Currently Listening Lost and Safe By The Books see related

A Note on Scottish Cuisine

I’ve discovered now that it’s probably a good thing that I haven’t been eating purely Scottish cuisine for the entire trip, otherwise I think I would have gained about 20 pounds by now. There are some local eateries that will batter just about anything you give them. Battered fish, battered kebabs, battered sausage, even battered pizza (which is absolutely abhorrent). Eat just one of these delightful treats and it completely covers for your 2500 calorie a day diet. It’s certainly a much cheaper way to eat on a price per calorie basis, but it’s just not the diet for me. I have had a few dishes that have been quite good, though they’re still not very good for the heart. Haggis and black pudding are both quite tasty, but it’s probably best not knowing what's in them if you’re ever planning on trying either one.

I took a trip down to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, this past weekend which didn’t start off too well. Our bus broke down midway, so we had to wait for a replacement and we were then diverted from our main route due to a bridge closure and then got stuck in a traffic jam due to a bad accident. That turned the 3 ½ hr bus ride to 6 hrs of general craziness. Edinburgh is a fantastic city that definitely made up for the long trip down. A large castle is perched on a hill at the center of town and the hills throughout downtown remind me a lot of downtown San Francisco, only with building hundreds of years older and dozens of small alleyways and passageways that just beckon you to stray from the main streets. The town is a bit too touristy in a few areas, but there are its hidden gems. I discovered this nice pub near downtown that had several musicians fiddling and playing all sorts of Celtic music with almost everyone singing along in a place that couldn’t hold more than 25 people packed like sardines. Go Lonely Planet Guides for giving an extensive list of just about everything to do and see in Scotland!

The weekend before I participated in a highland folk danced known as a Ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee) at the Aberdeen Music Hall where a folk band played and hundreds of people danced to all sorts of Scottish and Irish jigs and reels. It was so much fun! I was definitely one of the only guys that evening not dressed in a full kilt outfit with all the accessories (sadly the whole outfit would cost me at least $300)  I’ll have to find a way to possibly rent an outfit before I go.

Currently Listening �g�tis Byrjun By Sigur R�s see related

Update

I decided to go as a member of Blue Man Group for Halloween and go all out this year. Check out the damage:

Had a lot of fun “making the costume” but let me tell you that the beginning of winter is definitely one of the worst times to shave your head.

Had an incredible hike near the town of Glencoe in the western end of Scotland this past weekend. Let me first say that it was definitely the worst hiking conditions I’ve ever experienced. I’ve realized that there are very few clear, good weather days in Scotland. It was raining pretty much non-stop throughout most of the trek, visibility was often no more than 50 ft, 300 ft at best and we got lost on several occasions due to the complete lack of a proper trail and incredibly steep and thus mostly inaccessible slopes. I was with a group of 11 other hikers and we were trying to summit one of the nearby Munros known as Bidean nam Bian and then follow the ridge of this mountain to a nearby Munro called Stob Coire nam Beith. We hiked on, but never found the summit, later finding out that we had hiked right to the middle ridge between the two without hitting either one. The weather continued to deteriorate and we found ourselves at a dead end, forcing us to turn back the way we came a hike downhill in the rain on a slope that was an average of about 45 degrees or steeper. The storm finally lifted during the last hour giving stunning views of the surrounding mountains, many still masked by dense, low-hanging clouds. I guess I could maybe say that I hiked 2 Munros halfway or one overall, but I doubt that would fly. Current Monro count: still 1. My clothes still have yet to fully dry from that hike.

I’ve been putting a bit more time volunteering with the Creative Waste Exchange, but I have a troubling feeling that the organization will never really catch on in any large capacity. I’d love to see a program like this in the Boston area that would reuse office supplies donated office supplies and other items that would otherwise go to the landfill and many people think that it’s a great idea in concept. The only problem is that people typically like and prefer having new things. I’ve been doing a lot of PR for the group over the past few weeks and that seems to be what I’m repeatedly finding. Though lots of people would love to help out a reduce waste, they’d much prefer to pay an extra few pounds to get something nice and new rather than a secondhand  item with some random business logo on the front. It’s only the rare few that will actually go out and actually get these reused items, either to do their part to reduce their own consumption of resources or simply, and more likely, to save money. It seems like it will forever be destined to exist as just a small niche market. I’m alright with that, it’s just I think it would still be nice to see this sort of program in the mass market.

I was listening to an interesting talk online the other day from the TED conference by Barry Schwartz where he talks about choice. He’s done some resource over the past few years on how when we’re given more choices we typically become unhappier by the outcome than when we have little choice, because we often feel that we didn’t make the “right” choice. It’s like if we have little choice we try to make the best of what we get in the end, but when given lots of choices it’s more likely to incapacitate us and we often focus on the negative aspects of out choice and regret our final decision. I can think of many occasions where that’s been true for me. The irony is that when given an option between having lots of choices and then only a few, people obviously go for being able to have more choices, even though it may make them unhappier in the end. Funny how the mind works. TED definitely has some of the best, more inspiring speeches I’ve ever heard. Check them out if you haven’t already at http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/index.cfm?flashEnabled=1. They add a few new talks every week. You’ll come away from them totally inspired.

Currently Listening Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia By The Dandy Warhols see related

Scottish Highlands

One Munro done, 283 to go! Had a fantastic hike up to Lochnagar in central Scotland this weekend despite absolutely atrocious weather. The day started out nicely but quickly deteriorated to steady 20-30 mph winds and several spats of rain while we were climbing over a 6 hr period. Wind chill brought the temperature down to the mid-20s, but the view from the summit made it all worth the hike. The countryside is so usual here, like somewhere between the mountains of New Zealand, the outback of Australia with a bit of the Rockies thrown in.  There's such a beauty to the place, though. I could just send hours sitting atop one of the hills watching the small, golden shrubs covering the landscape make slow, undulating waves with the passing breeze.

