Norway and Dublin

Hey everyone! I hope you braved the storm and most of you are getting power back! If not, head over to the Fletcher's we have a generator!!

Last weekend, I spent the weekend just outside Oslo, Norway, visiting one of my old au pairs, Helene! It was sooo great to finally be able to see where she lives and meet her family and friends! I arrived Friday evening and we spent the night catching up and eating real food!! Saturday, we spent the day in Oslo! We met her sister, Hanne, and she walked around in the pouring rain with us all day! We did some shopping, saw the castle and walked around the harbor! I think Oslo may be the most beautiful city, despite the cold rain! Saturday evening, Helene's mother and brother came over to watch the kids and we went to a great little restaurant right on the water. We had lobster and sushi ...something I have been craving since I got here!!

On Sunday, we walked around her town and then went to her best friend's son's third birthday party. I was able to see how the Norwegians celebrate birthdays - much like our birthday partys - with a pirate themed party! I also got to talk to a lot of Helene's friends and saw one that had come to visit Helene and lived with us for a week!

It was so great to be able to spend the weekend catching up and seeing Oslo, I will definitely be going back to Norway!!

Helene's daughter Julie

Helene's son Emil

Helene and I :)

We also went through some old pictures from when Helene was with my family ....

Fletcher family at its best

This past weekend I went to Dublin with my friend Devin! We spent the weekend sightseeing and experiencing the culture. We hopped on the hop on, hop off bus and went to St. Patricks Cathedral, Kilmainham Jail, the Guinness Storehouse and Trinity College. We also got to experience some of the culture, exploring several different pubs and trying Ireland's best beers!! I wish we had more time to be able to explore some of the countryside .... next time!

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Kilmainham Jail

Guinness Factory

I am hanging around Edinburgh this weekend and then headed to London next weekend to see another au pair, Linda, and do some Christmas shopping! It will be great to see how Edinburgh does Halloween tonight ... I will keep you posted!

The Highs and Lows of the Highlands

The first weekend of October the IFSA Butler team organized a trip for our program to go on a tour through the highlands. It was jam packed with activities and we were on a tight schedule trying to get to all of the scheduled destinations.

We departed from Edinburgh at 7:30 am Friday morning and headed North. Our first stop was the Hermitage, Dunkeld to hike to a waterfall on the River Braan.

We departed from the waterfall and continued to drive North, stopping in Pitlochry for lunch. We then arrived at Blair Castle, which is said to have been started in 1269. Inside the castle, all of the rooms were decorated with most of the same furniture that was used in the house. It was decorated beautifully with extravagant moldings and embroideries. It looked exactly like the castle in Downton Abbey. There were also beautiful gardens with a big pond, and several statues.

After we departed Blair Castle, we had a 2 hour drive to our hostel in Inverness. The hostel, which was more like a hotel, was huge and able to accommodate all 110 of us! We had pizza delivered to the hostel for dinner and walked into town to explore Inverness.

The next morning, we departed the hostel for Culloden Battlefield, the site of the last pitched battle to place in the United Kingdom in 1746.  The English defeated the Jacobite soldiers, all members of several different Scottish clans, and kilts and bagpipes were ban in Scotland for years to come.

We then traveled to Leault Farm to watch a sheepdog display and learn more about Scottish farming. Neil had 24 sheepdogs that he trained himself, all with individual whistle commands. The dogs can gather the sheep and keep them together from the walk back to the barn. Neil also competes with his dogs. The competition includes one dog having to slalum 3 sheep in between cones in the fastest amount of time. Neil is the most decorated trainer in all of Scotland and has won over 50 competitions. Neil's wife is American. She was studying abroad in Scotland and decided she wanted to stay and live on a farm. She ended up marrying Neil and they now have 3 kids, and all 24 dogs are welcome in the house. I can't imagine how much dog hair must be in that house. At the end of the demonstration, they brought out puppies that were only 2 weeks old!

After the sheep farm, we went to the town of Aviemore, UK's most visited ski resort during the winter months, for lunch. We then departed for the Glenfiddich Whiskey distillery, where we got a tour of the distillery, learned about how they brewed their whiskey, and had a taste testing. Glenfiddich is now the world's best selling single malt. It is sold in 180 countries and makes up 35% of all global single malt sales.

