12-strings Are Better Than Six

I'd like to start this post by wishing my sincerest apologies to any Mets fans that might be reading this... 2 years in a row, you fell apart at the end of the season... So here's a little something to ease the pain:



Onto the events from this past weekend...
On Saturday, I scoped out some local music shops to find a guitar. I ran into this fantastic sounding acoustic 12-string. It's a Simon & Patrick (a Canadian make) with a bright tone and it plays really easily, but it's a bit too expensive. I played a few other 12-strings at some other stores, but none of them really compared. One of the more reasonably-priced guitars was an acoustic-electric, so I'll probably go back to that store (Scayles) and ask to hear the electronics.







On Sunday, I went to the Meadows to play some pick-up football. It was a lot of fun!! I played for about 3 hours - and I'm paying for it now - I'm SOOOO SORE!! I also met a few nice guys who told me about some good places nearby - music venues, pubs, etc. I plan on meeting them for a game again soon. Also, I was told that the arch at one end of the Meadows is made from a whale's jawbone. I found this picture of it online - it's really cool, I'll try to get one of my own later!

I wanted to thank everyone again for keeping up with me... I was amazed to see this in my e-mail:

	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total	Avg
Pageloads	9	29	14	14	19	10	9	104	15
Unique Visitors	7	20	12	13	17	9	8	86	12
First Time Visitors	3	9	5	4	3	1	0	25	4
Returning Visitors	4	11	7	9	14	8	8	61	9

...which basically means that more-than 80 people read my blog last week! I'm amazed! Thanks so much - I'll try to keep stuff coming (and keep it interesting). But I love hearing from everyone - so keep in touch! Miss you all!!

The Royal Mile

It's been an exciting few days. I've been frantically searching Scotland for "For Rent" signs (or their online equivalent) for just about 2 weeks now. But, I think that all my searching has paid off - I just closed a deal with a real-estate agent today for Oct 1 - Dec 16 on an amazing flat on The Royal Mile! I know what you're thinking... "how did they know to name it that before I got there?" Well, it had to be fate, because they even put the Edinburgh Castle right on the same street!! Now the King won't have very far to walk to watch football at my flat.


View Larger Map


Over the course of all my house searching, I also ran into a wedding at a nearby cathedral. It was beautiful, but I had to laugh at the groomsmen wearing kilts.








You might (but probably won't) recognize the cathedral as the one with the heart-shaped bricks directly outside. I recall spitting in the heart bringing luck (or something like that) - maybe one of the other EuroTripOhSeven'ers can explain in a comment. I didn't spit in it again this time - for gosh sakes there was a wedding, people!



I also took a walk through the Meadows - a fairly large park system where there are a bunch of football / frisbee games to be played. I'm looking forward to playing some pick-up when I go back this weekend.

In other news, I started class this past week. I don't think there is a single Scot in the entire class of approx. 20 masters students. I met people from France, Poland, and Germany. Also, in my guest house, I met people from Japan and Kazakhstan (funny story, the guy from Kazakhstan asked if I had ever heard of his country before and I couldn't lie - needless to say, he didn't like Borat, and he wanted to make sure I knew it was a joke).

In the meantime, I hope everyone back home manages to stay dry and cheer a little extra for the Phil's the Eagles and the Flyers for me!! Miss you all.

Loser of the Trip

Well... today was a rough one. I finally got a hold of the landlord of the apartment that I was supposed to move into tomorrow morning - he decided that he was going to rent the place to someone else and neglected to get back to any of my e-mails or voicemails. So... I'd like to introduce my "Loser of the Trip" to the world:

Loser of the Trip:
Brian Wotherspoon
e-mail: narodnost@yahoo.co.uk
mobile: +44 0773 981 7363

He's a complete jerk - don't rent from him! He completely screwed me over, I was very clear about my situation - I was fairly certain we had an understanding - and he showed no remorse in leaving me homeless in Scotland.

Don't get me wrong, everyone else that I've met here has been extremely nice. My Strathallan Guest House manager, Eamonn (pronounced A-maan) was very sorry to hear how I was treated and made my room available to me for another week. He has been great! Also, my new lab mates and acquaintances have recommended numerous places for me to continue my search. So thanks to all of them - and especially my friends and family for being so supportive and helpful during this process. My cousin, Rachael, cheered me up with a funny story and this John Mayer video from his new DVD:




As soon as I find a flat, I'll be back out exploring and reporting my findings! Until then... anyone have a flat in Edinburgh??

