Study Break!

Hey guys!

This afternoon, following a long three day weekend of studying (and shopping, but don't tell anyone, 'cause I'm pretty sure I was supposed to be doing work), I decided to take a study break before delving into my final subject of the weekend (okay, I took one yesterday afternoon, too). This study break is brought to you by Holyrood Park and Jim Garrahy's Fudge Kitchen (which claims to make the best fudge in the world, but I'm getting ahead of myself).

So, you've seen the pictures hiking King Arthur's Seat, but there's also a footpath that loops around the park, and these are pictures from the first part of it (I walked the full thing yesterday, but didn't make it today-I had intended to not be out for two hours. Nice try):

Then I saw this adorable guy swimming ecstatically in the reflecting pools in front of the Sottish Parliament. Made me think of someone else I know:

Now I have to confess, I get to Holyrood by walking down the Royal Mile, which is by far the most direct path. The thing is, I pass about ten cafes and four pubs on the way up the hill, along with myriad trinket stores selling Walker's Shortbread bonus tins at discount prices (anyone who knows me also knows that Walker's plain shortbread is my favorite kind of cookie. Ever.).

The cafes usually advertise tea and scones with jam and clotted cream-another personal favorite, at 2.65 (pounds) or so, and the scent of fish and chips wafts alluring from the pubs. So going anywhere on the Royal Mile ends up being an exercise in self control. "No, Sarah, don't get a scone. No, Sarah, don't get shortbread..." and so on.

Well, there are also two competing fudge kitchens on this end of the Mile. I stopped off at one at the beginning of last weekend and tried their fudge. Pretty good. They also had a small cafe selling coffee and a few baked goods in their space. Today walking back up the hill the usual battle began, "No, Sarah, you're going to York this weekend - save the money," but I'm afraid I have to report that I lost that battle pretty spectacularly.

You see, I'd just passed this cafe I'm dying to try (since yesterday when I saw a couple outside having tea and the aforementioned scones with jam and cream) and gotten past it fine, but then I noticed a crowd in the opposing fudge shop. And you know me, I just had to check it out. Turns out, they have a demo workspace with an open hearth and marble-slab tables (yeah, pretty snazy, right?) in their extra space where they do fudge demonstrations, and the *presumably* owner was making a batch of lemon meringue fudge. Ho ho, well, I just had to check this out and watch, being an amateur fudge maker myself and having won a couple of neighborhood awards for it, if I'm allowed to say so.

And, naturally, I couldn't walk out empty handed. The other fudge shop had been good, but they hadn't offered free entertainment and free countertop samples, either. Not to mention, the owner gave samples of the fresh lemon fudge right after I took this picture for being a good audience. And their slices were bigger, "Oh, really, well, I guess I'll just have to eat the whole thing, then. Even if it will save in the freezer." So they advertise as having the best fudge in the world, like everyone else, but, having had a lot of fudge, it's definitely better than most fudge I've had. Maybe even the best (which is saying something).

There you have a study break in Edinburgh.

More Weekend (wish it were!)...

Hey guys, so, here's where we *almost* had dinner Saturday night per request of the paternal unit:

Unfortunately, as it turns out you need an ID stating you're over 18 to even be in the pub (hence the paternal unit not being able to dine there due to the presence of two very-much-minors), and one of our party had forgotten his in Newcastle. S'okay, though, because:

a) it didn't much matter where we ate so long as I got fish 'n chips because, let's face it, you can't come to the UK and NOT have that iconic dish and

b) well, I saw steak and ale pie on the menu and very suddenly my whole perception of life changed...more to follow.

So instead of Jekyll and Hyde, we went to the World's End on the Royal Mile (which was FANTASTIC), and here's the famous dish, affectionately called the "quarter of a whale", that I magnificently broke vegetarianism on (and, suddenly, my entire family breaths a sigh of relief. So can we have goose when I come home?):

And let me tell you, since that moment it's been a constant search for the next opportunity to try eating meat. Realistically, that has translated into, oh, about one meal since then (I had English bacon, or what we Statesians would call Canadian Bacon, for dinner), and it's now my goal to eat either a Scottish Pie or a steak and ale pie for my birthday dinner (unless a better offer comes along; also, every Sunday the pubs feature "Sunday roasts", so that's now on my list of things to do - eat a Sunday Roast.).

