Aberdeen Exploration

Sunday I discovered Scotstown Moor Local Nature Reserve just to the north of Hillhead while I was on a walk. Five habitats are within the reserve: bog, moor, scrub, grassland and woodland. Common gorse (Ulex europaeus), a spiny shrub with yellow, bilabiate flowers perfumed of coconut are scattered across the downy field of grass along with dark gray boulders covered in green and yellow lichens and mosses. The gorse, though native, is an invasive threat to the heathland, which is not surprising to hear, since like daffodils, it is everywhere in this city.
It was comforting to find a natural area complete with educational signs telling me about the natural history of the area. Scotstown Moor is an SSSI: Site of Special Scientific Interest. SSSIs include nature reserves and geological wonders. On the other side of a patch of trees was the countryside. I was surprised to find how close it actually was, although only mildly so as I recognize it is easy for people here to slip into three main areas: Hillhead, uni, and City Centre (splash in the beach every once in a while and call Seaton Park part of Hillhead and uni).

Aberdeen has an area known as Belmont Street, which is a street of pubs and clubs and late-night Indian fast food/kebab shops. (Drunk food = kebabs and chips.) Aberdeen has a very lively nightlife. Students will go out any given night of the week which means that Belmont Street is always alive with people running from place to place or just hanging out in the street. The bus to Hillhead runs until 3 o'clock on weekends, but if you miss that you queue for a taxi on Union Street. I have decided that I am not really the clubbing type. It is too expensive to go out more than once or twice a month but really, that is about enough for me; especially now that it is warm out and light until 9pm-ish I'd much rather spend my time outside and sleep when it's dark.

Saturday I spent on an optional field trip for my Celtic class. We went to visit a stone circle, a cairn in the Grampian mountains, a few Pictish stones at Aberlemno, and a souterrain. It wasn't the most exciting day- there were about 11 of us and we didn't know each other and most of them were pretty quiet. But I got to see my first stone circle! This one was tucked away in the woods and when we stopped there we were the only ones around. Everything was still and the pine trees dappled the sunlight onto the crumbling rocks. It would be the perfect spot to sit by oneself and read or write, sleep or picnic, or just daydream . . .

Forests and Frisbee

My last week of spring break I actually spent in class for four days, but it was one of those classes that confirms any doubts (not that I have any) about me being an environmental studies major because the entire day is spent learning outside (besides the time being carted around in 17-seater vans). It was very interesting to visit a forest from the perspective of a forester -different from the conservationist and biological perspectives of other field courses. The topic of conversation would be about managing a forest, but the reason was for producing harvestable timber, not for the ecosystem in sake of itself.
Growing up in a forest state I was naturally curious to see how Scotland's forests compared to Minnesota's. I checked online and found out that Minnesota's percentage of forested land is about 32% and Scotlands is about 8%. Minnesota's total area of land, excluding inland waters, is 206,208 sq km. Scotland's total land area excluding inland waters is 77,097 sq km which is one of those fascinating things about Europe and America -there is just more of America.
Also, there are no charismatic megafauna in Scotlands forests. The biggest animals there are deer -no bears, wolves, or mountain lions. Don't misunderstand me, because certainly the megafauna are not the only thing important about a forest, but when I looked out at the great expanse of sleepy, misty pines and spruce, I felt that there was something missing when I knew that there were no wolves out there padding softly along on the trail of a deer.
I have many more thoughts on the field trip but you will just have to ask me when I am home because I should probably get around to writing the report since I can't turn in my blog.

Saturday and Sunday I spent all day at CUBE playing in my first beach ultimate tournament. It was so much fun and was so great to play frisbee again, after having gone probably a month without it! There were a few people I overheard saying that beach ultimate is "the way ultimate was meant to be played" which I disagree with very much but I would love to hit up more beach ultimate tournaments (especially Paganello) sometime in my life. It was super hard to run on sand but really easy to lay out (yes, I did, and caught things too!). The weather was nice and sunny but a bit windy the second day and therefore a little chilly. We only had enough space for two pitches so the games were really short and I always wanted more when they were over! The frisbee party that night was a ceilidh, so now I have been to two ceilidhs (this one was much more fun than the last -helps to dance with people you know and people who are Scottish and are good dancers). If I could bring anything back to America from Scotland it would be my very own ceilidh band.

Today was my first day back at uni and I haven't started much of my work, so I must get on that now-
Cheers!
Karen

Blur

I haven't written in a while as I haven't had any time to sit down at a computer and write. I keep a journal but it ends up being organized in bullet points of fragmented images and not structured entries to share. I am working on a longer entry right now but will probably not finish before I head off for the last week of spring break. One day of rest after 16 on the go is not enough when I have to wake up earrrly tomorrow morning to travel again (forestry class). But the past two weeks have been amazing beyond belief. Here is a teaser of some of the things I have done:

Visited Raelene in Dublin touring and just hanging out in her flat.
Spent ten days with Lauren. Minus the night where I got stuck in a small town in France by myself (no working cell phone, either) where about two people spoke English and I of course was unable to speak French.
Spent three days biking from breakfast until dinner throught the gorgeous and varied land of Provonce, biking up and down mountains and through the countryside of vineyards, wandering through small towns, having picnic lunches of food bought from markets and experiencing a France I never knew to imagine.
Wandering the streets of Nice and gazing out at the Mediterranean from the cliffs near Monaco, where we spend an morning rock climbing. Found out my fear and inability to master rock-climbing still exists. But spent yet another day out in the sun getting colour on my pale winter skin.
Met "we're not hippies" at the Hills of Tara (an ancient pagan religious site in Ireland) and got a tour of their peace camp and peace bus.
Spent a lovely Easter day splashing in the cold waters of the Irish sea and eating very expensive and hard to come by Mexican food.

Probably one of my favorite things about my travels is that I did it by myself in the sense that I went from place to place independently, but inbetween met some cool new people and got to see two good friends from home with whom I am so grateful to have been able to share these experiences. :)

Now I've got to do laundry, figure out how much damage I charged to my credit card and pack and read for class tomorrow before I pass out . . . tough . . . more on everything later. And be sure to ask me for my stories because I definitely have them. And as spectacular as my days have been I still do get pangs of homesickness; I miss everyone back home so drop me a line sometime soon!