London, Baby!

As you all can see from the picture, it was warm enough to eat ice cream this weekend! Seriously, it was about 55 degrees in London - I could not have been happier.

I had an excellent trip visiting Alex and Mark (and Brad on Friday night, which was a lovely surprise). The sun was shining on both days, so we just walked around and saw pretty much everything. On Saturday we walked around Piccadilly Circus, then Leicester Square, Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square (the last time I was in London they were doing construction on the lions so this was the first time I could see them), St. James Square and Sloane Street. Then, on Sunday we went to Hyde Park where we saw all these cute dogs and kids playing and it was adorable, then we walked around Kensington (very swanky), and stopped in to see Alex's sister A-Bel, who goes to Imperial College and has a way nicer flat :( And, Alex's mom Erica is the best cook EVER. They live in Fulham (right near Chelsea) which is a really great neighborhood.

The only negative thing about the weekend was that Alex made me watch Ally McBeal (p.s. isn't that a show that pretty much everyone forgot about?) and I got that damn Vonda Shepard song "Searchin My Soul" stuck in my head, and I can't get it out...which is really annoying. The other thing we saw on TV was this Ross Kemp Special - Ross Kemp is a British actor who went to Afghanistan with the British Army on a six month tour, and took a camera crew with him. He did months of training to prepare himself, and he had to pass numerous tests before they would let him go (because he really is embedded with the army unit). The special is just starting to air now (it's done in a few parts that are shown over a number of weeks), but it made me realize that there really isn't anything like that in the States. There are definitely journalists who are reporting from war zones and risking their lives, and there are also fictionalized movies made about the war, but the idea of a famous American actor training and risking his lifee and going over with the U.S. Army to Iraq or Afghanistan for six months...I don't know, it just seems kind of unlikely to me. Thoughts, anyone?

Everything else is going well in Edinburgh...I'm excited for my internship to start (it starts in about 2 1/2 weeks), but I still don't know who I'm going to be placed with (I found out in a week or so). I miss everyone - please e-mail/call/skype etc.
Pam

I Tried Haggis!

Yes, that's right, last night I tried haggis. And you know what? It was really good! Seriously, it just tasted like spicy ground beef.

For those of you who don't know, haggis is ground up "sheep parts" (I won't tell you which parts). I had to try it because we were at a Robert Burns Celebration (as you can see from the photos). Friday is Robert Burns day (you've never seen a country more obsessed with a poet), and all week long there are dinners in his honor. Paddy, my Scottish Culture and Society professor, arranged for all of us to go to this super traditional Burns celebration. We had haggis, taters, nips, single malt, the works. It was really fun for about two hours, and then the toasts started...all of these people got up to toast Robert Burns by reading or singing something he had written or "would have liked" (aka whatever they wanted). It got pretty boring after a while.

Here is the list of things I learned last night:
1. Haggis is good, especially when mixed with mashed potatoes and mashed nips (nips taste kind of like squash).
2. The proper way to drink whiskey is "however the fuck you like it" (quote from a Scotsman in a kilt).
3. Old musicians play the violin pretty badly and discriminate against viola players.
4. Most older Scots smell bad...some of them smell REALLY bad.
5. Robert Burns was super sexist.
6. Most of the people who go to a Robert Burns celebration are also sexist.
7. It's really easy to pretend you know the words to old Scottish folk songs.
8. When you order an "Alabama Slammer" in Edinburgh, say it in a really bad southern accent, and you get it at a discount. Good to know.

What else is going on...I went to St. Giles Cathedral yesterday (see picture). I finally did my laundry, and it was ridiculously expensive (like 3 pounds)! I also went back to this sandwich shop I found in New Town one of my first days here, and I had really good pumpkin soup. The weather was so weird today - it was kind of cold, but really sunny and nice, and then all of a sudden it started snowing! Crazy.

So, that's it for now. I'm off to London tomorrow to see Alex and Mark...I'm so excited!
Xoxo Pam

Weekend in Cumbria, England

Hello, all. I spent the past weekend in the county of Cumbria, England on my homestay. It was great - the family was really nice (they had a very cute 10 year old boy and made me really good food) and they took us around the area. These pictures are of me with the family and some people on my program in the Lakeland Region, which is absolutely gorgeous, the town of Keswick (a cute little market town) and the village of Shap (where the family lived...lots of sheep, not much else). You can see more pictures on Webshots (community.webshots.com/user/pamelalachman).

The weekend was fun - five of the people from the Parliamentary Internship program went on a homestay with a bunch of different families in the area, and I was by myself in the house. John and Tom (two guys on my program) had a more intense experience - their homestay mom was diabetic, and became really low on blood sugar while driving them around the middle of nowhere (they had to flag down a guy on a tractor to get her a Coke) and then took them out clubbing at night. My family wasn't quite so exciting (although they did introduce me to a fabulous television program called "Jam and Jerusalem").

Anyway, classes are still going well (I have to give a presentation of Scottish voting behavior tomorrow...woohoo). Today is a very "dreicht" day in Edinburgh (dreicht means really rainy and generally crappy and cold), which kind of sucks. The weather usually isn't so bad - it rains in the morning, is cloudy around noon, and then clears up for a couple of hours at the end of the day. And it's DEFINITELY not that cold (it's like 40 degrees every day).

Last night a few of us went to watch the Football Playoff games - it was so pathetic, we were walking around all of these pubs asking "do you know where they are playing the American football game?" and watching the bartenders look at us like, "um, no, but fancy some rugby?" We finally found a sports bar playing the Patriots/Chargers game, and we got there just in time to see the Patriots win :( And then the bar closed before the Giants/Packers game was finished, so we were generally unsuccessful. Oh well.

Alright, miss everyone tons! Keep me posted on what's going on with you all (e-mail, call, skype, whatever).
Pam

(P.S. I tried peanut butter - it's really not that bad, thank god.)

The Pubs

So, I think you're all probably interested in the pub scene in Edinburgh. It's pretty great - there are a lot of authentic Scottish pubs with names like Greyfriars Bobby Bar and Maggie Dickson's. Actually, there's a crazy story about Maggie Dickson. She was this woman who lived in Edinburgh in the 1700s. She got knocked up and concealed her pregnancy, which was apparantly a crime back then...so they hung her. Well, the Scots were not very good at hanging people, because after they buried her someone heard banging coming from her grave. At that point, people realized she was a pretty cool lady and not only let her live, but named a pub after her! And then about 250 years later, there I sit, having a pint in her honor.

There are also a lot of Irish pubs in Edinburgh, and they are super fun. They have live music on most nights, which is great - just imagine: a fiddler and a guy playing an accoustic guitar and singing "Play That Funky Music White Boy." I kid you not. So far, I've been hanging out with Americans for the most part (some of them are in the Parliamentary Internship program with me, and others are attending the University), but we've met a few Scottish people as well.

This morning I went to see the Castle, which was fun. There are really nice views from the top (although not the best views in Edinburgh). The odd thing was the sleeping quarters for the prisoners of war were nicer than the sleeping quarters for the soldiers! Way to take care of your own, Scotland.

I also stopped in The Elephant House for a baked potato and chili (a Scottish dish that I actually like). For those of you who are not Harry Potter fans, The Elephant House is the cafe where JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book. It's actually a really cute place, and they let you read and hang out there for as long as you want.

Well that's about it for now. I think I successfully uploaded a few photos to this post, and I put some more up on Facebook. This evening I'm off to Shap, in Northern England, for my homestay. I'll let you all know how that goes.

Anything crazy going on in the States? FYI, the Super Tuesday primaries are on Feb 5 (New York holds its primary on that day). If you're not going to be in the state where you're registered to vote on the day of your primary, send in an absentee ballot request ASAP. Don't think that just because I'm in Scotland you can escape my political rantings :)

Miss everyone.
Pam

How Hard Is It To Post Pictures?!

Alright, because I couldn't figure out how to post pictures on this blog, I uploaded them onto my Webshots account. You should be able to access them by going to this URL: http://community.webshots.com/user/pamelalachman

Here is a description of the photos (because I couldn't figure out how to write in captions as I downloaded them...see what I mean about technologically inept?): Pictures 1-6 I took while walking around New Town (the area that has a lot of the museums/monuments and shops). Pictures 7-12 are of the view from Calton Hill. Pictures 12-14 are random - one of them is a picture of the band I saw playing at Dropkick Murphys (that's the name of the pub, not the band). The fiddler was amazing. Pictures 14-23 are of Arthur's Seat and the view from the top of it. Pictures 24-26 are also random pictures I took while walking around the city in the evening (p.s. evening in Edinburgh is around 4pm).

I hope you all look at the photos...especially the ones of Arthur's Seat. Here's a little trivia for all of you interested in British History (i.e. Julie): during the Scottish Enlightenment, Adam Smith and a number of other thinkers would walk up Arthur's Seat and discuss their various controversial views/writings (since they couldn't really discuss them anywhere else). The path they walked up is the path I walked up on Sunday.

Anyway, I'm pretty settled at this point. I met everyone else in my program yesterday when classes started. I've had two classes so far - I have to say, it is much harder to get bored in these classes because I love listening to the Professors' English/Scottish accents! Unfortunately, I found out it's going to be a bit harder than I anticipated to travel in the next five weeks. We have all of these activities to do on Thursday and Friday afternoons, so it will be difficult to take long weekends. Also, we have to stay in Edinburgh for two weeks before the internship starts in order to meet with our potential MSPs (and that was the time period I planned to travel a lot). Still, I'll work it out.

A couple of negatives: so far, Scottish food is really bad. Everything tastes different (and not in a good way). And someone told me even peanut butter tastes bad! How can peanut butter possibly taste bad?! I'm too scared to try it, for fear that I will be turned off PB&J forever. Also, I have no water pressure in my shower (but on the plus side, I'm saving water...shout out to Mark!)

I think that's it for now. Let me know what you think of the pictures, and please post comments so I can hear what you think of the blog - does anyone have any suggestions for improving it? Shall I start writing haikus like Rosie O'Donnell? :) Also, did anyone watch The L-Word on Sunday night? Mom and Lillie, I'm depending on you two.

Lots of love,
Pam

The First Few Days

Ok, so I'm trying to start a blog to keep everyone updated on my life in Edinburgh. It seems simple enough, but I'm somewhat technologically inept, so we'll see.

The first few days have been kind of chaotic - I was in a hotel for the first few days for orientation, which sucked, and then I moved into my flat on Friday. It's kind of a wierd setup. I have three flatmates, and we all have different rooms and share a common kitchen and bathroom. It's not really like suites at Hopkins, because the common area is kind of off to the side and the doors close automatically (i.e. it's hard to be social). But whatever, I'll get a doorstop. My room is fine, but it looks out onto the loudest street ever, so I need earplugs to sleep at night. And now I have internet access - yay!

I spent yesterday and today walking around the city. I can't even describe how beautiful it is. Wherever you look, there is an amazing view of some incredible architecture or scenery. Yesterday I walked up to Calton Hill, and at the top you have a fantastic view of the whole city and mountains in the background. I'll post pictures soon. Today I hiked (yes, hiked) up Arthur's Seat, which was really intense but beautiful. I'm definitely going to do that again. Other than that, I've just been walking around the city and going out at night, trying to get a sense of everything and meet new people. My classes start tomorrow, so I'll have more news in the days to come.

I miss everyone. Xoxo.
Pam