Greetings from Scotland!

Hello again! Sorry, this post is gonna be a long one! The first week here has been insanely busy, but it has been so exciting! After two days of classes on Tuesday and Wednesday, the program took us on a weekend trip to Scotland, which was spectacular. First though, let me tell you about classes.

We have classes in the Cambridge Union Society building. The Union Society is a debating society (it is actually the oldest one in the world), and they host guest speakers in their Debating Chamber. Tons of famous people have spoken here, including Winston Churchill, Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, the Dalai Lama, Richard Dawkins, and Steven Hawking. Apparently Julian Assange spoke there recently and was very popular among all the students. Lots of actors and actresses have spoken here as well.

The outside of the Cambridge Union Society building.

The Debating Chamber of the Cambridge Union Society building.

You can't see it very well because the light is shining directly on it, but the red chair is where the president of the Union Society sits, and he or she can only be president for one term.

  We don't actually have class in the Debating Chamber itself, but we do meet here for meetings occasionally. I am taking two classes while I am here as well as a supervision, meaning that I work one on one with a professor that specializes in an area I have chosen to study. I'll have to tell you more about that later. As for my classes, I am taking a class called "Contemporary Issues in Neuroscience," and I was signed up for a class that combines music with psychology and neuroscience, but unfortunately something came up and that class has been cancelled, much to my dismay. So now I am trying to figure out my second class.

Anyway, class is great so far because the class sizes are very small (only about 20-30 people), and we all sit around a large table. The classes are then split up into even smaller seminar groups, and we attend seminars to go more in depth into what we learned in the lectures. Classes at Cambridge are much more lecture and discussion oriented than classes I have taken at BYU. There isn't really any homework other than assigned readings that we then discuss in class, and there aren't any midterms. Everything is dependent upon a final exam--which is usually written and not multiple choice--and possibly a term paper. I like this approach so far, but I'm thinking that I might feel differently come finals week. : )

So, you may be asking, "What, exactly, do you do at classes in Cambridge?" Well, on my first day of classes we watched YouTube videos of birds dancing to music and cows watching jazz performers, and my neuroscience professor went on a long side-note about the Boer War (he really, really, really likes studying the Boer War; he was very excited when I told him that my great great grandpa was in it on the Afrikaner side). Basically, classes are pretty laid-back, and the professors always seem to be adapting the material to our interests. They seem more concerned about letting you learn about a topic than with preparing you for tests, which is very nice. It is also great because these professors are experts in their respective fields, so we are learning about research and discoveries that are happening as we speak.

Eating fish and chips at the Union Society!

A memorial to the soldiers from Cambridge that died during the Boer War. My professor told me where to go to find this one. It is on the back of a church near King's College in Market Square.

On Tuesday night everyone went to the Union Society bar to watch the World Cup, and on Wednesday we had our first formal dinner. We started out the formal dinner with drinks on the lawn (we were actually allowed to walk on the grass for once! but unfortunately my heels kept poking holes in it. . . ), and then we went inside the dining hall where we were served a really fancy meal. We started out with some interesting appetizers, and then we had lamb and duck for dinner. I didn't really know what half of the stuff was on my plate, but it all definitely tasted interesting. I don't know if I would want to eat it all again, but I really liked the lamb! They had red and white wine for everyone, but they had orange juice for the BYU students. I couldn't believe it. Of all the other options for juices and other non-alcoholic drinks, they picked orange juice?! But we all thought it was hilarious that they served us orange juice in wine glasses. It definitely made all the BYU kids stand out. : ) Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures in the dining hall, so this is the only picture I have from the formal dinner.

Me and Nicole at the formal dinner!

Oh, I forgot to say that on Wednesday before the formal dinner we went and saw the King's College Choir! We went to Evensong, which is their evening choral service in the King's College chapel, and the service was amazing. The choir consists of about 14 boys, half of which can sing higher than I can, and they sing psalms directly out of the Old Testament. Between the psalms there are also readings from the Bible as well. The organ player was also incredible, and the whole experience was just amazing. It lasted about 45 minutes, and there was lots of sitting and then standing and then kneeling on the little bench things, and then more sitting and standing and kneeling. We couldn't take pictures in the chapel, which is unfortunate because the stained glass windows are so beautiful. Apparently they were even taken out during the second world war and then reinstalled when it was over in order to protect them. The choir itself was established by King Henry VI, and it was established specifically to sing in the King's College chapel.

