It is now nearly a month since I am back in Glasgow and quite a few things I have needed to sort through. Some things that I didn't even start to sort through until last week. For example my GU-ID card, or the identity card that allows me access to the Glasgow University Library. For some reason my card was only validated for 1 year when I got it last year, but just earlier in the week I noticed that the card belonging to my friend was validated until 2011!!! I thought that this might be because I hadn't enrolled on the same day as she, I didn't enroll until early October. So yesterday I headed off to Registry to get a new card. After waiting in line for about fifteen mins or so it was my turn. I told her that I needed to apply for a new card since mine was running out, and that I thought this was a mistake. 'No' she replied, saying that these cards should only be issued for a year at a time. So in fact my friend had just been ridiculously lucky. But no matter, it only took her a matter of minutes to print out a new card for me and hand it to me. It was only when I was walking away from her that I noticed the date on the card and could barely contain my grin. It is valid till 2012!!!
In a way I hope it is not prophetic and that I will still be here as a postgrad student in 2012, but on the other hand, I will have access to the library for a good number of years now ;)
Showing posts with label School. Show all posts
Showing posts with label School. Show all posts
Friday, September 25, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Exams, never again
1. Get a copy of the exam, run out screaming "Andre, Andre, I've got the secret documents!!"
2. Talk the entire way through the exam. Read questions aloud, debate your answers with yourself out loud. If asked to stop, yell out, "I'm SOOO sure that you can hear me thinking." Then start talking about what a jerk the instructor is.
3. Bring a Game Boy. Play with the volume at max level.
4. On the answer sheet find a new, interesting way to refuse to answer every question. For example: I refuse to answer this question on the grounds that it conflicts with my religious beliefs. Be creative.
5. Run into the exam room looking about frantically. Breathe a sigh of relief. Go to the instructor, say "They've found me, I have to leave the country" and run off.
6. 15 min. into the exam, stand up, rip up all the papers into very small pieces, throw them into the air and yell out "Merry Christmas." If you're really daring, ask for another copy of the exam. Say you lost the first one. Repeat this process every 15 min.
7. Come into the exam wearing slippers, a bathrobe, a towel on your head, and nothing else.
8. Come down with a BAD case of Tourette's Syndrome during the exam. Be as vulgar as possible.
9. Bring things to throw at the instructor when s/he's not looking. Blame it on the person nearest to you.
10. As soon as the instructor hands you the exam, eat it.
11. Every 5 min. stand up, collect all your things, move to another seat, continue with the exam.
12. Turn in the exam approx. 30 min. into it. As you walk out, start commenting on how easy it was.
13. Get the exam. 20 min into it, throw your papers down violently, scream out "Fuck this!" and walk out triumphantly.
14. Arrange a protest before the exam starts (ie. Threaten the instructor that whether or not everyone's done, they are all leaving after one hour to go drink.)
15. Show up completely drunk (completely drunk means at some point during the exam, you should start crying for mommy).
16. Comment on how sexy the instructor is looking that day.
17. Come to the exam wearing a black cloak. After about 30 min, put on a white mask and start yelling "I'm here, the phantom of the opera" until they drag you away.
18. If the exam is math/sciences related, make up the longest proofs you could possible think of. Get pi and imaginary numbers into most equations. If it is a written exam, relate everything to your own life story.
19. Try to get people in the room to do a wave.
20. Bring some large, cumbersome, ugly idol. Put it right next to you. Pray to it often. Consider a small sacrifice.
21. During the exam, take apart everything around you. Desks, chairs, anything you can reach.
22. Puke into your exam booklet. Hand it in. Leave.
23. Take 6 packages of rice cakes to the exam. Stuff at least 2 rice cakes into your mouth at once. Chew, then cough. Repeat if necessary.
24. Masturbate.
25. Walk in, get the exam, sit down. About 5 min into it, loudly say to the instructor, "I don't understand ANY of this. I've been to every lecture all semester long! What's the deal? And who the hell are you? Where's the regular guy?"
26. Do the entire exam in another language. If you don't know one, make one up!
27. Bring a black marker. Return the exam with all questions and answers completely blacked out.
28. Every now and then, clap twice rapidly. If the instructor asks why, tell him/her in a very derogatory tone, "the light bulb that goes on above my head when I get an idea is hooked up to a clapper. DUH!"
29. From the moment the exam begins, hum the theme to Jeopardy. Ignore the instructor's requests for you to stop. When they finally get you to leave one way or another, begin whistling the theme to the Bridge on the River Kwai.
30. After you get the exam, call the instructor over, point to any question, ask for the answer. Try to work it out of him/her.
31. In the middle of the test, have a friend rush into the classroom, tag your hand, and resume taking your test for you. When the teacher asks what's going on, calmly explain the rules of Tag Team Testing to him/her.
32. Bring cheat sheets FOR ANOTHER CLASS (make sure this is obvious... like history notes for a calculus exam... otherwise you're not just failing, you're getting kicked out too) and staple them to the exam, with the comment "Please use the attached notes for references as you see fit."
33. Stand up after about 15 minutes, and say loudly, "Okay, let's double-check our answers! Number one, A. Number two, C. Number three, E...."
34. Fake an orgasm. When interrupted, apologize, and explain that question #__ moved you, deeply.
35. Wear a superman outfit under your normal clothes. 30 minutes into the exam, jump up and answer your phone, shouting "What? I'm on my way!!". rip off your outer clothes and run out of the room. strike a pose first for added effect.
36. Tailgate outside the classroom before the exam.
37. If your answers are on a scantron sheet, fill it out in pen.
38. Bring a giant cockroach into the room and release it on a girl nearby.
39. Complete the exam with everything you write being backwards at a 90 degree angle.
40. Bring one pencil with a very sharp point. Break the point off your paper. Sharpen the pencil. Repeat this process for one hour.
41. Make Strange noises... get people to stare... look at the person next to you as if heshe did it.
42. Dress like the professor or better yet; cross-dress
43. Use Invisible Ink to answer the whole exam.
44. Order catering. The catering company should come in about halfway through the test, and should include at least three waiters, eight carts of food, and five candelabras.
45. Bring a pillow. Fall asleep (or pretend to) until the last 15 minutes. Wake up, say "oh geez, better get cracking" and do some gibberish work. Turn it in a few minutes early.
46. If it is a math/science exam, answer in essay form. If it is long answer/essay form, answer with numbers and symbols. Be creative. Use the integral symbol.
47. Make paper airplanes out of the exam. Aim them at the instructor's left nostril.
48. Bring cheerleaders, or bring pets
49. Do the exam with crayons, paint, or fluorescent markers.
50. Walk into the exam with an entourage. Claim you are going to be taping your next video during the exam. Try to get the instructor to let them stay, be persuasive. Tell the instructor to expect a percentage of the profits if they are allowed to stay.
51. Do the entire exam as if it was multiple choice and true/false. If it is a multiple choice exam, spell out interesting things (DCCAB. BABE. etc. . ).
52. Go to an exam for a class you have no clue about, where you know the class is very small, and the instructor would recognize you if you belonged. Claim that you have been to every lecture. Fight for your right to take the exam.
53. Upon receiving the exam, look it over, while laughing loudly, say "you don't really expect me to waste my time on this drivel? Days of our Lives is on!!!"
54. Bring a water pistol with you, or start a brawl in the middle of the exam
55. Come in wearing a full knight's outfit, complete with sword and shield.
56. Bring a friend to give you a back massage the entire way through the exam. Insist this person is needed, because you have bad circulation.
57. When you walk in, complain about the heat.
58. Bring balloons, blow them up, start throwing them around like they do before concerts start.
59. Play frisbee with a friend at the other side of the room.
60. Get deliveries of candy, flowers, balloons, telegrams, etc. . . sent to you every few minutes throughout the exam.
61. Bring a musical instrument with you, play various tunes. If you are asked to stop, say "it helps me think. " Bring a copy of the Student Handbook with you, challenging the instructor to find the section on musical instruments during finals. Don't forget to use the phrase "Told you so".
62. Answer the exam with the "Top Ten Reasons Why Professor xxxx is a Terrible Teacher"
63. Call the teacher over. Repeatedly call him/her. When he answers, wait 5 seconds, then say "We're taking a test teacher!" (Kind of like Charlie the Unicorn "We're on a bridge Charlie!")
64. go into the exam room. sit down, put on a helmet with the blast shield down and tell the professer the Force will guide your pencil.
65. When the end of the test is near and the examiner starts to look at the clock. Wait until the the seconds hand reaches 6, start singing the Countdown theme tune.
66: leave the whole exam blank after writing THERE ARE ALWAYS MARKS FOR NEAT WORK
67. In the middle of the exam stand up and yell 'they’re coming for me!' and run out
68. Cough really loudly every 5 seconds
69. Make out (or go further than making out) with your boyfriend during the exam when the instructor tries to get you to stop, look the instructor in the eye and tell him/her in an annoyed tone "EXCUSE ME!!! We're a little busy here, GO AWAY . . . "
70. colour in the letters that have a closed of space i.e. a,,b, c,,d etc
2. Talk the entire way through the exam. Read questions aloud, debate your answers with yourself out loud. If asked to stop, yell out, "I'm SOOO sure that you can hear me thinking." Then start talking about what a jerk the instructor is.
3. Bring a Game Boy. Play with the volume at max level.
4. On the answer sheet find a new, interesting way to refuse to answer every question. For example: I refuse to answer this question on the grounds that it conflicts with my religious beliefs. Be creative.
5. Run into the exam room looking about frantically. Breathe a sigh of relief. Go to the instructor, say "They've found me, I have to leave the country" and run off.
6. 15 min. into the exam, stand up, rip up all the papers into very small pieces, throw them into the air and yell out "Merry Christmas." If you're really daring, ask for another copy of the exam. Say you lost the first one. Repeat this process every 15 min.
7. Come into the exam wearing slippers, a bathrobe, a towel on your head, and nothing else.
8. Come down with a BAD case of Tourette's Syndrome during the exam. Be as vulgar as possible.
9. Bring things to throw at the instructor when s/he's not looking. Blame it on the person nearest to you.
10. As soon as the instructor hands you the exam, eat it.
11. Every 5 min. stand up, collect all your things, move to another seat, continue with the exam.
12. Turn in the exam approx. 30 min. into it. As you walk out, start commenting on how easy it was.
13. Get the exam. 20 min into it, throw your papers down violently, scream out "Fuck this!" and walk out triumphantly.
14. Arrange a protest before the exam starts (ie. Threaten the instructor that whether or not everyone's done, they are all leaving after one hour to go drink.)