Went to Stonehaven on Sunday and took another much shorter hike along the coast to Dunnottar Castle, an old ruin near the city at the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea. I’ve got some more photos up at http://photos.yahoo.com/enviro0025. I went with a group of French exchange students and I’ve run into so many recently that I think I’ve been exposed to more French speaking than English while being in Scotland. I’m overjoyed actually since I was hoping that I’d run into other spoken languages aside from English while I was here (I was expecting Gaelic, but French is great too). Sadly, my French is still very poor.

I found a really interesting website called Gapminder (http://www.gapminder.org/- kudos to Mel and Matt Ritter for originally finding a site linked to it) that shows graphically differences in health and income throughout the world. It really shows some of the misperceptions that I know I at least had about much of the rest of the world and helps in putting everything in perspective. Definitely a site to check out.

Currently Listening Dark Side Of The Moon By Pink Floyd see related

One Week In Aberdeen

Alas!!! RGU has a climbing wall at its gym so I can finally start climbing again! It’s been far too long. Time to say hello to sore forearms...

I have a feeling I’m going to be spending most of my time with the Robert Gordon outing club as they have some trip headed to the highlands pretty much every weekend for quite some time. They also over some winter survival and wilderness first aid classes that I’m really tempted to take. It’s popular in Scotland to try and tackle the Monros, a Monro being any peak in Scotland over 3000 feet. There are a total 284 mountains under this distinction, many that are close in distance to one another so it’s possible to tackle them all in a few months if someone really tries. I definitely not in any sort of physical shape, have the time or enough mountaineering skill to try to do them all, but I’d like to try and bag a few at least while I’m here.

I came across this great little organization in Aberdeen called the creative waste exchange (http://www.creativewasteexchange.org). They take surplus goods that would normally be thrown out by local businesses and recycle it into basic office supplies like stationary, notebooks, pencils or whatever other items they can create from the materials they have. They then sell these supplies really cheaply primarily to students in the area, who pay a small fee to get access to the cheap deals. It’s run almost entirely by volunteers and I think this sort of group would be great to have in the Boston area. Boston is nearly 10 times as large as the Aberdeen area and they’re many more college students that could act as either potential customers or volunteers. There’s already the Massachusetts Materials Exchange (http://www.materialsexchange.org/), which gives businesses a chance to trade or give away excess materials that they have and I’m sure that they are many organizations already dealing with the disposing of excess goods as well as others that work on recycling old goods into new products. It would just be a matter of linking these groups together. I’ll probably start volunteering with the group next week to learn more about the organization and see if maybe a similar program could be started in Boston.

I think I got as close as I’m going to get to failing the Olin Challenge yesterday. I randomly ran into a girl who worked with Dylan for the semester while he was here two years ago. I think I’d call it failing the Olin Challenge to the 2^nd degree.

Currently Reading The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays: Salome; Lady Windermere's Fan (Signet Classics) By Oscar Wilde see related

Well I've finally arrived in Aberdeen Scotland, my new home for the next 3 1/2 months. I’ve been here for only 2 days and I can already hear the Scottish accent trying to work its way into my speech. I’m pretty much all settled with orientation now, so I’ve got a good week before classes start to just loiter around. Haven't quite gotten the nerve to try haggis or any of the other traditional Scottish dishes yet, but I'm sure I will at some point. Venison is quite popular hear though and I’m definitely going to have to get some of that. Aberdeen seems like a pretty nice place, generally friendly people and I’ve met a few of the other international students, mostly people from Africa or France who want to practice their English.

 This semester is going to rock. I’ve got 2 student led design project classes and a design for manufacture class and a product operations management class that I’ll be taking as well. In the UK, everyone signed up for a particular program takes the exact same classes together typically in a single room, so it'll be am interesting semester.

I’ve got all my pictures up for now from Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels and Paris. Pictures of Scotland will be up in a few days and trickling in throughout the semester.

 http://photos.yahoo.com/enviro0025

 I nearly had my laptop bag stolen while I was in Brussels (complete with my laptop camera and other electronics goodies). I was waiting at the post office at the train station and decided to put down my bag briefly because I had been lugging it around for a good 3 hrs. When I looked down again it was gone and I saw a man briskly walking away with it a few meters behind me. I was able to chase after him and snatch my bag back, but I was so pissed at the end of it.

Brussels was quite nice and I highly recommend the waffles or chocolate shops to anyone who goes there. The restaurants do tend to be a little expensive, though. Paris was also quite incredible as well though I felt a bit rushed only having a day to explore the city.

 I did get to practice my French in Brussels and Paris and quickly realized how much I had forgotten in the 3 years since high school. I was able to carry out some basic conversations, but at some points I just resorted to English to make things a bit easier for everyone. It is a language that I’d like to get better at (again) and I’ve already found a few French students here that offered to help me out.

 I ventured to try Ryan Air, a rather sketchy low fare airline that provides flights throughout Europe, and ended up having to take a bus to a small airport an hour outside of Paris and wait for another 5 hrs while my flight to Glasgow, Scotland was delayed. From there I had to take another hour long train to get into Glasgow city and that was pretty much my day. I’m starting to think that the convenience of a major airport wins out over Ryan Airs $20 flights, but I still might take them in the future.

By the way, Oscar Wilde is amazing. I love his dry wit, incredible writing style and philosophical comments on the nature of art. I highly recommend any of his writings.