Bruised and Battered

After playing my second Sunday league football game (it's soccer) yesterday, I realized how different football in this continent is compared to soccer in the U.S. On Sunday my team played the beavers, a team composed entirely of third and fourth years who were all German. They were also big, strong, and intimidating. Still, we felt pretty confident we could win, and I felt pretty good about playing. The only problem was that in Sunday league, the referee doesn't always show up, which was the case yesterday. It ended up that a substitute player from their team reffed, which proved to be a huge disadvantage for us. We ended up losing the game 6-3, although I did get "man of the match" for giving all three assists. What was frustrating was the physical pounding our team, especially me took. The first header I went up for was uncontested, but after I jumped and was on my way down I was completely blindside by this guy who basically spear tackled me straight into my ribs. My entire right rib cage was extremely sore when I got up this morning. With a inept referee you can probably imagine how thins escalated, and by the end of the game it felt more like I was playing American football. My right ankle is swollen and I have plenty of cleat marks all over my legs, along with a pretty nasty bruise on my left foot. It was still loads of fun to play though, see as I got to return the favor to many of their players. Next Sunday should be fun.

Rain and Work (and Fun)

Today marks the first of potentially many days to come of torrential rain in the town of St. Andrews. It also marks the first day that I have come to the realization that I have a ton of schoolwork to do before we get a week off in early November. I have an essay about the "Sanctity of Gerald of Aurilac" due next week on Friday, and by November 3rd I am supposed to have written a 1,200 word report on the economics of Dundee for Geography. There is also a group project due that same day for Geoscience on the Yellowstone Caldera. This comes immediately following a very fun and much more interesting Tuesday night in which:

1. John Burnet (my dorm) dominated at interhall basketball (I scored three baskets)
2. I went to a pub with my friends, one of which was still wearing the pink bunny mascot suit.
3. I went to the "bop" and danced the night away.
4. I went to a flat and ate hash browns with my friends at around 2 AM.

Now that the work is really piling on, I am devoting the majority of my free time this weekend to school work, which won't be hard seeing that I will be in Dundee all day Saturday taking notes about the different neighborhood structures. Well, enough of my whining. I guess I am in college after all.

Kinlochleven- Day 2

This morning we drove north to Fort William where we started our second hike up to a munro that supposedly had great views of Ben Nevis, which is the highest point in the UK at 1340 meters. Once again, we started the hike at sea level, so I spent the entire morning and the early part of the afternoon walking slowly but surely uphill. Unfortunately, the batteries in the camera died at the summit of my 4th munro, but I got some good photos of the surrounding area from the shoulder just below along with the video, so the beautiful day in the highlands did not go completely undocumented. The weather was PERFECT today. Barely any clouds in the sky and very warm in the sun while nice and cool in the shade. The view from the top of the munro was amazing, and Ben Nevis was looming large across the massive valley we had hiked up. It was another great hike, and another very tiring hike, but it was a great way to finish my first weekend away from St. Andrews and let me get away from the stresses of school work. Cheers!

Kinlochleven- Day 1

After spending the night in a very nice hostel, we set out at around nine in the morning on Saturday from the town of Kinlochleven with a goal of reaching the summit of three "munros". For those of you who have no idea what that is, which should be all of you, a munro is a Scottish summit of over 3000 feet. Compared to the mountains in California that may seem pretty small, but if you consider that we started the hike from sea level, it was definitely quite a climb. The first summit that we reached three hours later was called "Sgurr nan Iubhar" at 3284 feet (see video), and I had a nice lunch at the top. Unfortunately it was covered in clouds, so there wasn't much of a view. The second munro we reached was "Am Bodach" at 3392 feet and finally "Stob Coire a Chairr" at 3225 feet. The only thing harder than climbing these mountains was trying to pronounce their names! All in all the trip was about 8 miles and gave me my first real taste of the Scottish highlands. Luckily, Sunday would prove to be much clearer with better views of the surrounding mountains.

Kinlochleven Trip

After staying up until 3:30 in the morning two weeknights in a row only to feel the anguish and suffering of two A's home losses, I have decided to go on a trip this weekend. Okay, in all seriousness this has been planned for a couple weeks now, but this weekend I will be hiking (it's called hill walking over here) through the beautiful terrain of Kinlochleven. This is a trip organized by the hill walking club I have joined, which has a very good website at. There are also plenty of good pictures if you just google "Kinlochleven". It should be very fun and I will finally be able to see some of the countryside of Scotland that I have not yet experienced. Hopefully by Sunday I will have plenty of pictures/video up for you to see from the trip. Cheers.

