I can canoe. Can you?

A crazy Canadian canoeing on the Caledonian Canal crying for cash to combat cancer

Bowel Cancer to be specific.  In memory of fellow canoer Eleanor MacDonald.  Thanks so much to those who donated already and if anyone else would like to sponsor me, they can still do so here: https://www.justgiving.com/Michael-Ruiter/

Here's a teaser pic for now, more below.

Before really getting into the canoeing, which was AWESOME, I'll give a quick recap of other events.

Scottish Supper

We had our Old Norse dinner in Crail, and I feel like I should call mythbusters because we had British food which was actually good!  Myth busted.

For a first course we had herring on a hearty (and hard) cracker with some greens on the side.  The main course was, better hang on to something here, haggis-stuffed chicken, wrapped in bacon, inside a pastry with an excellent mushroom gravy and mashed potatoes.  Also a nice variety of vegetables.  It was amazing!  For dessert there was a date pudding with some sort of glaze on top.  And though it was called a date 'pudding' it was more of a date pie crumble and the glaze tasted like icing. mmmmm!

Oh yeah, and there was wine for pre-dinner chatting, wine paired with the meal, and a port for dessert and post-dinner chatting.

School

School the following week wasn't too shabby neither.  Just normal coursework and finished an essay on kobzari in Stalinist Soviet Ukraine which will be available for viewing soon.  In the meantime, my last essay on Emperor Michael V of Byzantium has been posted here: http://standrewshistorysociety.co.uk/2015/03/son-of-a-caulker-man-on-the-short-and-unpopular-reign-of-michael-v-kalaphates/

Canoeing the Caledonian Canal!

I really can't express how amazing the canoe trip was.  Three days of camping/canoeing on the Caledonian Canal will really make you feel like you're getting the full 'Scottish experience'.  We ended up going a little under 100Km in 3 days (normally suggested as a 5-day trip).  Four full lochs (and a teeny bit of the fifth) including all connecting canals, which meant portages, some of which were longer than others.  One portage was almost a full Km, which isn't that much of a walk, unless you're laden with kit like some kind of two-legged beast of burden.  In which case it's perfectly acceptable to sit down and have a snack at the end before heading back for a second load.  On the second day, after our last portage, we had a bit of time, so we raided the local chippies and cafes for some coffee and fish and chips.  On a related note, if you're pulling/pushing a canoe across a busy road with one hand while eating fish and chips with the other, you get some pretty interesting looks.  Plastic forks just contribute to the carbon footprint, so it's environmentally responsible to eat with your hands. 

On the first day I started canoeing with my classmate Sam, but we're both pretty strong canoers (canoeists?), so the coordinator tossed me in a different canoe.  That way he and I were both steering for some less-experienced canoers.  Seems like this was a smart move, because when briefly reunited later, we were so busy chatting and rowing that we accidentally ended up WAY ahead of the group, and nearly missed a team meeting.

I was a bit worried I'd be exhausted after paddling all day, but really once you get into that rhythm, you might as well be standing still for all the attention/energy it requires.  The only thing that could potentially slow you down are callouses, but with simple rubber gloves, cutting out the finger tips so you don't get too hot, these too can be avoided.

Though I had plenty of layers and waterproof gear, fully prepared for rain and cold, we somehow had three warm and sunny days (aside from a few violent wind gusts the first day).  This was probably the nicest weather I've seen since September!

The first two nights were pretty tame, just camping on the edge of a town or village pretty close to bathrooms, drinking water, etc.  But on the last night we just paddled as far down Loch Ness as we could after lunch and pulled into a shore that looked suitable for landing, camping right there on the banks of Loch Ness.  The next morning the water was glass, and there was an amazing mist that gave everything a bit of an ethereal quality.  Also later that day, we canoed up to Urquhart Castle.  We stormed the castle in a Loch-side invasion and enjoyed our lunches on the freshly-conquered grass.  In true pirate fashion, we didn't even pay the entrance fee.

