Scotland, ho!

Hey, all!

Sorry we haven't posted in a while - it's been a mad week, gearing up for classes, and Debi's been really busy as well!

I had my first full day today, and enjoyed every second of it!

My Anthropology Prof. is amazing! Completely mental (Scottish term for "nuts"), but in a really good way. I know his class is going to be the highlight of my days.


My other classes are great as well - I'm taking Ethical Controversies (Philosophy) and Foundations of Language (Linguistics), in addition to Social Anthropology, plus Debi and I are both taking Gaelic Thursday evenings.

My first Archery class is Wednesday - I'm very excited. Fencing and Crew (rowing) are top contenders, but might have to wait until next Semester.

On Sundays after Chapel, all the students file out from the enormous, ancient wooden doors of St. Salvador's, across the Quad, and down to the Pier. It's quite a sight.






The red robes are standard for my school (the black robes are for Divinity Students). There are different ways of wearing the robes, depending on your year, and it's considered bad luck to fasten them. The practical reason for this is, I imagine, linked to the Pier Walk. The robes are quite heavy wool, and would become a concrete jacket if you were to fall in (which, with the wind, is a strong possibility)...

Well, that's all for now - we have a lot of photos and movies of some trips we've taken since we arrived here, that we just have to get sorted. I promise we'll post them.

Hope you're all enjoying Autumn!

Cheers!
-David & Debi

After a whirlwind tour of the States to see friends and family, Debi and I were ready to depart.

Our wonderful friends, Liliya and Allison came to take us to the airport - our suitcases were so big that they barely fit! Allison had to relinquish her seat so we could fit all four large suitcases. We're so blessed to have such amazing friends - thank you, both!

In a crazy side note, I'd been trying to sell my acoustic guitar on Craig's List, but had only received false leads (beware of people offering to pay with Cashier's Cheques or Money Orders, by the way). In the 11th hour, a young Columbia student contacted me and we arranged to meet at JFK, as she was flying in from Texas just about when Debi and I were going to be arriving at the airport.
All went well, and she seemed very happy. I'm glad - it's a great guitar, and I'd prefer someone to enjoy it.

Debi and I then went through the long process of checking-in. "Long," only because our suitcases were packed so full that they were overweight.
Ach, ja. What can y'do?
Seeing as we packed everything (pretty much) into two suitcases and a carry-on each, they were bound to be heavy. We got rid of a few more things and redistributed the weight, and the helpful and courteous crew at the Aer Lingus gate made what could've been a bad experience as pleasant as could be.

Debi was able to get a little rest on the plane, but I was too amped.
Besides, "Prince Caspian" was showing.



I'm a geek.
Yes, I know.

[Ahem]

We arrived at Dublin Airport and walked 500 miles from the gate to customs. Foof! The line was long but moved very quickly. All was handled expediently and pleasantly (take heed, "Homeland"), which was a welcome change.
We had a few hours' layover, so we enjoyed a very nice bit of tea and a suprisingly-good breakfast at a restaurant in the airport.

A quick flight later and we were on Scottish soil!

Click the links below to see full-sized images:


Prince's Park & North Bridge


The view from Prince's Park


Edinburgh Castle


Prince's Park, and Scott Monument

We spent the first night in Edinburgh at a B&B in our favorite part of town (outside the Castle, that is), in a Georgian town house, just a few blocks from Prince's Street.

LOVE this sign:

Debi slept-in the next morning, while I ran off to the Mac store to get an adaptor. I had a great walk up to Princes Street, then over both North Bridge and South Bridge; then back again, towards the Royal Mile, down through Prince's Park, past the Sir Walter Scott Monument, and back down Leith, just in time to get a cab to the Railway Station.




On the walk, I was able to take the raw footage for the movie included herewith (enjoy):

Before setting-off across the Atlantic, we did a bit of touring around the States, visiting friends and family.
Debi had a full month in Washington and Oregon with her family, while I did my best to get the remainder of our papers shredded and belongings sorted. It's amazing how much crap we collect. Really! Foof!

After my last night at Canyon Road, I flew out to meet Debi in Vancouver, Washington, and got to see her folks again, and be reunited with my sweetiepie at long last!
We had a great time - there was a huge family dinner one night, which was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed catching up with everyone. They were all very excited about our trip, and glad that Debi could spend a fair amount of time with them before making the big jump across the pond.

