10 Things You Should Know About Antarctica

[Note: Due to my Antarctic outreach project, I will now have two types of questions. Feel free to answer them unless they are specifically labeled "student" questions. In those cases, I'm hoping one of the students in the groups that I'm working with will answer. There will be fun prizes to the student(s) or group with the most points when I return!]

I'm just starting to pack for Antarctica, so I've been doing some research about my destination. I'm already learning a lot!

Top 10 things you should know about Antarctica (and my trip)

1) Polar bears don't live in the Antarctic! On a similar note, polar bears and penguins can't meet because penguins don't live in the Arctic. Children's books that show polar bears talking to penguins are complete fiction ;)

Beautiful ice towers. Photo by Dave Parmelee.

2) Only ~2% of Antarctica is ice-free. We'll be camping on ice but working on mountains. There's a LOT more ice than there are bare mountains! We also won't be too far away from Mt. Vinson (Highest mountain in Antarctica at 4892 m). We'll only be some 200+ km away, but it's a little too far to travel. I think we're going to have enough of our own peaks to climb in the Patriot Hills, Marble Hills, and Independence Hills where we'll be working.

3) Antarctica is big. But is it bigger than the US? Is it bigger than Europe? NASA has a nice figure showing how the US and Antarctica would look if we overlapped the maps at the same scale. There's no comparable high-quality image of Europe superimposed on Antarctica, but it's about the same size as the USA.

Comparison of contiguous United States and Antarctica.
It doesn't look this way on many other maps because of the
projection (the way it's drawn).  Image source: NASA.

Helicopter on Mt. Erebus (background).
Photo by Dave Parmelee

Lava lake, Mt Erebus, Antarctica

4) There are volcanoes in Antarctica. There is some amazing research being done on Mt. Erebus, which is especially unique because of the persistent lava lake inside the volcano. Of course, this particular volcano (and my friends doing research over there) is on the other side of the continent from where I'll be (2049 km away). Check out this link for information on the volcano (the 'live imagery' page has live images of the lava lake) or check out this link for a cool dating project that I helped a friend with.


5) It gets cold in Antarctica. Of course it gets cold, but how cold is "cold"? It will be summer while we're there, so at least it will  be light and the warmest it gets all year. At Rothera, the summer temperatures can be quite pleasant, hovering around 0 degrees C. However, at our camp (away from the ocean), we expect much colder temperatures (last year, days were around -10 or -20 deg C, but it could be much colder).  However, this is nothing compared to the coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth: -94 degrees Celsius! You can use the converter on my blog (to the right) to see what that would be in Fahrenheit. This is a recent record (2010) from scientists using remote sensing at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado.
For a point: what were the researchers studying when they discovered the record-setting temperatures?
For a student point: What is the new coldest temperature on earth in degrees Fahrenheit?

6) Antarctica is not a country and has no independent government. Many countries signed a treaty and its additional protocols, making Antarctica a 'natural reserve devoted to peace and science.' Although Antarctica may have reserves of minerals, oil, or diamonds, the agreement bans mining and preserves the natural environment. Military is also not allowed unless it is to support a scientific project or other peaceful mission. This is a very successful treaty and shows that nations can cooperate with one another. In Antarctica, the harsh environment helps to encourage this cooperation. When someone needs help, everyone works together, regardless of nationality.

7) Antarctica is a desert. Despite the thick ice sheet (which averages about a mile thick), the continent really doesn't receive much precipitation (water as either rain or snow).The average for the whole continent is a very small amount: only 6.5 inches of precipitation per year. However, in the center of the continent, it can be as small as 2 inches per year! Any area that receives <10 inches of rain is classified as a desert, so Antarctica surely counts. For comparison, New York gets an average of 36 inches of precipitation per year (3 feet) and Florida gets ~85 inches (7 feet!).

Camp on the flanks of Mt. Erebus. Photo by Dave Parmelee

8) We only get 31 kg of gear (plus our cold-weather kit bag). This is basically just one, 50-pound checked bag plus a small carry-on backpack. This needs to fit our science equipment (laptops and other fancy equipment for the geophysics, hammers & sample bags for the cosmogenic rock sampling). Hopefully, we will be able to fit all the creature comforts in there as well. At least we won't need too much shower stuff since there will be no bathing in the field! I will, however, need to find room for a small birthday cake...

