TED TALKS

So, for those of you who haven't heard of it, TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design), is a conference held in Long Beach, California every year. It has been around since 1984, when it was focused mostly on those three disciplines. Today, it has grown to encompass almost every possible subject and discipline, and draws world-renowned speakers from across the globe.

http://www.ted.com/ is a website dedicated to making the best speeches and presentations from the conference every year available to the public. They are free and downloadable, as well as infinitely rich in content. Some of them might just encourage you to change your life, or at least reexamine your perspective. I would encourage anyone who hasn't seen any of these talks to take a look, and anyone who has, to keep watching.

I recently saw a speech from Barry Schwartz on wisdom.

Edinburgh

Over the weekend I decided to take a day trip to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It is only about 50 miles away from Glasgow, on the east coast. Similar to the distance between Baltimore and Washington D.C., ironically. I decided to take the train, and got on in the morning on saturday.

The ride was a little under an hour, and I was able to see a lot of the country side in between the two biggest cities in Scotland, which is much different then the highland country side. I arrived at haymarket station and began walking. Although I had checked out information on Edinburgh beforehand and knew where I wanted to go, with map in hand, I have found in my travels over here that I prefer wandering at the beginning. In my wanderings in Edinburgh, I came upon a street performer from england doing an escape routine. He was quite funny and really got the crowd going. After he escaped from the chains by contorting his body, the show ended and I was on my way to see the sights.

(yes it was cold that day)

I first walked to the center of old town, where Edinburgh castle, and many of the other big attractions are. The city was bustling, and I heard more american accents then I've heard in the last two months in glasgow. There were hundreds of people waiting in the line to get into the castle, so I decided to see other things and try to see it later.

Edinburgh castle up on castle rock

There were many churches and cathedrals

After leaving the castle, I headed down the Royal Mile, which is a mile long stretch of old cobblestone road which connects Edinburgh castle and Holyrood Palace. Along this road I found the Camera Obscura, which is located at the top of a tower. The camera projects reflected light from all over the city onto a table inside the tower, and by turning the mirrors and lens inside the top of the tower, the guide can give you a complete 360 degree view of the city, which is pretty cool. She pointed out some historical structures and talked about the history of the city. It was quite interesting.

After the camera onscura, I decided to go down to the Holyrood palace and over to Holyrood park, where the peak of the city, "Arthur's Seat" lies. I hiked up the rolling hills until finally reaching the peak, where I was greeted by a 70mph gust that knocked me off my feet. Honestly, it was the strongest wind I have ever encountered. The view was fabulous. You can see 360 degrees around you for miles. It gave me a much better understanding of the entire city, which was built on seven hills.

arthur's seat

a view over the city, with edinburgh castle rising above the rest on the right

old church ruins in holyrood park

As I came back down from Arthur's seat, the sun began to fall, and sunset swept the city. By the time I got back to the castle, it was getting ready to close. I never did see the inside. Maybe another time. After about 10 miles of walking and hiking, I was getting quite tired, so I took the train home to glasgow, walked home and fell fast asleep. So ended another great day in Scotland.

Highlands

This past week, two other exchange students, Mike and Kati, and I traveled up into the Scottish Highlands. Mike is another american product design student from Pratt Institute, and Kati is a product design student from Hungary.

We took the train out of glasgow at 8:20 am. It was still quite dark outside, but as the train started heading up north, I got to watch the scenery of the city gradually turn into wide open fields and rivers, and then to wide expanses of snow-capped hills and mountains. It was beautiful. It is as if you are looking into a great painting. Many of the rolling slopes beckoned me to run out and climb them. Alas, I could not.

The train crisscrossed through the highlands for five hours, stopping at twenty-five stops, each one harder then the last to pronounce. Around one in the afternoon we finally arrived at our destination, a coastal fishing village named Mallaig.

Mallaig was closed. I say that humorously, but in reality, it is not that far off. As we stepped off the train, we were somewhat shocked to find that there were no people on the streets. We walked around for awhile, trying to find a place to have lunch, but every store and restaurant was closed. We eventually stumbled upon what we would later find out was the only pub open in town, and sat down for a beer.

The pub was also a guest house, but did not have any rooms open, so we began searching to try and find a place to stay for the night. Eventually, we found the only bed and breakfast in town ang got rooms. We then hiked in the hillsides, and up to a point where you could see the Isle of Eigg, where we were going the next day.

(Eigg is in the top left)

Soon the sun came down, and we went to the pub to have drinks and play pool. We talked to several of the townsfolk and had a few laughs. Then we went back to the b&b and slept.

The next day, we got up and had breakfast, and then caught the ferry over to Eigg. It's an hour ride, and we got a good view of a lot of the other islands in the area, including skye, the biggest. I met a man who lives on Eigg, who was the head of the recent change on the island to change to all renewable energy. That fact was half of the reason we wanted to go to Eigg. They have adopted an integrated electrical grid, which uses wind, solar, and hydro-power to electrify the whole 12 square mile island. He told us some good places to see on the island, and then was on his way.

We arrived on Eigg, and had only two hours before the ferry would be back (adn if we missed it we would be stranded on the island for two days). We took the man's advice and went to the caves on the south side of the island. I spotted the islands windfarm, and quite a few sheep (surprise). We hiked along the coast until we found the caves. The coast was beautiful, and in the background, the Sgurr, the peak of the island was snow and cloud capped in the distance.

(sheeeeeep)

After seeing a good part of the island, we headed back to the ferry. Then it was back to Mallaig, back on the train, past the twenty-five stops, and on back to glasgow. It had snowed a few inches while we were up north, so on the way back we were treated to a snow covered landscape. Then the sun went down, and it was the end of another day in Scotland.

Burns Night

So, for those of you who didn't know, last week was the 250th anniversary of Scotland's own beloved and cherished poet/lyricist Robert Burns (or Rabbie Burns, as he is often referred to here) On Burns Night, the official time of celebration, I went with my friends Rachel, Dave, and John to Georges Square in the middle of Glasgow. There were hundreds of people there, in front of a stage. In the background there was an enormous projection of Robert Burns on the city council building.





There was a band of bagpipers that played for awhile and a speech about Burns. It was quite nice, but quite cold, and after about an hour, I left to go to my friend fraser's apartment to have a haggis dinner.

Haggis s good. I don't see what all the negative connotations I've heard people in the U.S. give it are about. It's a well-spiced meat hash with oats mixed in. I like it a lot, and along with cooked carrots and potatoes, it made a delicious, hearty meal which I would gladly have anytime.


Speaking of which....


Last Wednesday, I had it again, when I went to an official GSA Burns Supper Celebration at the Vic (school bar and social area). Everyone dressed up, either in traditional tartan kilts and sashes, or like me, in a suit or dress. There were five long tables set with candles and cutlery, with a stage in the front, and of course, a bar in the back. There were about 120 people who came for the dinner, which included a full haggis meal, some local folk music, speeches from several people about Burns and his poetry, and a dram of whisky to toast him.


(my friend Rory and the haggis meals)

After the meal and speech and drink were finished, it was time for the ceilidh, which is a traditional Sottish dance event. Folk Scottish music with basic beat and flighty fiddle played whilst everyone participated in dance quite similar to American line dancing.



I did particiapte until I was stepped upon by a girl with high heels and started bleeding. Despite that, it was a fun night and was nice to finally get a taste of traditional Scottish culture.