15. Show up completely drunk (completely drunk means at some point during the exam, you should start crying for mommy).
16. Comment on how sexy the instructor is looking that day.
17. Come to the exam wearing a black cloak. After about 30 min, put on a white mask and start yelling "I'm here, the phantom of the opera" until they drag you away.
18. If the exam is math/sciences related, make up the longest proofs you could possible think of. Get pi and imaginary numbers into most equations. If it is a written exam, relate everything to your own life story.
19. Try to get people in the room to do a wave.
20. Bring some large, cumbersome, ugly idol. Put it right next to you. Pray to it often. Consider a small sacrifice.
21. During the exam, take apart everything around you. Desks, chairs, anything you can reach.
22. Puke into your exam booklet. Hand it in. Leave.
23. Take 6 packages of rice cakes to the exam. Stuff at least 2 rice cakes into your mouth at once. Chew, then cough. Repeat if necessary.
24. Masturbate.
25. Walk in, get the exam, sit down. About 5 min into it, loudly say to the instructor, "I don't understand ANY of this. I've been to every lecture all semester long! What's the deal? And who the hell are you? Where's the regular guy?"
26. Do the entire exam in another language. If you don't know one, make one up!
27. Bring a black marker. Return the exam with all questions and answers completely blacked out.
28. Every now and then, clap twice rapidly. If the instructor asks why, tell him/her in a very derogatory tone, "the light bulb that goes on above my head when I get an idea is hooked up to a clapper. DUH!"
29. From the moment the exam begins, hum the theme to Jeopardy. Ignore the instructor's requests for you to stop. When they finally get you to leave one way or another, begin whistling the theme to the Bridge on the River Kwai.
30. After you get the exam, call the instructor over, point to any question, ask for the answer. Try to work it out of him/her.
31. In the middle of the test, have a friend rush into the classroom, tag your hand, and resume taking your test for you. When the teacher asks what's going on, calmly explain the rules of Tag Team Testing to him/her.
32. Bring cheat sheets FOR ANOTHER CLASS (make sure this is obvious... like history notes for a calculus exam... otherwise you're not just failing, you're getting kicked out too) and staple them to the exam, with the comment "Please use the attached notes for references as you see fit."
33. Stand up after about 15 minutes, and say loudly, "Okay, let's double-check our answers! Number one, A. Number two, C. Number three, E...."
34. Fake an orgasm. When interrupted, apologize, and explain that question #__ moved you, deeply.
35. Wear a superman outfit under your normal clothes. 30 minutes into the exam, jump up and answer your phone, shouting "What? I'm on my way!!". rip off your outer clothes and run out of the room. strike a pose first for added effect.
36. Tailgate outside the classroom before the exam.
37. If your answers are on a scantron sheet, fill it out in pen.
38. Bring a giant cockroach into the room and release it on a girl nearby.
39. Complete the exam with everything you write being backwards at a 90 degree angle.
40. Bring one pencil with a very sharp point. Break the point off your paper. Sharpen the pencil. Repeat this process for one hour.
41. Make Strange noises... get people to stare... look at the person next to you as if heshe did it.
42. Dress like the professor or better yet; cross-dress
43. Use Invisible Ink to answer the whole exam.
44. Order catering. The catering company should come in about halfway through the test, and should include at least three waiters, eight carts of food, and five candelabras.
45. Bring a pillow. Fall asleep (or pretend to) until the last 15 minutes. Wake up, say "oh geez, better get cracking" and do some gibberish work. Turn it in a few minutes early.
46. If it is a math/science exam, answer in essay form. If it is long answer/essay form, answer with numbers and symbols. Be creative. Use the integral symbol.
47. Make paper airplanes out of the exam. Aim them at the instructor's left nostril.
48. Bring cheerleaders, or bring pets
49. Do the exam with crayons, paint, or fluorescent markers.
50. Walk into the exam with an entourage. Claim you are going to be taping your next video during the exam. Try to get the instructor to let them stay, be persuasive. Tell the instructor to expect a percentage of the profits if they are allowed to stay.
51. Do the entire exam as if it was multiple choice and true/false. If it is a multiple choice exam, spell out interesting things (DCCAB. BABE. etc. . ).
52. Go to an exam for a class you have no clue about, where you know the class is very small, and the instructor would recognize you if you belonged. Claim that you have been to every lecture. Fight for your right to take the exam.
53. Upon receiving the exam, look it over, while laughing loudly, say "you don't really expect me to waste my time on this drivel? Days of our Lives is on!!!"
54. Bring a water pistol with you, or start a brawl in the middle of the exam
55. Come in wearing a full knight's outfit, complete with sword and shield.
56. Bring a friend to give you a back massage the entire way through the exam. Insist this person is needed, because you have bad circulation.
57. When you walk in, complain about the heat.
58. Bring balloons, blow them up, start throwing them around like they do before concerts start.
59. Play frisbee with a friend at the other side of the room.
60. Get deliveries of candy, flowers, balloons, telegrams, etc. . . sent to you every few minutes throughout the exam.
61. Bring a musical instrument with you, play various tunes. If you are asked to stop, say "it helps me think. " Bring a copy of the Student Handbook with you, challenging the instructor to find the section on musical instruments during finals. Don't forget to use the phrase "Told you so".
62. Answer the exam with the "Top Ten Reasons Why Professor xxxx is a Terrible Teacher"
63. Call the teacher over. Repeatedly call him/her. When he answers, wait 5 seconds, then say "We're taking a test teacher!" (Kind of like Charlie the Unicorn "We're on a bridge Charlie!")
64. go into the exam room. sit down, put on a helmet with the blast shield down and tell the professer the Force will guide your pencil.
65. When the end of the test is near and the examiner starts to look at the clock. Wait until the the seconds hand reaches 6, start singing the Countdown theme tune.
66: leave the whole exam blank after writing THERE ARE ALWAYS MARKS FOR NEAT WORK
67. In the middle of the exam stand up and yell 'they’re coming for me!' and run out
68. Cough really loudly every 5 seconds
69. Make out (or go further than making out) with your boyfriend during the exam when the instructor tries to get you to stop, look the instructor in the eye and tell him/her in an annoyed tone "EXCUSE ME!!! We're a little busy here, GO AWAY . . . "
70. colour in the letters that have a closed of space i.e. a,,b, c,,d etc
Friday, February 27, 2009
St. Andrews Conference II
We woke up early on Saturday morning and prepared to show up for breakfast which was included in the booking, I got this very nice plate of bacon, eggs, tomato and hash brown and we could also choose from an assortment of cereals. I was truly impressed with their reception and how much they made us feel welcome almost into their own home. Abbeyview cottage gets ***** from me, cannot praise them enough. We finished getting dressed got our luggage together and paid for our room and off we went on to find where the conference was being held.
We made it into the town centre and made our way in the right direction from there. The problem with getting around St. Andrews is that it is soooo small everyone thinks you know where you are going! We were real tourists with maps pointing and hmmm-ing. We made it eventually to the place where the conference was but now the question was WHICH BUILDING, because there were a few around and non properly signposted. Well we found signposts in the end but they didn't indicate which direction you should go so that was a bright idea, but in the end we found it. It was held in the Purdie Building, North Haugh and when we came into the foyer most of the people were there already. We signed in and went browsing about the tables they had set up. They were offering books and booklets on sale, and I was incredibly lucky. I got my hands on ECMS (Early Christian Monuments of Scotland) for 20P, which is not bad considering this is very hard to get your hands on. It didn't take me a long time to decide to buy it. We also found Jo from the Music Department who was going to be so sweet to us and give us a lift back to Glasgow. Then Alex Wolf climbed up on a table to get our attention that the conference was starting and that we should start moving towards the lecture theatre.
The first lecture started at 10:45, speaker was Barbara Yorke from the University of Winchester ''Scottish Northumbria' as an Anglo-Saxon Province', which was about the Bernician dynasty around Bamburgh and Lindisfarne. Interesting but since I am not very up on history this late, I have no idea what she was talking about.
Then it was Dr. David N. Parsons from the Centre for Advanced Studies, University of Wales, 'Place-names of the Southwest revisited' which was very interesting and I enjoyed it very much listening to him. And then it was lunch. The buffet was very nice, although not very organised, so I had no idea what I was getting, also the problem was because you weren't really able to recognise what was on the sandwiches Catriona couldn't take a chance, so it appeared that the vegetarian choice was finished when we finally got there (if it ever was there). All she did get was a muffin and a bowl of fruit, I was lucky though, because I got a sandwich with ham and tomato (only one slice of tomato though), chicken, muffin and fruit.
After the break it was Alice Blackwell's turn from Museum of Scotland, she was talking about 'Reassessing the Anglo-Saxon material culture from Scotland', and I love hearing what she has to say. This is the second time I have attended a lecture with her and it's always fabulous. One of the highlights of the conference I must say. Following her talk was Dr. Nicky Toop, Field Archaeology Specialist from York, talking about 'Northumbrian Monuments in Southern Scotland: carving a Christian territory', and I must admit I was not impressed. She used so much out of date data for her talk and relied to much on what others had done it didn't give any clear focus on what she was really on about. It felt too much like she didn't know what she was doing there, not good at all. Then it was time for tea.
Tea was a lovely time, we got loads of cake and Catriona got tea so she was happy. I managed to wrangle a coke form a vending machine so I was happy too.
The conference was almost finished at this point but three speakers were still to left. So the opening act after coffee break was none other than Alex Wolf himself, speaking on 'The Sain'ts of Anlgo-Saxon Scotland'. It was a very brief talk, but fun. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing him recite a poem in Old English fluently, it was lovely, and his saints were fun too. Then we finally got an archeologists perspective on the Anglo-Saxon culture with Erlend Hindmarch from AOC (I have no idea what that is) who told us about 'New Discoveries from Auldhame', and I again enjoyed that talk immensely. He was telling us about an excavation of a graveyard dating from late 8th century until 15th century. It was amazing and great to hear of the work being carried out there. I don't know why but I always like listening to Archaeologists share their discoveries and listen to their lectures. Probably because they use a lot of photos!
Then it was time for our very own Professor Dauvit Brown to sum up the conference and give a closing speach. All in all the conference was a great success and I am so happy to have gone. I had also managed to get my hands on a couple of other booklets from previous conferences about Scandinavian studies in Scotland so I was mightly pleased.
After this there was nothing more to do than to take off home. Guto joined us as Jo had promised to give him a ride as well and when we were all there we headed for her car and she drove us all the way to Glasgow and home to our doorstep as well. She was so nice and it was a very nice journey to make all in all.
