Thanksgiving- Something to Be Grateful For

My dad came to visit for the Thanksgiving holiday, along with Cyndie, Timmy, and Liz. It was so great seeing some faces from home. Dad and Co. flew into London from the states so I joined them there for the first weekend. We got a private tour of parliament (thanks again Malin!) and then hit up a pub and had a wonderful Italian dinner (with entirely too much food which was a trend for the week!). Saturday we did the open top bus tour and Westminster abbey, followed by Dad and my favorite Vietnamese place in London. Sunday we attempted to do other touristy things but nothing seemed to work out. On Monday they met me back in Edinburgh so that I could show them around my new town...we went to Greyfriars Bobby pub where everyone got to try haggis for the first time. We also tried and amazing Indian place close to their B&B for dinner. Tuesday I had a presentation in the morning but met them in the afternoon to walk and shop the royal mile. We had an amazing dinner at a mussels and steak place (my first steak since being in Edinburgh and it was sooo good!) and then tried the Dragonfly cocktail bar delicious cocktails but I still like my regular ole g&t's. Wednesday was quite possibly the worst weather I have experienced in Edinburgh to date but as true tourist we braved the weather and visited the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Holyroodhouse is the Queen's official residence when she comes to Edinburgh and was also were Mary Queen of Scots lived before she was imprisoned in the Tower of London. There is even a blood stain on the floor of Mary chamber from the murder of her confidant Rizzio who her husband believed she was having an affair with. Walking back up the royal mile we attempted a visit to Edinburgh Castle, however, at this point Dad, Cyndie and I were done with the weather and ducked into a pub as Timmy and Liz continued on their way...jokes on them the Castle was closed due to bad weather. The rest of the day we shopped for cashmere (which was founded in Scotland) and called it a night because we had early flights to Paris in the morning. Thursday (aka Thanksgiving) we flew to Paris, after we got settled in our hotel (just a 5 minute walk to the Eiffel Tower!) and took a nap we set out for our several course Thanksgiving dinner at a French bistro. The dinner was absolutely delicious, I now know why the French are renowned for their cooking! Since I started university I have only spent one Thanksgiving in the states but traveling and being with my family is something that I am grateful for so really it's just a celebration of that. Friday we took a tour of France's Champagne region, touring the Mumm and Moet & Chandon cellars. Moet & Chandon is also were the make Dom Perignon. Dom Perignon (the man) was a monk who first produced champagne and what a wonderful discovery it was. When we returned to Paris I had my first sushi since being in Europe, and it won't be my last! Then we went to the top of the Eiffel Tower seeing the lights of Paris at night was incredible, when I was here before we went up during the day which is very impressive but by night it's is truly remarkable. Saturday we spent walking around Champs-Elysee where Paris's Christmas market is in full swing. I love looking at all the stalls and we had some delicious mulled wine. We then visited musee d'Orsay, I have to say I enjoyed it more than I did the Louvre when I visited a couple of years ago. We'll I'm not totally into art I have always loved my impressionist and I got to see some of Manet's (my favs) work, as well as, many Monet, Cezzane, Sisley and even Degas's the Little Dancer. For my last night with Dad and Co. we ate at a cafe and tried many a interesting thing. We started the meal with foie gras and escargot, followed by a goat cheese salad and steak tartare. Finished off with a rabbit tartin and clementines with cinnamon, all of this of course with lots and lots of table wine. It was so nice to see my dad and co. and I even got to skype the rest of the fam from Paris on Thanksgiving, saying goodbye was a hard but it was made a little better knowing my mom is coming in less than 10 days now! I finished up classes on 3 December and because I'm took 3rd year honours courses all my exams are in May so I'm just resting easy until my final trip with Zara to the Canary Islands. I'm going to do much better about blogging through December, somehow November just got away from me.

Why is it when we try to do something cultural we end up doing the kids activities?