After the distillery, we returned to the hostel, quickly changed and departed for dinner as a group. All 110 of us were able to eat in the same restaurant, although, it wasn't one I will be taking my parents back to! After dinner, we hung out in the hostel for the night.

Our last activity on our tour through the highlands was a cruise on the Loch Ness, which is the deepest and 2nd largest loch in Scotland. We were all on the lookout for Nessie, the loch ness monster, though there were no sightings of her.

On our way back down to Edinburgh, we stopped at Glencoe and had a beautiful view of the Three Sisters. 

It was a great trip, with good weather and tons of things to see. It got even better when 30 minutes into the drive home, someone puked on the bus............

pictures from Norway and Dublin to come soon!! 

A Little Bit of Home

Hi everyone!

These last two weeks have been filled with more activities and lots and lots of eating! Two weekends ago, we had a homestay with a British family. Myself and 3 other American students were matched with a family of artists living in Carlisle, England. The mother was a homemaker while the father was an illustrator and illustrated for magazines such as Rolling Stones and the Times. He is now retired and has been doing several freelance pieces of Carlisle. I am no expert, but he is extremely talented. They have two children, Lydia and Lawrence, both of whom still live at home and were extremely friendly while we picked their brains about growing up in England. Lydia has become quite successful after designing "sick bags" for the royal wedding. She even made it on the Rachel Ray show at home! She is also planning her first visit to the states and plans on staying in New York City. I was able to draw her a map of everything she should see and am hoping she will have time to come stay at home with me for a day or two! Check out her website at lydialeith.com!

We arrived Friday evening with dinner on the table, Tina was a fantastic cook (or maybe our own poor cooking over the past few weeks made her's seem ten times better!). I feel like the majority of the weekend was spent eating. After each meal we had tea, and of course you can't have tea without any shortbread cookies or chocolate.

On Saturday we went to Hadrian's wall, a 15 foot stone wall that was built in 122 AD by the Romans. The wall runs from coast to coast, separating England and Scotland. Each mile there was a fort built and we were able to see the ruins of one of the largest forts built, with a priory and little community.

Our Homestay group on a piece of the wall

The Priory

On Sunday, we walked into the town of Carlisle and went through the Carlisle Castle and Cathedral and explored the town center, which was filled with gardens and shops!

Carlisle Castle with our Homestay Father, Paul

This weekend Haly and I went to St. Andrews to visit Abby, a friend that I graduated high school with. St. Andrews was a beautiful little university town, with the famous beach, golf course and cute little shops. It was great being able to catch up with Abby and meet some of her friends from the university!

The beach at St. Andrews

Abby and I

This weekend we are headed on a tour of the Highlands in search for the Loch Ness Monster with the whole IFSA Butler group!

50th Birthday Parties, Weddings, and Arthur's Seat

Sorry it has been so long since my last post, it feels like these past two weeks have been a complete whirlwind of events.

Last Saturday night, one of our new English friends decided he was going to take us on a tour of Edinburgh so we could see all the different night life options we had to choose from. We all thought it would be a great idea seeing that we had no idea where to go, and our program directors certainly weren't going to explain the nightlife and condone our party habits. When he arrived to pick us up, he informed us that he was taking us to his friend's father's 50th birthday party. At first, we were all very against it, complaining that it would be so awkward to walk into a stranger's house for a party. Eventually, he convinced us, and we began our 30 minute walk to "New Town", the part of the city that was most recently built (and by recently, we're talking 19th century new). We walked up to this beautiful town house and began to get a little excited to see what true Scottish parties were like and meet a few of the locals. However, with one boy and 8 American girls, we still found the situation to be very uncomfortable. Once we stepped into the Disco themed party, all of our fears vanished as the birthday boy himself greeted us and welcomed us to Edinburgh. He encouraged us to join in all of the festivities and could not have been more welcoming. It was a great cultural experience! Nothing says Scotland like a twelve year old taking a double shot of whiskey with his mom!