We made it into the town centre and made our way in the right direction from there. The problem with getting around St. Andrews is that it is soooo small everyone thinks you know where you are going! We were real tourists with maps pointing and hmmm-ing. We made it eventually to the place where the conference was but now the question was WHICH BUILDING, because there were a few around and non properly signposted. Well we found signposts in the end but they didn't indicate which direction you should go so that was a bright idea, but in the end we found it. It was held in the Purdie Building, North Haugh and when we came into the foyer most of the people were there already. We signed in and went browsing about the tables they had set up. They were offering books and booklets on sale, and I was incredibly lucky. I got my hands on ECMS (Early Christian Monuments of Scotland) for 20P, which is not bad considering this is very hard to get your hands on. It didn't take me a long time to decide to buy it. We also found Jo from the Music Department who was going to be so sweet to us and give us a lift back to Glasgow. Then Alex Wolf climbed up on a table to get our attention that the conference was starting and that we should start moving towards the lecture theatre.
The first lecture started at 10:45, speaker was Barbara Yorke from the University of Winchester ''Scottish Northumbria' as an Anglo-Saxon Province', which was about the Bernician dynasty around Bamburgh and Lindisfarne. Interesting but since I am not very up on history this late, I have no idea what she was talking about.
Then it was Dr. David N. Parsons from the Centre for Advanced Studies, University of Wales, 'Place-names of the Southwest revisited' which was very interesting and I enjoyed it very much listening to him. And then it was lunch. The buffet was very nice, although not very organised, so I had no idea what I was getting, also the problem was because you weren't really able to recognise what was on the sandwiches Catriona couldn't take a chance, so it appeared that the vegetarian choice was finished when we finally got there (if it ever was there). All she did get was a muffin and a bowl of fruit, I was lucky though, because I got a sandwich with ham and tomato (only one slice of tomato though), chicken, muffin and fruit.
After the break it was Alice Blackwell's turn from Museum of Scotland, she was talking about 'Reassessing the Anglo-Saxon material culture from Scotland', and I love hearing what she has to say. This is the second time I have attended a lecture with her and it's always fabulous. One of the highlights of the conference I must say. Following her talk was Dr. Nicky Toop, Field Archaeology Specialist from York, talking about 'Northumbrian Monuments in Southern Scotland: carving a Christian territory', and I must admit I was not impressed. She used so much out of date data for her talk and relied to much on what others had done it didn't give any clear focus on what she was really on about. It felt too much like she didn't know what she was doing there, not good at all. Then it was time for tea.
Tea was a lovely time, we got loads of cake and Catriona got tea so she was happy. I managed to wrangle a coke form a vending machine so I was happy too.
The conference was almost finished at this point but three speakers were still to left. So the opening act after coffee break was none other than Alex Wolf himself, speaking on 'The Sain'ts of Anlgo-Saxon Scotland'. It was a very brief talk, but fun. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing him recite a poem in Old English fluently, it was lovely, and his saints were fun too. Then we finally got an archeologists perspective on the Anglo-Saxon culture with Erlend Hindmarch from AOC (I have no idea what that is) who told us about 'New Discoveries from Auldhame', and I again enjoyed that talk immensely. He was telling us about an excavation of a graveyard dating from late 8th century until 15th century. It was amazing and great to hear of the work being carried out there. I don't know why but I always like listening to Archaeologists share their discoveries and listen to their lectures. Probably because they use a lot of photos!
Then it was time for our very own Professor Dauvit Brown to sum up the conference and give a closing speach. All in all the conference was a great success and I am so happy to have gone. I had also managed to get my hands on a couple of other booklets from previous conferences about Scandinavian studies in Scotland so I was mightly pleased.
After this there was nothing more to do than to take off home. Guto joined us as Jo had promised to give him a ride as well and when we were all there we headed for her car and she drove us all the way to Glasgow and home to our doorstep as well. She was so nice and it was a very nice journey to make all in all.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
St. Andrews Conference I
Catriona and I went to a conference in St. Andrews last weekend. It was hosted by St. Andrews University, Committe for Dark Age studies & EMERGE (I have no idea what that is). The title of the conference was 'Anglo-Saxon Scotland' and some questioned the validity or the apropriateness of this title.
The party started on Friday so Catriona and I made our way to Queen Street station early morning to catch the train to Edinburgh. I always like going on trains. We made it into Edinburgh shortly before 11, and I just managed to grab a sandwich, bottle of coke and a bag of crisps before we jumped aboard the train to Luchers. We had enormous amount of fun on the trainride to Luchers all thanks to Walkers Vote for Me crips. I had grabbed a bag of a new trial crips 'Builders Breakfast' and they truly were magical. I recommend them to anyone who want's a bit of Harry Potter feeling. It was like eating Berti Botts Every Flavour Beans, except crisps. 'Builder's Breakfast' was supposed to have, eggs, toast, beans and bacon, and the weird thing was, you picked up a crips and bit into it and maybe you got eggs, or eggs and bacon, bacon and beans, beans and toast! The point is you never knew and it could be any flavour, which made this incredibly fun. We are so easily entertained.
We made it into Luchers around noon and hurried to the bus station where a moment later a bus came to take us to St. Andrews. What a journey. We had no idea where we were or where we were going but alighted at the first viable spot, and landed basically in the heart of St. Andrews not bad. This was the start of a long day of walking ... and walking ... and walking. We went to the St. Andrews Cathedral, which is probably one of my favorite ruins of all time. Looking at it just makes you wonder what used to be there and makes you want to weep, it is beautiful. Next to the Cathedral is St. Rules tower and Catriona can tell you all about it. I only know a bit, that it is one of the oldest square tower in Scotland! We went up, but oh boy, it was difficult. The stairs were circular and tiny, these really were tiny monks, but I made it up and Catriona too. I took a few photos to prove it and then we descended the stairs again. I still don't know how I managed this and both my knees get nightmares thinking about this trip up and down. (My knees are magical and can think for themselves.)
Next on the list was finding the Bed and Brekfast, and after what felt like wandering around the desert for twenty minutes we found it. It was a lovely place in the middle of the suburb of St. Andrews (which is not big). The welcome was wonderful and the room was amazing, felt just like a hotel only smaller. After stopping for a short while where I was able to allow my feet to breath for a bit, we were at it again ... walking ... and walking. We went back to the city centre where we sat down at Costa Cafe to find out where we were going next, but in the end we mostly just wandered around town aimlessly looking for a place to eat. We basically ended up at the same place where we had lunch, at Victorias Bar. We knew we would get good food there so we weren't to disappointed of not getting to sample more of the local cusine. Also most of the places in St. Andrews are rather expensive.
We left the diner when it was still roughly more than half an hour before the seminar started. The seminar tonight was sort of the opening act to the weekends conference, The Anderson Memorial Lecture. It took us for ages to find the place, and its basically because I screwed up! I was so caught up with the street names there that I didn't really pay much attention to the map or address. So we turned down a road we shouldn't have, if we had basically moved half a meter more and into a courtyard we would have been there, but I wanted to go down Butts Wynd (which I renamed Farts Alley) and from there it went all down hill. We made it back but it was quite frustrating that we could have avoided all this walking, on the other hand there were people about now so we felt more assured that we were at the right place. And so we were, we found the lecture theatre and sat down, which was a relief for my feet.
The speaker of the evening was a Professor Nick Higham and his talk was titled 'Anglo-Saxon Scotland?' (very imaginative title as you can see). I had heard that not everyone was pleased with having him as opening speaker for the night, and I must say I can understand why (although I didn't until Catriona explained it to me). I didn't take the same history courses as Catriona did so she was much more up on things than I was, but basically this guy was spouting nonsence which no 'sane person thinks anymore', and that it had felt like stepping thirty years back into the past in scholarship. He was an entertaining speaker though, it must be said. There are probably not many that can actually get the sentence: 'Not that I am insinuating that Bede was a Dalek' into a lecture.
After the talk we were invited over to a reception given by the University and sponsored by Glenmorangie! They offered us whiskey, red wine, white wine and some other beverages that I wasn't exploring to much of. They even had snacks. I had a glass of whiskey but because I had been walking so much and had an early start to tomorrow I didn't imbibe too much, although Catriona got a bit mellow with a glass of red wine. We mingled, although just barely, we met a guy from Cambridge, named Paul (I thought his name was Bob, but found that odd for a Cambridge boy), all dressed up in tweed! He knew Geraldine our teacher so we had something in common to talk about. Then we spent a few minutes talking to Dauvit and Thomas before splitting. It's a good thing I am good at finding my way around places because I would not have trusted Catriona in her mellow state to get us where we were going, we walked back to the B&B and were very happy when we were finally in bed exhausted after an eventful day.
The party started on Friday so Catriona and I made our way to Queen Street station early morning to catch the train to Edinburgh. I always like going on trains. We made it into Edinburgh shortly before 11, and I just managed to grab a sandwich, bottle of coke and a bag of crisps before we jumped aboard the train to Luchers. We had enormous amount of fun on the trainride to Luchers all thanks to Walkers Vote for Me crips. I had grabbed a bag of a new trial crips 'Builders Breakfast' and they truly were magical. I recommend them to anyone who want's a bit of Harry Potter feeling. It was like eating Berti Botts Every Flavour Beans, except crisps. 'Builder's Breakfast' was supposed to have, eggs, toast, beans and bacon, and the weird thing was, you picked up a crips and bit into it and maybe you got eggs, or eggs and bacon, bacon and beans, beans and toast! The point is you never knew and it could be any flavour, which made this incredibly fun. We are so easily entertained.
We made it into Luchers around noon and hurried to the bus station where a moment later a bus came to take us to St. Andrews. What a journey. We had no idea where we were or where we were going but alighted at the first viable spot, and landed basically in the heart of St. Andrews not bad. This was the start of a long day of walking ... and walking ... and walking. We went to the St. Andrews Cathedral, which is probably one of my favorite ruins of all time. Looking at it just makes you wonder what used to be there and makes you want to weep, it is beautiful. Next to the Cathedral is St. Rules tower and Catriona can tell you all about it. I only know a bit, that it is one of the oldest square tower in Scotland! We went up, but oh boy, it was difficult. The stairs were circular and tiny, these really were tiny monks, but I made it up and Catriona too. I took a few photos to prove it and then we descended the stairs again. I still don't know how I managed this and both my knees get nightmares thinking about this trip up and down. (My knees are magical and can think for themselves.)