Random, But Funny

I just can't get enough of the Oakland A's right now. Hope everyone will be watching on Tuesday!

Geography Field Trip

I had my first geography field trip today to Arthur's Seat, a large hill made up of two volcanic plugs that sit on the East side of Edinburgh. We got a good look at all of the various rock types around the Arthur's seat area. In the first picture you can see the "Lion's head" and "Lion's Haunch" volcanic plugs that make up the mountain. Although it was extremely cold and windy, I had a really fun time and the 3 hours of riding in the bus gave me a chance to recover from the night before. Enjoy.

Is This a Dream?

I am still not completely convinced that what I just saw on the internet was true. The oakland athletics have done it. We swept the Twins, and now its off to the ALCS. WOW!

Dunhill Championship- Round 2

Got up early today, meaning 8 AM, to get a good spot to see all of the pros and celebrities that were out on the Old Course today. Along with three girls from my dorm who would not stop talking about Hugh Grant, I camped out at the 2nd tee and waited for everyone to come by. I know some of the pictures are small and blurry, but the celebrities never came very close. There is Hugh Grant, Michael Douglas, Bill Murray (kneeling down acting like a dog), Monty, and Vijay. Enjoy.

Dunhill Championship- Round 1

There weren't many big stars out on the old course today, but I did catch a couple people I was familiar with. On my way to a mediaeval (British spelling) history tutorial I stopped by the 18th fairway to catch some of the action. That is when I saw Stephen Dodd hit his approach short into the 18th green. After watching about four or five more groups after that I came to the conclusion that, for the pros at least, they were either putting for birdie from within 5 feet or all the way to the bottom of the "Valley of Sin" ,as they call it, for their 3rd shots. Then it started to rain :( so I figured I better get on to my tutorial. Oh yeah, about that. Now I have essays to write. I guess you really do have to do some work in college. If any of you are planning on watching on the golf channel, tomorrow the big stars are coming to the old course. I will wear my USC red sweatshirt so I'll stand out in the crowd. Look for me on the 1st, 17th, and 18th holes.

A's Win Game 2

Another great victory. Mark Kotsay hits an inside the park home run Brilliant. Unfortunately, we've been in this situation before, and we all know how it has turned out.

A's Win Game 1

Frank Thomas is the man. That is all.

Dunhill Championship- Tuesday Practice Round

I stopped by the 18th green on my way back from a Geography lab today and caught a couple of pros finishing a practice round. The first picture was taken when I just arrived of Angel Cabrera going back to his car. The second shows an unidentified pro (I couldn't make out the name on his bag) practicing putts on the eighteenth. After waiting fifteen more minutes, a big name finally came through, as you can see Padraig Harrington (light shirt) walk of eighteen with his buddies. Apparently I also just missed Bradley Dredge, so sorry about that Jeff. There have been no celebrity sightings yet either, but believe me, I'll be keeping my eyes peeled. I should have another post tomorrow.

P.S. Everyone who read this best be rootin' for the A's these week as they are set to take down the Twins. Go A's!

Dorm Room Pics

Here are some shots taken from inside my dorm room. Hopefully you can make out the great views I have out the window to the golf course and the beach. Top to bottom: My sleeping area; the house that blocks my view of the Swilcan Bridge; James' sleeping area; my view of the 1st/18th fiarways, the beach, and the ocean.

America vs. United Kingdom

One of the biggest things that has caught my attention in these first couple of weeks abroad is the amount of little nuances of the American and British cultures that constantly cause confusion when having conversations. They’re usually little words like “skint”, which means “broke” to us that I have never heard used before. Then of course there are all the parts of our daily lives that we usually take for granted that, to a British person, seem totally foreign. TV shows, for example. I have been trying to get everyone into the American version of “The Office” while all the British people here swear by the British version which, I’ll give them credit, did come first. Luckily, the TV show Lost has made its way over here so we can all talk about the crazy happenings of that show together. Another example is sports. Everyone here can’t stand baseball, it’s “the most boring sport in the world.” They can and do, however, enjoy cricket, which is just as boring as baseball, but last five straight days! Go figure. My point is that it is very interesting to see the intensely different cultures mix (there is about 25 other Americans in my dorm) and to watch what happens as a result. Even more interesting is that the one thing that seems inherently identical throughout both cultures is music. We all have listened to and heard of the same bands and musicians, although techno is quite a bit more popular over here. Anyway, I just felt like sharing this to you as my culture shock is beginning to die down. Hopefully when I come back during Christmas I won’t be completely Scottish.