We also took a trip and explored Edinburgh Castle, a mid evil castle built in the center of the city.

Edinburgh Castle

Two of my flatmates, Sarah (Manchester) and Tara (Berlin)

 

We all shared this Haggis dish, a traditional Scottish dish. It is made of Sheep organs and oats and cooked in a sheep's stomach and served with whiskey sauce. Needless to say, I did not enjoy it, but I am happy I tried.

On Tuesday, Haly finally arrived after staying home for her brothers wedding. We had a day together until I traveled back over the pond and returned to Newtown for a wedding! It was great to see my family again (although, I didn't even miss them yet) and be able to grab anything and everything American that we couldn't find abroad. The weekend was filled with wedding activities from the rehearsal lunch (which morphed into a rehearsal dinner), 6AM wake up call for hair and makeup (unfortunately, it really did take us that long to get ready), pictures, and party time!!

The bride, Sarah, my family (minus Will) and my cousins!

The familyyy

Missing Willey

After packing my bag with pringles, goldfish, oreos, and ping pong balls (no one over here has ever heard of beer pong so we are bringing it to the UK!) I returned to Edinburgh for my first day of classes. The classes are very different and much more independent than at home so we'll see how that goes. I am taking two economics courses (eeek) and a European History class.


Today, Haly and I hiked Arthur's Seat. It was absolutely beautiful with panoramic views of the city, but much more difficult than I imagined. By the time we got to the top I had shed two layers and was sweating! I had finally remembered to grab a rain jacket (after getting caught in the rain almost everyday this week without one) and, of course, the sun stayed out all afternoon.
This weekend I go to Shap for a homestay. I will be staying with a family there and learning about their daily life and family traditions.

Here are a few photos from our hike

This is Arthur's Seat, at the very top of the mountain

Getting Settled

It has been a long couple of days! We took off from JFK airport on Tuesday night. The airport was a disaster! It took about an hour and a half just at the bag drop line, luckily for me it was so crazy they didn't charge people for overweight luggage! After racing through security and down the terminal with several other passengers, we find that they have delayed the flight. Thankfully, we did not miss our connection in London (where there happens to be about 10 different terminals, a 20 minute bus ride and 7 different security checkpoints).

When we arrived in Edinburgh, the IFSA Butler program staff were there to greet us and bring us to our orientation at the Apex international hotel in the grassmarket district. We spent two days there going through orientation, which consisted of very long discussions about the differences in the educational systems and what to expect during our next four months. We had a guest speaker, a Scottish policeman, who talked to us about safety. He was a riot and only made me more excited for my next few months. He began his lecture by saying "Welcome to Scotland, the home of the gingers. Gingers, welcome home, and blondes, you are just gingers in disguise." We also had the opportunity to meet everyone in the program, including students that will be studying at the University of Stirling, Glasgow, and St. Andrews. I also ran into a boy i graduated from high school with! He is in the same program and will be in Edinburgh for the remainder of the semester!

At orientation, we learned about the five stages of culture shock:

1. The honeymoon stage: This stage began far before I even arrived in Edinburgh, while I was packing and getting extremely excited for what lies ahead. It continued into Orientation, meeting everyone, and participating in several city tours and exploring Edinburgh. I was able to meet one of my flatmates at this time, Candace from California. She is a Waterpolo player at Claremont McKenna College and is super nice. The honeymoon stage quickly ended as we transitioned from our hotel to our flats.

2. The distress stage: We had just been dropped off on the side of the road hauling all of our luggage with no idea where our flats were located. We were given our address, mine being 3/4/5 Hermit's Croft, however we had no idea what any of the numbers ment. Luckily we ran into the two cutest little Scottish boys (both gingers) and they helped us find our accommodations. Next came the unpacking! our flats were furnished, however there were no hangers, linens, bedding, or utensils. We set off to find everything we needed, hoping to come across a target or something similar, however that was not the case. Although it was a Friday, everything in Edinburgh closes early and we found there were very few stores still open. We set off first thing the next morning and found ourselves taking a 30 minute public bus ride to Ikea and stocked up. However, Ikea is no target, and we still had several things on the list to find. After a full day of running around the city and dropping a lot of pounds, I was very fed up with the city and found myself wishing I was back home and able to go to Target! I decided that I will make my millions by opening a target (or something similar) in the UK! I also learned very quickly that no matter the whether when you leave your building, you must carry an umbrella or rain jacket. It was a beautifully Saturday morning (and let me say beautiful in Scottish terms is much different than beautiful in America, at least weather wise). When I say beautiful, it was about 60 degrees and cloudy, but still very bright with no hint that it may rain. by the time we walked about 5 minutes, it began to pour!

