friendship | The Scamp Abroad

A Scamp in the Chapel

Posted on May 13, 2013 by erranteditor

I know, I know, the thought of me in a chapel is a funny site to see. Trust me, I would have felt out of place if the chapel wasn’t such a tourist attraction. Rosslyn Chapel is by no means a large place, but thanks to Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code the chapel is now a hot spot for conspiracy theorists, religious scholars, and loves of popular culture. According to my favorite site Wikipedia, Rosslyn Chapel is described as:

Rosslyn Chapel, properly named the Collegiate Chapel of St Matthew, was founded on a small hill above Roslin Glen as a Catholic collegiate church (with between four and six ordained canons and two boy choristers) in the mid-15th century. Rosslyn Chapel and the nearby Roslin Castle are located at the village of Roslin, Midlothian, Scotland.

The chapel was founded by William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness (also spelled “Sainteclaire/Saintclair/Sinclair/St. Clair”) of the Sinclair family, a noble family descended in part fromNorman knights from the commune of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte in northern France, using the standard designs the medieval architects made available to him. Rosslyn Chapel is the third Sinclair place of worship at Roslin, the first being in Roslin Castle and the second (whose crumbling buttresses can still be seen today) in what is now Roslin Cemetery.^[1]

The purpose of the college was to celebrate the Divine Office throughout the day and night and also to celebrate Holy Mass for all the faithful departed, including the deceased members of the Sinclair family. During this period the rich heritage of plainsong (a single melodic line) or polyphony (vocal harmony) would be used to enrich the singing of the liturgy. An endowment was made that would pay for the upkeep of the priests and choristers in perpetuity and they also had parochial responsibilities.

After the Scottish Reformation (1560) Roman Catholic worship in the chapel was brought to an end, although the Sinclair family continued to be Roman Catholics until the early 18th century. From that time the chapel was closed to public worship until 1861 when it was opened again as a place of worship according to the rites of the Scottish Episcopal Church.

In later years the chapel has featured in speculative theories regarding Freemasonry and the Knights Templar.

The tour guide of sorts at the chapel told us some funny stories about what people think is buried in the vaults under the chapel. People think Mary Magdalene is buried there, the embalmed head of John the Baptist, of Jesus, and one woman from Tennessee thinks that the body of Elvis is there. It has been said that there is a space ship and a hundred little green men there, untold riches, and quite possibly, the Holy Grail. While I don’t believe any of that, it was fun to hear the tour guide share the crazy ideas tourists bring on their visit. There is no photography allowed in the chapel, but I was able to take some really good pictures of the day. The chapel, castle ruins, and small glen in the area provided some much needed fresh air and a great day with my friends. It was a nice way to spend my last weekend in Scotland…even with the little bit of rain.

Rosslyn Chapel

My own hidey hole in the castle ruins

Crossing the bridge into the glen

Tomorrow my journey through the best of Scotland will continue. The BFF is taking me home to the lovely metropolis known as Dundee to meet his mama. We have a whole day to ourselves for bonding and good banter. I’m looking forward to meeting his friends (they are excited to meet a “real” American), see where he grew up, and meet his grandma. I’m hear she makes a mean cup of tea…..

A Scamp Eats Her Words

Posted on November 8, 2012 by erranteditor

I have an MA in Rhetoric. I have a BA in Literature. I love words. I love to read them, love to listen to them, and I really love to speak them. It’s that last part that usually gets me in trouble. Today was no exception.