On Thursday we left bright and early to take the coaches to Edinburgh. I didn't realize how far away Scotland was from Cambridge! It took us all day to get there. Granted, we made quite a few stops, but it was still a good seven or eight hours once you accounted for all those stops. We got to see a lot of the English countryside though, with its beautiful rolling hills, open fields and meadows, lots of sheep! Apparently it is a law in England that for every 4.5 hours you spend on a bus, there needs to be a 45 minute break, preferably in the form of a 15 minute stop and a 30 minute stop. It is good for the bus drivers since they don't get stuck driving for forever, but it also means you can't really get anywhere quickly. Anyway, on the way up we stopped at Fountains Abby in North Yorkshire. It was established in 1132 by thirteen monks, and these monks were part of the Cistercian Order. I don't know anything about that order other than it is apparently a Catholic order. The abbey operated for more than 400 years until King Henry VIII dissolved all the monasteries in 1539. The ruins are gorgeous, and it was great being able to explore them on our own.

pretty bridge at Fountains Abbey

Fountains Abbey

Fountains Abbey

Fountains Abbey

Fountains Abbey

Fountains Abbey

We finally arrived in Scotland later that evening, and we each got our own room at the University of Edinburgh. We had dinner at the University, and then we went out to explore the city. The sun doesn't set in Edinburgh until around 10:00 pm, and even then it is still pretty light outside until around 11. We wandered around until we found a park with an awesome playground, and we had lots of fun spinning around on a little merry-go-round type toy. I think some of the Scottish people there were entertained by how entertained we were by the park, and we ended up meeting a really nice Scottish family with this little boy who could climb up anything in the park.

The next day (Thursday), we hiked to the top of Arthur's Seat, a nearby hill that is apparently part of the remains of a dormant volcano and also supposedly the location of Camelot. The top of the hill had spectacular views of the city and of the ocean. The hike was actually pretty easy and didn't take us very long, but it was really windy! We had a picnic on the top of the hill, and while we were sitting up there, some military airplanes did a fly-by and let out red, white, and blue smoke for the Fourth of July. We couldn't figure out if it was the American military or the Scottish military, but it was definitely pretty cool. We thought that maybe the Scottish were saluting us on our Independence Day since they're trying to become independent themselves. The vote for Scotland to leave the UK is set to happen in the Scottish Parliament in mid-September, and it was definitely a hot topic while we were in Scotland.

Arthur's Seat

on top of Arthur's Seat

view of the castle from Arthur's Seat

the ruins of St. Anthony's Chapel on the side of Arthur's Seat

Yay for America!

So after the hike we just wandered around the city. We saw some cool ruins on top of another hill, so we were basically trying to get to those. On the way there we saw Canongate Church and its graveyard, where Adam Smith (the guy who wrote The Wealth of Nations and is referred to as the father of capitalism and modern economics) is buried. The church is also apparently the place where the Queen's granddaughter was married a couple years ago.

Adam Smith's grave

I love old graveyards. They're so pretty!

Canongate Kirk

The ruins on top of the hill that we were interested in seeing were on Calton Hill. This hill was apparently created by a volcano as well. The hill used to be a site for medieval games and festivals, and then it became a site for public executions. In the late 1700s and early 1800s though (during the Scottish Enlightenment), there were lots of monuments and buildings constructed. There's the Nelson Monument in honor of Admiral Horatio Nelson who died while winning the Battle of Trafalgar and the Scottish National Monument that was meant to commemorate Scottish soldiers killed in the Napoleonic wars, but it was never actually finished.

The Nelson Monument. It's supposed to look like a spyglass/telescope.

Nelson's Monument (behind some trees) and the Scottish National Monument.

We're on the Scottish National Monument!

Also on Calton Hill was a cairn with a stone from Robert the Bruce's castle, so that was cool to see as well.

The cairn with the stone from Robert the Bruce's castle.

The actual stone. This cairn is a relatively recent addition to the hill.

We walked down the hill and saw the Scott Monument, which was built in honor of Sir Walter Scott. He wrote Ivanhoe. It is in the Victorian Gothic style, and it looks way cool. We all decided that it looked like the castle of some evil Disney villain.

The Scott Monument. Doesn't it look wicked awesome?!

You can see the Scott Monument in the background.

Next we made our way to the Scottish National Museum, where we stayed mostly in the Scottish history part. They have awesome exhibits on tons of other stuff, but we decided that since we had limited time, we would learn what we could about Scottish history. We saw a guillotine-like thing and other torture devices, like thumbscrews. They had these weird gags that they made those accused of gossiping wear on their heads to prevent them from speaking, and we also saw these collars that they made witches wear. I didn't realize this, but apparently Scotland has quite the witch-burning history. They did the whole test where if you float you were then burned as a witch but if you sank and drowned, you evidently were not a witch, but that didn't do you any good because you were dead anyway. Scary. We saw a copy of the tomb of Mary Queen of Scots, the Bute mazer (a kind of cup used by Robert the Bruce), a virginal and other musical instruments, a statue of St. Andrew (the patron saint of Scotland), lots of coins, quite a few swords and other weapons, and tons of stuff about tartans. There was an old book with all the official clan tartans, and then we saw lots of weaving machines that were used to make the tartans. Tartans were obviously a big thing in Scotland. Oh, there was also a interactive area for kids, and in part of it you could dress up as Scottish royalty from the middle ages, so of course we did. : )

The National Museum of Scotland!