Next on the list was finding the Bed and Brekfast, and after what felt like wandering around the desert for twenty minutes we found it. It was a lovely place in the middle of the suburb of St. Andrews (which is not big). The welcome was wonderful and the room was amazing, felt just like a hotel only smaller. After stopping for a short while where I was able to allow my feet to breath for a bit, we were at it again ... walking ... and walking. We went back to the city centre where we sat down at Costa Cafe to find out where we were going next, but in the end we mostly just wandered around town aimlessly looking for a place to eat. We basically ended up at the same place where we had lunch, at Victorias Bar. We knew we would get good food there so we weren't to disappointed of not getting to sample more of the local cusine. Also most of the places in St. Andrews are rather expensive.
We left the diner when it was still roughly more than half an hour before the seminar started. The seminar tonight was sort of the opening act to the weekends conference, The Anderson Memorial Lecture. It took us for ages to find the place, and its basically because I screwed up! I was so caught up with the street names there that I didn't really pay much attention to the map or address. So we turned down a road we shouldn't have, if we had basically moved half a meter more and into a courtyard we would have been there, but I wanted to go down Butts Wynd (which I renamed Farts Alley) and from there it went all down hill. We made it back but it was quite frustrating that we could have avoided all this walking, on the other hand there were people about now so we felt more assured that we were at the right place. And so we were, we found the lecture theatre and sat down, which was a relief for my feet.
The speaker of the evening was a Professor Nick Higham and his talk was titled 'Anglo-Saxon Scotland?' (very imaginative title as you can see). I had heard that not everyone was pleased with having him as opening speaker for the night, and I must say I can understand why (although I didn't until Catriona explained it to me). I didn't take the same history courses as Catriona did so she was much more up on things than I was, but basically this guy was spouting nonsence which no 'sane person thinks anymore', and that it had felt like stepping thirty years back into the past in scholarship. He was an entertaining speaker though, it must be said. There are probably not many that can actually get the sentence: 'Not that I am insinuating that Bede was a Dalek' into a lecture.
After the talk we were invited over to a reception given by the University and sponsored by Glenmorangie! They offered us whiskey, red wine, white wine and some other beverages that I wasn't exploring to much of. They even had snacks. I had a glass of whiskey but because I had been walking so much and had an early start to tomorrow I didn't imbibe too much, although Catriona got a bit mellow with a glass of red wine. We mingled, although just barely, we met a guy from Cambridge, named Paul (I thought his name was Bob, but found that odd for a Cambridge boy), all dressed up in tweed! He knew Geraldine our teacher so we had something in common to talk about. Then we spent a few minutes talking to Dauvit and Thomas before splitting. It's a good thing I am good at finding my way around places because I would not have trusted Catriona in her mellow state to get us where we were going, we walked back to the B&B and were very happy when we were finally in bed exhausted after an eventful day.
To be continued ...
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Seminars
I don't know why but seeing my professors falling asleep during a seminar is oddly comforting. Of course some of them do it more than others and sometimes I do it more than often, hehehe. I managed to stay awake for this seminar, and I have been pretty good at staying awake, except at Alex Wolf's seminar. That's when I was completely out of it, although I was still pretty ill so that does count towards something. The lectures that have been presented this year, have mostly been 'internal' as in those presenting them have come from Glasgow Uni, although there have been a few 'outsiders'. Although, even though Alex Wolf is technically an outsider, it's not possible to define him as such, seeing the close ties between him the the Celict medievalists gang at Glasgow Uni.
I am actually starting to look forward giving another lecture, I don't know what is wrong with me. Although I hope it proofs right that 'practice makes perfect'. Hopefully as year two approaches I will actually have a chapter in the making that will make for a good seminar paper. I think I might really be getting into all this academic stuff, although it might just be exhaustion and halusinations of grandeur getting in way of logical thinking. Yes I am such a Vulcan of all things!!! Halusinations are my forte rather than logic and rational thinking, god forbid I get boring!
Well I am off to bed soon, am watching Taken with Liam Neeson right now, it's been a while that I have seen a film where so many people get dead in so few seconds, it's like 24 on speed!
I am actually starting to look forward giving another lecture, I don't know what is wrong with me. Although I hope it proofs right that 'practice makes perfect'. Hopefully as year two approaches I will actually have a chapter in the making that will make for a good seminar paper. I think I might really be getting into all this academic stuff, although it might just be exhaustion and halusinations of grandeur getting in way of logical thinking. Yes I am such a Vulcan of all things!!! Halusinations are my forte rather than logic and rational thinking, god forbid I get boring!
Well I am off to bed soon, am watching Taken with Liam Neeson right now, it's been a while that I have seen a film where so many people get dead in so few seconds, it's like 24 on speed!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Vote for me!!!
Hello peeps!
Soon I will have to write a bit about me and my research as well as give my department a photo of me to accompany this wee report. So I am in a bit of a conundrum and am seeking your help in choosing a photo of me to send along. I have chosen 10 photos from the time I spent in Orkney and I would like for you to take a look at them and vote which you like best. I think it would be most helpful if you just left a comment here on the blog rather than with the photos. Have fun and enjoy.
Photos: Academic with an attitude!
Soon I will have to write a bit about me and my research as well as give my department a photo of me to accompany this wee report. So I am in a bit of a conundrum and am seeking your help in choosing a photo of me to send along. I have chosen 10 photos from the time I spent in Orkney and I would like for you to take a look at them and vote which you like best. I think it would be most helpful if you just left a comment here on the blog rather than with the photos. Have fun and enjoy.
Photos: Academic with an attitude!
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Subway the way of the student
Ooo it was obvious that the Subway on Byres Road is run by asians. When I entered the establishment to purchase some student substenance I was greated with blasting Bollywood music. And how lame is this, I knew the song!!! It was the title song from the film Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (Something is about to happen) and of course I started humming and nodding along to the tune. And no Þurý, you don't have to worry I made a spectacle of myself, there were no shoulder movements accompanying the humming... at least I don't think so! But it was fun, and the subway sandwich was very tasty.
Before I made my way to the Subway though I went into Uni to attend a seminar lecture in the English medieval language department. Alistair McLennan who was my tutor last year was giving a lecture on the ghost of Skarphéðinn Njálsson in Njáls saga, called 'Ghoul, Interrupted: Society and the Undead in Njáls saga'. It was hilarious and fun, but also informative and interesting. For the last three years he has been working on his definitve work on ghosts and monsters in Icelandic medieval literature. Very exciting stuff I really want to read it when he finishes.
There was also a talk about verbal phrases, but that wasn't as interesting. In fact it was quite boring. It was basically about a woman who needs a life. She had spent I don't know how many hours comparing and searching through the letters B and G of verbal phrases and how three compilers of dictionaries regarded the phrases. This was confined to the later modern English period of 1750 - ?, the work she used was Samuel Johnsons first English dictionary, Websters American English dictionary and the first edition of Oxford English Dictionary (OED). And yes, this sounds as exciting as comparing three phonebooks between years and see who changed their number!!!
But I might be going to the next one, it's on the Canterbury Tales, and although I am not a fan, it's medieval and that's enough for me, depending on if I can wheedle Catriona with me.
Before I made my way to the Subway though I went into Uni to attend a seminar lecture in the English medieval language department. Alistair McLennan who was my tutor last year was giving a lecture on the ghost of Skarphéðinn Njálsson in Njáls saga, called 'Ghoul, Interrupted: Society and the Undead in Njáls saga'. It was hilarious and fun, but also informative and interesting. For the last three years he has been working on his definitve work on ghosts and monsters in Icelandic medieval literature. Very exciting stuff I really want to read it when he finishes.
There was also a talk about verbal phrases, but that wasn't as interesting. In fact it was quite boring. It was basically about a woman who needs a life. She had spent I don't know how many hours comparing and searching through the letters B and G of verbal phrases and how three compilers of dictionaries regarded the phrases. This was confined to the later modern English period of 1750 - ?, the work she used was Samuel Johnsons first English dictionary, Websters American English dictionary and the first edition of Oxford English Dictionary (OED). And yes, this sounds as exciting as comparing three phonebooks between years and see who changed their number!!!
But I might be going to the next one, it's on the Canterbury Tales, and although I am not a fan, it's medieval and that's enough for me, depending on if I can wheedle Catriona with me.
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
I am unique!!!!
Thihihi, my University just gave me an e-mail alias because of my post-grad phd status. Instead of being @student.gla.ac.uk I am @research.gla.ac.uk, but the joke is that my account name is e.eyjolfsdottir.1@..., and they say expressely that the number in my name is to differentiate me and make my name more unique in the e-mail world of Glasgow University. I must say I find that hillarious, I don't think they have come accross my name before since I am numero uno.
In other news today, I managed to become a saint in the eyes of a friend of mine, and no not the one who is actually actively writing my saint's life as we speak, but another one. My dear dear friend who flew all the way to Glasgow to help me move. When she was here she fell in love with a lovely green dress, but was trying to be practical and bought a serviceable black dress instead and left the green one behind. Well, she regretted her decision, but cursed and fated she decided to buy it online instead, and luckily the dress had just gone on sale!!! For some reason the transaction never cleared so as soon as I came back to Glasgow I was sent on a mission to purchase the dress in store. Although I didn't really know of this course of action (and neither did she) until Monday. I had made plans with Catriona for Tuesday so I couldn't go yesterday, but managed to go into city centre today and guess what? I am brilliant. I managed to get my hands on the last dress in the right size in the store!!! Whoohooo and at a bargain price as well. My friend is very happy now, although I have her dress heheheh, but I think she know it is safe in my hands.
I am currently getting more comfortable here in my wee room. I have done a few minor changes from when I first shoved my things in here. I fully expect there to be some more changes going on in the near future. My little home is still forming, but it is getting warmer by the day. The boiler has been broken, and is currently on constantly now to get us some heat because he will go on and off randomly, but this means we have some heat which we didn't have when I first got back. Which meant a very cold first night, I am talking pajama bottoms and socks and a blanket!!! This room is a bit bigger than the ones I have been staying in and therefore my little radiator isn't powerful enough to manage to heat it completely if it is very cold outside. That is also the reason I went to IKEA yesterday with Catriona, but that was to buy a thicker duvet for my bed, and I imagine I will sleep well tonight in my warm bed in my very warm room right now. The reason for the room being so much colder, is because there is an extension on it that only applies to my room, and so there is no extension on the room below me in the block, so there is basically nothing below the floor, hence cold floor and cold in general. Then of course the multitudes of windows do not help either, but I still love me room and while I am armed with blankets and socks I am not complaining!