9) It will take me one train ride, 4 plane fights, and about 3 days to get to Rothera (the base in Antarctica). I'll be spending a little while on the base as we pack for the trip and I get the rest of my "How to camp in Antarctica" training. It's a little ways away from home (listed from Cambridge because that's where the British Antarctic Survey is based, but I'm further North than that):
Cambridge (UK) to Rothera = 14435 km

Map of the important flying locations in Antarctica.
From British Antarctic Survey website.

Rothera to South Pole = 2492 km

For reference, New York to San Francisco is only 4126 km and takes approximately 6.5 hours on a plane.

10) Our camp will be >80 degrees south latitude. Needless to say, we're going to be in a very remote location.
Camp Location: -80.272587, -81.230101. Hint: If you copy those coordinates into Google Earth (free to download), you can see the location on the map! It's hard to find the right way to explain exactly how remote our camp will be, but here are a few indicators:

Some of the planes, called twin otters, have skis for
landing on snow and ice.
Photo from BAS www.photo.antarctica.ac.uk

• From the base (Rothera) to our camp, we will have to take at least 3 shorter plane rides (Rothera - Fossil Bluff - Sky-Blu - ? - Camp). Some of the planes will even have skis instead of wheels! 

• Rothera to our camp: 1468 km

• Finally, the best indicator of a remote location:
  Our camp to nearest McDonald's = 4336 km. 

It can be nice to get away from it all for a while :)

Student Question: How many kilometers from our base to the South Pole? Are we closer to Rothera (the base) or the South Pole? (You will probably want to use Google Earth for this - cool tool called the ruler measures distances).

Off to keep packing!

Trying the dreaded haggis...

1 December 2013

People joke about how bad food is in Scotland and they always use haggis as the ultimate disgusting example. I documented our first experience with haggis below. I don't want to give away the punchline, but I said "first" and not "only"!

I guess I should begin by clarifying that haggis is NOT a Scottish animal, as 33% of American visitors to Scotland seem to think. Although the idea of a funny little animal with legs on one side longer than the other so it can run quickly on the hills (although only in one direction) is kind of cute :) Here is an article on the Haggi Scotii, in case you want to learn more about the elusive creatures.



We didn't go out and hunt our haggis. Instead, we bought a haggis at the grocery store. It is ubiquitous and not terribly expensive. This is not something just eaten at holidays, but something that people seem to eat year-round, although it is traditionally associated with Burns Night. I hear the best haggis comes from a good butcher shop, so we will have to try that next time. The ingredient list is a bit daunting at first (I am pretty sure I have never eaten anything before where the first ingredient was "lamb lung"), but it makes sense to use all parts of the animal and I hear that organs are healthy for you. My brain thinks haggis is a good idea - although I suppose we still need to hear from the taste buds!

Here's what it looked like when we pulled it out of the outer packaging:

Nico, I think we're supposed to cook it first :) 

We chose to boil it (45 min), but it can also be prepared in the oven (90 min) or the microwave (5 min!). Originally, the haggis was cooked in actual sheep's stomach. Although the casing that it comes in now appears to be relatively sturdy, it can apparently burst if you boil it too strongly.

Boiling the haggis. Interesting fact: if we had purchased two of them, I don't know whether we would have two haggis or two haggises or two haggii. There does not seem to be a consensus on the plural of this food...

When it was done, we made a sauce to go with it (mustard & whisky cream sauce) and did our best to dig in. It was rather attached to the covering, but once we got that off, it was the consistency of a dry corned beef hash and it kind of looked like a little, dark meatloaf.

All cooked! It looked like a little balloon that was ready to pop. I thought stabbing it with a knife might be fun, but it was a rather unsatisfying lack of explosion. 

To answer the question that everyone is thinking: Did we like it? YES! It was rich (another main ingredient is fat), but good. We won't be having it every day, but I enjoyed it and look forward to trying it from other places. It's hard to describe the taste - no overwhelming flavors stand out. It's nicely mixed and seasoned to complement the different animal parts used. This is by far less disgusting than many other foods I've tried and I will just say that I think haggis does not deserve its current place as the stereotypical bad Scottish food.

Yum!

One more step completed on the road to becoming true Scottish residents :)

Antarctic Training

Antarctic Training - Part 1

16 September 2013    Cambridge, UK

Before I can head down to Antarctica, I have to learn a bit about the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and some first aid skills. They held the training at Girton College, which was beautiful and historic itself. This trip was only the first part of the training - I get another 2-3 days of "on-site" training in Antarctica after we reach the base. Looking forward to learning some crevasse rescue techniques and other fun winter camping skills!