Sunday we played tourist to a level I had not yet attained and visited the lovely Edinburgh Castle:

And really what you should have gleaned from that is that a) I'm no longer vegetarian (after three years trying to explain what qualifies as vegetarian to the family, it'll take 'em about five seconds to figure out what I can eat now) and b) we spent the whole weekend eating (which was fantastic).

Taking coals to Newcastle...

On Friday I took off for a weekend getaway to visit friends in Newcastle...

...where we wandered around the city centre (and down by the quayside where, yes, I did see the Millennium Bridge but wasn't quick enough of the draw to take a picture) and several lovely monuments: one of Saint George,

and one, I know at least a few of you will appreciate immensely:

Yes, this is in honour of THE Earl Grey (his name was Charles).

My friends also introduced me to the most wonderful milkshake bar in the world (I kid you not; they had every flavor possible, compliments of blending in any form of candy, cookie or whatnot, from shortbread to all Cadbury flavors - including creme egg- any candy bar you can think of, Nutella, peanut butter and chocolate, apple pie, lemon curd...I had a raspberry jam milkshake with white chocolate shavings).

We then wandered around the mall, where I found this and became wildly excited because of a related conversation those of us at the Houston Space Center had:

For those of you who weren't there, we were wondering why the Omega watch company doesn't capitalize on the fact theirs is the only watch to have ever gone to the moon. Apparently, they do, just not in the States (since, I have seen this same window display in Edinburgh).

And, because classes start tomorrow and the number of photos will probably drop off drastically, I'll save the rest of the weekend for the next few days!

Hallo again! So today was the visit to Holyrood, and I couldn't have asked for better weather: sunny and breezy. I started the hike at the famous Salisbury Crags...

Walked along a ways, and finally got to what we all know I came to Edinburgh for:

(Kind of wish I had so pretty a place named for me)

Okay, so you've hiked the Crags, but that's just the warmup. Everyone knows you go to Holyrood to hike Arthur's Seat. Uhuh. It's kind of tall (see those wee people at the bottom for scale? And you can't even see the people who were at the top)...

But, as I was chasing my lunch up that hill (not literally), up we went (we being my lunch and I, together). Pretty well worth the view, I'd say.

And then down again.

Despite that killer view, the winner of "best photo of the day" contest follows. Off on the hill are the ruins of St. Anthony's Chapel in Holyrood, of which I do have closeups, but this is the prettiest shot.

Presenting Her Majesty's swans (they're Special Swans):

And, just because the other day when I said, "The Scottish Parliament isn't something you want to see," I know the first thing you thought was, "I wonder what it looks like?":

(This is its best side)

More Ramblings...

As I haven't really done anything these past two days except for run around the city chasing down meetings and class buildings (as well as advisors), here are some more photos I took at the beginning of the week. The first few are different views of buildings on Calton Hill, across the valley from Holyrood (pronounce Holly-rude) Park.

The tower in the background of the next one is Nelson's Monument (tidbit compliments of Google Maps)...

And here are a few more from up and down the Royal Mile:

(And, just because I thought it was funny...)

But never fear, tomorrow, provided the weather's fine, lunch and I are planning on hiking Aurthur's Seat seat together following a meeting with my advisor (at which, hopefully, my course scheduling woes will be finally laid to rest). Hopefully, we'll do some additional hiking around Holyrood Park, as well. And Friday? Off to Newcastle (my train ticket's all ready to go)!

Ramblings

So, here's the iconic image I know everyone has been waiting for. I took this yesterday while rambling about on the Royal Mile; my sense of pride in not looking like a tourist nearly overcame me, but in the end I really couldn't resist. You know you wouldn't have been able to, either.