In other news today, I managed to become a saint in the eyes of a friend of mine, and no not the one who is actually actively writing my saint's life as we speak, but another one. My dear dear friend who flew all the way to Glasgow to help me move. When she was here she fell in love with a lovely green dress, but was trying to be practical and bought a serviceable black dress instead and left the green one behind. Well, she regretted her decision, but cursed and fated she decided to buy it online instead, and luckily the dress had just gone on sale!!! For some reason the transaction never cleared so as soon as I came back to Glasgow I was sent on a mission to purchase the dress in store. Although I didn't really know of this course of action (and neither did she) until Monday. I had made plans with Catriona for Tuesday so I couldn't go yesterday, but managed to go into city centre today and guess what? I am brilliant. I managed to get my hands on the last dress in the right size in the store!!! Whoohooo and at a bargain price as well. My friend is very happy now, although I have her dress heheheh, but I think she know it is safe in my hands.
I am currently getting more comfortable here in my wee room. I have done a few minor changes from when I first shoved my things in here. I fully expect there to be some more changes going on in the near future. My little home is still forming, but it is getting warmer by the day. The boiler has been broken, and is currently on constantly now to get us some heat because he will go on and off randomly, but this means we have some heat which we didn't have when I first got back. Which meant a very cold first night, I am talking pajama bottoms and socks and a blanket!!! This room is a bit bigger than the ones I have been staying in and therefore my little radiator isn't powerful enough to manage to heat it completely if it is very cold outside. That is also the reason I went to IKEA yesterday with Catriona, but that was to buy a thicker duvet for my bed, and I imagine I will sleep well tonight in my warm bed in my very warm room right now. The reason for the room being so much colder, is because there is an extension on it that only applies to my room, and so there is no extension on the room below me in the block, so there is basically nothing below the floor, hence cold floor and cold in general. Then of course the multitudes of windows do not help either, but I still love me room and while I am armed with blankets and socks I am not complaining!
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Peep Peep at Anne's
Last Friday was the best day yet of this year and I truly hope I will be experiencing many more like this one. It began rocky enough, Catriona, Sandra and I had to give a presentation for our teachers and anyone who wanted to come. Luckily for us, it was only nice people whow showed up, Anne and Claire. Anne was also gracious enough to invite us bunch to her home for dinner. She is such a brave woman. Well, we made it through our presentations and headed over to the post grad club for lunch where we had high time laughing and talking like we hadn't seen each other for thirty years. We even managed to run into Matthew from forth year (now he's doing forth year) and kidnapped him. After lunch Matthew and Anne abandoned us but we were of course going to Anne later in the day and Matthew was going to meet us at the train station to go to her home.
That left me, Claire, Catriona and Sandra on our own so we headed over to Byres Road and to Somerfield where we stack up on sweets and all sorts of ymmie stuff and wine and headed to my place where we camped out for the next few hours where more laughter and talking followed.
We then made our way to Central station at around six and waited for Matthew and Jo to show up. When they arrived we hopped aboard a train to Muirend where we expected a warm welcome from Anne, but when we arrived there was no one there we recognised which made us doubt our sanity and ability to read instructions. But not a minute had passed when we saw Anne come running down the ramp to meet us and she then escorted us to her home.
The evening was filled with good company, good food and good wine and so much laughter I could barely follow the conversations that were surrounding me. But it was obvious that everyone was havins such good time. We took two rounds of Scottish Quest after dinner and the discussion and almost arguments some of the questions evoked only livened it up. It was amazing and exactly the kind of game for us to play.
Note: Next time we play the game do it while still sober!!!!
Ps. a more detailed blog of the evening is on the way, am just trying to see if it works uploading a video.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Just me
I think I am a very bizarre person. Someone who is very keen to learn and study I can sometimes put a different spin on things (or like we say in Icelandic, I certainly am good at making útúrsnúninga!). For todays terrifying lecture on excavation reports we had to log onto the Royal Comission of whatever for certain reports. Basically because we had no idea what we were doing there and no one told us how to actually use the very complicated website I gave up after a few minutes of trying to find the excavation reports. What did I do instead? I didn't want to say to the guy that I had only spent a few minutes there without finding anything out, so I started househunting instead. Yeah, I know there are not many like me in this world which is a sad thing for those that don't know me and a comfort for those that do. I found out that if you were lucky you could find images of the site and very often there were architectural plans or archaeology / architectural drawings of them as well, so if I can't actually buy it there is a chance I can have it built in Iceland in the coming future and when I have become immensely rich from my very lucrative research into Welsh and Irish medieval literature, 'ralh' (rolling about laughing hysterically).
On another note, I went on a field trip on Sunday. I went to Silverburn which is a new shopping center, I mean, why would I go anywhere except where I knew I would be able to shop. It is a new shopping centre and it is actually situated in Pollock so a bit out of the way. Both cab drivers asked me what I was doing so far away from the West End. Hmmm, could it be because I don't have my own car to ferry me there so that I can skip these questions. I would take the bus if I knew where I would end up or if I didn't have to walk half a mile to be able to catch the bus. So I let the taxi drivers chaufer me around. Bright people!
Oh, and another taxi story before I continue with Silverburn story. I took the cab to Uni today and oh boy, I mean you could probably excuse it back home in Iceland but here, I didn't think this was possible. The guy like so many others asked me what it was that I was studying at Uni and I told him Medieval Scottish History. He found that impressive and recognized that a person would have to specialise in an area of history as no one could know every history in the world, very enlightened of him. Then he told me he had been driving a girl from the history department around and asked me if I knew her, she was Canandian! That was the hint I got. I was like, in Glasgow there are 660 000 inhabitants + a few turists, in Glasgow University there are 17 000 teachers, students and staff + a few guests and turists. In the History Department, there are hundreds of people, more than a hundred in first year, more than a hundred in second year, quite possibly around hundres in third and also in the fourth year. Then we have the postgraduates, doing their masters and doctorates. And I was supposed to know a Canadian girl doing history! Why do I always get these strange questions!
Anyway, back to Silverburn. It is a very new shopping centre, only opened about a month ago, and there is definitely a lot left to do. Only half of the centre is about open and the other half that has shops has only filled every other space. It's only one level, but huge and very long, almost never ending. But you also get these huge department stores like Marks & Spencer and Debenhams which are on two levels and. Then next to this or sort of annexed to it, although you have to go out to get in is Tesco (of course, where isn't a Tesco in Britain). It is really huge. I spent more than an hour in there going from lane to lane to try to figure out what was not there and what I needed for lunch and dinner. (Comparing it to Hagkaup in Smáralind back home I would have to say this store is about twice or more the size of it, so that is saying something). But it only took me about three hours to go through the shopping centre and Tesco and back home. I didn't manage to find any other Christmas presents except maybe one for myself. And since I have yet to receive it (as in at Christmas) I can't tell you anything about it.
Today we were also invited to the annual Angus Matheson Memorial Lecture in the Celtic department. Anne joined us but was sick so had to leave after it, but we still managed to have fun before the lecture. Well sort of, I nearly finished her off with my Christmas present to her. She kind of dared me to it when we were coming back on the train to Glasgow last time we saw her, so I couldn't resist. I acquired a copy of Thomas the Tank Engine book and went online and nicked some departmental staff photos and started printing and cutting and putting it all together. I ended up with Thomas Clancy the Clever little Tank Engine along with his friends. I truly hope that he never finds out but it is hilarious, she loved it. The Lecture itself was fine but we couldn't help giggling a few times. Like when one of the speakers kept mispronouncing Robert O'Maolalaigh's name and when the guy in the row behind us when to sleep and actually snored on a couple of occasions. But there were good news there as well. They are starting a new iris or a journal of Gaelic literature and culture, published with articles in English, Irish and Gaelic and I am definitely going to subscribe, there were quite a few articles in there that I would like to read so as soon as it is published I will contact the department. There articles there by Dereck Thompson, Michel Byrne, Donald Meek and Kathrine Hollo, all very good scholars in their field and so it promises to be quite the worthwhile read.
I'm happy!
On another note, I went on a field trip on Sunday. I went to Silverburn which is a new shopping center, I mean, why would I go anywhere except where I knew I would be able to shop. It is a new shopping centre and it is actually situated in Pollock so a bit out of the way. Both cab drivers asked me what I was doing so far away from the West End. Hmmm, could it be because I don't have my own car to ferry me there so that I can skip these questions. I would take the bus if I knew where I would end up or if I didn't have to walk half a mile to be able to catch the bus. So I let the taxi drivers chaufer me around. Bright people!
Oh, and another taxi story before I continue with Silverburn story. I took the cab to Uni today and oh boy, I mean you could probably excuse it back home in Iceland but here, I didn't think this was possible. The guy like so many others asked me what it was that I was studying at Uni and I told him Medieval Scottish History. He found that impressive and recognized that a person would have to specialise in an area of history as no one could know every history in the world, very enlightened of him. Then he told me he had been driving a girl from the history department around and asked me if I knew her, she was Canandian! That was the hint I got. I was like, in Glasgow there are 660 000 inhabitants + a few turists, in Glasgow University there are 17 000 teachers, students and staff + a few guests and turists. In the History Department, there are hundreds of people, more than a hundred in first year, more than a hundred in second year, quite possibly around hundres in third and also in the fourth year. Then we have the postgraduates, doing their masters and doctorates. And I was supposed to know a Canadian girl doing history! Why do I always get these strange questions!
Anyway, back to Silverburn. It is a very new shopping centre, only opened about a month ago, and there is definitely a lot left to do. Only half of the centre is about open and the other half that has shops has only filled every other space. It's only one level, but huge and very long, almost never ending. But you also get these huge department stores like Marks & Spencer and Debenhams which are on two levels and. Then next to this or sort of annexed to it, although you have to go out to get in is Tesco (of course, where isn't a Tesco in Britain). It is really huge. I spent more than an hour in there going from lane to lane to try to figure out what was not there and what I needed for lunch and dinner. (Comparing it to Hagkaup in Smáralind back home I would have to say this store is about twice or more the size of it, so that is saying something). But it only took me about three hours to go through the shopping centre and Tesco and back home. I didn't manage to find any other Christmas presents except maybe one for myself. And since I have yet to receive it (as in at Christmas) I can't tell you anything about it.
Today we were also invited to the annual Angus Matheson Memorial Lecture in the Celtic department. Anne joined us but was sick so had to leave after it, but we still managed to have fun before the lecture. Well sort of, I nearly finished her off with my Christmas present to her. She kind of dared me to it when we were coming back on the train to Glasgow last time we saw her, so I couldn't resist. I acquired a copy of Thomas the Tank Engine book and went online and nicked some departmental staff photos and started printing and cutting and putting it all together. I ended up with Thomas Clancy the Clever little Tank Engine along with his friends. I truly hope that he never finds out but it is hilarious, she loved it. The Lecture itself was fine but we couldn't help giggling a few times. Like when one of the speakers kept mispronouncing Robert O'Maolalaigh's name and when the guy in the row behind us when to sleep and actually snored on a couple of occasions. But there were good news there as well. They are starting a new iris or a journal of Gaelic literature and culture, published with articles in English, Irish and Gaelic and I am definitely going to subscribe, there were quite a few articles in there that I would like to read so as soon as it is published I will contact the department. There articles there by Dereck Thompson, Michel Byrne, Donald Meek and Kathrine Hollo, all very good scholars in their field and so it promises to be quite the worthwhile read.
I'm happy!
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Nerds on the run
I am such a good friend, I am such a good friend that I actually woke up at seven in the morning on Saturday to take a trip with my friend to an Archaeology Conference! I was on time at the Queen Street Train Station and one by one they appeared. Catriona first and Anne (the reason for waking up) showed up just before eight. We grabbed our tickets and then our seats and sat chatting happily away all the way to Edinburgh Waverly Station. Then we had to find our way to the Royal Museum of Scotland, and finally I was where I belong ... in a museum! It was a beautiful building, not very interesting looking from outside, but once in, it is amazing, and sooooo big. The conference was just starting so we just managed to grab seats in the third row to the right in the conference room, but it wouldn't have mattered where we sat because the seats were crap. The architecht was clearly stupid, because he didn't figure it out in his little drawings of the place, that those that would be sitting in these seats would have legs! Let alone that anyone as tall as I am was ever going to enter the room. Front row seats is not my thing. So I basically occupied two seats, as in I sat sideways, fun fun fun for hours on end. Thankfully there were breaks at an hour or hour and a half interval so I was able to strech my legs between talks. The conference began at 9:30 and finished at 17:00, each lecture was about half an hour long.
The lectures themselves were really interesting. The first speaker was obviously from Scandinavia (either Norway (the most likely option), Denmark or Sweden) and he was sexy as well, who would have thought that of an archaeologist? His topic was on the late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic period of Southeast Scotland and he made it sound interesting! Then there was something on Elginhaugh, which apparently is a fort and that is interesting somehow. I kind of zoned out of the less interesting bits. The only thing I remember was when he was talking about a hoard of coins in the Roman fort. One of the coins was marked Borinianus. His emphasis was on the -anus part, hilarious. (Also, if you are Icelandic think of the first element of the name Bor- it makes it even more hysterically funnier. Then we had a break for snacks.
After break was over there was a talk on some archaeological work being done at Colstoun, which some people found interesting. The fourth lecture was on Edinburgh's Tron Kirk followed by a talk on the archaeology of the siege of Leith and other 16th century conflicts. And then it was time for lunch! That was great, I ordered a potatoe and they messed it up. How can you mess up a potatoe. I ordered baked potatoe with a chicken, tarragon and lemon mayonese filling and I got a pesto one. Really didn't want that so that the dinner lady was kind enough to make the filling especially for me ... and then when I finally got it it wasn't nice at all. I felt soo mean, but on the other hand I wasn't even that hungry, because I had eaten a sandwich in the tea break, because I hadn't eaten anything before we left Glasgow. So feel sorry for me, don't notice what a picky eater I am. It is better to be picky than eat everything in sight! Anne and Catriona were having fun watching me struggle with my potatoe disaster and Anne was starting to worry my Viking blood might rise to the occasion and I would start gnawing at her leg. It didn't happen, she still has all of her limbs intact (even though she made me get up very early)!
So after this very nice lunch, the girls and I, sort of unintentionally got our siesta break. The two lectures following the lunchbreak, really were coma inducing. They could have been interesting from the historical point of view, but when they started talking about this kind of flue and that kind of wall we just lost the will to live. The first one was a talk about a late 18th century distillery (and When is Whiskey boring? When you are not drinking it!) The second one was on the Caltongate Gasworks (I really was tempted to ask how they passed gas in the early 19th century but thought that would get me thrown out, so I refrained from asking. Then in the discussion session someone beat me to it but he worded it differently). And again we have a coffee break, the last of the day.
Instead of going for coffee we went shopping. This was of course at a museum and they are never without a gift shop, where you can buy things that have absolutely nothing to do with history or art, but are just enought to tempt shopaholics (like me) to depart with their money (like me).
The eighth lecture of the day, and the one we were most interested in was on the Lindisfarne Manuscript "Early Christian East Lothian, linking the communities of Columba and Cuthbert", we really perked up at this lecture, and would have gladly wanted it to last more than just half an hour. But that's us, we like that kind of things.
The last two lectures were kind of all right, but I was kind of wishing to be somewhere else at that point .. like in the shops. But we kind of had to stay, because the next lecture was on house conservation and things like that and this is what Anne is studying this year. So for her it was the reason to be there mainly. The last one was on how to do something about a historical site that is currently being neglected. This was also the lecture where the minority complex of archaeologist shone through the brightest. The girls and I have been laughing at the archaeological texts we have been sifting through this semester and they really do suffer from the paranoia of the Historians. It's almost like a phobia for them. I only have to reach across the table to grab the book I am currently reading to find this:
I sort of feel sorry for them, but when people get excited about a wall, I kind of find myself at crossroads of whether to pity them or congratulate them. Their sense of style also leaves a lot for the imagination. Just because you are an archaeologist and you dig things up for fun, there is no reason to do that with clothes as well. They do have clothingstores readily awailable near you today, it's called progress. Aside from their pitiful nature I don't look down on them, they have their uses. I for one would never dream of getting down on all fours, just because someone got excited about Roman pottery ... or a wall!
But I have gone off topic. After the conference finished we headed into town and managed to take a quick look at Jenners at my behest and then headed towards Hard Rock Café, because I had sort of twisted and turned the arms of my fellow companions until they agreed to feed me. I had the classical Hickory-BBQ Smoked Pulled Pork Sandwich, boy this just seems to go on and on, and Anne had herself a sandwich and Catriona munched on some chips. Of course we ended the evening with a dessert, a sorbet and two fudge sundae's, but they were more like just sundae's with no fudge at all. But still we ware happy and nourished and when we could finally manage to stand up we made our way to the train station and caught the train back home to Glasgow just shortly before eight o'clock. Which meant that I had been in Edinburgh for something of ten hours and still going. We had all been threatening to fall asleep on the train but we still managed to entertain ourselves with our very nerdy wit and wisdom. In Glasgow we said our goodbyes on the subway and Great Western Road and I went home to fall asleep way before my usual time.
This was the best day in a long while. Thank you Anne for making me wake up very very very early on a Saturday.
The lectures themselves were really interesting. The first speaker was obviously from Scandinavia (either Norway (the most likely option), Denmark or Sweden) and he was sexy as well, who would have thought that of an archaeologist? His topic was on the late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic period of Southeast Scotland and he made it sound interesting! Then there was something on Elginhaugh, which apparently is a fort and that is interesting somehow. I kind of zoned out of the less interesting bits. The only thing I remember was when he was talking about a hoard of coins in the Roman fort. One of the coins was marked Borinianus. His emphasis was on the -anus part, hilarious. (Also, if you are Icelandic think of the first element of the name Bor- it makes it even more hysterically funnier. Then we had a break for snacks.
After break was over there was a talk on some archaeological work being done at Colstoun, which some people found interesting. The fourth lecture was on Edinburgh's Tron Kirk followed by a talk on the archaeology of the siege of Leith and other 16th century conflicts. And then it was time for lunch! That was great, I ordered a potatoe and they messed it up. How can you mess up a potatoe. I ordered baked potatoe with a chicken, tarragon and lemon mayonese filling and I got a pesto one. Really didn't want that so that the dinner lady was kind enough to make the filling especially for me ... and then when I finally got it it wasn't nice at all. I felt soo mean, but on the other hand I wasn't even that hungry, because I had eaten a sandwich in the tea break, because I hadn't eaten anything before we left Glasgow. So feel sorry for me, don't notice what a picky eater I am. It is better to be picky than eat everything in sight! Anne and Catriona were having fun watching me struggle with my potatoe disaster and Anne was starting to worry my Viking blood might rise to the occasion and I would start gnawing at her leg. It didn't happen, she still has all of her limbs intact (even though she made me get up very early)!
So after this very nice lunch, the girls and I, sort of unintentionally got our siesta break. The two lectures following the lunchbreak, really were coma inducing. They could have been interesting from the historical point of view, but when they started talking about this kind of flue and that kind of wall we just lost the will to live. The first one was a talk about a late 18th century distillery (and When is Whiskey boring? When you are not drinking it!) The second one was on the Caltongate Gasworks (I really was tempted to ask how they passed gas in the early 19th century but thought that would get me thrown out, so I refrained from asking. Then in the discussion session someone beat me to it but he worded it differently). And again we have a coffee break, the last of the day.
Instead of going for coffee we went shopping. This was of course at a museum and they are never without a gift shop, where you can buy things that have absolutely nothing to do with history or art, but are just enought to tempt shopaholics (like me) to depart with their money (like me).
The eighth lecture of the day, and the one we were most interested in was on the Lindisfarne Manuscript "Early Christian East Lothian, linking the communities of Columba and Cuthbert", we really perked up at this lecture, and would have gladly wanted it to last more than just half an hour. But that's us, we like that kind of things.
The last two lectures were kind of all right, but I was kind of wishing to be somewhere else at that point .. like in the shops. But we kind of had to stay, because the next lecture was on house conservation and things like that and this is what Anne is studying this year. So for her it was the reason to be there mainly. The last one was on how to do something about a historical site that is currently being neglected. This was also the lecture where the minority complex of archaeologist shone through the brightest. The girls and I have been laughing at the archaeological texts we have been sifting through this semester and they really do suffer from the paranoia of the Historians. It's almost like a phobia for them. I only have to reach across the table to grab the book I am currently reading to find this:
few historians saw the value of comparing their maps and documents agains what
could be seen in the field. Collaborations between historians, geographers
and archaeologists were still rare and restricted to a tiny number of
individuals who were widely scattered in different institutional guises with
little philosophical or methodological focus to their effort.
(Medieval Archaeology; Christopher Gerrard, p. 87)
Even thought the text is written in the past tense the archaeologists are still writing that this is how their work is looked at, secondary in nature to historical work.I sort of feel sorry for them, but when people get excited about a wall, I kind of find myself at crossroads of whether to pity them or congratulate them. Their sense of style also leaves a lot for the imagination. Just because you are an archaeologist and you dig things up for fun, there is no reason to do that with clothes as well. They do have clothingstores readily awailable near you today, it's called progress. Aside from their pitiful nature I don't look down on them, they have their uses. I for one would never dream of getting down on all fours, just because someone got excited about Roman pottery ... or a wall!
