Stuff

I love riding in the morning here in Scotland. The traffic isn't nearly as bad, so there are a significantly smaller amount of motorists pulling bizarre 180's in the middle of the road. The weather was freezing, but I got to see the sun rise (at about 8am) and there was a thin layer of frost on the fields. And the first thing I thought of when I saw the frost was trying to train for x country skiing on frosted fields at St. Olaf a couple of years ago. I thank Coach Brochman for these wonderful memories...

By the time I got to the Campsies (the hills) I had to turn around. My hands were freezing - so to keep myself warm I started pedaling as fast as I could. I passed a field of black sheep, an official bowling green, and rode through an area that smelled like a distillery. The really fun part about riding this particular route is that its all uphill on the way out, downhill back. I was absolutely flying, and I got speed-addicted so I started racing cars. Too much fun.

I got back, showered and headed to class. I've got two seminars on Thursday afternoon. One on Post-Modern and Contemporary Art and the other on Philosophy and Aesthetics. Post-modern is my favorite, probably because it's slightly ridiculous. The whole thing is filled with phrases like "conceptualizing conceptualization" and "mediating mediation" and the lecturer rants about how the artist is "dead" but not really dead, the artist just isn't an "artist" like he used to be. The class goes around and around in circles, and the "theories" never get to the bottom of anything, or specify any coherent meaning. So I sit in the magenta-painting auditorium and get nicely confused, and walk out feeling really smart because somehow I feel like I've connected with what our prof is talking about. The more likely case is that I've just lost touch beyond reason - but its still great because I'm getting lots of great ideas for sculptures! Oh, art in the dark.

Another adventure - I dyed my hair a couple of days ago, and today I got it cut. The salon was way cool, you got complimentary hot chocolate and candy. I was unable to resist and ate about 500 candies while I was waiting for my friend Cara to finish. We then decided to make a grocery run, so we shuffled off with our pretty hair to Lidl's. We bought WAYYY too much stuff to carry home, but had to do it anyways. So Cara carried a huge bag, about half the size of her body, and I carried everything else: a backpack with a case of beer, two bags on either hand, a jug of milk and tennis shoes hanging from the pack straps. We looked ridiculous and had to stop every block to re-adjust our purchases... it was funny, you had to be there.

And... In one week I leave for Germany! First stop, Essen, which lies inbetween Dortmund and Dusseldorf. I'm going to visit museums, ride bikes, watch racing, eat sausages and chocolate and enjoy german beer. Yay!!!