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Another great week in the books! First of all, the weather finally decided to get its act together. It was around 72 and sunny all week in Oxford. I did a lot of reading outside and a little running around in town early on in the week. This included a pretty cool "blues night" at a pub down the street: the Alabama Blues Project is set up in The Jericho Tavern (which is famous for being the place where Radiohead got its start I think?) so several of us students and a few teachers went there on Monday night for a few hours to listen to some music. The guy taking up money to get in was fascinated that we were from Alabama and he took lots of pictures. Tuesday, we had a group meeting and a movie night where my ex-CIA teacher showed an old spy movie. Wednesday we went on a long walk to the countryside around Oxford and some neighboring tiny little towns. I got some pictures of the river we walked along, a huge meadow, ruins of a 1000-year-old abbey complex, and more. The real fun of the week started on Thursday though. That was the beginning of our trip to Edinburgh, Scotland. Despite a long train ride after class (which was actually really cool because of the scenery around us: rising hills, fields lined with ancient stone "fences", etc.), many of us only needed a few hours in town to decide that Edinburgh was the coolest city that we had visited. It wasn't even that it had that many things to do... it was just such an interesting city with such a friendly feel to it that everybody seemed to like it a lot. On the first night, I did the classic Taylor Duncan move of eating entirely too much because the food was so good at an italian restaurant we went to that I almost got sick. Not wanting to look like a lightweight though, I powered through it and got some good rest in preparation for a big day on Friday. To start out Friday, we took a three-hour walking tour of the city, led by the hilarious guide Izzy. We got our bearings, learned a lot about the history of Scotland, and had some fun. After a dinner with live music we then went on one of the famous "ghost" tours of Edinburgh. This was really cool because we got to go to the underground city, which is a series of tunnels and rooms. In an effort to keep the blog managable to read, I will just say that I learned that it really stunk to live during any time period before about 1950. Times were tough A LOT of the time. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and I also got to learn about literature in Edinburgh, including seeing the cafe where J.K. Rowling supposedly wrote Harry Potter, getting inspiration from several surrounding landmarks around us. To cap off the day though, I found hints of my family history in Scotland! I knew coming into the trip about old family "clans" and such in the country and that I should look for family names while I was here. I discovered that the formal dress for men is still a kilt, and coat, and some other regalia, and that the type of pattern you get is dependant on your clan. Each clan also has a coat-of-arms type thing. As I was looking around in a shop, I found the pattern (tartan) and crest of the Duncan clan! Very cool. If only I knew how to play the bagpipes like I saw so much of this weekend I would be set! To finish off the trip this morning, a friend and I woke up at 5:00 am and set off down the hill that Edinburgh is built on to find the inactive volcano called Aurthur's Seat. We had no idea what to expect but we had been told it was really cool to climb it. We soon found out what we were in for. It was a really big mountain right next to the sea that overlooked the water on one side and the city on the other. The buildings in the city had simply obstructed our view of it until then. An hour later, we reached the peak and saw some of the best views I've ever taken in. I even carved "Duncan" into a rock near the top (maybe it will stir up some clan rivalry???). Now, I am finally back in my dorm, awaiting the adventures that one last week in England have in store.
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