Scotland v. Italy Six Nations Rugby

Yesterday a group of about ten of us went to the Scotland v. Italy Six Nations rugby game.  We left Pollock Halls around noon and took one of the city buses, which was full of fans, to Murrayfield on the outskirts of the city.  It was a pretty long bus ride, but it was full of kilts and painted faces which was pretty cool!

Once we arrived and found our seats, they sang the national anthem ("The Flower of Scotland"), which I think was my favorite part since I'm still pretty clueless about how the game is actually played.  Either way, rugby is a VERY physical sport and it's really fun to watch.  The crowd is pretty rowdy, and the atmosphere was really similar to an American football game.  And...SCOTLAND WON 21-8! Hooray!
"Flower of Scotland" video, this is just about where our seats were

I am pretty excited that I got to see a Six Nations game, because the championship is definitely the talk of the town around here.  On football and rugby game days there are people all over High Street dressed up for the game.  The Six Nations Championship is always played annually between Scotland, Italy, Wales, Ireland, England, and France and the winners enjoy the title of European Champions for the year.  It's a huge deal in Scotland, and is actually sponsored by the Royal Bank of Scotland.  It was a great time!

Six Nations emblems


there were lots of fans dressed like this, I love the ginger wigs!


Murrayfield Stadium during a 2005 match, reminds me of Iowa!

Ewing-Chancellor's Court Ball

Last night was the Ewing-Chancellor's Court Ball.  All of the houses in Pollock Halls have yearly formals at really nice venues, very similar to sorority or fraternity formals.  This actually reminded me of a really nice Bar Mitzvah!  I live in Turner House, but most of my friends live in the Ewing House (next door) and Chancellor's Court, so I opted to go to theirs instead.  We arrived at around seven at the Roxburgh Hotel, which is in a really swanky part of New Town just past Princes Street.  It's very rare that I ever get to spend time in New Town, so this felt like a pretty special occasion.


The Roxburgh Hotel

The hotel was really nice, and even had a red carpet going into the dining room!  The dinner was also really good; tomato soup, chicken and potatoes, and meringue for dessert (yum).  After that there was a ceilidh, as there always is at special events here.  Lots of the guys wore the full highland outfit, which is the kilt with sort of a tux-like top (looks really complicated).  My favorite part of the highland outfit has to be the sgian-dubh, a dagger that is traditionally worn inside the right or left sock depending on whether you are right or left handed (a real highlander always has his dagger at the ready).  It seems like wearing a highland outfit to formal events here is like when military people wear their uniforms to special events in the states.  It's actually really common to see guys in highland outfits on any given day around here, but when you do see them you can pretty much assume they are going to some really fancy event, no one wears them on an everyday basis or anything like that.  Anyway, the ceilidh was so much fun (as they always are) and afterwards there was a "disco", basically just your typical DJ, but that was also really fun.  The party lasted until two and then we went out in New Town afterwards, so it was definitely a really great night!


all dressed up for the ball

Officially Scottish

Today I came home from class and there was a large blue envelope on my desk.  I turned it over and realized it was the 2011 Scottish Census that I had been hearing so much about.  I still think it's really weird that I am legally obligated to fill it out since I'm American (there is a £1000 fine for failure to complete it), but at the same time I feel so much more official knowing that my name will forever be written somewhere in a stack of government paperwork at the Scottish Parliament.  It's pretty similar to the United States Census (really boring and official), except that in the section for race there are about ten different types of Caucasian.  It's pretty obvious that Scottish-Caucasian is viewed as a completely separate race from Welsh, British, or Irish-Caucasian, which I think is kind of funny.  Also, there was a section on what type of English you speak at home, which included Scots.  I heard Scots spoken at the Burns Supper and it is definitely very distantly related to English.  I have been trying to listen to BBC Scotland Radio in the morning and apparently preserving Scots is becoming a really big deal, but I seriously doubt anyone who isn't Scottish would be able to pick it up.  Oh well, I'm sure my contribution to the census will be really useful to future Scottish lawmakers.

A Sunny Sunday in Durham

Over the weekend I went to see a friend from middle school who is from Surrey and goes to Durham University.  I used the National Rail and left the station near Princes street early on Sunday.  It turned out to be a really pleasant train ride (only about two hours) with incredible views of the North Sea and lots of sheep farms.  The train also stopped in Newcastle, which is another city I need to add to my list of places to visit.  It was much bigger than I expected and I've heard it's a great city for college students.


Newcastle, England


view of the North Sea

Once I arrived in Durham, Catherine was there to pick me up and we walked through town.  We walked from the train station to Durham Cathedral, which was gorgeous.  There was a Sunday mass going on with a full choir, which made the experience that much more authentic.  We had the chance to walk around the courtyard of the cathedral where much of Harry Potter was filmed.  Durham Castle was right next door, and Catherine explained that this was the only university where students could actually live and take their classes inside an original castle.  The Great Hall from the Harry Potter movies (where all the kids at Hogwarts get sorted and eat their feasts) is also within the castle walls, but sadly we couldn't go in because we weren't in time for the tours.  Either way, I totally felt like I should have been wearing a robe and carrying an owl on my shoulder.


inside Durham Cathedral


Durham Cathedral, there is a really great view of the city from the church


courtyard of Durham Cathedral where lots of scenes from Harry Potter were filmed


inside Durham Castle

After the castle and cathedral, Catherine and I walked through downtown Durham.  It's really small and quaint, and very hilly.  We found a little coffee shop where we could catch up and people watch.  After that we did a little grocery shopping for Catherine and her roomates' Sunday roast.  I met her three flatmates and we made brownies to munch on for tea while dinner was cooking.  They were all really sweet and they asked me about all the wierd British things I have come across.  They were really interested in what a sorority was, which was really hard to explain and probably just ended up sounding cultish, but they have similar social clubs at Durham so hopefully I didn't make it sound too horrible.  Later on Catherine and one of her flatmate's boyfriends came over for dinner, which turned out to be really fun.  They had just had their university ball the night before, so I got to hear all the fun gossip. 


Durham town square

After dinner we sat around chatting and drinking tea and buscuits (so British).  Then I was back on the train to Edinburgh.  I am so glad I went to visit her and to see Durham.  It's a really nice city and it seems like an ideal place to live and go to school.  I really enjoyed seeing her and hanging out with people who have grown up in England because sometimes it's hard to branch out of my little exchange student bubble at school.  I'm hoping to go home with her one of these weekends so I can see the south of England and catch up with her family who I haven't seen since middle school!