Unfortunately Zara and my Wednesday day trips into Scotland had a short lived life but we did start trying to at least venture into Edinburgh and visit museums, etc. Zara and I really only have patience for museums for about 30 minutes and after trying to increase our knowledge of Scottish culture always end up doing the kid activities instead. Why should kids be the only one's to have fun at a museum? The National Museum of Scotland has awesome kids activities from trying on viking costumes, to corsets, to driving an F1 car and testing your reaction time. Also the National Museum of Scotland is the home of the stuffed Dolly, the first cloned sheep. Dolly was cloned just outside of Edinburgh (a fact I learned at the museum before I started playing with the kid stuff). In addition to our museuming we also tried a fried Mars bar (a Scottish delicacy) it was surprisingly delicious although you could feel your arteries clogging as you ate it! Scotland's eating habits are about as good as the South's they like to fry everything here and take it down with a pint, oh the good life.

I AMsterdam

For Halloween weekend my flatmate (Zara) and I joined my friend Sarah from Georgetown and her friend from home in Amsterdam. Amsterdam was awesome! Zara and I did a free tour (from the same company that Deirdre and I went on one in Edinburgh) and again I was totally impressed with the tour guide I guess having to work for tips really does make great tours! We saw such sights as the red light district and Anne Frank's house. Because we had such a good experience with the free tour we decided to do the red light district tour by the same company that evening, it was a really interesting tour although I perhaps know a little too much about prostitution now...Saturday morning we got up and saw the Anne Frank House a little depressing way to start your day but it was really interesting to see the rooms and hear the bells that Anne describes in her diary. If you have read Anne Frank's Diary then I highly recommend touring the house if in Amsterdam. The rest of the day was spent wandering Amsterdam, shopping and popping into bars and coffeeshops...when in rome you know. Then it was back to reality everything I had due for this semester was due the week of 15 November so the next couple of weeks were spent writing papers and working on group projects. I guess I really can't complain I've been here 3 months and only really had to work for 2 weeks got to love Edinburgh Uni :)

A Little Help From My Friends

Last weekend Deirdre (one of my good friends from Gtown who is studying in Dublin) came to visit Edinburgh. Having someone from home around was really nice and also having some here to do touristy things with was good for me since I haven't been an Edinburgh tourist yet. Friday we met with another friend from Gtown for lunch and then toured the Scottish Parliament and went looked around outside (and at the gift shop of course!) Palace of Holyroodhouse where the Queen stays when she visits Edinburgh (which apparently is like twice a year so I'm hoping I'm going to get in on some Queen action!!). Friday evening my flatmates and I took Deirdre out on the town for a night of dancing which is always a good time...although my feet weren't crazy about it on the walk back. Saturday Deirdre and I did a 3 hour (free!) walking tour of Edinburgh which I was a bit skeptical about but it ended up being amazing! I learned all these cool facts about the city and where some famous expressions came from (including ripped off and shit-faced...you'll have to come to Edinburgh to learn those!) also learned about the guy Jekyll and Hyde is based off was Deacon Brody a Edinburgh locksmith. After our awesome free tour we decided to do a ghost tour in the evening to conclude our experience. Edinburgh is said to be one of the most haunted cities in the world and people regularly have encounters with ghosts. The ghost tour was quite spooky and we heard lots of stories of ghostly encounters and residents of Edinburgh's ghostly past (and our tour guide had a striking resemblance to Hagrid which just makes you know it's going to be good) although Deirdre, Zara, and I were hesitant to turn the lights off in the flat after we got back...and for the rest of the weekend. Monday Deirdre and I were suppose to go on a highlands tour but not enough people signed up :( so we decided to visit Portobello Beach instead. Portobello Beach is a little suburb of Edinburgh that's on the firth of forth (Deirdre even walked in the sea) and we had a delicious lunch looking over the sea, then headed back to home. Deirdre's visit made me realize that I should do more touristy things around Edinburgh I learned so much about the city in just the 4 days she was here...imagine what I could learn over the next year! Can't wait for more visitors I now have a full-sized air mattress (that Deirdre said was more comfy than my bed!) so come anytime you want!