We took a drive out to the Oregon Coast - just lovely. I'd never been before, and have never seen anything like it.
We stayed at a great B&B - the owners built the entire house themselves! It was very comfortable, and our hosts were very warm and gracious. They even set out wine and cheese for us to take down to the Adirondack chairs, overlooking the Pacific.




On the way back, we passed through wine country, and went past a favorite vineyard, Rex Hill. We'll be taking a trip there sometime in the future...

Shortly after our return to NYC, we departed again to spend some time with Dave and Suzanne in Boston. We then drove up to see Dave's folks, just outside of Rochester, NY. We had a wonderful time there - very relaxing and fun. It was great to have a little "down-time" with Dave and Suzanne, and Dave's folks are really cool (they also built their own wonderful cabin).

Suzanne and I made peach pies, as a result of one of the peach tree branches snapping off because it was overladen with fruit! We had a great time, whilst Dave and Debi acted as assistants, running up and down the stairs to preheat the oven, warm our crusts, etc. We also got a chance to visit the beach, and Lake Ontario. We had a great time skipping stones and walking along the shoreline. I'll never forget going out amongst the cornfields at night to look at the stars. Magic.
Hats off to Dave for driving over 7 hours each way! Double foof!

We touched-down again in NYC, only to head out again a day later, this time for D.C., and a visit with Frank and Kristen. We also opted to make that a relaxing time, and in lieu of the usual activity-packed weekend, we slept-in, played with Little Boy Cat and Little Girl Cat, checked out their garden (and future plans for it!), and enjoyed some wine whilst playing a cool board game called "Settlers of Catan" which was a lot of fun.


Of course the food was amazing, as always at Chez Shipegan. Toques off to Frank!






We were also treated to a dinner with Kristen & Frank, Guy and Min, and Michelle & Chris! It was a splendid time, and great to see so many of our friends before we left!








We headed back on a Double-Decker Megabus (preparing us for the U.K.),
and got a good night's sleep. Then...off to the Renaissance Faire!
We got dressed-up this time, and had a wonderful time visiting our friend, Jenny. We enjoyed our day, visiting the Kissing Bridge several times,

enjoying the booths and the shows, and, of course, spending time with our dear friend.


I was also able to sell my LOTR swords, Anduril and the Elven Knife, which was a big relief (not easy to rid oneself of a 5-foot sword in NYC)! They went to Tolkien fans, so I'm...[sniffle]...very happy.



Back to NYC for the final night, and then...

Scotland Ho!

by David (at some ungodly hour)



I've just received word that I've been accepted into Social Anthropology / Linguistics programs at the University of Aberdeen and the University of St. Andrews (pictured above) in Scotland!

I'm blown-away. It's all I hoped for and more besides - I honestly didn't think I'd be offered a seat at St. Andrews.

Both schools are highly-ranked, and among the oldest in the world (St. Andrews is Scotland's oldest university, founded in 1413).

St. Andrews is a beautiful, small medieval town on the shores of the North Sea, just north of Edinburgh. When I visited the town three years ago, I saw the university and got all misty-eyed, and fantasized about studying there. It was just a dream, though. To be accepted as a student there is the highest honor I could've hoped for - I'm really overwhelmed at what I've just been blessed with.

Of course, it'll be a lot different - going from NYC to a small town by the sea will be an adjustment.

However, I think I'm up to the challengeA few of my friends in the New York Caledonian Club (a Scottish-American Society I'm a member of), have warned that St. Andrews can be rather stuffy. Regard the photo below. With a street name like that one, how stuffy can they be?


