My Oxford experience would not be complete without a trip with a few of the amazing visiting students I’ve met at Oxford—aka a bunch of Americans.
Saturday, December 2, 2017
Off to the Highlands!
At noon I headed out with a backpack (packed super light) and got boba with Odelia at Formosan, an independent business in Oxford known for “authentic bubble tea”: they source their tea leaves from Taiwan and use fresh organic milk and lemon juice. It was really delicious and not too sweet, unlike at other boba places.
Took the Airline bus to Gatwick airport with a group of 8 others. Spent the next two hours sending farewell messages on Facebook and napping. It’s sad how we’ll never see each other regularly anymore [at Oxford]—even meeting up later on in life will be different, and it’s hard to really keep in touch through Facebook.
A one-hour flight later, we were in Scotland! After a long drive in the dark in our rental car, we arrived at our Airbnb, which was basically in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by farmland and forest, no neighbors. It was a nice house, furnished with 7 beds, a piano, books, a fireplace, a stocked kitchen, and fresh flowers. Played a couple pieces on the piano—my hands were cold and stiff and my muscle memory has faded, though it’s always when I think about trying to remember the next note to play that I forget it.
We got groceries and had a very late midnight dinner: sandwiches with Baileys (whiskey) with hot chocolate with spices, which made for an interesting flavor. Bed at 2:30.
Sunday, December 3, 2017
Castles, waterfalls, and sunsets~
Woke up to a beautiful and tranquil landscape: rolling hills, white sheep with black heads that resembled white dots in the faraway hills, pine tree woods, an occasional cabin nestled in the hills. My iPhone camera hardly captured the beauty of the landscape. I thought I was a city girl after seeing NYC, but breathing in the fresh air and listening to the sound of nothing—which was only disturbed by power lines and cars driving in the distance—I wouldn’t mind living in a rural place like this.
Drove to Urquhart Castle, listening to country music. The highlands were full of cute sheeps, all white-furred sheep (but saw one with black fur) with black or white heads. I suddenly started missing Mimi (my poodle who looks like a sheep and who is no longer with us).
First stop: Loch Ness Lake and Urquhart Castle, a medieval castle and fortress. Control of the castle passed back and forth between the Scots and English during the Wars of Independence in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. The power struggles continued as the Lords of the Isles (Scottish nobility) regularly raided the castle up until the 1500s. The last of the government troops garrisoned here during the Jacobite Risings blew up the castle when they left.
For those of you who may be wondering, no we did not find Nessie, the Loch Ness monster. It must’ve gotten scared away by the weapons we had ready (we brought a box of artillery—shovels and pails and things—in the trunk). But we did touch the lake’s [supposedly magical] waters.
Urquhart’s iconic ruins
Plodda Falls: A 46m high waterfall. The height from the river ground level to the top of hill was too high to capture in one photo. A whopping .5 mile walk to the overlook on top of the waterfall, then a hike down to the wide, gorgeous river. It was a beautiful hike on a dirt pathway in the woods with the sound of the river in the background.
green evergreens, leafless deciduous trees, and a mix of both
We had to make a roadside stop for the beautiful, glowing red sunset beyond the trees.
Came across quite a few sheep crossings today, sheep standing around or strolling about.
Cooked dinner together in our Airbnb: it’s amazing how well we worked together to cook the meal. Everyone contributed in some way. I cut chicken and after rubbing it with salt, all-spice, and black pepper, James pan-fried it. We had a filling meal of chicken breast and thigh, stir-fried zucchini, mushroom and onion, steamed potatoes, and brownies for dessert. We sat around a large round table and ate together.
Played some piano while everyone hung out in the living room and chatted (or napped). Ryan, who was quite skilled at jazz improvisation, showed me the chords he uses and we talked a little about music and the joys of playing music.
Played around with a DJ as the others played drinking games. Played a game of Scrabble before heading off to bed.
