Ari's Adventures Abroad: Week 15
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Ari's Adventures Abroad: Week 15

The week began stressfully, but ended magnificently in Edinburgh, Scotland.

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Ari's Adventures Abroad: Week 15
Ariana Puzzo

Halfway through the third block, life got real. All of a sudden, we had half a dozen different assignments that had to be completed before our program trip over the weekend to Edinburgh. What may be normal back home at Fairfield suddenly felt like the world was coming to an end. To top it off, we had registration for next semester back at Fairfield in the middle of the week. Despite the seemingly insurmountable stress, we found small ways to enjoy the week before heading off to Scotland for the weekend.

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

On Tuesday, Erin showed me St. George’s Gardens, which I had never seen before. The garden is near the Global Institute, and is set behind bushes so that it does not stick out to the random passerby. When stepping into the garden, the noise and chaos of the London streets immediately slips away, and it is the perfect place to relax on a warmer spring day.

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

My Gender, Race, Sexuality and Popular Culture class went to Tate Britain on Wednesday. To get there, we took the Southbound Victoria line to Pimlico station, and once we arrived at the museum, we went to the Queer British Art 1861–1967 exhibition. The exhibition was interesting and there was artwork throughout the centuries that was not necessarily displayed publicly at the time. There were also historical artifacts, such as Oscar Wilde’s prison door.

After leaving the museum, we went to Regents Park to do some work and so Erin could do Fairfield course registration. I would not be able to do my registration until after 8 p.m. London time that night, but when I finally did — and it was brutal despite registering as a senior — we then were able to return to Poppie’s Fish and Chips for Erin’s birthday dinner.

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Thursday was a long day because the night before, we wrote the majority of our 2,000-word midterm paper for our theatre course. That morning, we woke up early and went to the London Eye, something that we had waited so long to do. The view from the top of the Eye was pretty cool, particularly of Parliament, but it is safe to say that the Eye is one of those things that are hyped up by tourists and those trying to sell the $35 tickets.

Friday, April 21, 2017

Friday came all too soon as we woke up at 5 a.m. for our program’s final study tour in Edinburgh, Scotland. The program met outside of the King’s Cross clock tower at 6:30 a.m. and took an approximately 5-hour train ride at 7 a.m. As we were on the train, we saw cows grazing on open fields, as well as patches of yellow flowers. When we arrived at 11:30 a.m., we went to Safestay hostel to drop off our bags. The hostel was perhaps the nicest one that we have stayed at for the study tours. There is a lounge when you enter and as you walk further inside, there is a door and once you take two steps down, you enter a bar area where there are pool tables and booths. From there, another door is on the far end of the bar and that is where you can access the stairs to the rooms, which are decent in size and since we had a certain number of people, Erin and I managed to score an eight-person room to ourselves.

After leaving the hostel, we walked to Cosmo Authentic World Kitchen for lunch. It was buffet style with Chinese and American food options, and reminded me of something that we would encounter back in the U.S. We had one hour to kill after lunch, so the two of us walked to St. Giles’ Cathedral, which has existed for approximately 1,000 years, according to our walking tour guide who brought us back there later.

Once the hour was up, we returned to the front of a Subway restaurant and saw a street performer who said that he worked in Circus in Detroit. He was doing rope spinning with young boys in the crowd and was incredibly funny, making quick-witted comments that, despite being slightly lewd, had the crowd in hysterics. On the hour, we then met our tour guide Ben, who introduced himself as Irish, but said that his mother was from Chicago, which meant that he voted in the 2016 Presidential Election. Studying law for the past 10-months in Edinburgh, he was incredibly energetic and had the entire group engaged from the beginning when we all thought that he was a bit crazy to the end of our tour.

Our first stop was the Royal Mile, where we originally met him. He told us that there used to be water on the ground that we stood upon 350 million years ago and it was also volcanic at one point in history. The Royal Mile was also host to filming for the upcoming 2018 Avengers film, which we would see more of as the weekend progressed. Next, our guide brought us to the home of James Douglass and told us about him, which was disturbing to say the least. Our next stops were Mercat Cross and Heart of Midlothian, the latter a place where people spit on the heart to show their disdain for the former prison that was located there. However, now it is considered to be good luck to spit on the heart. We also saw the Writers Museum and the trick step on the exterior of the building that was there to warn the previous residents of any potential intruders.