But I have gone off topic. After the conference finished we headed into town and managed to take a quick look at Jenners at my behest and then headed towards Hard Rock Café, because I had sort of twisted and turned the arms of my fellow companions until they agreed to feed me. I had the classical Hickory-BBQ Smoked Pulled Pork Sandwich, boy this just seems to go on and on, and Anne had herself a sandwich and Catriona munched on some chips. Of course we ended the evening with a dessert, a sorbet and two fudge sundae's, but they were more like just sundae's with no fudge at all. But still we ware happy and nourished and when we could finally manage to stand up we made our way to the train station and caught the train back home to Glasgow just shortly before eight o'clock. Which meant that I had been in Edinburgh for something of ten hours and still going. We had all been threatening to fall asleep on the train but we still managed to entertain ourselves with our very nerdy wit and wisdom. In Glasgow we said our goodbyes on the subway and Great Western Road and I went home to fall asleep way before my usual time.
This was the best day in a long while. Thank you Anne for making me wake up very very very early on a Saturday.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Talk about dedication
This has been a busy weekend for me. Big surprise ... I went home for the weekend! I left Glasgow early on the morning of October 26th, Friday and my plane landed just after 12 o'clock noon. We headed straight home, but had a short stop at a shop (try saying this five times in a row really fast) before I lugged my luggage in the front door at home. Which was as well, because as soon as we had closed the doors the weather went beserk. The closest I can come to describing it is ... it was a blizzard. Now, my dear friends Margrét and Guðbjört had had their birthday's earlier in the month, but I hadn't posted their birthday gifts because I just knew it would get lost in the post like everything else around here does, so I wasn't taking any chances and brought them home with me. But I didn't tell my friends that I was coming. So I had to cleverly engineer it so that they would come to collect their presents without giving it away that I would be there. Somehow I did manage it, but obviously they wanted to make sure someone was at home and that they would not be bothering any one, they phoned the house on Friday afternoon so I couldn't contain myself any longer and answered the phoone. It took my friend a while to figure out who it was that answered the phone, she was absolutely flabbergasted that it was me and demanded to know what I was doing on this phone. Wonderful. They dropped by for a few minutes and then headed off with their presents which I understand they are quite happy with. We decided to try to get together tomorrow evening and off they went. Because I knew I was only going to be here for a very few moments, I decided to use them as well as I could. I phoned up a friend of mine and asked if I could come visit (provided that someone would come and get me, I know, I am sooo cheeky) and then spent the remainder of the evening in good company with friends drinking mojito cockteil that my friend expertly whipped up.
On Saturday I lay in bed for as long as I could, I missed it so much. But in the end I had to get up if we were going to do anything fun today. Firstly we went shopping, not so much fun because I didn't find anything to shop so it defeted the purpose of going shopping. Then we went overe to my grandmother and I took the opportunity of getting my hands on a hamburger from a hamburgerjoint just accross from my grandmothers home. Oooh, that was lovely! After visiting with my grandmother for a moment we headed home where I crashed in my bed for a few minutes before we headed to my brothers. He had invited us over for dinner which was again very lovely. And this makes me ashamed of not having remembered to mention the wonderful dinner I got at home from mom on Friday. It was amazing, Icelandic lamb at its best ... on the table in front of me!
After dinner my friends Margrét and Guðbjört came to pick me up and we basically skidded down the hill to Guðbjört's new place, which is being made up or at least made inhabitable. So the next hour or so we spent discussing and commenting on what colour the kitchen cabinets should be in, sadly we didn't even come close to a solution. But on the other hand it will make it much more fun when I come hom for the holidays to see what has become of it. It was obvious that Saturday marked the first day of winter, because ice was forming on the roads and making driving more difficult but we managed.
On Sunday, I didn't do anything really, or nothin interesting at least. I woke up around ten, or half past and just lay there taking it easy. Around noon I got up and dressed and was just starting to pack when my brother and family came to say goodbye. Probably the worst thing of being here in Glasgow is not seeing Katrín, my niece, more often, but it is only about 6 - 7 weeks until I go home for Christmas so that's bearable. I finished packing around two and shortly thereafter we left home to drive to the airport. We arrived there two hours on the clock before my plane was scheduled to leave, so when I had checked into my flight I said my goodbyes to mom and dad and headed off home ... again.
The flight was uneventful and I managed to get my luggage very shortly after arriving in the terminal and so I reached my room shortly after 8 o'clock pm. Almost as soon as my brilliant behind hit the chair I began my Latin homework for Monday. I didn't stop until I had finished my 25 sentences. Which meant that I didn't finish until quarter past twelve in the morning ... and that is when I unpacked my suitcase. So yes, talk about dedication. My friend Catriona was very impressed that I had actually managed to do the homework at all, with me being out of the country and all. She had barely managed but that is so understandable, most of the sentences I translated were just gibberish which I twisted and turned around until they resembled a sentence, and most of the time it wasn't 100% correct but it wasn't 100% wrong either. But we found out today at Latin that most of us had difficulty with this translation because we definitely weren't prepared enough for the excercise. But I am digressing, I finished unpacking in record time and got into bed. But I knew because I was so worked up from doing my Latin I wouldn't be able to fall asleep right away so I watched some television before switching off both the television and my brain.
This was a wonderful weekend which will sustain me until I come home for Christmas. It was great to be able to see my friends even though it was for such a short and unexpected time. But it is also good to be back in Glasgow and seeing my friends today was great fun as well. I brought them Kleinur from home to introduce them to Icelandic bakkelsi and they loved it we finished the bag. I promised I would bring more treats for them in the coming days so they have in turn promised to be nice to me.
Until next, behave!
On Saturday I lay in bed for as long as I could, I missed it so much. But in the end I had to get up if we were going to do anything fun today. Firstly we went shopping, not so much fun because I didn't find anything to shop so it defeted the purpose of going shopping. Then we went overe to my grandmother and I took the opportunity of getting my hands on a hamburger from a hamburgerjoint just accross from my grandmothers home. Oooh, that was lovely! After visiting with my grandmother for a moment we headed home where I crashed in my bed for a few minutes before we headed to my brothers. He had invited us over for dinner which was again very lovely. And this makes me ashamed of not having remembered to mention the wonderful dinner I got at home from mom on Friday. It was amazing, Icelandic lamb at its best ... on the table in front of me!
After dinner my friends Margrét and Guðbjört came to pick me up and we basically skidded down the hill to Guðbjört's new place, which is being made up or at least made inhabitable. So the next hour or so we spent discussing and commenting on what colour the kitchen cabinets should be in, sadly we didn't even come close to a solution. But on the other hand it will make it much more fun when I come hom for the holidays to see what has become of it. It was obvious that Saturday marked the first day of winter, because ice was forming on the roads and making driving more difficult but we managed.
On Sunday, I didn't do anything really, or nothin interesting at least. I woke up around ten, or half past and just lay there taking it easy. Around noon I got up and dressed and was just starting to pack when my brother and family came to say goodbye. Probably the worst thing of being here in Glasgow is not seeing Katrín, my niece, more often, but it is only about 6 - 7 weeks until I go home for Christmas so that's bearable. I finished packing around two and shortly thereafter we left home to drive to the airport. We arrived there two hours on the clock before my plane was scheduled to leave, so when I had checked into my flight I said my goodbyes to mom and dad and headed off home ... again.
The flight was uneventful and I managed to get my luggage very shortly after arriving in the terminal and so I reached my room shortly after 8 o'clock pm. Almost as soon as my brilliant behind hit the chair I began my Latin homework for Monday. I didn't stop until I had finished my 25 sentences. Which meant that I didn't finish until quarter past twelve in the morning ... and that is when I unpacked my suitcase. So yes, talk about dedication. My friend Catriona was very impressed that I had actually managed to do the homework at all, with me being out of the country and all. She had barely managed but that is so understandable, most of the sentences I translated were just gibberish which I twisted and turned around until they resembled a sentence, and most of the time it wasn't 100% correct but it wasn't 100% wrong either. But we found out today at Latin that most of us had difficulty with this translation because we definitely weren't prepared enough for the excercise. But I am digressing, I finished unpacking in record time and got into bed. But I knew because I was so worked up from doing my Latin I wouldn't be able to fall asleep right away so I watched some television before switching off both the television and my brain.
This was a wonderful weekend which will sustain me until I come home for Christmas. It was great to be able to see my friends even though it was for such a short and unexpected time. But it is also good to be back in Glasgow and seeing my friends today was great fun as well. I brought them Kleinur from home to introduce them to Icelandic bakkelsi and they loved it we finished the bag. I promised I would bring more treats for them in the coming days so they have in turn promised to be nice to me.
Until next, behave!
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Graduation
There is so much to blog about I can't blog fast enough.
Well the main news is that I graduated on June 29th, Friday. It was a marvelous day, and a wonderful ceremony, very formal and festive. It was a day I never wanted to end, but that was after we got back to the hotel. Before I went up to Uni, I was so nervous I had upset stomach and nausea but after a few breathing sessions I finally calmed down and managed to finish getting ready. I met Claire up at the University where we collected our graduation wardrobe and tickets for family. Then we headed for a wee get together at the Celtic Department for drinks and to chat with some friends and teachers. At the ceremony itself, Claire and I got front row seats of the ceremony. I was in nerd heaven. My teacher of four years, Thomas Clancy and head of the Celtic department held a speech celebrating the life of gaelic poet Ruaraidh MacThómais who was receiving Honorary Doctorate from the University. Then the graduation walk began, 340 students receiving their degrees all one by one for more than an hour, wonderful. At the end of the ceremony Dr. Dauvit Broun got a reward for excellence in teaching and he so deserved it, he is such a nice man and a great teacher. He is the head of the M.Litt program I am joining next year, and he was even nice enough to enquire about me and if I would be able to study Old Norse next year. Such a sweet man. I also had a photography session after the ceremony with mom and dad as well, and then a few photos by my brother. Before we left for the hotel, we stopped by the gift shop where we bought a frame for my degree and a bottle of whiskey, that instead of saying The Famous Grouse, it says The Famous Graduate.
Then we headed for the hotel where mom served up a delicious cake before we went upstairs for a wonderful meal. We also got a glass of champagne to toast with and a bottle of fine red merlot from Chile. Five courses and I was beyond bursting. It was truly a great day.
