ordinary things

The dryers in my flat-building are terrible. I dried my clothing for a good hour on the highest setting, which was quite pricey at 20p for 12 minutes, and the clothing was still damp. So this morning I took my damp clothing out of my hamper and lay it all over my room: on the bed, desk, chair, a suitcase, etc. Then I left the window all the way open and went on my day. When I came back, ready to get to my reading, the clothing was still everywhere and still damp, so I set off for the cafe down the street.

I love this cafe. I don't even know the name, but it's on the corner of Clerk and Bernard. Inside it feels like you're in a old disbanded grand store, with high ceilings and crumbling molding. The main draw for most seems to be the long row of internet terminals, where it costs 50p for 20 minutes of internet (even more expensive than the dryer). The draw for me is the relatively cheap coffee and the heavenly leather sofas.

This afternoon, I meant to sit on one of those sofas and read a book for my lit class. After about 30 minutes, a bunch of other students, friends of the guy working at the cafe, sat down around me. They were really friendly, and giggly, telling me about the party they'd had the night before and the boring lab they had the next day. Over time, more friends came in, saying "I was walking by and saw the whole gang was here" or something more scottish sounding. It really made me miss having my own big group of friends and our table in the back of the ratty, where you could always sit down and have a bunch of people to talk to.

I'm afraid what I've just written may sound a little more mopey than I feel. I really am glad to be in Edinburgh and to have a chance to be doing and seeing so many new things. Thursday night I went to a ceilidh, which is kind of a large, chaotic, scottish square dance with kilts instead of western wear. Friday night I adventured to the orthodox synagogue down the street for services. I'd never been to an orthodox service before. They really do put the women behind a little wicker fence. But everyone was really friendly and I plan on going back. Saturday I went with some friends to Glasgow, which was really cool. It was very bustling and modern and I really couldn't understand what people said. Sunday, I recuperated. Now it's Monday, and after a long day of classes, reading, and being distracted by a group of friends in a cafe, I'm off to make dinner.
Cheers!

scottish culinary delights

My flatmate Cat made me try Irn-Bru, which apparently is as scottish as Haggis. It tastes a bit like bubble gum soda, and is good. She's the one who put it in the wine glass.


Speaking of haggis, i know what I'm not having anytime soon:

castles and paintings

It's been two weeks and I finally feel like I'm settling in. Saturday I took a trip to the Wallace Monument and Stirling Castle which was set up by the International Student Office. The National Wallace Monument is a very tall stone tower built by the Victorians to commemorate William Wallace (the dude from Braveheart I was told.) We climbed all the way to the top to discover that the viewing platform was closed.



Then we went to Stirling castle. It was dark, rainy, windy, and atmospheric. In the middle of the stone walls and medieval towers was this bright orange-yellow cake-like building. Check it out:






Today I went to the National Gallery of Scotland and saw some art. Also, I found my favorite cereal in the world, Honey Nut Clusters, in the corner convinience store. Unfortunately, I have no photos to show of this. You'll just have to believe me.

Cheers!

happy planet index

It snowed all last night and this morning, which was exciting, but none of it stuck, which was less exciting.

Today in my Sustainability lecture, we spent an hour learning about different indices of sustainability. Did i mention that it's a dull class? The only entertainment comes from the professor describing how poorly the UK is doing at this or that sustainability index, but then noting "look, the US is even worse." There is one sustainability index called the "Happy Planet Index" that I really enjoyed. The HPI of a country is the average years of happy lifetime per resources consumed. So they interview people on how happy they are, multiply happiness percentages by average lifespan, and compare it to resources used. Cool huh? Ok, so the class isn't just dull, it's very dull.

On Saturday I'll be heading to Stirling Castle, so I'll be able to update on more exciting Scottish things.

Until then, here's a photo of the New Town. Check out one of the ubiquitous double decker buses:

another photo

The lovely st. giles cathedral

8 days

So I've been here a week and a day. It feels like the longest 8 days of my life, but everything's starting to settle down. I joined the gym today (you have to pay here, 50 pounds a semester, eek). There are TVs attatched to each machine which is pretty cool, except I got motion sickness after watching for a while on the elliptical. The weather isn't that bad (no bone-chilling) although it is very windy, which makes walking in some directions easier and others harder.

In the afternoon I went hiking in Holyrood Park, which I mentioned early. It's incredibly gorgeous there. I still can't get over that I can go hiking practically in my backyard. We climbed Arthur's Seat, this large extinct volcano. Here are some pictures:


on the way there


view from the top

settling

I accomplished three important things today.

1) Internet access in my room. This is self-explanatory.

2) I finally am registered for all my classes and have tutorials set up. I'm taking Ecology and Evolution of Plants (3rd year), Scottish Literature (2nd year), and Sustainability, Society, and the Environment (1st year). They all seem pretty cool. I'll post about them when I know a bit more about what's going on.

3) I found tofu. While Tesco may not have it, the chinese grocery store definitely did.

I'm going to go make myself a stirfry.

wow

So I've made it to Edinburgh. I'm somewhat moved into my flat, I've registered at the uni (as they say it) and my first class (scottish lit) is in an hour. The 2 days I've been here have been overwhelming, between dealing with jet lag, trying to find bedding, towels, a cell phone etc, meeting tons of new people, and so on. I'm really lucky to have friends from Brown here to help me figure all this stuff out and to keep me from feeling too homesick.

Edinburgh is absolutely beautiful. It's very different than any city I've been in before. All the buildings are made out of dark gray/gold stone and the sun, if it comes out, is always low in the sky. My flat building is next to Hollyrood Park, which is like a swath of perfect scottish countryside in the center of the city. It's peaceful and lovely. Everyone here is very friendly and, I think the best word is, decent. I had a cop say hello to me and it led to a few minutes of conversation about how it was my first day at uni and I was from the US and studying biology. I've met one of my flatmates who also seems very friendly, although she has a pretty thick accent and I can only understand about 75% of what she says.

I'm having trouble focusing on what to write. There's so many things I want to talk about and my body hasn't quite caught up to the scottish time, which is making things difficult, so I think I'll go on a coffee hunt.

I'm not really sure why my pictures keep vanishing but I'll work on it.

Cheers!

so long l.a.

Tomorrow morning I'm flying to Edinburgh. I meant to write a big post all about what I'll be doing, why I'm going, how I feel about it. But, I don't really feel like it. Instead, I figured out how to post photos on this. So enjoy.

This is how we do Christmas in Santa Monica: