the knee. You know when your pants (trousers) are so wet that when you walk the wet part hits you leg where your sock isn't and makes you that much colder? Yeah, that was happening...all day...
So after the Bridge we had pretty much seen the whole town. So we headed over to the Pub for a drink before the game. This was on the way. Pretty much like any town you might come across, but pretty nonetheless.
Also, may I take a minute and point out that the cars are parked facing different directions? This is totally legal and normal and typically people cut across traffic amidst the honking of oncoming cars to try to secure a parking spot across the street. It's great.
So we were off to the Carlisle match, all the while dealing with Aidan's poor attempt to convince us that if they didn't play well we would leave early. Liz and I were too excited. We got there 35 minutes early. So we sat down and waited.
And then stood and waited for them to score.
They didn't. The first half was done. We were soaking wet and cold. The other team had scored once. Aidan had even stopped whining he was so upset. The second half saw another score from the other team and none from Carlise. There had been quite a few headers and punts up and down the field. And no passes. They played horribly- both teams. Carlise finally scored a goal in the last few minutes of the game. But still lost 2-1. We had managed to stay the whole game. We couldn't feel our feet. Yay football!
They can't take a serious picture.
Seriously.


Liz's dad came and picked us up and drove us back to Wigton to get all the things the Liz had left at home. We got there and put everything we owned on the radiator. Her mom whipped us up some spaghetti and salad and hot cocoa. It was so sweet. Her family is so adorable and made me terribly homesick. Jeffrey (Liz's dad) drove us back to the station- warm, full, happy and almost dry. We pulled up with two minutes till our train left. We somehow managed to find the platform and get on the train in time. I almost slept through the hour and fifteen minutes back. We had an excruciatingly long and cold walk back from the station and fell into bed.

Next weekend will hopefully be the Benmore Botanic Gardens. We'll see how much homework I get done during the week...