Another Good Week Almost Gone

What's with all these good experiences? Aren't I supposed to have weeks that are harder than others? Perhaps I'm speaking too soon, but I've just been having a wonderful time! Even when I've been stressed, I've still enjoyed myself as it's all a part of the balance of life. Might sound cheesey, but it's very true. =)

My internship at Dynamic Earth has been going well, I think. Today I spent time in the galleries taking notes on all the aspects that visitors can read and interact with. I also observed visitor interaction with the Visitor Guides which was really interesting. Each guide has a different style of making that important connection with visitors and it was worth it for me to see the variety of styles.

On Tuesday night I went with my flatmate and his friends to see the Edinburgh University Footlights production of West Side Story. Three words: Amazingly well done. It was difficult to believe that the talent I saw onstage came from people my age! And it wasn't just onstage, no, they had a live pit orchestra as well! People, I'm telling you, this was well worth the six and a half pounds it cost (about $13 considering the current currency conversions) to get in to see the show.

And now, for a picture or two...

This is me in front of Dynamic Earth, photo taken by one of ODE's Education Officers.

And this is the Royal Yacht Britannia, previous home to Her Majesty The Queen.

I was planning on uploading a video for this post as well, but I think I'll work on that for the next post. =)

Hope you're all well! Cheers!

Has Another Week Passed Already?

Guess I'm not too good at updating this blog too much, eh? I really can't believe how the time flies here! Anyway, on to regular bloggable topics!

Let's see, what's happened in the last week? Well, my internship has been going really well so far, I think. I'm enjoying getting to know everyone and getting used to how everything is run around Dynamic Earth. I've gotten to sit in on some classroom sessions, which has been really interesting, to see how kids interact with teachers and with one another. Basically people watching which, as many of you may know, I could do for weeks on end! Getting to observe people, especially in an education setting, is fascinating to me for some reason. This week was spent mostly researching different observation, tracking and interviewing techniques as well as doing some preliminary observation in the galleries at Dynamic Earth. Next week, if all goes as planned, I'll finish putting together surveys and observation forms and begin actually using them to survey and observe/track visitors.

Some of you may have heard about windstorms and snow here. Well, we didn't really get much of it in Edinburgh. There were 30 mph winds for about three or so days and some snowfall that didn't stick. Apparently there were 100 mph winds over other parts of the UK but it didn't get us here! I do have a good story about the first snow... I was on a Ghosts and Ghouls tour with my flatmate and two of his friends on Tuesday night and, just as the guide was telling us about The Plague (known as The Pest in Scotland), it began to snow. We were all freezing already as it was 0 degrees (celsius of course) and now little flakes of ice were falling on us! Luckily we went down into the historic vaults shortly after that so we were a bit warmer. It snowed the rest of that night and through to the next morning but none of it stuck on the rainy streets of Edinburgh. Also, about the tour, it was great! I got in for a discounted price since my flatmate, who works for the tour company, had two free passes to split between three people (we each paid a third of one ticket). I'm glad I don't seem to annoy my flatmate too much. We get along really well and I can't imagine having found a better place to live in with a better person. This is really ideal!

Tomorrow I'll be meeting up with a coworker to see a Mexican store that also sells American food items such as Jiffy peanut butter and marshmallows. We're meeting at the cafe where JK Rowling wrote much of the first Harry Potter book called The Elephant House. It's located on George IV Bridge, near the public library and the National Museum of Scotland, just to give you some perspective. =)

Well, that's about it for now. Thanks to everyone who has commented and thanks for reading! Hope you have an absolutely wonderful weekend!

What a week!

So, I meant to post a review of each day of my internship for the first week but I just got so busy that I didn't have too much time to sit and blog! This is a good sign, I think. The week has been absolutely wonderful, getting to know so many people within Dynamic Earth, but I'll be glad to start this next week knowing I don't have as tight of a schedule to keep. This is what my week was like...

Monday
Meet with: Education Manager, Outreach Coordinator, Groups and Education Bookings Officer, Food and Beverage Manager. Also, attend puppet training as the skills may work into one of my internship projects.

Tuesday
Meet with: Education Officers, Marketing Director, Events Manager, Corporate Sales Manager. Also, read the education folder which outlines the last year's education programs.

