UoE's Pride

Edinburgh ranks among world’s best

The University has for the second year running been listed in the top 25 universities of the world.
The Times Higher Education - QS World University Rankings place Edinburgh 23rd, the same position it achieved last year.
Now in their fifth year, the rankings list the top 200 universities in the world.
Edinburgh is the only Scottish University and one of only six British institutions to appear in the top 25.

The 2008 ranking of the universities I studied/am studying:

1. The University of Hong Kong (HKU): 26th

2. The University of Queensland (UQ): 43th

3. The University of Edinburgh (EU): 23rd!!! YAY!

4. Fudan University: 113th (Not bad for a university in China!)

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/hybrid.asp?typeCode=243&pubCode=1

Pasta Hut

http://www.pastahut.co.uk/Home

In case you don't know, Pizza Hut in the UK has changed its name to Pasta Hut to "encourage healthy eating".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3145545/Pizza-Hut-to-become-Pasta-Hut.html

The chain, which launched its first restaurant in Britain in 1973, is replacing its pizza-focused menu with a menu consisting mainly of pasta dishes.

This means that as well as the traditional deluxe pizzas, customers will also have the option of ordering more sophisticated dishes such as tomato and mozzarella mezzaluna and prawn and crayfish arrabiata.

The re-branding is part of an £18 million revamp package designed to attract new customers and move it into more upmarket terrain.

As part of the revamp, the chain is temporarily naming 30 of its branches Pasta Hut.

Cultural Week

A room with a view (To be exact, a pantry with a view!)



This week has been a cultural week for me:

1. Macbeth
William Shakespeare
A co-production with Nottingham Playhouse

I have watched Macbeth in the Lyceum Theatre (http://www.lyceum.org.uk/webpages/show_info.php?id=1030) - my first play at Edinburgh. I read the book in my first year of uni and watched some parts of the BBC version shown in class...It is one of the bloodiest tragedies in Shakespeare's works and one of the very few Shx (we used to use this short form a lot!) works I have thoroughly read. Duncan (King of Scotland), Malcolm, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Banquo, Macduff (I always think about the cute pig McDull! Haha!) and the three witches......these names bring back so many memories of the lectures and tutorials on English literature - which I almost forgot! :P

Thanks Tom for telling me about the story behind "the Scottish play".

Directly copied from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macbeth):

While many today would simply chalk up any misfortune surrounding a production to coincidence, actors and other theatre people often consider it bad luck to mention Macbeth by name while inside a theatre, and usually refer to it superstitiously as The Scottish Play, or "MacBee", or when referencing the character rather than the play, "Mr. and Mrs. M", or "The Scottish King".

The student ticket for the Wednesday matinee is only 5 pounds! What a cheap deal! Another good reason for being a full-time student!



A glimpse of the Royal Lyceum Theatre (The usher is selling yummy Haagen-Dazs ice-cream!!!!!!!!!)



2. National Poetry Day - 100 Favourite Scottish Love Poems

It was a lovely evening in the Blackwell bookshop nearby - listening to some Scottish love poems emotionally read aloud by the Scot poets with a glass of white wine...not only because the event was free (ha!), but also it was my first time joining a poetry reading event! Below are two of the Scottish love poems:

A Red, Red Rose
by Robert Burns

O my luve's like a red, red rose.
That's newly sprung in June;
O my luve's like a melodie
That's sweetly play'd in tune.
As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will love thee still, my Dear,
Till a'the seas gang dry.
Till a' the seas gang dry, my Dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun:
I will luve thee still, my Dear,
While the sands o'life shall run.
And fare thee weel my only Luve!
And fare thee weel a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho' it were ten thousand mile!


One Cigarette
by Edwin Morgan

No smoke without you, my fire.
After you left,
your cigarette glowed on in my ashtray
and sent up a long thread of such quiet grey
I smiled to wonder who would believe its signal
of so much love. One cigarette
in the non-smoker's tray.
As the last spire
trembles up, a sudden draught
blows it winding into my face.
Is it smell, is it taste?
You are here again, and I am drunk on your tobacco lips.
Out with the light.
Let the smoke lie back in the dark.
Till I hear the very ash
sigh down among the flowers of brass
I'll breathe, and long past midnight, your last kiss.