The Future

Tomorrow night is this semester's Cooler (big band) so I'm looking forward to jamming out for a few hours.  This Sunday I'm hoping to go for a nice hike with some big band people at Mayar and Driesh, Glen Clova (click HERE for more info if interested).  The weather for the walk is looking rainy but not too cold hopefully.  And on Monday, sadly, we are back in classes.  With two written assignments, a presentation, Latin, Old Norse final, and a longer article for the print journal all due in April, I think I'll be pretty busy in the coming weeks.  I'll try to keep updating when I can though.

Here are some (a lot) more pictures, shamelessly stolen from my canoeing comrades and uploaded in a completely mixed-up order. (Sorry for the quality, no one was really willing to trust themselves with a nice camera on the water—including myself).

Storming the castle

It's Nessie!

The 'Burgh and Big Band

Hi!

So my Latin assignment was a piece of cake and I somehow finished the bulk of my readings quite early.  I also needed a break from spending all my free time trying to learn 'Go'.  In short, by the time it got to the weekend last week, I had to somehow stretch 100pages of reading across the entire weekend and was bored out of my tree.

So I did what any sensible person would do, and went to Edinburgh!

First stop: 

The Walter Scot Monument (which was closed when I went with Dad)

I stole this picture from the internet because I somehow took about 50 pictures inside, but not a single one of the outside.  Pretty much, it's a huge, 61.1m (neo-/imitation-)gothic spire completed in 1844 which you can go inside and climb the 287 steps to the top.  The 3 flights of spiral staircases get increasingly narrower and the opening to the top was too short and narrow for me to fit through without crouching and twisting sideways.  If any of you have seen the movie 'In Bruges', it makes that scene with the American tourists seem like a common occurrence.
Here are a few pictures of the view from the top.

Second stop:

The National Gallery.  It's the fancy-looking building in the bottom-right of this photo:

This was a really cool place with lots of paintings, sculptures, historic carvings, etc..  I went to every room and spent probably too much time here, since it meant getting to the castle after it closed.  I'll only put 2 pictures here.  This first one is a really blurry photo but I shared it anyway because it's a painting of the national gallery itself from a few years after it first opened.  The wall and floor colours, wooden frames on the archways, etc. are all the same.  I even managed to find one of the busts from in the painting!

This second photo is of a painting by Samuel Bough, a Scottish painter.  It features a herring boat in front of St. Andrews.  You can recognise some of the towers in the background quite easily as some of the ruins still standing in St Andrews today.  And on the edge of the cliff on the far right, is the castle.

There was also a painting that had a guy with 6 toes which I thought was pretty funny, but I didn't manage to get a good pic of it.  Most of the paintings have glass frames and are well-lit which causes all kinds of reflections even without a flash on.

After the National gallery, I took a stroll up to the castle (closed by this point), then to the cathedral which was cool but no photos were allowed because you had to buy a photo permit from their office, but their office was closed.  I then grabbed a bite to eat before going down to Arthur's Seat.  By the time I had finished eating, it was raining pretty good, and it had grown dark, but I was determined to go anyway.  I didn't bother taking out my camera on the hill because it would have gotten soaked, but you get an incredible view of the city from on the hill, and the walk itself is really nice as well.
The train ride back to Dundee seemed a typical Scottish experience.  The train was full of returning rugby fans from the Six Nations match between Scotland and Italy who sang the entire ride back to Dundee.  Neato burrito!

Yesterday we had our Great Gatsby themed big band gig at Dundee University which went awesomely.  There were a tonne of people there and they demanded an encore, which we happily obliged.  But we left when they wanted a 2nd encore because our conductor was tired haha

Tonight I'm going to Crail for a dinner with all the Old Norse folks at the prof's house which should be pretty fun, and this coming week is the last one before our Easter break.

Also, our 3-day canoe trip starts on the 15th and we're raising money for bowel cancer research in memory of a past canoer who recently lost her life to this disease.  Any money we raise over the target goal will go to her 2nd-favourite charity which grants children in hospitals access to pets to play with.  If anyone could spare a few pounds/dollars, it would be greatly appreciated.  Here's a direct link to my page.  Thanks very much!
https://www.justgiving.com/Michael-Ruiter/