Monday, December 4, 2017
Face-off with the Highland Cows! Plus a whisky tour
Breakfast: Bacon, pancakes, and scrambled eggs with coffee
Highlight of the day: Face off with the Highland cows! We were driving along the road and decided to stop. Some people mooed at them, and to my surprise they actually responded and came over as a herd! They stared at us as we stared back at them, and a couple even mooed back at us—they must’ve been confused where our cow noises were coming from. As they got closer I could more clearly see the hard stares on their faces and I thought, this might be the end of the 9 college students who stopped in the middle of the Scottish Highlands. There was no one around us—just the road, the grass, the hills, and the cows. As they got closer to us we got closer to our cars, and we set off before they could think about trying to jump the fence.
Ok we’re leaving
Fort George—took 27 years to build. It was built during the Jacobian Revolution but was never used in battle (the Jacobites were long gone by the time the fort was finished). We met one of the soldiers training there, who was walking around with his beagle.
Dalwhinnie Distillery: the highest distillery in the highlands at 1073 ft above sea level, as well as the coldest (often 6ºC).
Dalwhinnie specialty
We did a free tour of how they make single malt whiskey! Our tour guide went through the process of adding water to barley, drying it, fermenting it, distilling it, and letting it sit in casks for 15 years. I learned:
- 3 ingredients in single malt scotch whiskey: Water, yeast, and malt barley
- Whisky (Scottish spelling) vs. whiskey (Irish spelling)
- Distillation: two large copper flasks from floor to ceiling in a super warm and toasty room. Since the ideal whisky concentration is under 68%, have to dilute it twice (head—too much alcohol, tail—too little, heart—just the right concentration)
- Different casks (barrel made with different wood –> different drink produced)
- Put whisky on your hand and smell it
- The whiter the liquid, the more starch, which means more sugar, which means more alcohol and happier people
- Trees surrounding a distillery are black due to fungus (fungus lives in alcohol, and alcohol vapors evaporate)
The last part of the tour (the best part) was sample tasting: we learned the proper way to taste whisky: take a sip, swish it around for 2 seconds and swallow, then eat a bite of chocolate and let it “melt in your mouth” with the whisky, which creates a “burst of flavor.” I couldn’t even finish the sample—it was super spicy and burned my throat and bubbled in my stomach. But I did wish the piece of chocolate was bigger. The cool thing was that we got to keep our sample wine shot glasses as souvenirs.
It was bright out when we first got here but dark by the time we left, and all we could see were the headlights of cars driving on the road.
Spent most of the long hours in the car sleeping, and often woke up from naps feeling groggy and lazy. Throughout the day we drove by gorgeous views of the highlands, including snow covered mountains, sheep, and cows:
Our last dinner together was pasta with vegetable sauce and meatballs.
It was a bittersweet last dinner. We talked about funny memories—the cows, stopping the car in the middle of the road to hand a butter knife to the other car. My favorite part of this trip was cooking and sharing meals together, which I feel bonded us closer together. Food can really bring people together. We played cards afterwards—Ryan taught us to play Durek, which was complicated to learn but fun to play. Bed at 1:30.
Tuesday, December 5, 2017
Farewells and back to Oxford
I was the first one in the kitchen, so I scrambled 18 eggs and ate pasta because we made 3 boxes too many last night. Also made PB&J sandwiches to pack for lunch, doing whatever needed to be done, which was a good feeling. I can say I’ve never made this many eggs and sandwiches in one morning.
We packed up and were out of the house by noon. We took one last selfie in front of the house and took one more look at the beautiful landscape—before leaving it behind.
Then we were off to the airport. We were a couple hours early so we just chilled and ate the sandwiches. We took the same flight to London at 4, then said our farewells.
Soon I was back at Oxford, which seemed very empty now.
This was a short but perfect finale to my Oxford experience. If I had to describe the experience in one word, I would say it was lit.
Most memorable moments:
- The highland cows
- Sheeps!
- “Hit the Kuan”—a song I couldn’t get out of my head (we were watching YouTube videos of the very particular dance the “Kuan” refers to)
- Bonding over food; eating home-cooked meals around the dinner table together
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