Summertime

Wow I've had pretty much the best day ever. The weather was unbelievably nice. Low 80s, completely clear skies, no clouds at all. I started the day off by ducking in to the National Museum of Scotland to take a picture of Dolly (you know, the sheep. She was cloned in Scotland so they have her stuffed in the museum...). I've been in that museum a million times but for some reason never took a picture of her, so I wanted to do that before I left. Here is said picture:

Dolly:

Next I walked to the Meadows, which is a big park behind campus. Last week most of the trees were bright pink and it was beautiful, but I only got around to taking pictures now so most of the pink is gone. But it is still really pretty, and very green.

A path in the Meadows:

A little pink left:

The Meadows:

George Square, in the middle of campus:

My next stop was the school store to buy gifts for my family, and after that I headed up to the Royal Mile. There were sooooooo many people out today. There are a ton of tourists here this weekend (partially because the Edinburgh Marathon is tomorrow), and all the locals are out too because of the amazing weather. The atmosphere on the Royal Mile was great though. Saturdays are always fun because there are always street performers out and groups of people demonstrating about one thing or another. Here's a video of one of those groups:

I browsed the street vendor stalls and bought two Edinburgh prints. One is a square one of the Castle as viewed from Arthur's Seat. It's all shrouded in mist and it looks really cool. The other one is a long rectangle- the Edinburgh skyline at sunset as viewed from Arthur's Seat. Arthur's Seat is my favorite place in Edinburgh so I really wanted prints of the view from there. I love them! I almost got teary-eyed while I was picking them out though. I was looking at all these pictures of beautiful Edinburgh, that I've come to know so well over the last couple months, and behind me was a street performer playing now-familiar Scottish tunes. It made me really, really sad to leave. I'm not ready to go at all.

My next stop was the Edinburgh Farmers' Market. I took a while looking at all the stalls, then bought lunch there. I took my lunch to Princes Street Gardens to eat, then took pictures of the gardens. There were a ton of people there because of the weather, and it was just very pleasant.

Edinburgh Farmers' Market:

Fountain in Princes Street Gardens with castle behind:

Princes Street Gardens:

After lunch I went to the top of the Scott Memorial. It was cool getting a view from that side of town. The only other vantage points really are Calton Hill and Arthur's Seat, and those are both on the east side of town. So that was fun.

View of the Balmoral and Calton Hill from the Scott Memorial:

Princes Street:

The castle and the Mound

I made a quick stop at New College on my way back to my flat. New College is where the divinity school is, and I hadn't been there yet, so I wanted to check it out. I went inside a little but didn't spend much time there.

New College:

New College courtyard:

New College towers from the courtyard:

I went back to my flat to drop off my prints and get changed, then I went to the beach! What a perfect day for the beach. It was definitely hot enough to be there, but there was a slight breeze so you didn't get sweaty lying on the beach. I stayed there for a long time, about 3 hours, then went back to my flat. Ahhh it was so great.

The beach:

It's about 6:30 pm now, so I'm going to have dinner, then I don't know what I'm doing tonight.

Little things in Edinburgh

Today I did a bunch of little things in Edinburgh that I wanted to do before I left. The weather is finally warm here- warm enough for shorts and a t-shirt. I only brought long pants with me but it is really nice not to have to wear a jacket.

First I went to Gladstone's Land, which is 16th century tenement house. Most of it is original, and they have it set up with the house's original furniture and stuff, so it was pretty cool to see an original Edinburgh tenement. There were a few elderly ladies telling people about the place, and one of them gave me a full guided tour, so I learned a lot.

Next I went to the John Knox house. It's where John Knox lived, and it's set up as a museum about the Reformation. There's some really interesting history about the house's original owner, James Mossman, too. He and John Knox really did not like each other at all, but after Mossman was hanged for treason (he staunchly supported the overthrown Mary Queen of Scots), John Knox got his house...

Then I bought a few little souvenirs that I wanted, and walked around the Royal Mile.

I went back to my flat for lunch after that, then headed out again to go to the Royal College of Surgeons Museum. That was really cool. The Royal College of Surgeons is really famous for a lot of medical advances (for example, Jospeh Lister, who invented antiseptic, taught there). There are tons of displays with all kinds of medical-related stuff, including a pocketbook made from the skin of the famous murderer William Burke (which is really what I went in to the museum to see...). Upstairs there was a great exhibit on sports and medicine, so that was really interesting.

Next I went to Old College to see the Playfair Library. I've heard that it's known as the "most beautiful room in Edinburgh" so of course I had to see it. I went in to Old College and had to get a visitor badge and stuff, then I went up to the library. Wow. Stunning. What a beautiful room! It looks like a smaller version of the long library at Trinity College Dublin. I was the only person in there so it was silent, just me in this enormous, gorgeous room. Here are a few pictures:

Staircase going up to the Playfair Library:

Playfair Library:

Busts line the sides:

After that I bought some groceries, then went back to my flat and got started on packing. All my walls are bare now; my room looks very strange.

