Living on the Edge

Today, Heather invited me to go out for a "light jog" and we decided to go to Holyrood Park. This previously noted "light jog" turned out to be an epic adventure as we spontaneously decided ditch to the park and instead run up Arthur's Seat (a 350 million year old extinct volcano/a huge Highland-esque hill).

Exhibit A:

We didn't have our cameras with us (remember it was supposed to be a quick jog?) so thank you Google  for this picture of Arthur's Seat. To us at the time, it didn't look quite so..."wild" or very steep. In fact, it kind of looked rather small! 

So, we started to run up. It started getting challenging quite quickly but we kind of managed to run up the first bit and Heather totally dominated the foot-high stairs (me, not so much). We kind of started winding around and had to slow down when we got to the rock climbing part. Thank you one semester of P.E. rock climbing (like, really). I wasn't really sure what I was doing or where I was going but the view was absolutely fantastic.

Exhibit B:

There's the Scottish Parliament (at a lower elevation)

The peak

The peak was extremely windy and super awesome and a little scary at the same time. We touched the monument at the very top (I think it's 823 ft at the highest point) and then started our descent. We were attacked by these absolutely horrible prickly plants and we definitely went down the pro way because all those rocks and mud were not there for simple playtime. 

Exhibit C: 

Imagine this is us at the top!

Not really sure why, but I loved the soft grass on Arthur's Seat...

We finally made it down and made it in record time (14 minutes?) from Pollock to the front door of 4 Kincaid's...AND ran up the stairs. It was an epic adventure and I couldn't have done it without my Coach Heather :)

Alexis Bledel =/= Finn Hudson

AWESOME WEEKEND with my loves Katie, Katy, and Alison at Oxford!!! I am in love with the Williams-Exeter Program in Oxford (WEPO) house, people, and life. It was super nice to see Williams people again! I told Katie and Katy that when they do the information session for the upcoming WEPO students, I'm going to run in and yell out, "It's the best thing ever!!! Even if I didn't do it!"

I did a lot of walking, ran into a crowd of people wearing red trousers, met a guy at the pub who is best buds with a Williams kid we knew, followed the long ago paths of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis (they were good friends), and best of all we all got to catch up. Great times :) I didn't take that many pictures because when you're with the best, pictures don't do justice!

Actually inside Exeter College...special grass you can't walk on...

The College Chapel: it was so beautiful inside!!

Thames River

Port Meadows

Radcliffe Camera (one of the many libraries)

I can't wait for December when Katie (and hopefully Katy!) will visit Edinburgh! 

Home Sweet Homestay

This weekend, I went to Cumbria, England to stay with an English family. Their house was so cozy and charming and the food was absolutely divine. My host dad, Dave, was a therapist with a passion for the outdoors. He and one of his sons have cycled from the bottom of England to the tip of Scotland and he liked "fell running" or "mountain running." He also has done mountain marathons, which kind of sounded like Survivor. Annelise, my host mom, was a dance teacher originally from Denmark who also enjoys the outdoors. Both have traveled all over Europe and the Middle East and their sons (who weren't there) also sounded super cool. They were quite the awesome, athletic family.

The cozy house.

My housemate Abbe and I got there around eight in the evening. We were greeted with a great dinner: pea & mint soup with warm bread and a warm Danish pear and almond pudding for dessert. Yum! The next day, Annelise took us to the Lake District where we walked through a pretty park and saw the lake, Derwent Water. After, we went to Castlerigg aka a set of Neolithic stone circles (like Stonehenge, but much smaller).

Derwent Water

Abbe on Castlerigg's stone circle being scandalous :)

The view was incredible!

After, we went to a "chippy" where I had my first European meal of fish and chips! Then we went to the Puzzling Place, where we got our illusions on. It was mad trippy.

That evening, after a delicious meal of Dave's cottage pie and another Danish pudding (this time with apples and the works), Annelise taught the IFSA-Butler students how to circle dance in this quaint village hall. On our last day, Annelise took us on a two mile walk into the woods to see Lacy's Cave near the River Eden. It was a gorgeous walk, with a great lunch of all these different kinds of cheeses, breads, and Danish salads waiting for us at the end.

More beautiful views

Lacy's Cave

Then we said goodbye :(

Picture of the weekend fam! 

Overall, it was another great weekend! Now, I'm sitting here avoiding my Scottish Lit paper due tomorrow...or shall I say today. No worries, this is what coffee is for! On a much more exciting note, I can't wait to see Katie, Katy, and Alison in Oxford next weekend! I know great times await :)

500 Miles

This past weekend I traveled with other IFSA-Butler students to Inverness in the Highlands! My ipod died after about 2 minutes (typical) so I turned to the music on my phone. Wow, talk about the old days...flashback!

