This past week was spent learning a lot about China’s ethnic minorities. We visited a village of the Bai (white) people. They are not actually white , but it is a prominent color in their clothing. It was incredible the amount of dancing we did this week, everyone, even the children know all of the traditional dances. We also went to a Daoist temple on a sacred mountain for a night. I was the only person in my group willing to wake up at 5am to practice Taiji with the monk on the mountainside, it was definitely a memory I will have with me forever. I was also in a rural home-stay in the village of Shaping. China has continued to surprise me, and this time I was amazed by the far out reach of its development. I was expecting an extremely rural town in terms of a lack of technology but I found quite the opposite. Sure the village is significantly less developed than the major cities, but it had paved roads, numerous cars, running water and my home-stay even had a 50 inch+ flat screen tv, meaning they obviously had electricity. Every household also grew corn for animal fodder and although it seemed to be quite counterproductive, all of the corn was de-kernelled by hand! This meant a fair amount of blisters. I also got to do a lot of planting and hoeing. I even herded my family’s cows! Despite these advancements, the bathroom was an outhouse so I’m definitely grateful to be back in the city now. We have one week left of our group travel, next stop Shangri-La!
<3 Elizazbeth
After reaching the top of the sacred Daoist mountain.
Wowza, can’t believe its time for me to post here again, feels like it was only just a few days ago that I made my other post! Time really is flying by; I can’t believe it’s been two months since I’ve gotten to Edinburgh!
Anyway, I’m kind of tired right now so this (hopefully) won’t be too long of a post.
I (officially) started work at the Scottish Parliament this week; starting my first official work/internship experience has certainly been interesting! The main thing I’ve been focusing on so far has been research for my final project, which is about the Nordic countries and how they have/are addressing climate change, and whether Scotland (being of similar population and climate) can possibly replicate any of those changes. My MSP has a real interest in not only the Nordic countries, but climate change as well; he sits on an environment and climate change committee and even gave a speech during a debate in Parliament about a motion he wrote on Thursday (unfortunately I couldn’t watch as I had an ergo session at that time).
Did I ever mention how Scotland has the best Parliament? Because it does.
Other duties so far have included learning how to write motions, sitting in on meetings, and helping get a Gaelic children’s choir settled before an event on Wednesday. Monday and Friday of this coming week I’ll be going back to the constituency to help out at the office there, in addition to coming into work in Edinburgh on Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday.
In other news, my parents and my neighbors have come to visit me here. They’re staying about a five minute walk away, and don’t seem to believe me when I tell them how easy it is to walk to just about any place in the city.
Yesterday they arrived and I showed them around Parliament (got those special visitor passes and everything– intern perks!) and then we paid a quick visit to Holyrood Palace, a residence of the Queen when she’s in Edinburgh (which isn’t very often… Except, it seems, when I visited Scotland last. Oh well.)
It’s not a very big palace, but it certainly is quite lavish. Most definitely fit for royalty. I wish I had pictures from inside, but, alas, no pictures allowed. Here’s some from outside and the Holyrood Abbey instead.
Holyrood AbbeyOutside the palace
That evening, after we ate dinner, we went to go see a band called Wishbone Ash play at a theater across the city in New Town. Now, I quite like this band, but they are most definitely a 70s band. I’m pretty sure I was the only person under 30 there. Anyways, they were pretty good and if you like that kind of 1970s British rock I definitely recommend you give them a listen. Aside from some issues with the sound tech, they were pretty good, almost as good as they are from their hey day.
Today my dad, my neighbor, and I went on a day trip to Stirling Castle and other places in the area (my mom and my neighbor’s wife were supposed to join us but they were both sick, unfortunately). Now, I’ve already been to Stirling Castle a couple times, but the castle is a true gem and never fails to impress, especially as we were graced by a typical Scottish day full of moody grey skies and mist covered hills. It’s really quite spectacular. As usual, photos don’t do it justice.
Following that we made a couple quick stops; first at Doune Castle where they filmed scenes from Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail (the scene where they ride up to the French castle with the coconuts… the ‘your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries’ scene… you know the one), from Game of Thrones (Winterfell, or at least part of it), and Outlander (Castle Leoch!!).
We also stopped for a quick photo op with some highland coos, aka the furry red cows that Scotland is famous for. Did you know that they were the first official breed of cow, having been bred for centuries before there even were official breeds of cows? And that if you stand to close (as I found out the hard way…) they’ll thump you with their massive horns (which both males and females have). Not to worry, it didn’t actually hurt. Regardless, they’re pretty darn cute.
It took FOREVER to get this picture; they wouldn’t stand still!
After that we had a quick lunch break at a mountaintop cafe where they offered zip-lining (alas that we didn’t have enough time to go on!) and then we stopped at another little town and had some ice cream (Kinder Surprise bar ice cream… mmmm). Our last stop was (yet another) whiskey distillery. Did you know that it contributes billions of dollars a year to the Scottish economy?
Anyway, that’s all from me for now. Hope everyone has a happy Halloween!
Sorry I forgot to post last week. We had midterms and I was trying to memorize 100 flashcards worth of paintings, sculptors, and palaces for my art history exam. It’s pretty challenging since I’ve never taken a class like this before, but it’s really interesting. We talk about the artwork in class and then go see it in person too! I also went to Rome with a few friends. We saw the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, and we went to the Vatican to say hi to Pope Francis. JK we saw him from what seemed to be a mile away in his window for Sunday mass. It was a very touristy weekend, but it was fun to see a bigger Italian city.
Now it’s time for FALL BREAK!
Tomorrow morning I am leaving Florence to go see the one and only Bix in Amsterdam and Cologne for a few days! I have all of next week off so I’m going to be doing a lot of traveling around (Sorry in advance for the super long snapchat stories). I’ll have lots of pics for next week’s blog post!
Also, here are a few pics from when I climbed the Florence Cathedral and the Bell Tower this morning. I did both within an hour and it was nothing compared to doing stadiums at Bucknell.
When climbing to the top of the dome of the cathedral, you are climbing between an inner and outer dome. This picture shows the narrow, steep stairs you have to use.
My rural host family’s shoes.
ty weekend, but it was fun to see a bigger Italian city.