It wasn’t until the day after that everything seemed to go down hill but that wasn’t until much later in the day and we had managed to do most of the things we had intended so there was nothing else for us to worry about. But the trouble at the Glasgow airport did put a dent in our last night in Glasgow. Because there was nowhere possible to get any kind of information from our airliner or media back home of what passangers of Icelandair were supposed to do or contact in case of something like this. Nothing at all. But no matter, we decided to just take things slowly, follow the news and not do anything rash. We finished packing and went to sleep. We all woke up at seven in the morning and the airport was still closed. It wasn’t until eight in the morning that they told us that the airport was finally open, but no matter where we turned we got no news from home if our flight was on or not. We did managed finally to see that the flight from Keflavik had left and so we decided to hurry to the airport in case they would be flying out as well. When we got to the airport, caoz was everywhere and all we were told to do was get in the queue, but they didn’t tell us how long it was or what the purpose was of us queuing at all. We had to walk a kilometre before we found a gap in the queue for us to stand in. Right next to us was a wee shop where I managed to buy some coke for the group because we had no idea of how long we were going to be there. Still we tried to reach Icelandair, Leifsstöð or anyone that might have some answers to us. I managed to find a wheelchair with the help of a very helpful police officer for my mom which made the wait a bit more bearable for her but it was still very difficult for all of us. Finally, by pure chance we got a phoncall from an acquaintance of my brother who told us that the Icelandair flight was scheduled to depart very soon. So I had to try to find someone to tell us what we were to do, finally found a guy who told me that we had to get there asap! We managed at the very, very, very last moment to get to the desk to check in for our flight almost having a heart attack on the way, then we had to go almost half the way back again to get to the International flight terminal. We had to walk across an inside bridge where the windows had been covered up, but it didn’t mask the intense smell of petrol- and rubber burning. We were basically walking right by where the car had crashed into the airport, not a nice thing at all. We made it to the gate where we were placed in a bus that drove us the last few meters to the airplane. At the gate we were even reproached for being so late, I was really taken aback by that. That was some cheek of saying that after everything we went through to get there and we even got there on time, but there was no assistance, no help, no guidance from anyone were we were supposed to go. Later we even got the news that the office back in Iceland couldn’t even reach their staff at Glasgow airport and certainly the staff at the airport had no clue what was going on outside. I was furious. But we made it to the airplane and home and I have never been as glad to come home as I was on Sunday July 1st.
But it is no lie to say that this was a historic trip. The first terrorist attack in Scotland! And the funny thing was, you wouldn’t have known about it if you hadn’t turned on the television, because it just didn’t phase anyone. Everything was business as usual, no hysteria, no panic, no it’s-the-end-of-the-world speech you know by heart from the Americans. Everyone was just as cool as ever.
But the main thing was that no one died and only one person got injured (and we can argue how much or not he deserved it) but we can be grateful that nothing horribly bad happened.
This did nothing to mar the memory of my graduation either, it was a beautiful day, which will live that much longer in my memory because of the events that followed.
Well the main news is that I graduated on June 29th, Friday. It was a marvelous day, and a wonderful ceremony, very formal and festive. It was a day I never wanted to end, but that was after we got back to the hotel. Before I went up to Uni, I was so nervous I had upset stomach and nausea but after a few breathing sessions I finally calmed down and managed to finish getting ready. I met Claire up at the University where we collected our graduation wardrobe and tickets for family. Then we headed for a wee get together at the Celtic Department for drinks and to chat with some friends and teachers. At the ceremony itself, Claire and I got front row seats of the ceremony. I was in nerd heaven. My teacher of four years, Thomas Clancy and head of the Celtic department held a speech celebrating the life of gaelic poet Ruaraidh MacThómais who was receiving Honorary Doctorate from the University. Then the graduation walk began, 340 students receiving their degrees all one by one for more than an hour, wonderful. At the end of the ceremony Dr. Dauvit Broun got a reward for excellence in teaching and he so deserved it, he is such a nice man and a great teacher. He is the head of the M.Litt program I am joining next year, and he was even nice enough to enquire about me and if I would be able to study Old Norse next year. Such a sweet man. I also had a photography session after the ceremony with mom and dad as well, and then a few photos by my brother. Before we left for the hotel, we stopped by the gift shop where we bought a frame for my degree and a bottle of whiskey, that instead of saying The Famous Grouse, it says The Famous Graduate.
Then we headed for the hotel where mom served up a delicious cake before we went upstairs for a wonderful meal. We also got a glass of champagne to toast with and a bottle of fine red merlot from Chile. Five courses and I was beyond bursting. It was truly a great day.
It wasn’t until the day after that everything seemed to go down hill but that wasn’t until much later in the day and we had managed to do most of the things we had intended so there was nothing else for us to worry about. But the trouble at the Glasgow airport did put a dent in our last night in Glasgow. Because there was nowhere possible to get any kind of information from our airliner or media back home of what passangers of Icelandair were supposed to do or contact in case of something like this. Nothing at all. But no matter, we decided to just take things slowly, follow the news and not do anything rash. We finished packing and went to sleep. We all woke up at seven in the morning and the airport was still closed. It wasn’t until eight in the morning that they told us that the airport was finally open, but no matter where we turned we got no news from home if our flight was on or not. We did managed finally to see that the flight from Keflavik had left and so we decided to hurry to the airport in case they would be flying out as well. When we got to the airport, caoz was everywhere and all we were told to do was get in the queue, but they didn’t tell us how long it was or what the purpose was of us queuing at all. We had to walk a kilometre before we found a gap in the queue for us to stand in. Right next to us was a wee shop where I managed to buy some coke for the group because we had no idea of how long we were going to be there. Still we tried to reach Icelandair, Leifsstöð or anyone that might have some answers to us. I managed to find a wheelchair with the help of a very helpful police officer for my mom which made the wait a bit more bearable for her but it was still very difficult for all of us. Finally, by pure chance we got a phoncall from an acquaintance of my brother who told us that the Icelandair flight was scheduled to depart very soon. So I had to try to find someone to tell us what we were to do, finally found a guy who told me that we had to get there asap! We managed at the very, very, very last moment to get to the desk to check in for our flight almost having a heart attack on the way, then we had to go almost half the way back again to get to the International flight terminal. We had to walk across an inside bridge where the windows had been covered up, but it didn’t mask the intense smell of petrol- and rubber burning. We were basically walking right by where the car had crashed into the airport, not a nice thing at all. We made it to the gate where we were placed in a bus that drove us the last few meters to the airplane. At the gate we were even reproached for being so late, I was really taken aback by that. That was some cheek of saying that after everything we went through to get there and we even got there on time, but there was no assistance, no help, no guidance from anyone were we were supposed to go. Later we even got the news that the office back in Iceland couldn’t even reach their staff at Glasgow airport and certainly the staff at the airport had no clue what was going on outside. I was furious. But we made it to the airplane and home and I have never been as glad to come home as I was on Sunday July 1st.
But it is no lie to say that this was a historic trip. The first terrorist attack in Scotland! And the funny thing was, you wouldn’t have known about it if you hadn’t turned on the television, because it just didn’t phase anyone. Everything was business as usual, no hysteria, no panic, no it’s-the-end-of-the-world speech you know by heart from the Americans. Everyone was just as cool as ever.
But the main thing was that no one died and only one person got injured (and we can argue how much or not he deserved it) but we can be grateful that nothing horribly bad happened.
This did nothing to mar the memory of my graduation either, it was a beautiful day, which will live that much longer in my memory because of the events that followed.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Hmmmm, about time I let you know I am still alive
Yup, alive and kicking, mostly kicking on another website, but that one is in Icelandic so it is not for all to understand. There hasn't been much happening in my life since my birthday except I'M GRADUATING from the University of Glasgow on FRIDAY!!! I actually got my exam results a couple of weeks ago, so lazy me not writing about it sooner. I will be flying to Glasgow on Thursday and will be coming back home on Sunday, so, not a long trip, but essential. Today I also got great news for a nerd like me. At the graduation a Gaelic poet, Ruaraidh MacThómais is going to be receiving an honorary doctorate from the University. And right now, I feel like an idiot, going; ''Like, I'm gonna meet him, like, see him there like. Wow, like that would ever happen, I'm just like tickled pink to be there with him, when he gets that thing!"
I am so looking forward to friday, well, even just to thursday. Of getting back to Glasgow, I feel like I am going to THE land of retail therapy. I have been in such trouble with finding anything at all in the shops here, and no, it's not all for me. I have been trying to find birthday presents like the dickens (it's a phrase not an author of several celebrated books) here as well.
! But for your notice. Some of my close aquitances have been inquiring about this website. I am not going to make it sound as if I am so important that they broadcast the graduation just because it's me, but for anyone, who would like to enjoy the opportunity of seeing me being whacked on the head with a hat and lassoed with a scarf, please feel free to check this out:
Graduation 29th June 2007,
it's at 4 o'clock in the afternoon local time, and that would make it at 5 o'clock in Iceland.
I am so looking forward to friday, well, even just to thursday. Of getting back to Glasgow, I feel like I am going to THE land of retail therapy. I have been in such trouble with finding anything at all in the shops here, and no, it's not all for me. I have been trying to find birthday presents like the dickens (it's a phrase not an author of several celebrated books) here as well.
! But for your notice. Some of my close aquitances have been inquiring about this website. I am not going to make it sound as if I am so important that they broadcast the graduation just because it's me, but for anyone, who would like to enjoy the opportunity of seeing me being whacked on the head with a hat and lassoed with a scarf, please feel free to check this out:
Graduation 29th June 2007,
it's at 4 o'clock in the afternoon local time, and that would make it at 5 o'clock in Iceland.
Monday, March 12, 2007
My exam timetable
It is finally here and it is a good one.
Medieval Welsh literature in translation - Tuesday 10.April, 9:30 - 11:30 in Hunter Hall East
Advanced Early Gaelic texts - Friday 13.April, 9:30 - 11:30 in Hunter Hall West
Medieval Welsh texts: Poetry - Monday 15.April 9:30 - 11:30 in The Bute Hall
Introduction to Medieval Welsh - Wednesday 18.April 9:30 - 11:30 in Hunter Hall West
What an irony it is that the exam I am most dreading is on the Friday 13th, but I am hoping that becuase it also happens to be my dads birthday that it will counter every bad thing ever said about this day. But this also means that I will be extra early home this year!!! I can't wait.
Medieval Welsh literature in translation - Tuesday 10.April, 9:30 - 11:30 in Hunter Hall East
Advanced Early Gaelic texts - Friday 13.April, 9:30 - 11:30 in Hunter Hall West
Medieval Welsh texts: Poetry - Monday 15.April 9:30 - 11:30 in The Bute Hall
Introduction to Medieval Welsh - Wednesday 18.April 9:30 - 11:30 in Hunter Hall West
What an irony it is that the exam I am most dreading is on the Friday 13th, but I am hoping that becuase it also happens to be my dads birthday that it will counter every bad thing ever said about this day. But this also means that I will be extra early home this year!!! I can't wait.
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