Hiya folks again, it is another house field trip and we were heading north! A hiking trip if you will, finally get some more - much needed - exercise because the rain had really been a downer and everyone was eager to see the sea.
It was a fairly long bus ride to the sea - about and hour and half if you were lucky with the bus. So a much needed nap would make the trip go by faster, but I also found it hard to sleep as I was so eager to not miss any second of the new pieces of Scotland I hadn't seen yet.
The sun broke out a bit for us too as we arrived and was about ready to start our hike. Let me tell you, if you've climbed a hill and thought you were to the top but really had a much longer way to go...that is what this was like. Surprisingly though it was about a half hour hike to the top. And what was waiting for us up there was two whale bones coming together as a symbolic reference to when Northlanders first found this place.
We also learned more about the castle on the island just of the main land and how it also once used to be a jail - almost like an Alcatraz if you will. Our directors of the house also showed us where scenes from Outlander was filmed and how this town thrived off of it. It was a cute coastal town - reminded me of a much smaller Duluth...maybe I am really missing home since I compare much of what I see abroad to home.
It was a short day trip but successful one none the less. The next day was a field trip for class - the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh. This was one of the more fun homework assignments we got to work on as we walked through the gallery and had to find a portrait we wanted to remake and copy and present it to the class. This was also by far a hit among the other classes too as they thought it was such a fun project and they enjoyed seeing us students run around the house finding things we could use in our photos.
The gallery was phenomenal and offered modern portrait and historic ones. Most of us students chose more modern pieces and then did research on the artist and explained why we chose it. I did the portrait of Barbara Rae, a Scottish artist well known in Edinburgh (little did I know). Below is her portrait and my remaking.
I am skipping ahead a few days to briefly cover the Scottish Parliament Building. This is basically where all the laws and bills are signed and where big decisions for their country is made. Almost like the White House of Scotland. We had to write a paper comparing the Scottish Parliament to our Dalkeith House and so we had an inside tour of both buildings. We couldn't take many photos inside the Parliament building but here is what I caught.
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