Wednesday
Meet with: Chief Executive, Retail Manager. Tour the attraction and attend two classroom sessions.

Thursday
Familiarisation day with Front of House, which took all day and I got to see how the exhibition works from the inside out.

Friday
Meet with: Scientific Director, Operations Director, Corporate Director. Help set up Saturday's club for kids with an Education Officer and have a catch up meeting with Scientific Director and Education Manager.

As you can see, I was quite busy meeting all sorts of fabulous people! This next week I'll be working on designing my projects and continuing to get a feel for the place.

On Friday I went out with two Front of House employees from ODE to get my first taste of haggis. My review? Not too bad, but not too good either. It was kind of bland and peppery and all smushed up with neeps and tatties (turnips and potatoes). For a drink we all had Irn-Bru, which is a Scottish fizzy drink (soda or pop).

Yesterday I went on a tour at the Museum of Scotland called "Scotland's Ancient Flora and Fauna" and was very impressed at the amount of information available about Scotland's past. After the tour, I hung around the museum and took a bunch of photos of my favorite things. Check out the National Museum of Scotland album at my photo site. The captions will hopefully be updated soon.

Tonight I'll be doing some research on how I want to design my study at Dynamic Earth and perhaps attending a movie night at a friend's flat.

Thanks for reading, cheers!

First Day of Work and the National Museum

Sooo, before I go into details about my first day of work, I want to tell you all how absolutely amazing the Museum of Scotland is: It's absolutely amazing! I went in for their Highlight Tour early on Sunday afternoon and stayed until closing. After the hour-long tour, I was treated by a group of Highland dancers and bagpiper performing in the main museum hall. After that I took off to go exploring the various maze-like rooms filled with enough items and stories to last a few lifetimes, at least. One of my favorite rooms was a small, rectangular room which told the story of the Scottish religious reformation. It was here that I found the most amazing item, Alexander Peden's mask. If you don't feel like clicking on the Wiki link, I'll give you the brief rundown here: Peden was a Covenanter in the 1600s of Scotland who was kicked out of the country for having different religious beliefs than Charles II was happy with. He escaped to Ireland using a mask made of cloth, hair, and other materials but was eventually captured and was to be sent to America to work. The American ship captain, however, didn't agree with the reasons that Peden and others were being sent to America for and released them all. Peden lived until 1886 when he died and was buried for six weeks until his body was retrieved from the earth to be hanged from the gallows. (Yes, even though he was already dead.) Someone powerful and present objected to that and he was buried at the foot of the gallows where a memorial stone would be placed later, telling his story. Two years after his death, Scotland became a safer place for Peden's religious beliefs... too bad he was dead by then! Cool story, eh? I'll get pictures of the exhibit when I go back next weekend.

Okay, now, a review of my first day of work at Our Dynamic Earth, also known as ODE... It was fabulous and a bit overwhelming, to tell the truth! Started out the day by meeting with my supervisor, the Education Director, and getting a tour of the backstage areas. After that I went to a three hour puppet training. You read that right, puppet training! A professional puppeteer from Glasgow came to teach us about how to use puppets. It was actually pretty darn amazing how much effort goes into bringing a puppet to life. My main puppet was a shark and my arm got fairly sore because I had to keep moving it as if it were floating in water. Other puppets had to continuously appear to be breathing. Lots of effort here, people! Next up was lunch out at a nearby restaurant with the puppeteer, and the entire education staff of two Education Officers and one Outreach Coordinator. We returned to ODE and I met with the Groups and Education Bookings Officer to go over the current bookings system. Then she walked me down to meet with the Food and Beverage Manager. This was interesting to hear about because it's done in-house as opposed to bringing in an outside supplier to run the food service. My last meeting of the day was with the Outreach Programme Coordinator to run over some of the outreach she does in collaboration with the Scottish Seabird Centre in North Berwick (about half an hour's drive from Edinburgh). Tomorrow, I'm sure, will be filled with even more information to take in and I can't wait! On the schedule are meetings with the Education officers, Facilities Manager, Marketing Director and the Events Manager. I'm really looking forward to Wednesday when I finally get to tour the attraction!

That's all for now folks. Thanks for reading!