3. 5/F Fruit Party

Here comes our first "fruit party" with almost all people from my floor in the pantry:

There is a mix of international students in my hall called Churchill House. We have MSc and PhD students from all over the world: New Zealand (2), India (2), Taiwan (3), Sri Lanka (1), the USA (1), Mainland China (1) and HONG KONG (1).



Being a fruit-juice addict, I bought 3 cartons of fruit juice (88p each!) to the party!


Weekend Trip to Stirling

Finally, before I forget, let me upload some photos taken during my trip to Stirling two weeks ago:

Me and Dawn from Washington D.C.

The first Scottish-style wedding I "witnessed" in Scotland


Actor of William Wallace, the Scotland's national hero with the famous victory at the battle of Stirling Bridge. There is a film called Braveheart featuring him (starring Mel Gibson)...but I have not seen it yet!

As said by Jansy, he is a "profressional storyteller" 专业讲古老！
Overseeing the city of Stirling at the National Wallace Monument - You can see the Stirling Castle on the far side!

Stirling Castle. I managed to take this photo when no one was there!

One of my favourite photo. Taken at the Stirling Train station at dusk. The monument is on your left.




The garden at Stirling Castle

Hahahahaha! :)

Palace of Holyroodhouse

While I still have not yet written my blog about my second week in Edinburgh, I would first write on my visit to the Palace of Holyroodhouse when my memory of this afternoon is still vivid.

The Palace of Holyroodhouse is the official residence of The Queen in Scotland, and it is famous as the home of Mary, Queen of Scots. As said in the leaflet,

Holyrood is a house of many memories. Wars have been plotted, dancing has lasted deep into the night, murder has been done in its chamber.

I did not expect that a visit to Mary's, Queen of Scots', chamber could be such a scary experience. After walking up a dim spiral staircase, I saw the chamber in which Mary witnessed the brutual murder of her Italian secretary, David Rizzio, by her jealous second husband Lord Darnley in her private room. The dim light, the atmosphere, the narration (on the audio guide)...everything...filled me with horror...!!! What a pity that no photographs could be taken inside the palace...


Royal Mile - on the way to the palace. I like this building very much - very fairy-tale-ly. There is a tavern on the ground floor.

Canongate Kirk (Kirk: "Church" in Gaelic)
The Queen's Gallery (11.5 pounds for unlimited admission to the gallery and the palace for 12 months. For those who come and visit me in Edinburgh, I can be your tour guide!)

Palace of Holyroodhouse


A beautiful lamp along the corridor to the great stair of the palace
The picturesque ruins of the 12-th century Abbey



It looks like the manor houses I imagined from reading the English novels...

The Statue of A boy with a violin
A giant tree in the Holyrood Garden


Ye Old Christmas Shoppe in Royal Mile. Owning a small shop selling only Christmas trees and decorations in the old town (all around the year) is such a VERY romantic idea, even IF it does not make a lot of money, given that Christmas is my favourite festival. :) Perhaps it gives me some lights on what I can do after graduation! :P Definitely worth visiting!




(Thanks Ling-yun for capturing the precious moment!)

On the way home, we caught a glimpse of a Scottish-style wedding service at the Canongate Kirk. It is my second time "witnessing" a Scottish wedding here. *Daydreaming* It would be great fun and romantic (again) to get married in Edinburgh...inviting family and friends AND of course Scots wearing Tartan to the reception, followed by a Scottish banquet (I have no idea what it is like exactly, but no Haggis please!) and a crazy Ceilidh evening (like the photo below - taken by Morton - when we went to the Ceilidh dancing class in St Peter's Church!) as well as a pub crawl (for my guests, not for me - too tired already!).

(Jenny: Remember we also caught a glimpse of a wedding or whatever reception at an Oxford college?)

The highlight of the day (for me, at least) is that we saw a very elegant lady (the lady in the above photo - she is a mother of two children!) - I could not help NOT watching her (looking at is not too accurate in this case) during the service. I liked her light blue suits, I liked her black hat (I saw them in Harrods before, but I could not think of any occasions I can wear them in Hong Kong without being stared at on the street...so I ended up not buying any!), her black peep-toe high heels, her beautiful face, her long natural hair...Everything is just so British...and EXACTLY the same as I "imagined" what an elegant and well-educated British lady should be like - from watching TV and films as well as reading novels (stereotype...I know!) The closet person I can think of is Kate Middleton - Prince William's girlfriend.