EuroTrip Oh Seven

Yesterday, along my walk, I had a lot of fond remembrances of Edinburgh from my EuroTrip Oh Seven with Pat, Ang, Ursula, and Kristin. This picture is of "The World's End." It was one of the first pubs we went to in Edinburgh. They have great food - I ate dinner there yesterday (I had the Scottish Salmon). It's right on eastern side of the Royal Mile - it's a nice place.




Next, I walked back to the hotel where we stayed (Jury's Inn) and I took a picture of the bridge from the street in front of it. This was essentially the view from our hotel rooms during our stay.




Next I walked over to one of our of our favorite pubs from last time... actually, I'm not sure we really liked it, but it's namesake was really cool. This is Deacon Brodies - named after the real life Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde. It's also right on the Royal Mile and the outside is beautiful.


I'd be really impressed if anyone could guess what this is... it's the tree where we roped-up our bikes for the break during our awesome bike tour. We had the tourguide take a picture of us last time... this time, it was just me, but I now know that the tree resides in Grassmarket - supposedly that's the place where a lot of the Uni students go for drinks after class.




This is a poster outside Frakenstein's - a theme pub after the British author Mary Shelley's heart. Last time we did Kareoke there and met a bunch of spanish people... As I recall, the DJ told us that Pennsylvania was "the boring state." Apparently he hasn't been to very many places in the US.







Last, but certainly not least, I went back to the Royal Mile to find the Radisson where Joe (of the famous www.joepenrice.com), Meg, & Kevin will be staying when they come to visit me in November. I'm really excited, guys - it will be a blast!! I'm finding fun stuff for us to do every day.

Also, my parents will be visiting early in November, for which I am also really excited.

I did a bit more exploring today - I'll write about that sometime during the week, but work & class are starting this week so blog entries will probably become less-frequent. I love hearing back from you guys - I do miss home and friends, so it's great to hear what's going on.

Cheers!!

Almost a done deal

After all my housing struggles, I might have finally found one! I went to the view the flat this morning. It's very close, a 3-minute walk from the guest house I'm currently in. I took a picture of the street its on: Duncan St. The architecture here is amazing!



The next picture is the front door of the flat-complex. Inside, it opens into a small "car park" for about 15 cars and an entry door/call box. I looked at Flat 14. It's pretty nice - it has a small bedroom (with a double bed), a sitting room (with couch and table), a kitchen/laundry room, and a bathroom. It's probably a little bit larger than I need for my stay, but I'm running out of options and I'll just be glad to have internet in my room at this point.



The location of the flat is pretty good. It's only a bit further from campus/center-city, but it's got 2 nice pubs right on the corner and a grocery store (Tesco) about a block away.







I did a little exploring after my flat viewing to ensure that the neighborhood was sufficiently Scottish. Luckily, this kilt store was right next to the bagpipe store, so I think it will be OK.






I did a little more exploring - a lot more actually - but I'll save some of those pictures for another post. I will, however, leave you with this picture - I was walking down the street and saw King Arthur's Seat, a mountain that we hiked the last time I was here, poking over some houses and thought it was pretty amazing. Hope you enjoy it too - I really miss everyone back home. Bye for now!

MFEO

You need to know a few things to understand this picture:

1) This is a picture of the Uni's School of Informatics directly across the street from the Neuroscience building,

2) My girlfriend, Mary, is studying Neuroscience at Haaaaaarvard, and

3) MFEO = Made For Each Other (its a song by Jack's Mannequin)

In this case, the school was kinda made for us... but who's fact checking this anyway?

Anyway, I thought this was too cool. It's a miserable, rainy night here - apparently it's been one of the rainiest years in the past 25. Hopefully that improves so I can make use of all the beautiful athletic fields - I saw some frisbee going on and there's always a game of football to be played. But don't get duped like me... I went in a pub to watch "American Football" thinking they might replay the monday night Eagles game... it was an American soccer game - which is just crappier than European soccer. :-\

I'm still looking for housing. I viewed a house very close to campus (less-than 10 mins walking) today. I'd be living there with 2 Danish girls. They were really nice so I hope to hear back from them soon. I also have a viewing on Saturday for a place close to where I am staying now (slightly more than 10 mins walking to campus). If both of those fail... then... well... I'm screwed. But there has been a very nice Asian man (or woman - not sure from the name) trying to show me his/her place. Something is getting lost in the translation, though. I know you are all on the edge of your seats... I'll keep you posted, anyway.


