sfumato321's Xanga

A Note on Scottish Cuisine

Tue, 21 Nov 2006 23:36:38 GMT

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.

Update

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 22:00:00 GMT

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.

Scottish Highlands

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 23:43:55 GMT

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.

One Week In Aberdeen

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 22:03:30 GMT

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.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Wed, 20 Sep 2006 23:07:20 GMT

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.

Europe Part 1

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 19:04:12 GMT

Well, today marks the 6th day on the road and I've found Europe to be simply amazing. I arrived in Amsterdam on the 7th and spent the first two days there. The city is full of picturesque canals, parks, gardens and museums scattered throughout the city and I spent most of my time just wandering around from place to place. It's such a quant city and it's one city that I could possibly see myslef living in one day. I've got pictures of my travels for the first few days below. I'll be adding captions soon and I promise that future pictures will include me as well.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/enviro0025/album?.dir=3a5fre2

I was amazed in Amsterdam by how many people regularly bike there. I saw everyone from mothers and fathers with their kids on a single bike to age 70+ people riding around. It's the primary mode of transportation for about 30% of the population and there are at least 600,000 bikes in Amsterdam alone. This is a culture that has truly embraced the bike as a means of travel and you can easily see the results on the road where often more space is devoted to bike lanes and parking spots than for cars.

The whole experience also got me thinking that for the past year with the Human Powered Vehicle team, we worked on developing a bike that we idealistically hoped could "change the world": one that was so desireable, functional and safe that people would immediately sweep it up and bikes would become much more common as more people chose the bike as their primary means of getting around. We were hoping that new technology would bring about a greater desire for using bikes and that this would start a new "biking revolution". I realize now that in many ways were were greatly mistaken. Even if we designed the "perfect bicycle" we still live in a culture where the bicycle cannot effectively compete with the car. Just look at our overcrowded roads, the massive parking lots of our shopping centers and spread out suburban homes. Our cities largely grew with the introduction of the car and now in most areas we've become fully dependent on it. I'd love to use a bike for almost al my travels, but at times it's just to frustrating, terrifying or downright dangerous to travel in many areas by bike. When you look at Dutch cities, though, it's a whole different story. Bicyclists are so numerous that I'd be afraid of riding a car around in Amsterdam for fear that i'd be overrun by cyclists (seriously). We can't become a biking culture until we lessen our dependence on the automobile and make our road much friendlier to cyclists, something that we're still far from doing. I think we have a few things we can learn from the Dutch.

On the 9th, I arrived in Berlin and stayed through the 12th. Berlin seems to have the variety of NYC in many ways, but also has it's own unique charm. I only got lost in the city once and now I at least know a bit of German, though I still can't correctly pronounce certain words even if my life depended on it. I found the people to be very friendly, the food was amazing and the beer was phenomenal. I can now see why some of the most well know beer festivals in the world take place in Germany. Some good brews that I'd recommend:

Alsterwasser: A mix of a good light beer know as pils and lemonade that's quite refreshing (yes I just recommended a light beer and no I'm not joking, it's in fact quite good).

Beck's Green Lime: A light beer flavored with lime that takes very much like a corona. Not bad.

Sweihenstephaner Weizenbiere Dankel: The one dark beer I tried considering Germany focuses more on light beers, but definitely one of the best I've ever tasted. Rich and smooth without being overwhelming.

Believe it or not, there was also a Becks beer that doubles as an energy drink. Very odd. Never got to try it, though. Berlin has some very nice museums as well and I'd strongly recommend also visiting one of the turkish restaurants in "Little Istanbul".

Brussels has been an entirely different matter. I arrived by high speed train this afternoon but was unable to find a working ATM for nearly 2 hrs. After finally finding one, I discovered that most of the local cafes were closed save a few very expensive restaurants and spent another hour looking and asking around for a more affordable restaurant. I'm just so exhausted now that I don't think I can do anything else tonight, but hopefully tomorrow will be better. I'll have pictures from Berlin and later Brussels up within the next few days. Will be in Scotland on the 17th to start classes. Phew, I think I've written more than enough... Hope all is well back at Olin.

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Thu, 08 Dec 2005 04:38:05 GMT

Facebook will be my downfall...