The Bute Mazer

Gagging things and witch collars and chains and stuff

a cast of the tomb of Mary, Queen of Scots

the guide to all the different clan tartans

thing used to weave tartans

another thing used to weave tartans

dressing up like medieval Scottish nobles!

Some of the most famous items in the National Museum of Scotland are 11 of the Lewis chessmen. These chess pieces were carved in walrus ivory in the 12th century in Norway, but they weren't discovered until 1831. They were found on the Isle of Lewis (hence the name, the Lewis chessmen) in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. There are actually 78 of them total--the National Museum of Scotland has 11 of them, but the rest are in the British Museum. Apparently this is kind of a sore spot with Scotland too.

Ten of the Lewis chessmen. The eleventh is somewhere else in the museum.

After the National Museum of Scotland, we went to the Elephant House, which is a coffee shop where J. K. Rowling often wrote the first Harry Potter book. It's clearly a huge tourist attraction now--the line was out the door!

Me and Nicole outside the place where J. K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter!

On our way back to our rooms, we also saw the grave of Greyfriars Bobby, the skye terrier that supposedly spent 14 years guarding his owner's grave. The story goes that Bobby belonged to a night watchman for the Edinburgh City Police named John Gray. John Gray died of tuberculosis in 1858 and was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, where Bobby spent the rest of his life sitting on his owner's grave. Bobby died 14 years later, and he too was buried just inside the gate of Greyfriars Kirkyard. See, this is why I like dogs! How precious is this?

A statue of Greyfriars Bobby.

Greyfriars Bobby's grave.

Greyfriars Kirkyard. Aren't old graveyards so eerily pretty?

These little skull and crossbones carvings are all over the graveyard.

And I found another memorial for soldiers who died in the Boer War.

another Boer War memorial

 The next day we started out by having breakfast at the University of Edinburgh, where I decided to try haggis, which, for those of you who are blissfully ignorant of what is in this traditional Scottish food, is made of a sheep's heart, liver, and lungs minced with onions and other spices and then cooked in the sheep's stomach. Basically, I took a bite and then chugged a glass of water. It wasn't exactly as good as the deep fried Mars bar I had the night before. : )

This day we decided to spend on the Royal Mile, a long street (well, technically it is a succession of streets--the name of the street keeps changing the further down you get) that runs between the Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace. The castle is at the top of the street, while the palace is down the road at the bottom of the hill. Tons of museums and historical sites are along this road, along with a bazillion tourist shops as well.

Our first stop on the Royal Mile was at the Writers' Museum, where there are first editions of books and poems by Robert Burns, who wrote the poem that starts off with "my love is like a red, red rose;" Sir Walter Scott, the guy I mentioned earlier who wrote Ivanhoe and basically is responsible for popularizing the Scottish Highland culture; and Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. There was also a printing press, lots of little keepsakes, desks used by the writers, and even bits of their hair. Keeping locks of peoples' hair seems to have been a popular thing to do. Anyway, Robert Burns actually lived somewhere by this museum, and the museum itself gives a glimpse into what the home of a Scottish aristocrat would have looked like. Even though it is very narrow and tall with a winding staircase, I wouldn't have minded living there.

In front of the Writers' Museum

A little further down the street is Deacon Brodie's Tavern. Deacon Brodie was a respectable cabinetmaker and city councilor who repaired people's locks by day but then returned to pick those same locks by night. Genius, right? ; ) Eventually, though, he was caught and hanged. His seemingly split personality actually inspired Robert Louis Stevenson to write The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, so I guess we have him to thank for that book.

Deacon Brodie's Tavern, with a depiction of him holding a set of keys off to the right.

Continuing down the street we saw a statue of David Hume, the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, as well as a guy in a kilt playing the bagpipes in front of the bank.