In the meantime, nothing terribly exciting has occurred. Mostly, I've been up to rather humdrum, ordinary things such as

finding cutlery and dishes, hunting down sticky notes (you wouldn't believe how hard they are to find), and hunting down buildings (even harder to find). Today I became almost completely lost while trying to make my way from Pollock Halls to the King's Building. It's about a forty minute walk (or it was after already wandering around for two hours, lost) from Old Town, which should be interesting when classes begin and winter descends. There is a phantom shuttle, however, which I must investigate.

In the course of being lost, I did, however, run across this gem in the middle of a residential district:

Pretty, no? It's a cemetery if you couldn't tell, and, by the looks of it, not a terribly well-traveled one. But really quite lovely:

Then, there's always the famous Holyrood Park (home of King Arthur's Seat and the Salisbury Crags - don't worry, there'll be plenty more pictures of this pretty soon):

That's Waverly train station in the foreground, and the eastern part of Old Town in the middleground, by the way.

Then, while wandering down the Royal Mile in the other direction, I found Canongate Kirk:

All in all, I'd say it's a pretty nice place (to put things in a typical British understatement). Except, really, for the Scottish Parliament - that's not one you really want to see.

In which she flies far from home...

Having left Austin for Dallas at a fairly reasonable hour, and having suffered the abysmally tedious (as much to read about as to write about) flight to London, while not having slept well enough to call it "sleep" due to a horrendous disorientation and nausea on the plane, our protagonist arrives, somewhat ruffled and bleary-eyed, in London's Heathrow airport (but very grateful for the delightfully sunny, sixty-some-odd degree weather). And now for the baffling question, "to proceed through customs at arrival, or to go to her connecting terminal?" Indecision left her waffling until a well-aimed question sent her across the airport by bus and through the highly efficient security into Terminal 5 (after an unexpectedly simple trip through Customs into said terminal, and still concerned that maybe she had made the wrong choice and her yellow duffel would be sitting, lonely and unclaimed, in the baggage area while she happily jetted off to another country).

And there opened before her...the large, new, modern airport, very much like that in Madrid, come to think of it, and packaged with more languages in a minute than in a semester. Following a people-watching layover worthy of Las Vegas, our heroine boarded yet another plane (by local time, 24 hours after leaving her home) and promptly fell asleep, to be awakened 45 minutes later at landing. She and her fellows then disembarked onto the tarmac in a lovely, bright, seventy-degree day and proceeded to the baggage claim area where she awaited, anxiously, to be reunited with a bag that may or may not have arrived. Fortunately, for her and it, it had.

Bags in tow, she presented herself to the student welcoming committee of the University, and thirty minutes later, she joined five others like herself in a van to be taken to her new residence, a four-person, six-room flat with kitchennete, living area and shared bathroom. She has so far met two of her flatmates - a freshman from Liverpool and an exchange student from Boston, and has formed no opinion of them whatsoever (except, maybe, that the Bostonian and her mother are lacking in the constitution to walk out, find a grocer and walk back, as they felt it necessary to call a taxi).

Having eaten only an energy bar since 1100 h, and it now being 1600 h, our heroine determined that another energy bar would not suffice for her dinner, and, after pushing her belongings hastily into the relatively few drawers available, she donned her walking shoes and went out to see what she could. Idiotically, she did not take her camera (so nothing will currently be done about the complaints of too many words in the previous post) Due east and one major thoroughfare over she found North/South Ridge and headed south, it being as good a direction as any. Nine minutes after departing her domicile, she had already encountered two grocers and two foodmarts (and so, she feels somewhat justified in the opinion of her flatmate's inability to reconnoiter). Furthermore, turning east yet again, she found herself confronted by King Arthur's Seat and the Salisbury Crags lit by the westering sun. Thus the idiotic forgetting of the camera.