I leave you now with a few pictures of my current room in the Strathallan Guest House. It's pretty nice. I wish I got internet in my room and the ceilings were a bit higher, but other than that - I like it.

Getting acquainted

I started today with breakfast in my B&B and then walked to campus. It was a nice walk, only about 0.8 miles (which I was surprised google maps UK used instead of km). I decided to just make it a full-mile so I walked the long way around the block (by accident).

When I got into the building, Appleton Tower, I was pleased to find that a researcher was there and even happier that they had set up a desk for me. So happy, in fact, I took a picture. I didn't get any work done today, however, because I spent most of the time getting oriented by Stephen, a lab-mate, and searching for housing.

Around 13:00, I went down to George's Square (the Uni Quad). It's a really nice area and they are having "Fresher's" Week - which is basically Freshman Orientation. So I decided that I'd pretend I was a fresher and pick up all the campus info that people were handing out. Unfortunately, most of it was about clubs and restaurants rather than housing, but I did manage to collect a few housing pamphlets along the way.


After that, I had my first trip to the grocery store, ate some food and commenced exploring. I found A TON of stuff all along the street on which I'm living (it changes names a few times but is mostly Nicolson St. by the Uni). I walked the whole thing and found:
* A concert venue - Queen's Hall - looks like it has some good indie rock
* 2 interesting looking pubs - and probably some others that I'll try
* An Open Mic Night - on Tuesday the Blind Poet does open mic
* 3 music stores - so I can find a guitar and potentially curb my desire for percussion


It's late here so I'm going to bed, posts won't come nearly as frequently later, but sharing this with everyone (and hearing from some of you) is making me feel closer to home.

Still miss you all! Here's another shot of the lab I'm working in.

I'm Here!

Hi Everyone! I made it to Edinburgh successfully. The plane ride was long and I didn't get much sleep (thanks to the guy that sat next to me on the plane), but I got to the Amsterdam airport without much trouble. There, I made friends with an ex-University of Edinburgh immunization PhD student, Katie. She told me some great places to go (Edinburgh Leisure for indoor rock climbing, Student Union to find housing, etc.). Also, someone heard me asking about guitar shops and recommended one for me (Guitar Guitar) to find my axe for the trip. I was originally thinking about getting a cheap new 6-string but now I'm thinking that a used 12-string might be more fun. Anyway, it turns out that Katie lived just down the street from where I'm staying, so we shared a cab - it was good because I had someone to follow out of the airport and she new the best ways to get around all of the construction - apparently Edinburgh is installing a new Tram for public transportation. She made the trip much easier.

My biggest concern now is finding housing. I'm currently in a nice Bed & Breakfast, the Strathallan Guest House (44 Minto St.) that is less-than a mile from my workplace (Appleton Tower), but it's expensive and I can't get internet in my room. Thus, I'm looking for "permanent" housing elsewhere. I have an appointment on Saturday to view a flat that is right on the same block, but for now, that's my only lead - all my other contacts have stopped responding for some reason... maybe they saw my picture and they're afraid of how devilishly handsome I am ;-) jk.

My other concern is getting my bank account setup. The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is the parent company to Citizens Bank. There's an RBS on my block, but they had never heard of the International Account that I'd filled out - so they're sending it to their head office, something that could take up-to 10 days. The problem is that I'm almost impossible for people in the UK to contact since all my contact numbers are for the USA. I inquired about some other accounts that I could open faster (on location), but I need a "permanent" UK address (and proof) before they'll allow me to sign up for such an account. So it looks like I'm stuck paying some exorbitant ATM fees for now until I can resolve these issues. I'm open to any ideas. Until my next post...

One last thing - I really miss you all!!

Contact Info

While abroad, you can contact me in several different ways:

Phone Number:	610.572.4430
(note: this is a Reading number that gets re-routed, so you will not incur international call rates)
Skype (Video/Audio/Text Chat):	radarku
Free Skype Download www.skype.com
AOL Instant Messenger (AIM):	radarku
Free AIM Download www.aim.com
GoogleChat:	radarku@gmail.com
Free Google Talk Download gChat
E-mail:	radarku@gmail.com
You can also chat with me from my website:	Online Chat

Keep in mind that Edinburgh is typically 5 hours AHEAD of the EST. A comparison chart can be found at TimeZones .

If you need any other info, you can usually find it on my homepage: http://www.cs.drexel.edu/~kfu22.

Keep in touch!