They don't make doors like
they used to...

The training was long hours of interesting powerpoint presentations about all aspects of life down South punctuated by numerous breaks for tea. I don't know how many cups of tea any one person here drinks, but there is tea with breakfast, tea at the midmorning break, tea after lunch, tea at the mid-afternoon break, and tea after dinner! But I digress...

The training for the first couple of days covered ship life, base life, field life, research (see cool sea spider picture: they brought him in from their Antarctic aquarium), teamwork, and other aspects that I don't think we'll cover here today.

Sea spider: I apologize for the lack of scale, but he's bigger than my hand. 

The second part of the week was all first aid training. We reviewed many things that I've had in classes before, but some new things: backboard stabilization for picking up by a helicopter or towing behind a skidoo. We also learned how to give injections. When we first walked in the room, they passed out the syringes, saline solution, and told us to roll up our sleeves so we could practice. We all sighed (a couple of people blanched)...and then they pulled out the oranges. Whew!



We also got to try on all our kit (gear) and make sure that everything fits. The gigantic duffel bag contains most of the special gear I'll need for the trip. Lots of fun things: Thermals, two kinds of boots, socks, fleece top and pants, warm jacket, a couple kinds of gloves, a couple of hats, sunglasses, and a bright orange worksuit. It was like Christmas, but with easy returns on the clothes if they didn't fit.



Despite the busy training schedule, I did get to see a bit of the city of Cambridge. It's known for all the beautiful schools and the canal that runs through town. I walked around several of the colleges, but I've always been a fan of buttresses on beautiful buildings, so I think that the chapel at King's College was my favorite. So much history!

The chapel was built over a 100-year period and under the direction/funding of 4 different kings. The history is all over inside the chapel, with the war of the roses featuring prominently in everything (you can see more details of the chapel history on their website). The family symbols (see photo below) were worked into the decorations in the chapel, including on the ceiling. I do find it interesting that I learned about much of this history (or at least vague ideas) from watching tv shows like "The White Queen" (BBC) or "The Tudors" (HBO). The details may be fiction, but the general succession and major events are correct, so it works :)

King's College Chapel, Cambridge

Another view of the chapel (left side of the picture).
The other buildings are parts of King's College and a couple of things further out in the city. 

Ornate ceiling (the largest example of its kind) and organ.

Symbols found all over the church, representing all the major players.  

The symbols decorating the church - it's cool to know what everything means.

I had a chance to stop in at the Scott Polar Research Institute Museum - fun museum, especially in light of what I'm preparing for! The type of clothes/food/equipment that they had back then makes me quite thankful for the kit that we will be using this time. They had lots of fun artifacts from previous expeditions, including some interesting snowshoes - a point to anyone who can guess what animal they were for!

Interesting snowshoes at the museum - but who were they designed for?

The other main feature I saw in Cambridge was the canal that runs through it. You can hire boats and go punting on a nice afternoon - it was too cold on this visit, but I guess it's good to have a list for the next time I visit!

There's a canal where you can go punting - but too cold for this trip!

On the way back to the train station, I was struck by the incredible number of bikes in the parking area. I think they outnumbered cars in the parking lots by about 10:1. If only everywhere looked like this...

More bikes than cars in the train station parking lots.

Calling all future scientists!

Do you know any kids who might be interested in learning about Antarctica? Are you interested in learning more about the mysterious continent down south yourself? Read on to find out how!

As part of my postdoc, I'm headed to Antarctica in January 2014 (January 2-Feburary 10) to do geology field work in a remote mountain range from a camp based on the ice. I will be looking at how the ice sheet has thinned through time (geologic past, so over thousands of years). Ever since I was little, I have dreamed of going to Antarctica and I'm finally getting that chance. I'd like to take this opportunity to inspire any children who, like me, are curious about Antarctica and want to get their questions answered and I want to show them how cool science can be by sharing this opportunity (electronically) with as many people as possible.

Our neighbors at Rothera (the base). Photo: Andy Hein

My original thought was that kids might be interested in learning about Antarctica, but it turns out that there’s really no reason to limit this to kids! Anyone who’s interested is welcome to ask questions and participate, but I’m still reaching out to parents/friends/family of kids who might be interested in learning more about the mysterious, chilly continent down south. Kids are so curious and creative - I can't wait to see what they come up with! Being a scientist is about asking questions, so 'every child is a scientist' (as this article explains).

