Travel

In which Beth eats unusual foods (for her)

Edinburgh Expeditions

Whenever I’m travelling, I try to eat a new thing every day. Living in a new country, this doesn’t happen daily, particularly as living somewhere entails me making my own food.

Today, however, I managed to eat a meal filled with foods I never had consumed before. I went with a few of my friends to Saigon Saigon, which is one of the tasiest Chinese restaurants in Edinburgh.

We looked over the menu and then ordered, my friends (two from China, one from Taiwan) suggesting and selecting some of their favourite dishes. I just had one request: whatever we ate, there had to be at least one dish that wasn’t too spicy.

We ended up with five dishes. One, my favourite, I can’t recall what it was called. But what else did I eat? Let me preface by saying yes, I knew what I was eating. And it was all delicious.

Shredded chicken–my choice. Not too spicy at all.

Roasted duck tongue–a favourite of one of my friends. A bit spicy for my taste, but I did eat three tongues. As well as the bones of two, I didn’t realize there were bones in it…the crunchiness should have tipped me off.

Cow stomach–I’ve had stomach before, when I was in Italy (lamprodotto). I wasn’t a fan then, I’m really not a fan now either.

Pig’s feet–Um, these were delicious. Succulent and tasty, with a lovely sauce.

Sadly, the duck gizzards were unavailable. My friends said that they’re delicious, and I wanted to try them!

For desert, I had coconut milk with soga and tapioca. Wonderful!

 

And no, I still haven’t tried haggis.

 

A Windy Day at Rosslyn Chapel

Edinburgh Expeditions

Yesterday, a few friends and I ventured through the wind and rain to visit Rosslyn Chapel. After missing the bus (and noting that the 15A wouldn’t drop us off at the Chapel), we were off to a late start. Killing time with a cappuccino, we caught the later bus and were off, an hour after we had meant to.

But that was okay. We drove about a half hour outside of Edinburgh to Roslin, and a quick walk up to the chapel’s visitor center. Then through the sliding glass doors to see the chapel itself.

No internal photography is permitted, but we took full advantage of there still being daylight to shoot the exterior. There’s some lovely stonework, which I find beautiful, even in its decay.

Stonework, Rosslyn Chapel

(C) Beth 2012

I loved wandering around the building, looking at the statues of saints and angels. Living in Italy, if only for four months, instilled a fascination with these images. At Rosslyn, my favourites were on a memorial stone.

Love Conquers Death

(C) Beth 2012

I think I photographed all of the angels on this stone…there were so many! This one was my favourite photograph, though.

Hope

(C) Beth 2012

The interior of Rosslyn was stunning. Not being allowed to take photographs, I sketched instead (but none of my sketches were quite up to par, so sadly I shan’t share).

The carvings were beautiful. I can’t even begin to describe them without falling into cliche. A place that must be seen by one’s own eyes!

 

Thanksgiving Abroad

Edinburgh Expeditions

As I snoozed my alarm for the third time this morning, two thoughts came to mind. The first, that I hadn’t rendered my animation to a high enough quality, proved false as I sat in the computer lab at 8.45 this morning, watching it on three different machines.

The second was that tomorrow is Thanksgiving. It’s snuck up on me, worse than Halloween and my birthday. Thing is, I know that tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I really do. I’m going to a couple of Thanksgiving dinners over the course of the weekend. But it doesn’t feel like Thanksgiving.

It could be that I’m living in Edinburgh. I hang out with a few Americans, but the full work week (and major submission due Friday) kind of remove the Thanksgiving feeling. Knowing that I won’t be entering a food coma tomorrow is a bit strange.

Seeing my across-the-pond friends and family post messages about their Thanksgiving plans on Facebook is really what reminds me that, yes, tomorrow is the day of turkey-eating. Friends who have moved to Colorado and beyond mention that its strange not to be with family for Thanksgiving. Neighbours express their happiness of seeing their children again. And here am I, who otherwise would have forgotten.

No American football. No left-over turkey sandwiches. No pumpkin pie for breakfast the following morning. But I’ll be here with friends, my Uni family, celebrating. And for that, I’m thankful.

A far too early almost-Thanksgiving dinner.

A Minor Interruption

Edinburgh Expeditions

Ladies and gentlemen, please pardon the minor interruption to She Thinks Too Much. I’m running away to join the Circus  the new Number Two flying off to Scotland to study for my master’s degree.

Don’t panic, and do not adjust the dial on your television set. You haven’t entered the Twilight Zone.

I’ll be posting regularly. I’m just going to need a couple of days to settle into my new home and new city.

I’m really excited to be journeying to Scotland. It will be a completely different experience from when I studied abroad in Florence. For one, I will be receiving a degree at the end of it! For another, I’ll be there for a year. And for a third, I don’t think that I’ll be doing as much weekend traveling. I hope to get down to London at least once each semester, but trips probably will not be all that frequent. I fully think that my programme will keep me very, very busy.

Sunny Scotland

(C) Beth 2010

Have Duck, Will Travel

Italian Wandering
Bartholomew

Bartholomew enjoys gelato.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Bartholomew the Acrophobic and Aquaphobic Pirate Duck.

My friend Holmes and I are in Italy for our spring break, so we decided to bring along our rubber duckies, Bartholomew (mine) and Ferdinand (hers). The ducks are greatly enjoying their vacation, and we are enjoying photographing them.

It’s a funny little pet project of ours, shooting the ducks throughout our travels. The airport is particularly amusing, as who expects to see two college students setting up ducks and shooting them?

Eventually, we hope to write a children’s book about our traveling ducks. Holmes will photograph them (our illustrations) and I will write the story!

I took this photo in Lucca, after a day of bike riding and riding a carousel (an ostrich, naturally; it was the most ridiculous animal there). We needed the gelato!

Bartholomew would like to say that anyone who tries to eat his gelato (coco e cioccolate) will suffer the consequences. He’s serious. He has a gun.

Hand Made Souvenir!

Florentine Scribblings

Well, I’m departing the grand old US of A tomorrow for the last spring break of my undergrad career. I’m going back to Florence (!), this time to visit my sister, who’s studying there (though at a different school than I did).

I recently finished up one of my sketchbooks, but was faced with a dilemma. The one I bought latest is…well…massive. It doesn’t fit in my carry-on, and like hell am I going to lug it across the city (even though I would if I had an art class there…). Anyways, I had a few lineless moleskine notebooks lying around, so I decided to use one to make a trip journal/sketchbook.

I love to write and draw, but rarely do I have a small notebook with me. I’ll be carrying this one so I can sketch and record silly comments whenever I want. I’m also going to tape in all of my train tickets and museum entry passes, restaurant cards, store names, etc.

I am so looking forward to this trip. I cannot wait to return to my home-away-from home.