Any sort of mental stimulation was desperately needed; the first day on the bus was absolutely brutal. I had had almost no sleep the night before and seriously debated about the 25 minute walk to Pollock Halls at 7am. But I somehow dragged myself there (the walk involved a stand-off with a huge black cat that appeared out of thin air...good omens, eh?) and made it.

It was worth it! The Highlands = incredibly beautiful; the mountains and fields reminded me of Williams. We first stopped to see The Hermitage in Dunkeld:

Walking to see the falls..my Scottish version of Mountain Day?

The next highlight was arriving in Glenfinnan to watch the Jacobite Express cross the viaduct. Just to clarify, this is the train that takes all the lucky wizards and witches to Hogwarts! I am so sad I'm just a Muggle...

I was consoled by the beautiful scenery of Glenfinnan:

The next day we visited Culloden Battlefield. It was very misty and foggy, which really added drama to the experience:

To cheer us up from the sad battle stories, we next traveled to Kingussie to visit a sheepdog farm! It was really cool to learn that the sheepdog trainer was the guy who trained Babe the pig for the movie Babe! He has 18 adult sheepdogs that each have their own separate set of commands for right, left, stop, sit, lie down, etc. No dog will respond to another dog's whistle. Isn't that amazing?

He literally grabbed a sheep with one hand and flipped it over to shear it. BAMF.

He also had really cute lambs that loved our attention. We got to feed them!

But, what really got everyone squealing and going cray cray were the sheepdog puppies. The trainer brought them out in a bucket and started handing them out like candy. They were absolutely adorable!

They kind of looked like guinea pigs...

An older puppy eating my ear.

We somehow tore ourselves from the puppies and left the farm to visit the Glenlivet Distillery. It was really cool to learn how whisky is made. They have a couple of casks that will eventually be aged 50 years! So crazy (and expensive!). 

Maybe my water to whisky ratio was off but I thought this tasted NASTY. 

The last day of our trip, we visited Loch Ness. I think this was probably my favorite trip. We got on a boat and traveled across the huge lake, while trying to spot Nessie, and arrived at Urquhart Castle. The views were unreal! 

Before we left for Edinburgh, we stopped at Glencoe, which was spectacular. It was really sad to learn that this was where the English betrayed the MacDonald clan and their "Highland Hospitality," which resulted in what is now known as the Massacre of Glencoe.

Overall, the trip was a great way to see new parts of Scotland. I leave you all with this epic song (aka our trip's theme song) by The Proclaimers: 500 Miles.

The Power of Chocolate

One of the biggest changes I'm experiencing while being abroad is having to cook for myself. I'm not going to win Iron Chef anytime soon but I am getting better. One of my food highlights was when I finally made the cake I promised to Charlie when he made the jazz band (only after about a week of Charlie's stink eyes and Vuong's sexist comments).

True, much thanks needs to go to Betty Crocker:

BUT, there is much, much more going on here than what meets the eye.

I was stirring and mixing, doing my thang, when I ended up with more eggs than I knew what to do with. Now, an extra egg rolling around on the counter or in the fridge is a recipe for disaster in 4/6 (see Katchit! post below for some potential ideas) and there was no one around to eat it. So I just popped that sucker into the mix. But, the mixture suddenly became far too eggy and liquidy. Not good. I looked around in mild panic hoping for inspiration. I found it in the bars of chocolate I bought for the icing. I broke it up and just added it in. Problem solved!

The exciting part (at least for me) was when I made the icing. From scratch!

After reaching the end of the directions, I ended up with this:

Looks good, yes, but if I was making chocolate soup. It was not icing. Another "oh dear" moment. The answer to this conundrum? More chocolate!!!!

Ah, much better.


The final product!:

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory :)

So, the point of this post is: chocolate will solve anything. Middle East? Here, have another chocolate bar and hug it out.  Global warming? Scare people that cutting down the rainforest will result in no more chocolate. Just plain stressed? Give yourself some lovin' and grab some of this brown, sugary goodness.

Happy Kim!

As for "real food" posts......yeah. Maybe next time. Or maybe not.

KATCHIT! (if you can)

This extraordinary game deserves a post all its own. How can I describe it? The tense anticipation right before the bowler pitches the ping pong ball, the contemplative debates over the rules, the satisfying smack of a roofus....ah. A game developed by the Chairman Vuong Ngo and the fantastic 4/6, this, my friends, is quality.

Here are the official rules written by Elliot:

The first time I played, I got the highest score of the night! Woot woot! (Yeah this has not happened again...)

Some action shots:

I made Charlie throw so I could take this picture. 

"Swing, Heather, swing!!" Look at that hair. Whoosh!

Everyone getting ready for the actual game. "Look alive people!!"

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a trillion. Credits to Kim for filming this gem. A MUST WATCH! 

Who knew a couple of ping pong balls and a refrigerator shelf could produce endless hours of intense competition and pure fun?! Note Diane's "ROOFUS!" (when the ball hits the ceiling) and the classic ending.