Back at Last

I can finally write this blog! Though I must admit it will take several blogs to cover the whole thing. So lets just see how far I get tonight. The mid term trip makes up for any breaks we may have gotten. Basically they take all the students to Edinburgh and Liverpool, then leave a few days for people to travel to other places if they so wish. Its like an extended feild study. It is because of this extended feild study that we get to come home early for Christmas break (in comparison with other universities). I shall now start at the beginning.

So last Sunday (October 19) our day began somewhere around 4 am. A lot of people stayed up all night istead of getting a full nights sleep in order to be able to sleep on the bus. I got a good 3 hour sleep before leaving for breakfast with my one backpack (supposed to last me 7 days), filled to the brim with clothes and camera. I also (i should mention for future reference) brought my Fendi purse, you know the cute gold one. It fit everything else I needed in it. Everyone loaded their huge bags into the coach storage areas and I felt so proud because I only had to worry about a backpack and therefore didnt need to worry about leaving it in the coach. I could keep it safely with me. The coaches themseves were far fancier than the usual ones and much plusher. I nabbed a seat near the front and next to the window. Come 5am when we were to leave I noticed I had no one beside me, though I thought we were supposed to be filled to the brim with students. Let me tell you I took advantage! Unfortunately it wasnt until an hour into the drive that I realised I could take advantage of the two seats by sprawling myself horizontally along them. I had the best coach ride I will ever experience simply because I got to SLEEP horizontally for the next 5 hours.

There was a stop in there half way in between where we had to get off and stretch our legs and buy food and go pee and such. Strangely enough we were at one of those truck stops, you know the kind they have when your vanning it around Ontario, with the random fast food places and a conveiniencey store. In this case at every one we stopped at there was a WH Smith. Let me say this is where my new guilty pleasure officially begins its hold on me. I have to admit my new adiction. Fashion magazines. My favourite is Vanity Fair and you may remember me mentioning it before as my prize/reward for when I walked all the way to the village one day and couldnt get out cash at the atm so I bought myself a treat with my visa. So now officially I am in love with them. I have no idea why, but I cant get enough of them. I got a Marie Claire, Vogue and another one the is primarily British. But Vanity Fair is still my obsession. Love. They always have the best articles! And pictures obviously (Annie Lebovitz).

So back to the voyage. The two of the four coaches had history students that were destined for the coal mines. The other two were going to some town or something. As I am in the history class I was off to the mines. They had a museum and pit ponies we could pet and other historical things we could explore. But the main atraction was the underground mine we could get a tour of. I got to go with Elizabeth L (a different one than I usually talk about) and Sarah M (the one I had an interesting convo with in Canterbury). So what happens is in groups of 12 to 15 we entered this random building where we were to put on hard helmets and given lights with battery packs to hang around ourselves. We were to leave any parafernalia behind and especially anything with a battery or flash (watches included) as it could potentially set off the coal...unlikely, but apparently still a possibility. Then they lead us around to one of those shafts, the kind you see in movies where they take you deep underground, but you can still touch the raw earth as you go down. They squeezed all of us in one and just let me say...small spaces dont bother me...crowds do. I was squished to the back corner which was best for me I think. Then we started to descend. There were no lights other than the ones we heald in our hands and no possible means of escape until the end of the tour in 1.5 hours. I was fine until the guide said "so we are now descending about 450feet underground at abour 5 feet per second". fuck. I can not appologize for the swearing because in this instance it was completely apropriate. Holy shit. fuck my life what the hell am I doing? I dont get scared by this type of thing usually, but OMG! I definately started feeling faint so I turned my head to Elizabeth and was like "Elizabeth, tell me a story". I said it very calmly, but I think she could see the look in my eye, plus I had mentioned before how I was nervous. She was my saviour let me tell you! She was on it like a vamp bat on a cow. She started going on about this kid at a camp she had worked at who had whipped everyones but at that game herbivors and carnivors. It totally gave me time to adjust myself and relax, put the fact we were 450 feet from fresh air at the back of my mind. Once we got to the bottom I was fine, it didnt really feel like I was that far underground. The actual tour was interesting. The guide basiacally took us through the evolution of coal mining. From the 1700s through to how it works today. I suggest if you like history at all to look this topic up. It is very interesting and very tragic. To give us some perspective he got us to all turn off our lights at one point to show what they would have been working in. It was pure blackness. I doubt many people can say they have experience pure darkness before, absolute complete absense of light. Quite suffocating. The tour lasted an hour and a half and once we got on the shaft to go back up Elizabeth came up with another story to tell me just in case I freaked again. I think it was the elevators that freaked me the most. It was a worth while experience, but I think I was intended for heights, so from now on I am sticking to the sky and high risers and cliffs and such. They seem to suit me better.

