excuse me, is that ben nevis?

Hey, so I just got back from spending 5 days touring the highlands with a bunch of friends from home. I think I'm in love with Scotland. The highlands looked nothing like what I'd expected. I guess cause I've spent so much time in England, i figured Scotland would look the same, but colder. But I was wrong.

First, we went to Inverness, the largest city in the Highlands. Which is pretty funny, because it was a really boring town. When we got there we kept asking people what to do, and everyone told us to walk along the river. So that's what we did. Here's a picture.


Inverness is also home to the world's ugliest castle. When we went a bunch of the town kids were hanging out in back, drinking cider out of two liter bottles. For some reason a police man sat out front, napping.


The next morning we went on a cruise through Loch Ness. The lake's pretty but not nearly as pretty as anything else we saw. Urqhardt castle was nice though. My friend Caitlin thought she saw Nessie, but it turned out to be a log.


That afternoon we returned to Inverness and realized that there was still nothing to do. So we took the bus to a small fishing town, and wandered around the beach for a bit.


The next day we took a bus to the Isle of Skye. That road must be the most gorgeous road in the world. Here's a photo from the bus window.

Isle of Skye was amazing. It lived up to all the hype. Portree was also much nicer than Inverness. We went on a couple hikes. The night we were there we went to the big hotel to hear some 'local music' which turned out to be a Chinese man playing guitar and singing country songs with ammended lyrics. 'Take me home country roads, to the place where I belong, to Kirkaldy, Loch Lomond..."







We left Skye to spend a night in Fort William. Well really, we stayed in a deserted, unlockable, bunk house 3 miles outside Fort William in the middle of a sheep pasture. It was very pretty though. The next day we failed at the bus system, but ended up hiking around Glencoe, and took a train back to Edinburgh in the evening.


Whew. Tomorrow, to Prague!

em visits the parliament

So I only have two days of classes left and then it's spring break. Here's the plan
First week: Liz, Liz, and Caitlin are visiting from Brown, and we're all going on a whirlwind highland tour. I haven't been anywhere in Scotland except for Glasgow and things in between Edinburgh and Glasgow, so it should be really cool.
Second week: Meeting my dad in Prague! Making our way through Vienna to Venice.
Third week: Meeting up with Amy and Sam in Paris. Then going to Strasbourg, Nantes, and back to Paris. Then flying back to Edinburgh.

I'm pretty excited. 5 countries in three weeks. I hope it's not too exhausting.

What have I been up to recently?
There's a group of americans here interning at Scottish Parliament so Amy and I got our own personal tour. The building is very wierd. It's not grand or stately, but rambling and wooden. Anyway, here's what the building looks like from the outside:

The main debating hall:


Another view of the building:



One cool thing though is the actual offices. They're kind of like little pods, with very sleek cabinets and furniture. They have these incredibly uncomfortable built in window seats that are supposed to be where the MSPs sit and think. Here's Ben the intern in the thinking seat.




Not that they have much to think about, since the party decides how everyone will vote.

Anyway, I have my last lit lecture, which I should actually go to.

change of plan

So I'm going to be spending my summer in Koeln, Germany instead of Norwich. My prof. thinks the lab there will be a better place to work and also, she will be there all summer. I'm really excited but also a bit nervous.

plant-blogging

Here are two members of the Ericales order from a recent trip to the Royal Botanical Gardens.


Darlingtonia californica.
Yes these are from california. And they eat bugs.


Napoleona cupsidata
Or as I like to call it, the jellyfish flower.

this is crap

Official report says US CO2 to rise by 20%

Differences Between the US and Scotland (part 1)

1. Three weeks before the end of the term, it's crunch time. Everyone has papers to write. During midday, that libraries are packed. The main library has enourmous computer labs that make the Brown clusters look tiny in comparison. And it's a challenge to find an open terminal at 1pm or so. But at 7pm, right when Brown kids might start thinking about studying, the library's a wasteland. Late night studying? Don't even think about it, the library closes at 10pm or earlier. However, no matter what time of day it is, half the people in the lab are on facebook.

Maybe I should learn from the example. It's 7:30 pm the day before a I have a paper due and I still have 500 words to go...