Homeless In Stockholm

My European adventures officially started this weekend with a trip to Stockholm with my flatmate Zara. Stockholm on a budget was not easy but we made it happen our whole trip was slightly under £100 (including the flight)! We got in Friday night and stayed in a hostel that was on a boat it was my first hostel experience and it was really nice the people in our room were a bit loud but that's to be expected when you are sharing a room with 10 other people! Saturday we got up and saw the changing of the guard at the royal palace and then walked around the city and window shopped and also ate some delicious pastry. Saturday night we had a booking at the Absolute Ice Bar (total tourist attraction and totally worth it!) the whole bar was made of ice even the cups (that held our absolute vodka drink of choice) and we had awesome winter capes to wear! Saturday night we didn't pre-book a hostel (b/c we booked our flight so late every hostel we looked at was really expensive) so we started our night of homelessness. We found a cheap place to eat dinner and play cards. Then moved to a bar in Gamla Stan (or Old Town as we were told the locals call it!) that stayed open to 3am. After that we hit up a fast food place which was open to 5am and then moved on to what we lovingly called our "home" the City Terminalen Bus Station. Sleep, however, did not come easily to either Zara nor I so we played lots of cards in the bus station until we had to catch our bus to the airport. It was a long day of traveling on Sunday and after we got home and made dinner we retired to our beds for a nice 11 hours of sleep, which was rudely disrupted by class the next morning...Overall our homeless in Stockholm experience went really well but from now on I will know to book a hostel, sleeping in bus/train stations just isn't for me!

London Baby!!

Last weekend I visited my friends Malin and Sarah from Georgetown in London. As many of you know I LOVE London and this weekend just made that more so. My flight for London was really early in the morning (I had to leave to catch the bus for the airport at 4am!) but it was totally worth it. Malin is taking a leave of absence to work at Parliament and I got a personal tour of the castle (including the terrace where people don't usually get to go!)...if I had gotten there later in the day I may not have been able to. I walked around London for the rest of the day until I met Sarah at the train station (she was meeting up with me from Nantes, France) in the evening. Friday evening was pretty low key just dinner and drinks with friends of Malin's from Parliament. Saturday Malin and I shopped til we dropped (literally...I've been feeling under the weather and I had to take a nap afterward to prep for our night out). Saturday evening we hit the town right by going to the Kensington Roof Gardens (a swanky London club) fancy dresses, nice cocktails, and dancing it couldn't have been a better night! Sunday it was back to Edinburgh which despite my love for London it was nice to get home...London is too expensive for a student who wants to travel! When I got home my flatmate and I found a cheap flight to Stockholm, Sweden for next weekend (i.e. tomorrow!!!) and I'm super psyched! My time here is going by so quickly I can't believe I've already been here a little more than a month!

This Night Will Be Legend - wait for it - dary

On Thursdays one of my flat mates and I are done with classes for the week and one of the others doesn’t have class until 3pm on Friday so we decided to have a flat bonding going out experience which would include getting a poster from a pub that has a burning 13 on it (we’re in Flat 13). Joking about not wanting to get caught stealing the sign (and how we would take the policy every man left behind) the night started out as quite fun, however, towards the end of the night one of my flat mates was caught in the middle of a bar fight that turned into a street brawl (as a bystander), the police were called and a couple of people arrested. I luckily didn’t see too much of the fight but because my flat mate did (and got hit by flying glass) we had to go down and make a statement. Apparently in the UK, refusing to go to the police station and give a statement is a criminal offense (on a kind of happy note my one flatmate made did make it out with the poster!). From now on I’m going to try to avoid being involved in and witnessing any crimes (I don’t want anything to go on my record in the UK since apparently now Madeline does but being British it’s probably better than someone here on a visa!). Everyone involved who were giving statements had pretty good humor about it (I guess except for the men who were arrested…we weren’t in the room with them!) but it was quite the memorable experience. The eventful night out left me feeling a little under the weather this weekend…so nothing much to report on the weekend front. Hopefully next Thursday won’t be quite as exciting…but next weekend will be much more exciting because I’m taking my first weekend trip to London! I’ll try to be better about updating more during the week.