Oh I almost forgot to say I bought from the palace two postcards featuring Prince William of Wales in military uniform (50p @)...I will post one on my noticeboard. Haha! :P


Spinning - The closet thing to crazy?!

Kate Middleton. So elegant!

My first week in Edinburgh

Old College of the University of Edinburgh, where the School of Law is situated.





This bridge reminds me of the Bridge of Sighs in Oxford!

Me at the Bridge of Sighs in Oxford in 2005

The first week in Edinburgh was a bit hectic but with great fun. It feels so good being a full-time student again. Time flies when you are having fun. True.

Here are some highlights of the first week:

1. Uni life

I have a very busy schedule - I am doing a MSc in Applied Linguistics (In the Scottish education system, all master's degrees are MScs. MAs are bachelor's degrees with honours) and I have six courses in the first term (a total of 14 hours per week - plus a 2-hour French lesson!!!):

• Introduction to Sociolinguistics


• Issues in Applied Linguistics (The first two courses are taught by Professor John Joseph who was the Head of the Department of English at HKU from 1993 to 1996 and he knows some, well maybe a lot, Cantonese!)
  
• Introduction to Semantics


• Introduction to Phonology (For those who know me well, I do not like things about sounds, e.g. phonetics, phonology and even sound waves in Physics! I am having a hard time catching up with the course materials!)
  
• Introduction to Syntax (Tree diagrams! Yay!)
  
• Introduction to Discourse Analysis


• Introduction to Language Research

Having classes every day means that I cannot go on a whole-day trip! :(

2. Trips within Edinburgh

I managed to squeeze in some time to explore Edinburgh. I visited the National Museum of Scotland (http://www.nms.ac.uk/nationalmuseumhomepage.aspx) twice - there are so many things to see and for me to learn more about the Scottish history (e.g. clans, origin of place and person names, tartan, Queen Mary of Scots...etc etc). I have not seen Dolly the Sheep yet as some parts of the museum is closed for development.

The Maiden - the beheading machine used in Edinburgh

With some horrible background music

Overseeing the Edinburgh City from the Roof Terrace (7/F of the musum). The Edinburgh Castle is on your left.

The other side of the Edinburgh City.

I also went to Arthur's Seat (the peak of a group of hills at the city centre) with the people from my hall, namely the Churchill House at Richmond Place in the first week.


The radical road up to Arthur's Seat


Very windy up there...you can tell from my hair!

A very big swan!


The Scottish Parliament with a strange architectural interest...


A random street scene on the way home


I have also walked past the Elephant House (http://www.elephanthouse.biz/) where J.K. Rowling sat and wrote the Harry Potter books in the back room. Some other writers like Alexander McCall-Smith are also frequent visitors to the tea house. I will definitely spend some lazy afternoons reading novels and perhaps do some creative writing there, hoping to become a famous writer someday...... By the way, food and drinks there are reasonably-priced!







Greyfriars Bobby - Man's best friend - is one of the most faithful and famous dogs. For details of the touching story, please click here http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/Scotland-History/GreyfriarsBob.htm

In the coming weeks, I would like to go to the Edinburgh Castle (It seems like everyone here has been there already!) and the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

3. Daily rountine

Getting up at 8ish or 9ish (weekdays of course!) --> having quick breakfast (usually cereal or sandwich) --> rushing to uni for the morning class --> having lunch in the uni canteen (hot dishes range from 2.95 pounds to 3.6 pounds - you can have fish and chips, macaroni cheese, pasta and rice with meat - good taste, at least yummier than the meals I cook at home! Haha!) --> afternoon class --> grocery shopping at Tesco to earn points for my Clubcard --> "planning" what to eat for dinner and preparing dinner (it may take an hour) --> cooking dinner and washing dishes (it may take another hour, including chatting and practising mainly Putonghua and sometimes English with friends living on the same floor) --> beauty shower --> MSNing and trying to concentrate and do some readings --> beauty sleep (at least 8 hours required)

PS. I have already spent 108 quid (pounds!!! not HKD or RMB!) on buying textbooks - enough to get a free mug and a 5 pounds coupon from the bookshop Blackwell's......

Savouring every mouthful of the delicious dinner I cooked (Thanks Ling-yun for taking the photo and practising cooking with me in the pantry!)

Chicken and veggie stir-fry! It tasted better than you thought! :P

To be continued in next blog: Day trip to Stirling, Ceilidh dacing class, watching the Scottish play...... :)