We left around 3 and got to the hotel (yes I said hotel!!!) around 9pm. I didnt know my room mates as I hadnt signed up with anyone, so they put me in a random room with two girls I had only breifly met before. I got there before them, but when they came in they seemed very pleasurable. They mentioned though that they may ask to have another girl stay with us who was supposed to be in their room but the lists got mixed up or something. I looked at whos room she was in and it turns out it was Emma and Elizabeth L`s. I am not sure if you remember me mentioning Emma, but lets just say I know her. Any who I suggested we switch since that way tehy could have more room and have their friend with them. They were really nice and said if I didnt like my room mates I could always crash with them. It worked out really well because I got to be with Elizabeth my saviour and Emma, my overshare buddy (i`ll explain later). The night ended with Liz going out and Emma and me just chatting until we fell asleep.

So finally on day 2! I warnd you this would be a long one! So In the morning Liz (I am calling her that so as not to confuse her with the other one and to keep it simple and short) and I grabbed breakfast and headed with our assigned group to the National Gallery of Scottland. We saw Titian again and other famous works of art. I got to see some Degas and Renoir as well as origional paintings of Madam du Pompadour! I did a project on her in world history in grade 12. After finishing that up Liz, a couple other girls and I headed to Edinburgh Castle for our history tour. I met up with Katie (a friend of Kari`s and now my friend too - thought I would explain as I do not think I have mentioned her yet) and we chatted while we waited to get tickets. When we went in we walked right away to the top to see the view of Edinburgh. You can find my pictures on Facebook and hopefully by this weekend you will see my more artsy pictures on my new flickr account. The wind was fabulous and strong creating great opportunities for artsy shots. Liz, Sarah M, Nora (modern dancer if you can remember from the beginning of the blogs) and I walked around the castle and saw dungeons, war memorials and crown jewels. This is also where my search for my tartan began. You`d think it would be easy, but it was the most intense and least satisfying mission of my trip thus far. The gift shop did not have anything with the Erskin tartan or emblem! boo. So Liz, me and ...sorry brain fart on the girls name, lets call her whatsherface, walked down the royal mile (main street) and looked in almost all of the souvineer shops, and let me tell you there were a lot! No Erskin Tartan to be found anywhere. We eventually stopped in a small cafe, but I was saving myself for dinner...

You see Katy had invited me to go with her and a group of people to the Tear Drop? I think that was its name. Anyway basically a group of 12 or 13 of us walked from the hotel down in the rain to this tavern pub thing. The reason...for good old fashioned hagas. Please do not maul me, but I did not have the hagas, but I did try something new, a steak pie or something. It was basically mashed up steak placed under a pastery, with loads of vegies that I actually liked. Kari, Me, and a few others talked about dance for a bit as well as some other intersting things. I also ordered a strongbow with Kari, which is amazing! I dont know what I am going to do when I get back and I cant order a cyder or wine with dinner, its become a thing. I cant do beer, but I really have acquired a taste for cyder, its sweeter and yet not fruity sweet, its not as yeasty as beer either, making you not feel so bloated. Anywho, lets just say I was feeling pretty good after that, which is when Kari, Katy, me and Kurtis decided to do our own private pub crawl around Edinburgh. We ran into Cameron who is in our program but was meeting a friend who was going to school there. We agreed to meet him later at the pub he was headed to and meet his friend. After that I do not remember where we went, I think we wondered around for a bit then headed to said pub. We meet Cameron and his two friends, this is where Libby had her first drink of the night. A double whiskey with ice. Oh yes, I was feeling the love that night. We had some intersting conversations, I waved my arms a lot. After an hour I ordered another double whiskey, took a wee and proceeded outside with the others to head to our next pub. I must say I really do enjoy walking around when I am drunk. If I sit around to much I tend to feel sober again, not because I am, just because I can settle my brain enough to be able to feel sober and think clearly. This is why at parties I tend to move around a lot as I then drink less because I feel the drunk more and generally have a good time dancing and prancing around. So lets just say the walks between the pubs were my favourite parts. On the way to the next club the Whiskey bird found its fame. Let me explain what it was I came up with and explained to Kari, Katie, Cameron and Kurtis. "A whiskey bird is a bird made of whiskey. Since bird`s feathers are hollow you fill the birds wings and feathers with whiskey. When you you drink the whiskey from the bird the bird can fly higher and so can you!" Yes this is how my mind works. Basically the rest of the night we (more specifically I) would mention or repeat the words "Whiskey bird", it just seemed to sound good at the time.