Castle/Maze/Brewery = Awesome

This Wednesday’s day trip was a visit to Traquair Castle the oldest inhabited castle in the UK. The castle it’s self was beautiful and because we are some of the few people that visit castles in the middle of the week the castle guides gave us excellent pointers for some other day trips (and sights in general) that we must see while we’re in Scotland. Behind the castle is a maze which we probably made to hard by paying absolutely no attention to where we were going we walked in circles for probably a good half hour just finding the center…and then chose to leave by the fool’s exit (sometimes you have to know when to give up!) Following our adventure in the maze we visited the kid’s play area where they had a intense obstacle course…Zara succeeded in finishing it without touching the ground, I however slipped off of probably the easiest part :(. After all our fun on the grounds we finally visited the brewery where they offered a tasting of their ales…and the guy in the shop recommended a pub in Edinburgh that offers more unique beers than the average pub. We visited the recommended pub on Thursday night…it did have incredibly good beers for relatively cheap but we probably brought the average age down by a good ten years. Next week’s excursion will most likely be in Edinburgh (for cost reasons) but I’m sure we’ll find something interesting to do!

Hike Up Arthur's Seat and Sunday Roast

The weather in Scotland has been unexpectedly nice for what I was prepped for while it's a bit colder and windier than home it has yet to rain since I have been here in Scotland. In fact yesterday was quite possibly a perfect day in Edinburgh...it was sunny and around 20°C (around 70°F) so two of my flatmates and I decided to take advantage of the day and climb Arthur's Seat, the main peak of the hills in Holyrood Park in Edinburgh. While the climb is attempted by many and said to be easy, my flatmates and I took the road a bit less traveled and found it more strenuous then we were expecting, however, it was totally worth it from the top you have a 360° panorama of the city. Supposedly the sunrise is incredible from Arthur's Seat which we are discussing attempting to see but I'm not sure if it will actually happen.
After the hike on Saturday our flat took it easy today and decided we should make a weekly Sunday roast. So after hitting up the grocery and then the fruit and veg market...we started are beef roast which turned out wonderfully (doesn't it look delicious?)...for some reason are kitchen is only successful in cooking meat when we tried to make pizza the other night the dough would not cook! Although Elina made some delicious muffin cookie things popular in Luxembourg (My flatmates from right to left in the picture are Elina, Zara, and Madeline). Now it's early to bed for me because I have 9am lectures tomorrow but hard to complain when you only have class two days a week!

Visit to Cramond

Today I took my first day trip with one of my flatmates and a friend...although calling it a trip might be a little extreme as it was really just to a suburb of Edinburgh called Cramond. The trip started off with walking almost in a complete circle looking for the bus stop that turned out to be on the same road as our flat oh well...now we know where that road leads! The bus took us straight through the heart of the city which was so nice little tour leading up to the seaside village. We ate at the oldest restaurant in Edinburgh, saw the sea, and ventured to some Roman Ruins overall a pretty successful little excursion. Two of my flatmates and I all have Wednesdays off classes so we're going to try to take small day trips almost every week! Another exciting bit of the trip was that the bus drove by a music store which I stopped by on the way back and got a new guitar...it's no Secret Lover but it will do for my time in Scotland! Classes officially began on Tuesday but I have Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday off of classes so my first day is tomorrow so I'm sure I'll have more to report then!

Settling In

Well I'm in Scotland...and have been for approximately two weeks! The first week was "Freshers Week" which is an orientation for first years and visiting students that is centered around going to pubs...got to love the way the Scottish work! Over the past two weeks I have also been working on becoming a semi-permanent UK resident including setting up a UK bank account (surprisingly easy!) and setting up a UK phone which has been a bit frustrating and I still do not have a permanent number but I will send that info out once I do. My flat in Edinburgh is very nice (I have my own roommate which feels like such a luxury) I have 3 flatmates, however, none of them are Scottish. Two of them are first years, one from Luxembourg/Finland and one from England, and my third flatmate is study abroad student from Boston who is only here for a semester. We a had a great time setting up our flat the picture is of our kitchen wall where we've been having almost nightly dinner and dart games, we really feel like the pictures of flowers class up the foam swords and dart board! I also tried my first bit of haggis with my full Scottish Breakfast (in the picture it is the meat tucked beneath all the other meat) if I hadn't started eating meat before I came to Scotland I definitely would be now...I'm pretty sure it's impossible to be a vegetarian in Scotland! So far I'm having an amazing time...and can't wait for people to come visit!