This is something that kids can do by themselves or with their classes at school, if parents/teachers are interested. If you have a teacher friend who might be interested, please feel free to share my contact info. I'm happy to develop something to work with as many or as few hours that they might want to put into this project. I’m also happy to continue this after returning and include information on Scotland as well :)

Thanks to Andy Hein for the photo!
See the research blog from last year here

I will be posting information online via my blog and twitter as I prepare to leave, while I'm down there in the field, and once I get back. I'm planning to document the regular living conditions pretty thoroughly since I don't even know what to expect so I assume other people will also be curious. In addition to just reading things on a website, I thought of some other fun ways to get involved with classes, even though I can't be there in person. Here are some of my ideas:

1.  Video chats: Video/skype chats before and after I go to explain what I'm going to be doing and then how things turned out. The internet is unfortunately not good enough to do anything like this directly from the base in Antarctica so it can only happen before and after. 

My little science explorer mascot :)

2.  Question/Experiment 'Scavenger Hunt': Before I go, everyone can help me make a list of questions or "experiments" for me to perform while I'm there. Kind of like a scavenger hunt for me once I arrive down South. The people on base are always happy to help with things like this so even if I don't know the answer (which will be common!), there will be lots of people down there who do lots of other things and they should be able to help. This means that everyone can ask a much broader range of questions and I can tweet/post answers as I go. I really hope someone wants to do this - I think it sounds like a lot of fun!

3. Questions for kids: I can ask them to figure things out or look up answers to questions I post and give out prizes to the first right answer when I get back (or postcards sent from Antarctica). 

4. Penguin Stories: I have a mascot that I will bring with me - a baby penguin. He's going in the field and he will help me tell my science story. Who doesn't like penguins? And penguins telling stories? What’s not to like?

5. Other directions: There are lots of general educational materials out there on Antarctica - as a research area, international treaty area, early explorer/adventure destination, climate change research center, etc. If there's a particular angle that a teacher or student is interested in, I can try to help steer a discussion in that direction and probably provide some educational materials as well.

Please talk this idea over with anyone you think might be interested in the opportunity to learn more about Antarctica and get back to me with your thoughts. I'm in the early planning stages and trying to get a feel for who might be interested and how this will work best for everyone.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

 Please feel free to contact me via the email listed on my university web page. I look forward to hearing from you if you are interested or if you just want to contribute your questions to the list!

The interesting flavors of Scottish food

24 Sept 2013

Pickled onion is a weird flavor, but I think the picture
on the bag is the best part of this one :)

Part 2: Scottish Food
Before I start, no, I haven't tried haggis yet. Everyone I know here likes it, so I'm looking forward to tasting it. Burns' night is celebrated over here and haggis is a centerpiece of the tradition. The night itself is in honor of the Scottish poet, Robert Burns, whose birthday is January 25. I will be in the field in Antarctica for that, but I will find another excuse to have haggis - I promise!

Not sure this would sell in the USA...

Despite rumors of disgusting, bland food, I've found Scottish food to be flavorful and quite nice. My favorite foods so far are the delicious soups with freshly baked bread served in adorable coffee shops. There's a ton of delicious lamb served everywhere as well.

Who would have thought to make a spread
out of biscuits (cookies) - Let's spread
our crushed up carbs on other carbs

That being said, there are some things of which I'm not the biggest fan: butter on just about every sandwich, Branston pickle on sandwiches (with no labels on the outside of the package), and blood sausage.  There's some other interesting food here - marmite (like vegemite, made from the leftovers from beer brewing) and a spread made out of cookies. I'm still running across interesting things every time I go to the store.

Irn Bru - Scottish non-alcoholic beverage of choice

Another staple of the Scottish diet seems to be Irn Bru - apparently, Scotland sold more Irn Bru than Coke for many years in the past and only recently has Coke started to catch up (they are now about equal). My impression: a cross between bubble gum flavor and orange gatorade. It has the salty, electrolyte taste, but with a sickly-sweet bubble gum flavor to mask some of it. Needless to say, I'm happy that I'm trying to avoid soda...

In case you're worried that real haggis might not be your thing.

The restaurants around town are diverse, but I think they broadly fall into three categories: Scottish/local (I'm including pubs here), kebab/pizza/falafel (also includes just about anything that can be fried), and Indian. It's been delicious trying the prepared foods, but I have to avoid the fish & chip/fried food places. I tried a fried cheeseburger - I hate to admit that it was heavenly. I'm sure I will eventually work my way through all the varieties of little pies (savory, with various meat, cheese, or other fillings), but I need to pace myself.