A few hours later some friends and I went up Calton Hill to see the sunset. There were like 15 of us to start with, then like 10 more people came later so we were a huge group. We sat on the parthenon on the hill for a couple hours and had a great time. I don't have any very good pictures of it but I'm sure there will be a bunch on facebook tomorrow. It really drove home the fact that we're all leaving in one week. I was way more ready to leave last week when I was sick of studying for exams, but now that exams are over, I really don't want to leave.

Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and warm so I am going to take pictures of the Meadows and Princes Street Gardens in all their spring splendour, buy some Edinburgh prints on the Royal Mile, go to the Edinburgh Farmer's Market, climb to the top of the Scott Monument, and go to the beach.

For Sunday I booked a tour that goes to Rosslyn Chapel and Melrose Abbey. I really wanted to see those before I left so that worked out. I haven't gone south much (this tour goes south) and I was disappointed about that so I figured I'd just go for it.

Done with undergrad!

Assuming I passed all my classes (shouldn't be a problem), I am now officially done with all my undergrad work.

Ceilidh

Tonight I went to a ceilidh (pronounced 'kay-lee'), which is basically the equivalent of a Scottish square-dance. There's a ceilidh band (with traditional Scottish folk instruments), and some one who calls out the moves. Ceilidhs are really common here, like school dances are mostly ceilidhs, and wedding receptions have them and stuff.

Basically everyone gets in groups (usually of 8 people), each person with a partner, and the caller teaches everyone the steps, then they play a song and you dance that dance. It was really fun! It's pretty silly because some people know the steps really well, and some people (like our group) are just learning. This particular ceilidh was put on by the Chocolate Society, so there were chocolate fountains during breaks! Breaks were key because those dances wear you out fast...

Here are a couple pictures and a quick video. I took the video right when we arrived so there weren't many people there yet, but there were a lot more when we were dancing.

One of the chocolate fountains:

Taking a break on the rooftop terrace:

Ceilidh!

1st Exam

I just had my first exam, in Scottish History Since 1914. It went alright, definitely better than 16%. The best part about it though was the location. It was in McEwan hall, which is where they have graduations and other big, important events. The room is soooooooo awesome. Here are some pictures I found online:

It's a huge, round, ornately decorated room with levels and levels of balconies and stuff. So cool. I kept wanting to look around because it was so impressive, but I was afraid of being accused of cheating so I restrained myself. It was awesome though, and the grandness of it probably helped me do better on my exam.

When I got back from my exam, I found a homemade scone and a note from Lauren waiting on my desk. That pretty much made my day.

Ok one down, one to go. The school's website seems to have been sorted out so I should be able to get some studying done for my last exam on Wednesday.

Ah exam time....

The school's website, which has all the lecture notes that I need to study for my exams, hasn't been working the last two days (yes, the whole campus is freaking out), but I did do some studying today. Mostly on Wikipedia.

Much more enjoyable though, were the hours I spent on such wonderful websites as stuffwhitepeoplelike.com, todaysbigthing.com, and awkwardfamilyphotos.com

Yesterday the website with all the class notes for studying wasn't working either so I spent a good chunk of time reading over old blog posts. It was so great reading about everything from Day 1, everything that's happened, but it's finally starting to hit me that I'm leaving in 12 days. Leaving. Edinburgh. In 12 days. That is not ok.

But the good news is that I still have a lot of stuff to do and places to visit before I leave so the week and a half after finals will be jam-packed with more tales of Scotland, as well as tales of packing tragedies (What? You mean I won't be able to fit the 7 novels I bought this semester into my suitcase? Uh oh...).

Where's the 'study' part of 'study abroad'?

As the title suggests, I really haven't been doing that much studying. I calculated what I need on my finals to pass my classes (which is all I have to do, my grades in those classes don't matter), and I just have to get a 16% on both finals.... so yeah I think I can manage that.

So instead of studying I've mostly just been hanging out with people, which I feel is really what I should be doing in my last weeks here. Yesterday a bunch of people from small group met up at Starbucks. It's pretty sad to think that I will most likely never see these people again after I leave in two weeks.

Today Lauren and I went to lunch at The Mosque Kitchen, which is a famous restaurant, if you can really call it that. There's a small indoor kitchen where you buy your food, basically like a school cafeteria kind of look. It's all falafel and curry and stuff, and you pick what you want. They give the food to you on paper plates then you take it outside to the eating area. There are just a bunch of long tables and it's covered, but definitely a nicer weather kind of place. The food was delicious, and very cheap.

Lauren at Mosque Kitchen:

Then we went to the Museum of Edinburgh. We walked around and saw all the exhibits (including Greyfriar's Bobby's collar and bowl).

Greyfriar's Bobby exhibit:

Our favourite part, though, was the kid's activity area. We sat next to a few kids (ages 2-4) and made our own collages out of the copious amounts of art supplies there. Below are the finished products.

On our way back to the Cowgate we went into the Museum of Childhood. We didn't go through the whole thing, but we saw a lot of old toys and stuff which was pretty interesting (including a semi-gruesome Sweeney Todd theatre thing).

After that I went back to my room to do some studying (don't worry parents- I'm planning on doing better than 16%...). My first final, Scottish History Since 1914, is on Monday, and my last final, Scotland: Society and Politics, is on Wednesday. Then I can just hang out until May 28 when I go back to Maryland.