An Extra Day

Sometimes you get so busy that you just WISH you could SQUEEZE one more day in the year to do EVERYTHING ELSE you didn't get to do the rest of time! So here I am on leap year, getting a little extra time in to catch you guys up! It's been two whole weeks since the last blog and the definite best time yet to be had on this adventure was last weekend in SCOTLAND!

Last week I went to the V&A (Victoria and Albert) Museum and discussed the Great Exhibition in class, and explored around the other exhibits including a really amazing one of musical instruments from different time periods, they had some of the most beautifully made guitars i've ever seen! some had delicate carvings in the sound hole that looked brittle enough to break, like those paper cut out snowflakes you make out of tissue paper -- but carved out of wood! there were also tons of instruments i'd never heard of, most of them resembling a cello or violin but very different! This museum is meant for the public to be able to walk through and see all the different fashions and inventions from around the world after 1500. So its huge and has tons of collections from all over the place (and its FREE so i can go back whenever i want).

wednesday night we went to see a midsummer night's dream (again!) but this time it was in a warehouse and much more intimate (the actors/actresses were walking through the audience). I really liked the movement in this piece, the fairies were really creepy and moved like strange and curious creatures which i thought was cool! thursday night we saw the Mikado, maybe i was just a little too exhausted for this one but i really didn't enjoy it all that much! it was really funny though, an absurd opera (operetto) about japanese ppl in a town with laws against flirting with lots of plot twists. it was fun, i just didn't fall in love with it.

then we have FRIDAY -- a 615 train through the east coast of england all the way to northern scotland, the most beautiful train ride i've taken, we went by small towns and along the cost of england and scotland and it was just breathtaking. we arrived in the small town of Pitlochry (population 900), and immediately loved it. there were 7 of us and we wondered up a big hill to our hostel with a great view overlooking the town nestled inbetween huge hills and "mountains" (not the big tall snowy kind, but the kind that are too big to be called hills). i have at least 7 pages of journaling about pitlochry alone. it was just so nice to be in a small place where you can only hear the wind blowing by and there is no such thing as traffic, where ppl actually notice you when you walk into a pub and they say hello! we got dinner at a pub with some of the best mashed potatoes i've had in a long time. then we went to the festival theatre for a fiddle concert. it was sooo perfect. Pete Clark is the mans name and i think his songs are available on the web (search pete clark and scotland music). the show was in the foyer of the festival theatre so we sat at tables and had tea while listening to this incredible fiddle player playing some of the most joyful and most heartbreaking songs, I was totally clued in the whole time, esp when he added a fantastic classical/jazz guitarist to his set who was soo incredible! this was my favorite concert so far.

that night some of us headed off the bed, but kelsey and i thought we'd stay up for some small-town pub time. we walked into one of the 3 pubs in town and there was live music playing and i started talking to someone who happened to grow up in Pitlochry, he was really nice! he bought us both drinks and we all talked for a long time about the US, England, Scotland, traveling, etc. And he was just soo kind, i still can't believe it. he kept saying to watch out for scottish men, and to just RUN if you come across a shady one. he studies medicine in edinbourgh and just made our night really lovely! such a friendly young chap.

saturday we had to leave pitlochry to meet up with the group in glasgow, we went to see the glasgow school of art which is designed soo interestingly by charles macintosh. i loved the building and i also loved the art created by charles' wife whose name i am forgetting at the moment, but her paintings were REALLY cool. i then got tea at the willow tea room (another building designed by macintosh). interesting fact though, there was a feminist lady (whose name i forget again! sorry) who opened the first tea house for women to go independent of their husbands to talk and enjoy time together. before this, only men could go places to talk about life/politics, and if a women tried going someplace on her own ppl would assume she's a prostitute. soo i felt very happy to be in one of these tea houses which was made with the purpose in mind of serving independent women. gotta love those early feminists.

saturday night we saw she stoops to conquer, which was really fun, and then went out on the town... but the big crowded places were so much less appealing after our quaint night in pitlochry! sunday we took off to Edinbourgh, saw the castle, hiked up arthur's seat for beautiful views and joyous winds that made you feel like you could fly right off the cliff if you even went on your tiptoes. and we took some fun jumping pictures up there! it was really fantastic. later that night i ate haggis, neeps and tatties (haggis is the gross intestines and other organs of various animals, neeps are turnips, and tatties are mashed potatoes!) complimented by some scottish whisky (had to try it at least!) from a distillery just north of pitlochry. needless to say i enjoyed the meal thoroughly and ate everything clean off my plate.

sunday night may have been the highlight (so many highlights!) we went to see a scottish folk singer who is chinese by blood but totally scottish, has lived her for a long time, and plays some of the best scottish songs i've heard! he had the thick accent and a perfect singing voice and got the whole pub singing and dancing. after building some confidence and seeing that he let other musicians play a song or two, i asked him if i could play one! i got up and played railroad track and just let loose and had so much fun playing it, i wasn't nervous at all, i felt like part of the crowd like these people were lifting the song right out of my lungs and dancing around in the airwaves. it was really a thrill, i loved it and got to know lots of ppl after i played! i want to go back there so badly! i might make it during spring break.

monday we got up reallly early and took a train back to england, to the lakes district where william wordsworth lived and spent time writing beautiful poetry. we stopped in keswick and happened to get on TV! they were filming a news special about keswick becoming a fair trade town, selling only fair trade coffee and other things. so we ran through a white banner pretending to run to the coffee shops to get coffee and then wondered to where we needed to go next -- the LAKES. the lakes were so beautiful!! we walked around one of them and off into the valley where we sat and ate digestive biscuits (they are everywhere in england, and much tastier than they sound) and grapes. apparently the graphite in pencils was discovered in keswick, so it really IS an important town with a pencil museum and everything :). We accidentally took a bus the wrong way and it was downpouring and we got off and stayed at a hotel for an hour til the next bus came and took us to Grasmere, where wordsworth is buried, and such a beautiful town!! surrounded by mountains and lakes. they had some really good gingerbread too. but it was downpouring there as well! we then went to the final stop and windmere, got some chinese food and took the train all the way back to london.

it was the best weekend i've had, as you can see from the amazingness of it all that i attempted to capture in words. this week's highlight was going to see the importance of being earnest last night, AND going to an open mic called "the star" where i sang two songs (flashing yellow lights, and found a love), and met some sweet musicians with some really good tunes. now its the weekend again and i'm going to go to a market and to work (i know, i actually have homework for once in my life) at a coffee shop. tomorrow is cambridge, and sunday we're going to stonehenge and bath! enjoy your extra day of life today!

Love,

jo