Here's a short tour of the town of St. Andrews:

During 2007, we watched the entire James Bond film series and also read several of the novels. Here is a chronology of the 007 movies and books:


Dr. No1962 Sean Connery
From Russia with Love 1963
Goldfinger 1964
Thunderball 1965
You Only Live Twice 1967
On Her Majesty's Secret Service 1969 George Lazenby
Diamonds Are Forever 1971 Sean Connery
Live and Let Die 1973 Roger Moore
The Man with the Golden Gun 1974
The Spy Who Loved Me 1977
Moonraker 1979
For Your Eyes Only 1981
Octopussy 1983
Never Say Never Again 1983 (NOT EON) Sean Connery
A View to a Kill 1985 Roger Moore
The Living Daylights 1987 Timothy Dalton
Licence to Kill 1989
GoldenEye 1995 Pierce Brosnan
Tomorrow Never Dies 1997
The World Is Not Enough 1999
Die Another Day 2002
Casino Royale 2006 Daniel Craig
Bond 22 2008
Casino Royale (Spoof) 1967 David Niven, etc.

Ian Flemming Novels:
Casino Royale 1953
Live and Let Die 1954
Moonraker 1955
Diamonds Are Forever 1956
From Russia with Love 1957
Dr. No 1958
Goldfinger 1959
For Your Eyes Only 1960
Thunderball 1961
The Spy Who Loved Me 1962
On Her Majesty's Secret Service 1963
You Only Live Twice 1964
The Man with the Golden Gun 1965
Octopussy & The Living Daylights 1966

Here are a few of our favorites (and least favorites) from the James Bond movies:

Top 3 Favorite Bond Movies:
Debi:
1. Casino Royale
2. From Russia with Love
3. License to Kill

David:
1. Casino Royale
2. The Spy Who Loved Me (a big influence on me in my elementary school years).
3. From Russia With Love

3 Least Favorite Bond Movies:
Debi:
1. The World is Not Enough
2. GoldenEye
3. Diamonds are Forever

David:
Yeah, I pretty much agree. I basically didn't like any of the Pierce Brosnan movies. I grew up with Roger Moore playing Bond but I'd read the novels, so the movies were entertaining but too cheesy to be taken seriously at this point. My father introduced me to the series with the best Bond (in my opinion), Sean Connery. Brosnan killed my interest in the series (don't know why so many people like him in the role) and I didn't see any of the films after Goldeneye, until Daniel Craig took over.
Least favorite:
1. The World is Not Enough
2. GoldenEye
3. Tomorrow Never Dies

3 Cheesiest Bond Movies:
Debi:
1. Moonraker
2. The Spy Who Loved Me
3. GoldenEye

David:
1. Live and Let Die - In spite of a great theme song, a cool plot, some scary ideas, and at least a tenuous link to the novels, this is where the cheese began. The boat chase could've been amazing (and was, for the most part), but the introduction of the Sheriff J.W. Pepper was more than "comic relief." It was hilarious at the time (it didn't take much to make us laugh back then - the 70's were a funny time) but watching it now, I wish they'd played it a little more straight. It was a good story. It was also strange to watch Bond's clumsy and misogynistic approach to any female that crossed his path. Back then, it worked - now it seemed horrific. Times have changed, thank god. Still, it was interesting to view what was perceived as "seduction" back then. No, really. It was kind of like that. I think (I was very young then, I don't know). Still, if you look at the media from the time...no wonder there were so many divorces.

2. The Man With the Golden Gun - if only for the inclusion of Sherrif J.W. Pepper

3. Die Another Day - Too little, too late. Pierce's Bond got tough enough to command "M" to let him do his job, but it seemed like the producers were throwing in so many references to past Bond films, that they knew this was to be the last. It just seemed too nostalgic. Luckily, it seems to have been the end of an era indeed. If the films following "Casino Royale" keep the wit, mood, and stark realism (for a Bond film anyway) of the new film, the series will definitely be reborn.

Top 3 Favorite Bond Stunts:
Debi:
1. Bungee jump in GoldenEye
2. Free running sequence in Casino Royale
3. Stepping on crocodiles in Live and Let Die

David:
1. Free running sequence / stair fight with machete (two-way tie) in Casino Royale
2. Bungee jump in GoldenEye (It was really done!)
3. Stepping on crocodiles in Live and Let Die - Ross Kananga did the stunt, stepping over four live crocodiles. You can see him perform it here. He almost ended up as dinner (like his father before him).

