The Life of Diana

I just got back from my trip to Dundee, Scotland!! It was so fun!! The best part though was really getting to know my advisor (John) and some of the people on my team.  I spent most of my time in a meeting today, which was really inspirational as I got to hear what lots of other people on the i-design 2 team are doing.  But I did not get too many pictures because it gets dark SOOO early all the way up there in Dundee... so it was dark when we got in last night, and today we spent most of the time inside in a meeting, and we only left the building for lunch and the meeting was over about 45 min - 1 hour before it started to get dark hehe.  But here is what I have... I am happy to be back... I missed all of you (to my Cambridge friends)... and I am still missing you (to all of my US friends... Zion, family, SB ppl... )

I took this picture before leaving to be sure I didn't forget something dumb like the memory card or the battery for the camera or something... but it is a wonderful opportunity to introduce all of my wonderful US audience to the joys of Jaffa Cakes... I LOVE them... I am truly addicted... I will be bringing some back for all of you to taste hopefully!!

This is my group waiting at Staansted airport... we got there early... VERY early... it was quite impressive.  This is Umesh and Dawn... the married students on the trip... hehe noooo not married to each other, just married in general to other people I mean... although Dawn just finished her PhD thesis so soon won't be a student and will be an employee at the EDC.

This is me with Joy (also a new person paid to work at the EDC).

And this is the GORGEOUS hotel (the Apex Hotel) in Dundee... the bed was soooo comfy...

This shows the ambience a little bit better... but it was still much nicer than this even... notice the nice flat wide screen hdtv :)

This was the posh sitting area in my room.

Here was the desk... I may as well make it an inclusive tour of my hotel room!!

Here we have the bathtub with the rubber duck...

And as if that wasn't enough... I had a separate shower stall as well... we were staying in style in this four star hotel :).

This was their bath accesories... and yes I did take the rubber ducky home with me hehehehe... but the hotel told us we could :).

hehe look... if you take a picture in the mirror, you can get a picture of the rubber ducky's tushy!!

And take two with no flash hehe... flash + mirror = bad idea

Umesh at our meeting this morning.

John... hehe it is hard to get him to look straight at the camera.

Dawn... hehe we are the smiling twins :)

Tim... who also doesn't like his picture taken hehehe... but has that ever stopped me?

Alex and Alan (from the Univ. of Dundee) and Julia (from the Royal College of Art)

Tim, Umesh and John discussing how long we can stay before we have to head back to make our plane.

This is everyone from at our meeting having lunch in their canteen at Dundee.

hehe I am not quite sure what is funny... but the three of these boys sat together on the flight back, and were laughing at Dawn, Joy and me a lot of the time hahahha (but not as much as we were laughing at them... *wink* *wink*).

and another picture of everyone at lunch...

I tried to take some photos through the window at the canteen... but it didn't work so well...

These photos really don't do it justice....

It was soooo gorgeous...

...especially the sky!!!

And finally lunch is over... and we are heading back to the jam factory... which is where the meeting was held.

Here is all 12 or so of us squished into one elevator.

Here is Umesh again... and see that big huge hill in the background (typical of Scotland)... there is this statue thingy on top that looks like the statue of liberty from far away hehe.

And here are the pics from after the meeting as we are walking back to the car park.

It is interesting how this picture and the above picture are of the same church, but they look somehow different due to the lighting.

Dundee was quite Chirstmas-spirited.

Here is a cool dragon statue... just not sure what it is doing randomly here.

This is the city center I believe.

hehe and another interesting (quite Scottish looking) statue.

They had lots of childrens rides in the center of town... it was quite quaint.

hehe I thought this sign was hilarious... body piercings anyone??

When we first were walking to the University of Dundee we saw two men standing on the billboard hanging up Christmas lights on the "tree" and from afar it really looked like men standing in a tree... and here is the finished product... a billboard with lights.

A little history... Dundee is called the city of discovery... named after the ship called Discovery...

Apparently Sir Scot (or Captain Scot... or some title Scott)... sailed to Antarctica from Dundee for the first time on the ship called the Discovery.

Isn't the sky gorgeous?  This is right next to our hotel (and the chinese buffet dinner we went to last night hehehe).

Apparently the sunset is always gorgeous here, but the tradeoff is that it is absolutely freezing.

I am wearing three shirts, a wool sweater, a winter coat and a wool scarf, and I am quite snug :)

Now we are heading back to the airport... so sad :(

If you look in between the pillars that hold up the bridge you see little bumps of metal in the water... those bumps are the foundation of the bridge that was originally built there, but it fell apart haha, so much for good engineering of bridges!!

Now I am off to bed for our big race tomorrow (Fairburns)... we race at 11.30 am... so come cheer us on... or send us good luck vibes for those of you reading this from america...

Hugs,

Diana :)