The Last Few Days

The last few days have been quite good! I met up with my site supervisor at Dynamic Earth and she gave me a little introduction to the organization and a schedule outline of my first week. Looks like my hours will be pretty consistent: Monday through Friday, 9:30 - 5:30. Works for me! Today my flatmate and I went to a bunch of charity shops (think secondhand/thrift shops) for some retail therapy. I got a pair of jeans, a brown sweater (called a "jumper" here), a fun compilation CD, and some nice work trousers. All of that for about 15 quid (slang for pounds currency). I also got to go to a large Tesco (grocery store, kind of like Safeway) with my flatmate the other night. (Check out the videos at the end of the post.) Also, this morning, I had orientation at the BUNAC office which is only about a three minute walk from my flat on High Street on the Royal Mile. Most of the information was not relevant to me since I already have accomodation, a job, and insurance. I am really glad I went because they did give each of us a reference letter to open up a bank account at a local branch to avoid any hassle for being from out of the UK.

I believe I had my first real culture shock today. While taking a lunch break from our retail therapy, my flatmate and I were trying to name as many foods as we could to see if they were called something different in each other's countries. I asked him about s'mores and he didn't know what they were. Not only that, he had never heard of graham crackers either! After looking up s'mores on Wikipedia, I understand that it's mostly an American and Canadian concoction. And, apparently, graham crackers are also an American food. I never knew any of this so I was quite surprised! The one thing that I'd never heard of was called trifle cake. Wikipedia says that this is a British dessert, which makes me sad that I won't be able to get it in the states; it's very yummy! The small consolation, at least, is that I can make trifle once I return to the states.

Tomorrow I can look forward to going to a few of the local museums, including the Museum of Edinburgh, the Museum of Childhood, the Royal Museum and the Museum of Scotland. If I still have time after seeing all those then I'd like to see The People's Story, the Loch Ness Discovery Center, and the Surgeons' Hall Museums. Those last few will be saved for another day if I don't get to them right away. Can you believe how many museums there are here? The list above is just making a dent! There are even more galleries and historical buildings that I haven't even gotten a chance to think about yet. Wow, what a city.

Finally, here are videos from the trip to Tesco.





Go here to see the rest of the videos. Cheers!

New Pictures and Videos

Today I decided to venture out to the Royal Mile which led me to the Palace of Holyroodhouse (where the Queen stays when she visits Scotland), which in turn led me to a nice little walk up towards Arthur's Seat in Holyrood Park. Go ahead and check out the resulting photos at my Photo Site (and leave comments if you like!) to see all that I got to see today.

Also, please enjoy the following videos that I took today! This first one is a short walking tour from Holyrood Road up towards my flat and the old city boundary, Flodden Wall.



This one is the view from halfway up the Salisbury Crags/Arthur's Seat area.



And, finally, this is a view from higher up where you can see many of the great landmarks of Edinburgh as well as the location of my internship at Our Dynamic Earth.

Happy 2007!

Here in Scotland we celebrate Hogmanay, otherwise known as the last day of the year, along with New Year's. The huuuuuuuuge street party I was supposed to attend last night was cancelled because of dangerous weather (rain and wind gusts up to 70 mph) but I joined my flatmate and his friends at one of their flats for mulled wine and mince meat pies. At midnight we all made a circle, crossed arms, held hands and sang Auld Lang Syne to ring in the new year. Did you know that Auld Lang Syne was written by a Scot? Robert Burns, affectionately known as Rabbie Burns and Scotland's national poet, wrote the poem as following:

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne ?

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my dear,

for auld lang syne,

we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.

And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp !
And surely I’ll be mine !
And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We twa hae run about the braes,
and pou’d the gowans fine ;
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary fit,
sin’ auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We twa hae paidl’d in the burn,
frae morning sun till dine ;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
sin’ auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere !
And gies a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll tak a right gude-willie-waught,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

Compare that with the Anglicized version here (italics show changes):

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne ?

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my dear,

for auld lang syne,

we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup !
And surely I’ll buy mine !
And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have run about the hills,
and pulled the daisies fine ;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine (dinner time) ;
But seas between us broad have roared
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’s a hand my trusty friend !
And give us a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

There you have it friends, two versions of one very traditional song. I had a wonderful Hogmanay/New Year's celebration and I hope you did too! Have a wonderful 2007!