Top 3 Favorite Villians
Debi:
1. Christopher Walkin as Max Zorin in a View to a Kill
2. Christopher Lee as Scaramanga in the Man with the Golden Gun
3. Robert Davi as Franz Sanchez in License to Kill

David:
1. Christopher Walkin as Max Zorin in a View to a Kill - Christopher Walken!
2. Christopher Lee as Scaramanga in the Man with the Golden Gun
3. Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre in Casino Royale - kinda like Bryan Ferry gone bad, but very convincingly menacing. The "but you are SO WRONG!" quote towards the end of the torture scene really drove the point of the movie home.

Top 3 Favorite Bond Theme Songs:
Debi:
1. For Your Eyes Only by Sheena Easton
2. You Know My Name by Chris Cornell
3. Thunderball by Tom Jones

David:
1. The Spy Who Loved Me by Carly Simon
2. You Know My Name by Chris Cornell
3. Goldfinger / Moonraker by Shirley Bassey (two-way tie)

Top 3 Favorite Bond Girls:
Debi:
1. Ursula Andress as Honey Rider in Dr. No
2. Jane Seymour as Solitaire in Live and Let Die
3. Daniela Bianchi as Tatiana Romanova in From Russia with Love

David:
1. Eva Green as Vesper Lynd
2. Jane Seymour as Solitaire
in Live and Let Die / Daniela Bianchi as Tatiana Romanova in From Russia with Love (two-way tie)
3. Catherine Bach as Anya Amasova in The Spy Who Loved Me

We have a tradition of reading the same books (our own mini-book club)! This year Debi read more books for pleasure than any year in her adult life!!! We also saw many movies (thank you Netflix)! Here's a list of what we read and watched in 2007:

Books:
1. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories by Washington Irving
2. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke (thanks Bonnie for the recommendation!!)
3. The Book of Lost Tales: 2 by JRR Tolkien
4. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (we read this one in the Caribbean)
5. Beowulf translated by Burton Raffel
6. Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
7. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglass Adams (Debi's 1st time!)
8. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglass Adams
9. Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglass Adams
10. Rum: Nature's Island by Magnus Magnusson
11. The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory
12. 1,000 Places to See Before you Die by Patricia Schultz
13. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (thank you Geoff!)
14. Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins
15. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling (again...)
16. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by JK Rowling (again...)
17. Light My Way by DL Grant (again...my favorite!!!)
18. The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker (thanks Suzanne)
19. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
20. Dictionary of the Khazars: A Lexicon Novel by Milorad Pavic (Debi read the female version and David read the male version)
21. Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming
22. First Steps Towards an Acting Career (random, short-lived interest...)
23. The Aeneid by Virgil
24. The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco
25. Moonraker by Ian Fleming
26. The Languages of the World by Kenneth Katzner
27. Der Alchimist (in German) by Paulo Coelho
28. The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
29. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
30. The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
31. The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
32. Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages by Mark Abley
33. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

All in all, over 13,000 pages!!!!

Movies of 2007 (in order of most recently watched):
1. Tomorrow Never Dies
2. White Christmas
3. This is Spinal Tap
4. License to Kill
5. The Living Daylights
6. Murder by Death
7. The 1900 House
8. Wings of Desire
9. A View to a Kill
10. The Knowledge of Healing
11. Never Say Never Again
12. Octopussy
13. Frontier House
14. 1776
15. Like Water for Chocolate
16. For Your Eyes Only
17. Moonraker
18. Trainspotting: Collector's Edition
19. The Spy Who Loved Me
20. The Man with the Golden Gun
21. Live and Let Die
22. Diamonds are Forever
23. On Her Magesty's Secret Service
24. Beyond the Fringe
25. The Thin Man
26. You Only Live Twice
27. Amelie
28. Thunderball
29. The Muppet Show: Season 1
30. Goldfinger
31. From Russia with Love
32. Dr. No
33. Strictly Ballroom
34. Law & Order: SVU Season 1
35. The Wire: Season 1
36. Monsoon Wedding
37. King Arthur

As you can see we have been watching all the James Bond films in order (there are quite a few!) We are almost done :)

Here's to more great books and movies in 2008!!

We are super excited to have a cat in our lives again! Ellie, a beautiful calico cat, is staying with us temporarily. She is older (11 or 12 years old) and is already set in her ways. She is very loving and it's great to spend some time with a kitty again! Isn't she cute?