Monday, October 31, 2005

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 04:24:10 GMT

In the spirit of it all, 20 random facts about myself:

1. I'm a huge fan of different cheeses, coffees and teas.

2. I didn't buy my first cd until 9th grade and now I can't get enough of music.

3. I've been skydiving where tandem skydiving was first started and bungee jumping at the very first site for the sport. I hope to do both again, but bad weather has stopped me so far.

4. When I started rock climbing, I started looking at every structure around me in terms of whether or not I could climb it.

5. I hope to travel to every single country (yes, every single one) someday, because I feel each one has a unique story to tell.

6. I try to be respectful of most people's opinions and attempt to see where they are coming from because I feel that everyone has a logic or reason for why they do things that is typically appropriate, but often misinterpreted.

7. I can be extremely optomistic sometimes to the point where it seems like I'm naive, but I am also very much of a realist.

8. I've found that I often relate better to people that are older than me or from different cultures.

9. I'm great talking to people in small groups but tend to be less talkative when groups are larger. Conservely, I'm great when talking to hundred people or more at once.

10. My brother is almst my polar opposite in terms of look and personality but we get along great together.

11. I'm currently deciding whether to be a photographer, architect, designer, biologist, engineer, or some combination of the 5.

12. I've been in fewer than 5 big agruments in my life and feel like maybe there's something wrong with that.

13. I'm able to interact with many different social group but have never really felt fully a part of any one group.

14. Planning parties in high school was sometimes difficult considering than many of my friends couldn't stand one another.

15. I'm disgusted by how much is wasted in this world (space, resources) and want to do all I can to reduce that waste.

16. I enjoy nothing more than gazing out from a mountain top after a long hiking seeing nothing but natural, undeveloped surroundings as far as the eye can see.

17. My parents were hippies and were married by an Indian guru at a California ashram.

18. If I had the choice, I'd volunteer for the rest of my life.

19. I constantly need a complete change of environment every few months and feel bogged down if I don't get it.

20. I'd love to join the Peace Corps

Sunday, September 18, 2005

Sun, 18 Sep 2005 04:01:23 GMT

Phew! What a crazy week. On Monday I started working at Peet's Coffee and Tea over in Wellesley and immediately realized that my already limited freetime was going to go way down this semester. The job has been awesome, though. The first day I was given an hour long talk on the history of coffee along with 5 different coffee varieties for me to sample. They've got another 60 varieties of coffee and tea at the store and they want me to try all of them at some point to help customers buying coffee or tea in the future. I'm simply amazed by the variety of coffee and tea that's out there. Turns out Latin America coffees tend to be very acidic and are good for people who like strong coffee. African coffee has a bit of a nuttier and lighter taste to it while Indonesian coffees are generally really smooth and are the best kinds to go with milk or sugar. Mmmm, looks like I've found my source of caffeine for the semester.

Saw Citizen Kane for the first time this week. Definitely a incredible film in terms of screenplay and cinematography, especially for 1937, but I'm still skeptical to think of it as the best movie of all time.

Today was spent with the Olin Human Powered Vehicle team (group working to build a bicycle like vehicle for an ASME competition next spring) visiting the AltWheels festival over in Jamaica Plain. Dozens of alternatively fueled cars and plenty of nice bikes. Hopefully well get an Olin bike put together this spring and be able to show it off at next year's festival.

So much going on, not enough time...

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Tue, 06 Sep 2005 02:33:58 GMT

The North End in Boston is awesome. I was walking around the area with a friend yesterday and ended up going to this little Italian restaurant called Giacomo's, the one that always has a long line extending a block or two out front. Turns out it's this cheap, little Italian joint with ridiculously good food and really friendly service (basically everyone is native Italian there). I had the creamest, most satisfying pesto sauce I've ever tasted mixed in with fresh shrimp and chicken. Definitely the place to go in the North End and well worth the wait.

Another good place I found over the weekend was the Centre Street Cafe in Jamacia Plain. It has the environment of a sort of laid back, old-time diner, yet serves fairly fancy dishes and all kinds of asian food, with a specialty in stir-fry. Mmmm... So good to be back in Boston. Still have yet to try out the weekend dinner selection at the Olin dining hall.