The really interesting flavors come into play with the drinks and crisps (chips). I've been taking pictures as I see new flavors and I have quite the collection. I'll break them into categories below.

What exactly do they mean by "vale of evesham tomatoes"? 

Popular and common: salt and malt vinegar (which I really enjoy)

Flavors I understand, but I've never tried:
Cheddar cheese & bacon
Cheese & onion
Smoky bacon
Roast chicken
Bacon sizzler
Roast beef

Flavors that I just don't understand:
Sausage and tomato
Vintage cheddar and onion chutney

In case regular prawn cocktail was not quite "tingly" enough for you...

Prawn cocktail (if that's not adventurous enough for you, try Tingly Prawn Cocktail)
Flame grilled steak
Pickled onion
Haggis and cracked pepper

If the crisps aren't enough, then you can get drinks with flavors like dandelion and burdock or apricot and barley.

The variety of flavors certainly blows the typical US flavors out of the water. I'm trying to keep an open mind by trying many of them. We'll see how the rest go, but prawn cocktail crisps are not my thing :)  I'm sure there will be much more to add to this list once I've been here for longer than three months.

What is "Scottish" food?

Part 1: How do you know what "Scottish" food is? 

If I'm to talk about "Scottish" food, I first need to know how to define "Scottish" food. Considering that I've lived here for about 3 months, I don't really feel qualified to answer that question. Let's start with a question where I could be considered more of an expert: What is American food? It's still a hard question to answer because it is so diverse and depends on where you live. There are some classically American foods (hamburgers and hot dogs), but outside of that, it can be hard to say what is truly American.

I've discovered an easy way to tell: Go to a foreign country and look at the appropriate section of the "Foreign Foods" aisle. This is what other people want to eat from your country and what expatriates miss from their home country. In Edinburgh, there are specific stores for foods from some countries: Indian Market, Polish Market, Oriental Market. Luckily, there is a store, Lupe Pintos, that specializes in all the others (Mexican, American, Italian, French, Spanish, etc.). Here is a selection of "American" foods from that store: Full-sized bags of chocolate chips, Hershey's syrup, canned pumpkin, marshmallow fluff, syrup and pancake mix, steak sauce, plain yellow mustard, instant pudding mix, Lucky Charms, and ranch dressing. Of course, there are other things that you can find in the regular grocery store, with the most popular being peanut butter.

American section at Lupe Pintos -
All sorts of stuff that I don't eat,
but that is apparently associated with the USA

Very expensive bacon-flavored popcorn in the US section

I'm also baffled by some of the food you find in the American section - What must people here think of us? I think the bacon-flavored popcorn was the weirdest. I don't know anyone who eats actually eats that in the US. Same goes for the mixed peanut butter and jelly jars. There are also some interesting ideas of what are American flavors (cheese & New York deli relish?).

The next post is on Scottish food - and I'm defining Scottish food simply as the food that I see all the time and the food that I eat and see my friends eat when we go out together. I'm sure there will be more posts later as I figure out what is actually the food that everyone here eats and what is confined to my weird friends :)

Not quite sure what "American Bubble Chips" are either...

Why living in Scotland is healthy

31 Aug 2013

You can do your very own experiment at home to see what it's like and why living in Scotland seems naturally healthier to me than living in most of the places in the US that I have lived. We'll take a simple example of getting some groceries.

Getting there: Go walk a mile in your neighborhood before you get in the car and drive to the store. When you arrive at the store, don't forget a basket so that you carry your groceries around the store.

Shopping: The diet is simple: Eat as much as you want...to carry. When your basket starts to get too heavy to carry around and you are tempted to get a cart - DON'T! It won't fit in your backpack and, more importantly, you probably won't want to carry it a mile home. Make your shopping choices based on recycling options and weight. Salad dressing in glass or plastic? Glass isn't recycled in my neighborhood and it's heavier - plastic it is! Get lots of veggies and fruit because those are healthy. Skip all ice cream because it would melt before you got home. There's no way you're going to be drinking a ton of soda or stocking up on "worthless" processed food - there's simply no room. Essentially, I eat healthier because I don't want to carry anything more than I need.

This is my new workout plan...