After that we came accross a pub that was playing live music. We just kinda chatted most of the hour we were there. I dint have adrink as I knew I had already had 2 double whiskeys/I didnt want to spend too much money on booze (god I am getting frugal). When we went to the washroom I noticed that the door had loads of signatures and such on it and decided I should make my mark too. I asked Kari for a pen (I got a pencil, but hey you take what you can get) and decided to write that Libby, Kari and Katie were here, proceeded by Canadians are awsome, then remembering that Katie is from New York I wrote, and new yorkers, only spelling it (as they later told me) newyourkers. As we left we decided to examine the machine selling "supplies" just outside the washroom. Not only did it have eatable thongs, it had vibrators and marijuana flavoured condoms. As we were examining the display a man (quite the attractive man) came out of the bathroom and said "aw, naughty girls, what are you looking at?" He asked if we were fascinated by something dull in the machine at which I replied that I was more fascinated by the marijuana condoms. He laughed and Kari, Katie and I decided to head to the next bar.

On the way I stopped at the cash machine, in need of more cash. This is my major booboo, that I still to this day feel guilty about. We walked past this homeless guy near the machines asking for money. I didnt really think about it at first as I had no cash on me. As I walked away from the machine however what was it I said? I said "Yay, I have money!" right as we pass by the homeless man. I realised what I had said right away and yet I couldnt give him anything as all I had were 5s and 10s (do not say I could have given hime that, as I now have the life of a sad frugal student). I still felt miserabley guilty though, it is one of the most distasteful and tactless acts I have ever done and I really do hope someday I can make up for it.

The last place we went was this Jazz bar where they played live jazz music (which was amazing!). We ran into a bunch of ISC kids and just hung out watching the musicians. It was amazing. I had another double whiskey and thought about how much Angie would love this (she is really into music). I really enjoyed just sitting there occassionally chatting and taking in the classy music surrounding us. When we started to drift and our heads began to bob we knew it was time to head in. The only other curiosities of Libby that I can recall after a week is me being fascinated with Kari`s backpack. It looked like a giant button, so I kept pressing it and saying "BUTTON". I also tried saying it like David Tennent does int the first Christmas special of Doctor who, with the popping B sound he makes when he pronounces button. It didnt work, but let me tell you it was fun. Also we came accross THE FUDGE SHOP OF DOOM!!! (this will be explained later) and I very curiously said "fudge seems like it should be a longer word than it is, eh?" I can honest to god say it really did feel like it should be longer at the time. The word FUDGE just felt wrong.

We got to the hotel and headed for bed, but not before Kari and Katie were convinced that I was trying to get into the wrong room (with good reason I was kinda snockered). I got to my room and my key card didnt work, so they thought I couldnt remember my room number especially since I had switched rooms. I knew it was my room and decided to knock on the door accross from me to prove it was the right door and that I knew the people accross from me. I sort of forgot to tell Kari and Katie this so they thought I was knocking at a random door and nervously waited for the inhabitants to answer. It was just Jacinta (As I knew it was! hee, silly me), so we were safe. I went and got my key card fixed and enjoyed the rest of my night in my comfy bed, but not before having another interesting conversation with Emma. I should also mention there was a double bed, a couch and a pull out box with a matress that comes out from under the couch. I asked for the floor box bed as I knew that was where I would be most comfy should I feel sick. I didnt feel sick thank god, but it was a comfort non the less.

So I shall leave it here since it is only day two and this is intensely long enough as it is. Please tune in again soon for day 3 and 4. Remember there are 7 days of fun and games, plus other tidbits from the past couple days, s you should be fully supplied with Libby goodness for the rest of the week. Good night all!!!