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Published: August 9th 2009
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Howdy! Well I made it safely across the Atlantic! The flight really wasn't all that bad. It was kind of cramped but I was only on there for 6 hours. I was sitting next to this father and son who were on their way to Scotland for the son to participate in this bag piping competition. The son was skinny, longish floppy hair, wore glasses and seemed slightly awkward but he could finish a Rubik's cube in like a minute! Impressive to say the least. Anywho, I had been waiting all day for the excitement of going abroad to kick in and it finally happened when we were descending into Scotland and I could see the landscape through the window. I was quite happy to see everyone again and we were a chatty bunch, catching up and whatnot. I was slightly worried about going through customs, only because I didn't know what to expect, but it was far less intense than security checks in the airport. All they did was ask a couple of questions and stamp my passport.
Edinburgh is a beautiful city. It's really clean and is kind of the merging of the medieval mindset and a modern
urban constructs. The people are very eclectic culturally and stylistically. I thought that we'd stick out a lot more than we did. It was funny because not only do Europeans drive on the left but they walk that way so our group was noticeably American because we always tend to walk on the right. So that along with our undeniably American accents are dead giveaways but clothes-wise we kind of fit in. The first thing that we did when we got there, after storing our luggage at the hotel, was go on a hike. Now we were told that I was going to be a nice hike up to Arthur's Seat. Someone failed to mention that we'd be hiking up the side of a mountain at about a 60 degree incline! Totally wasn't prepared for that but the view was breathtaking. A few of us stopped about half way up and just hung out on the side of the mountain and ended up taking pictures with some. It was great because I got to really sit down and reflect on what was happening at the moment. I was still trying to digest that I was about 3400 miles away from
home and at the same time giving many thanks for the opportunity ahead of me.
I was almost hit by a car 4 times this weekend. Mostly because I look right then left soooo, yea I almost got hit. One the cool things that was going on this weekend was the Fringe Arts Festival which had a lot of street performances and plays. There was a fire juggler, African dancers, and these two guys doing acrobatics in the middle of the street. The streets were filled with people walking around and sitting outside of restaurants and pubs. We did some pub hopping ourselves during the weekend. I'm not a beer kinda gal but I did try this strawberry beer, which wasn't bad, but the pub we were in was freakin' spicy. It was majorly hot, no bueno. We also went to this pub/club called Three Sisters that was down in a kind of sketchy ally. It was a blast. The music was mostly pop/techno and the dynamic inside and outside was totally different. Outside it was an older crowd kind of milling around and inside there were younger people. When we first walked in I got stopped by some
old Scottish guy and everyone left me! He was asking me something but I couldn't understand a word he was saying so I said "No thank you, I have to find the people I came with!" We kind of hung out/danced with a group of young guys. They were really weird because they were like hold hands and being really "friendly" with one another but they were still calling us over to dance with them. It was really funny.
I tried Haggis for the first time at our intro dinner on Friday. It was interesting, tasted kind of like a beef empanada to me. I probably won't be eating it again though. I also got fish and chips which was pretty good. The food in general is kind of bland. The big seasoning in the UK is salt. There is no hot sauce in this piece! UGH! I'm going to die!!!!! Something told me to pack a bottle, I didn't listen but then again it may have been socially unacceptable to bust out a bottle of hot sauce over here....
This morning we left for Durham which was about a 4 hour drive. We had lunch at a
beach in North England. It was AMAZING!!! The weather was beautiful and there were families out and some of the most gorgeous dogs ever. The whole atmosphere was very calm and quiet, it was just great. Totally gave me a small piece of home, minus the 112 degree heat 😱. When we made it to Durham we toured the city. It's very pretty, the streets are narrow and it's built in a circle. I start class in the morning. So until next time
Peace and Blessings,
~SC
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