Yesterday the whole of Lee House (the dorm I live in) received an email that since someone (or in this case, a group of people) felt the need to trash the common room, then we were all going to be fined for the repairs if the twat bags who did the crime did not fess up. The dorm has a group Facebook page, and when someone else in the dorm posted about the email (and I know that this girl was not involved in the destruction), the boys who were involved made the comment that since it was only a few pounds per person, we should just be happy and pay the fine. My comment was that it wasn’t the amount of the fine, but the fact that most of us were being punished for a room we don’t go in was not real fair. I then mentioned to the RA who chimed in that he was kidding himself if he thought his urge to the culprits to turn themselves in would do anything. I said if they didn’t respect Lee House enough to not damage property, then they were not going to respect us enough to turn themselves in. Then the little assholes who did the damage started in on me. They called me negative (ok, that one is true) and told me I needed to relax and just pay the fine so that everyone could go back to enjoying the room. Of course he spelled always as all ways, so I itched to correct him and offer to tutor him in spelling (I mean, I teach writing, if you are going to insult me, at least spell things right for fuck’s sake). This led them to question if I even lived in the building, and mock me using youtube videos (for those of you who think this is funny and I am overreacting, please just keep it to yourself) and then decided that of course it was me that damaged everything and stole a cable for the TV and get this, I did it all because Obama is the president. They again misspelled some of their insults, and the urge to correct them was strong, but I didn’t want to feed the fire. Usually, stuff like this wouldn’t bother me. Usually, snobby kids like this who think they rule the world wouldn’t make it on my radar. I’d tell them to go fuck themselves and then move on with my life. After all, in 6 months I will be back home with my family and I will still be in contact with the people here who matter to me.

The thing is, I’ve been off my game lately. The food here sucks, and the twat bags can run rampant with no consequence so I haven’t slept in weeks. I’m tired, I’m hungry, and I don’t have a job, so spending money on nights out to eat a good meal or to get some peace is not quite in my budget. The only thing that is keeping me from going all Carrie up in here is the fact that they’d probably throw me in jail if I killed all of them and then I wouldn’t be able to go home. I’m trying to hold on to the fact that I will be home in a few weeks and at the end of the day these kids are nothing more than a cockroach that needs to be stepped on. Today I have no room for personal attacks or insults or jokes made at my expense because I made a logical point (and once I did it without my usual charm and snark).

If I could go back in time a few hours, I would have simply just grumbled and complained to myself about the fine and went about my business. You’d think I would have learned by now. Instead, I am taking sage advice from one of my best friends, “curl up in bed with your favorite movie and let today pass.”

As postscript to this: I had dinner with my best friends here and they made me feel a lot better. They were angry on my behalf and made me laugh through the meal. I had a good laugh with the rest of the 4th floor as they attempted to make me feel better, and while I still don’t think that they would have been as upset as I was, they did make it seem less like my fault for opening my mouth and more like them just being assholes. I’m still going to keep my nose out of any Lee House business, but at least I feel less whiny and depressed now. Too bad there is no ice cream.

Tramp Scamp

Posted on May 7, 2012 by erranteditor

There is a running joke in my life that I am a stripper. It started years ago when I became a librarian. People used to joke that if that career didn’t work out, then I could always become a stripper. People love stripper librarians. The joke resurfaced years later when my 90 year old Jewish neighbor asked me if I was a stripper when she saw me come home from my morning job and after seeing me leave the night before for my night job. My mother always said that she would support any career choice that I made as long as I didn’t become a crack whore, and I have to say, now that I am trying to find the money to pay for school, stripping doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.

Of course, I am a 25 year old nerdy Jewish girl with no rhythm. Now, there might be a market for that in Scotland, but I highly doubt it. I also know that there is no way that I can find my inner dance goddess between now and then. In the meantime, it looks like I will be hinting down student loans. At this point, I have settled into the idea of a loan. A loan will be paid back. I found out the other day that I got accepted into Cal State Fullerton’s Ed.D program. If I can delay that for a year, then I can get back into teaching and work towards being able to pay the loan off. Of course, I may need another loan to finance that career choice, but at this point, what is a little more debt?

There is another reason I could never become a stripper (not that I would ever seriously would). I fell in love and I know he would not approve of that career choice. While he has no idea I am in love with him, and I have no idea what will happen in the next few months, I know that there is no way I would do something to compromise what I have with him. Being in love terrifies me. I have no idea how he feels about me. I know that he cares about me, and that he likes me, but I don’t know if he is on the love boat, and frankly, I am too scared to ask. We are a clusterfuck of bad ideas and yet, he is the positive magnet to my negative one. I would never ask him to move, he would never ask me to stay, but I can’t help but wonder if he will change his mind about not doing a distance relationship. He changed his mind about giving me a second chance, so really anything is possible, but I do not want to get my hopes up.

In the meantime, I am going to try to stop putting off my visa application and the other scholarship applications, and I am going to pretend that I am not running out of time to be around the people I care about.