City Shenanegans Before School Starts

Ok, so although I am studying here in the fine city of Edinburgh, I think it also important to be a tourist. At least for the first week. Robert and Aidan try to get us out of touristy shops and places, so Ellen and I went to the Edinburgh Castle by ourselves. It was far too expensive, but a must see for any visitor.

This is still part of the Castle, I believe it is the Red Coat Cafeteria or something like that.
This is me and Ellen in the Castle.

Here is the Church on the Royal Mile. I'll try to stop with the Churches. I'm sure you're getting tired of them, but there are so many and they are so pretty!
After a day tramping around the city, I needed to do some hiking to balance out my life again. Widya (pronounced Vid-ee-uh) from India has never been hiking. I know, I asked-what do you mean never? And she really has never been hiking. And although Robert and Aidan insist that this is merely walking and not hiking, Widya and I went hiking to Arthur's Seat once again. And yes, it's terribly windy.

This is the Queen's Palace (from the hills) with the Abbey behind it. Widya went there with her father at the beginning last week and they closed the Gardens because the flowers have all died because it's too cold for them. I realize that I haven't described Widya to you since she was a newcomer to our group. She is from India. She is terrified of Geckos. I'm not kidding. Terrified. She says they fall from the ceiling on to you in India and she won't even stay in the same room as a gecko. She has never seen a Pancake before this evening (yeah, they eat pancakes for dessert with chocolate on top here). She gets back pains from the cold and can always be found in too many jackets. So I'm not the only one. She's the most adorable girl I have ever met.

Ok, so I needed a book for the airplane and time was ticking down so I hastily chose "Chocolat" from my Mother's collection of books. It's fantastic, except I read before bed and I dream of chocolates. So what do I happen upon the other day but a chocolate shop! No kidding! I went in and it's about 10 feet long by 1 foot long. And it's dripping with candy. Things hung from the ceiling, back walls full of bagged candy and a window with cakes and cupcakes and truffles. Heaven. I was overwhelmed. I had to leave. I simply couldn't choose. I went back with moral support (Ellen) the next day and we bought some sheep chocolates! Delicious. And if you haven't read "Chocolat," go read it.

This is mostly for Claire. She keeps wanting pictures of boys in kilts as if it's some rarity and that I'm lying. This is typical of an evening:


Last night was my 20th Birthday and we got all dressed up to go to the Fresher's Week Ball (have I mentioned that they are Freshers and not Freshman? Just a side note...) The night turned out as it normally does. We get all dolled up to go out. The boys take forever and a half and blame it on the girls. Once we finally leave we absolutely must go to the pub before anything else can happen. We have a fewe drinks and then go to get in the queue. We stand in the queue (and the people here hate queueing) and complain all the while. We stay until we can simply not stand it any longer and then we go to another pub or back to the dorms. Aidan is trying to culture us woman folk with his fine whiskey. I hate it. I tried, I really did. I hate it. We sat around until 3 in the morning telling jokes and stories like "The Bloody Red Knight." So we all finally went to bed. At 8:30 this morning what happened? The fire alarm. Of course. After the Fire Brigade came and left we went back to sleep. I passed out until 11:30 when, what happened? The fire alarm. This is getting ridiculous. This afternoon Liz told us that it costs 500 pounds every time the fire brigade is called. She goes, "we've spent 1500 pounds this week. Think of how much alcohol you could buy with that." Yeah, we're in college. Liz, Ellen and I went to the pub this afternoon to see Manchester United (Liz's team) and Chelsea play. The boys went shopping for cookies and beer. We found a fantastic pub called The Abbey. We were 3 of 5 women there. The rest were old men. They have about 14 TV's including a drop down projection screen. On our way home we ran into the boys and another boy named Christopher I hadn't met before. They gave us cookies and Christopher was telling me about the Shop of Broken Things. I had never heard of the Shop of Broken Things so he grabbed my hand and dragged me about 10 blocks to the Shop of Broken Things. Which is closed because it's Sunday and as Robert says "We aren't heathens here!" There are compasses that point in different directions, a purse made of coat of mail materials, money you can't use anymore, empty tennis ball containers and a 3-D model of the Titanic among many, many other things in the window. There will be a trip back with pictures. I think the Shop of Broken Things is worthy of it's own blog. It's that good.

Here's the weirdest thing about Scotland that I've found so far- there is a woman who cleans my room once a week. She also comes into my room every morning at 11:15 on the dot and wakes me up to take my bin (trash) out. I really don't make so much trash that she needs to come every day but she comes every day. Her name is Fran. I jolt upright and stay in bed awkwardly and have short conversations in my dazed state every morning. So I've begun setting an alarm to get up before she comes and act like I'm doing something productive and that I'm a responsible adult who wakes up before 11:15 in the morning. Also, I haven't made my bed since I've been here. I've been too lazy. She came in the other morning and goes "someone hasn't made their bed!" And I made some lame excuse at which point she grabs all my sheets and begins making my bed. I'm up and trying to help and she's shooshing me away and making quite a spectacle of making the bed. So my bed is now made and I won't make that mistake again. But it's a continuing thing. She comes once a week to hoover (vacuum), clean my sink and desk and change my sheets. There is a woman who comes into my room and changes my sheets for me. I am a grown woman and someone comes into my room and changes my sheets for me. Bizarre I tell you.
I start classes tomorrow (Statistics, Business Management, and History of Medieval Scotland). I'll try to stay up on the blogging!