Getting home: Put all the food in the backpack and other reusable bags. Carry any additional items by hand or strap them to the outside of your pack. On top of all the food, I'm outfitting a house and trying to carry sheets, a lamp, hamper, drying rack, and any other number of everyday household objects that I can't live without. Thank goodness for a backpack with hooks/straps/buckles to attach everything! So, back to our experiment. After your shopping trip, drive home. However, before you take anything inside, go walk a mile with all of it and then walk up three flights of stairs. THEN you can put everything away. And don't forget - you only bought enough food for about three days, so you have to do this again later this week :)

Another reason is just the walking. How do I get to work? Walk 1.5 miles. How do I get to the store? Walk one mile. How do I get to the movies? Walk 0.8 miles. The answer is pretty much always "Walk." Even when I take the bus to work, I still end up walking more than a mile a day. That may not seem like much, but it adds up and I doubt most people walk that much in regular day in the states unless they intentionally go out walking.

Although all of the above discusses why living here is healthier, I should specify that I am trying really hard to be healthier here. For many other people living or visiting here, all of this healthier lifestyle can be offset by the countless array of fried foods at the numerous chip shops. The fish and chips is world famous, the savory pies are cheap and delicious, and I grudgingly admit that the fried cheeseburger was amazing...

That leads me to the next blog (coming soon, with lots of photos): The interesting flavors of Scottish food

It's Festival Time!

9 August 2013

The population of Edinburgh more than doubles* during the month of August when people from around the globe descend on the city to enjoy the Festival. There are countless performances of music, theatre, comedy, and endless combinations of the three. The street performers are out in droves along the Royal Mile and the energy is evident everywhere!

Royal Mile performers including a guy on a unicycle on a tight rope juggling knives, an escape artist, a banana on the ground, and a dancing group of musicians.

Of course, there are some quirky things about this season. First of all, the streets are crowded with tons of tourists who randomly stop in front of you for a picture or directions, causing numerous pedestrian collisions and leading to an increased walking time around town - they add almost 10 minutes a mile if you are in the busy section of town! This is magnified at street crossings where it looks less like pedestrians in a crosswalk and more like a high-stakes game of frogger. Beware: the buses do not slow down!

Tons of people in the streets enjoying the festival, but
making it hard to walk anywhere!

Venues and open-air bars pop up everywhere. Some venues are clearly marked with signs and others are more permanent fixtures in the city. Just prior to the festival, I thought that the city was starting some massive renovation project when temporary "construction fencing" went up all over town. Turns out they put fliers up on the temporary fencing. And permanent fences. And on street signs/lamp posts. And on some buildings. And they stand on the street and hand out fliers for shows (and sometimes free tickets!). You are spammed with show information at every turn and picking a good show is more about word of mouth than anything else.

Venue signs pop up in unexpected
places where you never would
have expected shows or concerts
to be held.

An example of one of the festival locations that just showed up
on the street across from my building. In previous years, the
parking lot of our building has become an open-air bar.
Fingers crossed for next year!

There's a lot of construction around town. Wait, it's just so
there's more room for festival signs!

Festival signs are EVERYWHERE. Every available space is covered.

Fences in front of historic buildings are not
immune to the power of the festival.

All street signs instantly
became advertising posts.

The shows run from 10am to midnight and the partying and drinking continues until about 5am. The two shows I booked in advance were great: NoFit State and Benny Davis: The Human Jukebox. Benny Davis is a member of the Axis of Awesome (if you haven't heard of them, check out the amazing four chord song). I've also seen a couple of free fringe (free events associated with the Fringe Festival) comedy things and a random show called "Another F$#king Variety Show" - they are averaging about 2/3 material that I liked and about 1/3 material that I wouldn't pay to see. But that's why it's a variety show and I feel like it was good to expand my horizons. I think the comedians will be funnier next year when I have a better idea of the political atmosphere here as well as the geography of the area. The one thing I did learn from the comedians: The orange girls from Essex are essentially the equivalent of the girls in Jersey Shore. 

My first "knight" out at the festival :)

There's a whole month of the festival and the advice I have from the locals is to party it up the first week (all the cheap tickets and slightly less crowded) and then take a break and wait for the reviews. Later in the month, read the reviews and find some good shows and do another round at the festival. Looking forward to the end of the month and taking advantage of living in Edinburgh in August!

They move the audience around so that
you can experience everything -
complete with standing in the gently
falling foam "snow."

NoFit State Cicus Big Top

Benny after the concert!!!

*The population of Edinburgh is typically around 450,000 and swells to more than a million people during the festival!