Hello, David Hume.

bagpipes guy in his kilt

We also saw the site of the last public execution in Edinburgh. George Bryce was hanged here in 1864 for murder. Deacon Brodie was also hanged somewhere around here, on a gallows that he supposedly had built himself.

the gold-colored bricks show the spot where the gallows were

A few steps along the road is a heart shape formed by bricks in the pavement. This is the Heart of Midlothian, and it marks the spot of the Old Tolbooth that was demolished in 1817. This was the site of the entrance to the prison as well as the site of some more public executions. Scottish people traditionally spit on the heart, and this was originally done to show that they didn't like all the gruesome stuff going on.

the Heart of Midlothian

Next we saw St. Giles' Cathedral. St. Giles is the patron saint of Edinburgh, and this church is the main church of the Church of Scotland. It is also known as the "mother church of Presbyterianism." This is the church where John Knox, a leader in the Protestant Reformation and the founder of Presbyterianism in Scotland, preached. He is buried in a spot that is now the center of a parking lot to the side of the church. A plaque on parking spot 23 marks his burial. I kind of can't believe that they built a parking lot over his grave. Oh well.

in front of St. Giles' Cathedral

Parking spot 23--the honored burial place of John Knox.

Dude. Dude. There is a whole empty parking lot around you, why must you park in the only historically significant parking spot in the whole place?! Gah.

 Inside the church is a statue of John Knox, a really cool organ, a chapel for the Knights of the Thistle (Scotland's only order of chivalry), and the National Covenant. In 1638, this document was signed in blood by Scottish Presbyterians who refused to give up their religion for Catholicism, the religion of the king. They were all eventually caught and executed. There has been a church on this site 854, but the current church is a mixture of architectural styles as parts were added or changed from the 15th century to the 19th century.

The inside of St. Giles' Cathedral. Pretty.

Hi John Knox.

More prettiness inside the church.

Next we saw the Mercat Cross, which marked the former marketplace. Here, there was a tollbooth where people were taxed and a tron where goods were weighed (a tron is an official weighing scale). This is also the place where town criers stood to make their announcements. The most recent crier stood here in 1952 to announce that Great Britain had a new queen. This was actually announced three days after the coronation, because traditionally it took three days to ride a horse from London to Edinburgh. On top of the cross is a unicorn holding a flag. Unicorns are actually the national animal of Scotland. Cool, eh?

The Mercat Cross. Some random lady ended up in my picture.

Also along the Royal Mile we saw Canongate Kirk, which we had stopped at the previous day, and a pub called The World's End. The pub marks the spot where the wall around Edinburgh once was, and brass cobblestones outside the pub mark the spot of the old gate to the city.

The World's End pub.

Some other random things we saw included a tartan made specifically in memorial of Princess Diana and an old police box that looks kind of like the TARDIS from Doctor Who. There were so many tartans and tartan stores along the Royal Mile, and all of them were able to show you which tartan belonged to your clan. There were even different tartans for the same clan based on whether or not you wanted a hunting tartan or not. Tons of guys in the program bought kilts with their clan's tartan, and lots of people just bought random ones.

Tartan. Tartan everywhere. But this one is Princess Diana's memorial tartan.

Is it the TARDIS?!

 Finally, we made it to Holyrood Palace, the official residence of the British monarchy in Scotland. David I, King of Scots, founded Holyrood Abbey in 1128, and the palace was added close to the abbey int eh 16th century by James IV. Many additions were made to the palace over the years.

Holyrood Abbey on the far left in the back and Holyrood Palace.

In front of the gates to Holyrood Palace.

A unicorn with Scotland's flag and thistles in the background near Holyrood Palace.

Near Holyrood Palace is the Scottish Parliament building. It is kind of modern and ugly. I'm not a huge fan. Apparently I'm not the only one, either.

Scottish Parliament building. Ew. Modern architecture.

Finally, we hiked back up the Royal Mile and then down to the base of the hill so that we could walk around the castle. The castle sits on the tallest point in the city, and before there was even a castle there, Celtic tribes occupied it. In fact, archaeologists believe that people have inhabited Castle Rock since the Iron Age. It is obviously a pretty good spot if you are thinking of defending yourself, because there are sheer cliffs everywhere. Back in the 11th century, Malcolm III murdered King Macbeth (yup, that's Shakespeare's King Macbeth) to take the Scottish throne. He married Princess Margaret, and they lived in a castle on Castle Rock, but the castle as it is now (or close to it) dates back to David I, the son of Malcolm III. Castle Rock itself is pretty cool because it is made up of many crags and cliffs and ridges. Like the other hills in Edinburgh, this one is a dormant volcano. Volcanoes built up the rocks and hills, and then they were carved down by glaciers during the Ice Age, resulting in valleys surrounding tall, rocky hills.

Edinburgh Castle, on top of Castle Rock.

Me in front of the castle.

A thistle from Castle Rock!!!

We ended our trip to Scotland with a Ceilidh, a Scottish dance. We had an instructor that taught us traditional Scottish dances while a live band played traditional Scottish music. It was lots of fun, especially because we all spent the majority of the night tripping over each other.

Anyway, I was really sad to have to leave Edinburgh. It is such a beautiful city, and I love the architecture and landscape. Here are some more pictures of the city. : )

Now it's back to Cambridge and classes! I'll let you know how that goes soon!