3. Re-integration: Upon returning from hours of shopping, I cam home to find that two of my roommates had moved into the flat. Tara is a first year at the University of Edinburgh and comes all the way from Berlin, Germany. She studied at boarding school at St. Andrews and is very independent for a freshmen (she even moved herself in alone!) there is no way I was moving myself into Vanderbilt my freshman year! Sarah is also a first year from Manchester and she arrived shortly after with her parents. They had a full car packed with everything, which reminded me much more of American college freshman. Immediately, she put her father to work rearranging her room and fixing everything in the flat (such a help)! It made me think of my own dad and how much he would be bitching at me and my mother if it was us! They are both studying at Edinburgh all four years.
After meeting the roommates and getting to know them, I fully unpacked and set up my room. It made me feel so much better once I got organized.

Here is a picture of my room and our building ....

Devin and Aly (girls from Vandy) and our new friend Katie (who is staying for the whole year!) from Davidson (and happens to be from CT as well, what a small world!) and me are going on a tour of the campus today and a ghost tour of the city tonight. Hopefully the weather holds out as it has yet to rain today!! Haly gets here on Tuesday and we are so excited for everyone to finally be here!

This week is "Freshers" week at the university, which is a week long orientation for the first year students with over 20 activities to choose from a day! As visiting students, we are invited to participate as well! Last night was a pub crawl throughout the city and we got to mingle with new people while checking out new pubs. How cool is it that their orientation revolves around drinking (much better than the icebreakers we have in the US). I will keep you all posted on the activities that are to come in the next couple of days!
Unfortunately, there have been no royal sightings thus far!

P.S. Check out some pictures of the city from me tours!

 A few views of old town

 Arthur's seat is in the background. It is an inactive volcano that sits on the edge of the city. There are many different hiking trails up it and I am sure we will be there one day this week.

 This is the Holyroodhouse Palace, or The Queen's Palace. This is where the Queen stays while she is in Edinburgh. There is a special flag that flies above the palace if the Queen is there! (Note: this is a beautiful day in Scotland!)

 This is Edinburgh Castle built in the 15th century. It is located in the center of the city. Edinburgh was built around the castle.

 Although you can't really see it, this is the Balmoral Hotel, also known as the Harry Potter Hotel because it is the hotel that J.K. Rowling checked into to write the last chapter or the final Harry Potter book. Upon leaving, she signed the forhead of a statue in her room. It reads "JK Rowling finished writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this room (552) on 11th Jan 2007".  It now costs 1,000 pounds a night to stay in the exact room!

Failure to Pack

Hello! For those of you that don't know, I am heading to Edinburgh, Scotland to study abroad for the semester at the University of Edinburgh. I am beyond thrilled to be given this experience and get to explore Scotland, the United Kingdom, and hopefully more of Europe throughout the next 4 months.

I'm sorry, did I say I was going to the University of Edinburgh?? I meant to say I will be attending Hogwarts this fall.

I hope to keep you all informed of the adventures that will take place and (hopefully) all the royalty sightings that I see in the next 4 months. My goal for this blog is to actually type words and prevent it from becoming a collage of photographs, however, I am an engineer for a reason!

My flight takes off from JFK airport in approximately 6 hours and I have yet to finish my packing. Trying to fit my wardrobe into two suitcases is nearly impossible, but I am determined to do so. How do you choose which shirts to leave behind?? Of course, I couldn't have picked a warm place to study in so all I'd have to bring is shorts, t-shirts, and some bathing suits.

Well, it is now T- 5 hours and 58 minutes to take off. I will talk to you from the other side of the pond!