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 :)