Turning due north, she followed their line, dodging, occasionally, back to North/South Ridge to determine her position. And so she found herself in the heart of historic Edinburgh (Old Town), confronted by a castle, more cathedrals than you could count and many other such lovely building as theaters, museums and the like. She will obtain pictorial evidence of these occurrences early in the week. In her wanderings, she also came across the Firth of Forth (rather difficult to miss), though she did not approach the water (feeling, by this time, very hungry now that an hour had passed), and, rather easier to miss, by happy chance she stumbled across the Edinburgh University School of Geosciences (imagine her delight!).

Now feeling quite hungry, and, having evaluated the financial merits of dining out or paying a visit to the local Tesco, she turned her bow for the market (and found it quite overflowing with new students such as herself). So overflowing, in fact, that she has yet to obtain cutlery or a place setting. Thus, her purchases were based solely on her ability to consume them without the necessity of these objects (hummus and carrots, bread for dipping, eggs to be consumed on the bread and cooked with a happily provided fry pan, no doubt of suspect quality). Following a very long debate on what items deserved places in her basket, she returned home (escaping with only a 16 pound, 5 pence bill-which she had in exact change thanks to a very thick coffee in London) and determined with equally heavy purchases in the future, her arms are destined to be quite sore.

Now we give a brief mention of our leading lady's thoughts:

Sunrise over the Atlantic at 35,000 ft is lovely. So is morning over NE. Scotland, when the clouds are sunk into the hollows of the hills.

Edinburgh is beautiful, and the people are astoundingly friendly!

Her room is dreadfully spartan. But it's situated on the inside of the building and faces the common courtyard as opposed to the busy street, which makes it much quieter. On the other hand, it's terribly awkward because she can see everyone who goes out to smoke, particularly considering the only benches are just off to the corner of her window and down two stories. This means she cannot avoid looking down at them, and they are quite likely to look up and see her while she's working; how distracting.

It's rather chilly, and she needs to close her window (and, preferably, go to bed).

Oh yes, and she just met her third flatmate. Not sure what to think.

T-minus 37:20

On September 12, 1962 President John F. Kennedy addressed an audience of scientists, students and faculty at Rice University in Houston, Texas concerning his decision to advance the nation's space program to the forefront of national effort. In the twenty months leading up to this speech, NASA's budget had tripled to reach a value greater than that of the previous eight years combined, and the space program had acquired a defined goal backed by popular support and, by today's standards, virtually unlimited funds.

The only part of that speech now well-remembered is the rallying proclamation:

"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard [...]"

Such a reason for any action deserves, in its own right, to be remembered among the finest words ever spoken by a United States President.

As a scientist I believe fervently in President Kennedy's words, in his tireless efforts to advance man's technology in the pursuit of knowledge of the universe we live in. He, or his speechwriter (but I would much rather think of those words as a creation of the visionary president himself), drove at the heart of scientific exploration and understanding when he continued with the less well-remembered, but no less vital, words:

"[...] because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is the one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win [...]"

I find it incredible, reading back over this speech (which, I have no shame in saying, makes me tear up with pride and love for science and my nation every time), that a president so far removed from me in experience, knowledge and time, articulated so clearly those qualities which make me a scientist. To pursue a path, not because it is easy and offers the least resistance, but because it is the most difficult and daunting; and because it offers the greatest reward not at its end, for science never ends, but at the smallest success and the most seemingly insignificant gain.

It is these gains President Kennedy saw and presented to the nation when he said,

"We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people."

[Text of President Kennedy's speech obtained from the JFK Presidential Library and Museum online archives; to see the full speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuW4oGKzVKc&feature=fvst]

It is not the great achievements, the lunar landing at the end of the decade, of which he is speaking. Rather, he is holding up to his citizens the accomplishment of each step on the road that leads not to success but is a road of success on which every step, even the setbacks, represents knowledge gained for the good of humanity. It is not to the masterpiece of July 20, 1969 to which he refers, but to those advances which made it possible: the building of NASA's state-of-the-art facilities in Houston and Cape Canaveral out of which came technologies that have bettered our daily lives, and the development of the Saturn rockets that, although containing the ability to cause destruction, particularly at a time of political unrest, were used in the peaceful pursuit of knowledge - to name only two of hundreds.

This is the nobility of science.