We then went to Grass Market, which Ben said used to be full of livestock, and saw from a distance the street that inspired Diagon Alley in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. As we continued to walk, we learned about Margaret Dickson, or “Half Hangit Maggie”, who was hanged for infanticide after she was impregnated out of wedlock and murdered her newborn baby to try and hide the controversy. However, despite hanging for the customary 30 minutes, when her coffin was being taken away, the driver stopped when he heard a noise and saw that she was struggling to get out of the box. Seen as divine intervention, she was pardoned and returned to work in the pub that remains in Edinburgh. Ben also suggested that Dickson might have served as inspiration for Rowling’s character of Nearly Headless Nick. The last place that we visited for the day was Greyfriars Graveyard. Ben told us about how there were cages on many of the graves in order to prevent grave robbing of bodies for the use of medical professionals and students.

Later that night, we went to dinner on our own at No. 1 Bar and since we got up so early that morning to arrive, many of us stayed in for the night and went to bed relatively early.

Saturday, April 22, 2017

The day started at 9 a.m. at the National Museum of Scotland. When we arrived at the museum, we had to wait until it opened at 10 a.m. and we learned about the background of the Scottish government while standing in the frigidly cold weather (likely responsible for the cold that I developed and am suffering from as I now write this piece). Once we finally entered the museum, we saw many different rooms that held the history of Scotland and all that it has achieved over many centuries. The first room that we saw had numerous machines that were incredibly cool and high-tech for the time in which they were developed. There was an original printing press and an atom smasher that were so impressive to see how far technology has developed in our cultures.

The second room that we went into was a planetarium, where we saw a model of a mineral giant and an ice age meteorite. There was also a room off of that consisting of different types of animals, including margay, elephant, insect and kangaroo breeds. The final room that stood out was one that focused on energy, light and color. There was a wheel that you could run inside of like a hamster to create energy, which seems easy, but is much more difficult than anticipated. Afterwards, we got some beverages in the Botany Café on the top floor of the museum before leaving to head to lunch.

We had lunch at Howies, which was absolutely delicious. We had the choice before we left for Edinburgh to either eat at an Indian restaurant or a Scottish restaurant, so we went for the latter, and it was a great choice. For my starter, I ordered the Cullen skink, which is a type of broth consisting of Scottish smoked haddock, leeks, potatoes and cream chowder with freshly baked bread. For my main course, I had a ravioli dish that was delicious, and then for dessert, I ordered the sticky toffee pudding.

After lunch, we all met at St. Giles Cathedral and most of us went to Edinburgh Castle, where we got to go inside and tour the entire place, not much different than the Tower of London. Inside the castle, we saw the Scottish Jewels and scepter, as well as the chamber and embroideries of Mary Queen of Scots, completed during her exile. Inside the castle was also the Scottish National War Memorial and David’s Tower, the latter being where the jewels were hidden during feared Nazi invasion during World War II, according to the plaques inside of the tower. We passed through the Royal Scots Regimental Museum and made our way to the re-created Prisons of War, where many soldiers were imprisoned during the wars of the 20th century. Additionally, we saw a military prison, where soldiers were imprisoned for acts such as being intoxicated while on duty. Before we left, we saw a wedding also arriving at the castle and saw the Argyll Tower.

We went later that evening to Mass at St. Mary’s Catholic Cathedral before we made our way back to High Street to find a restaurant for dinner. While we were looking, we saw the set-up of where the Avengers was filming, and went over to the barriers set up to wait around and see if anyone would show up for filming. At the point that we arrived, it was a little before 7:30 p.m. We probably waited about two hours before we finally got information out of security that nothing would be happening until at least 11 p.m. After going to dinner, we returned and actually saw Elizabeth Olsen on set filming a scene where she was continuously diving, and I managed to get a video of her during the scene, so hopefully it actually makes the final cut of the film.

Sunday, April 23, 2017

The following day, we spent our last morning in Edinburgh by having breakfast in The Elephant House, where Rowling wrote the early chapters of Harry Potter. The café overlooks Edinburgh Castle, so it was easy to see where Rowling got her influence for Hogwarts, and the café colors were warm and inviting, especially on another cold day. From there, we went to Princes Street Gardens and admired the view of the city from the benches. It was nice to spend our final day relaxing before we would have to travel back to London on another 5-hour train ride. Finally, before returning to the hostel to meet with our group to go to the train station, we stopped at a marketplace and looked at cool etches for wooden phone cases. Once we returned and went to the train station, our train then left at 1:30 p.m. and arrived in King’s Cross Station at 6 p.m.

Now that we only have three weeks remaining in London, time is ticking and it is hitting me how incredible the opportunity to go on study tours was for us. It is probably my favorite part of the entire program and I am so glad that I got see so much of the U.K.
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