Edinburgh

Destiny and I bussed it to Edinburgh this past Sunday, and what a beautiful city. I was only there for a day, so I only got to see the castle and walk around some of the streets. I'm definitely planning on going back at some point in the near future. Destiny and I had fun being abnoxious tourists, stopping every five minutes to take pictures, but who could blame us? The city (about an hour away by car, but an hour and 45 minutes by bus - only slightly longer than when I take the train to Chicago) is divided into "Old Town" and "New Town" - but New Town was built before the United States became a country, so take "new" with a grain of salt. It's very small, as cities go, and rather large, as cities in Scotland go. For me, the city's dramatic stone buildings are a nice change from the cold metal architecture of Chicago and New York.




It was surprisingly easy to find my way around Edinburgh. Because I am compleately horrid when it comes to directions - following them, giving them, figuring out where I am, where I need to go and how to get there, this says a lot about the size of the city and the way it was laid out. It also says a lot about Desitny, who had been there several days before for all of a few hours and was pretty darn good at getting us places. I was impressed.

I did make my way around Edinburgh Castle on my own, though, since Destiny decided not to join me. Granted, the castle is set up on its own rock, there are signs pointing you in the right direction every few metres, and it's pretty hard to get lost inside a castle, but this is me we're talking about. I was proud of myself, at least. The castle itself was great. It's different than a lot of castles I've been to in that was never one big building, but a sort of village set up on a rock.



Edinburgh Castle



The Royal Palace



Mary, Queen of Scots' Chamber, where King James VI of Scotland/King James I of England was born

I also got to see the old crown, the crowning wand and several royal jewls, including Mary, Queen of Scots' famous ruby ring. Unfortunately, no photography was allowed where the jewels were kept.

I did the castle in the morning, and Destiny and I walked around the city for the rest of the afternoon, after getting some porridge (they actually sell this in cafés here) and a croissant with bacon (really, ham) for lunch. At night we went to a pub for a pint and some starters, and got caught up in what we figured was the post-match madness of a football game between Scotland and Ireland. We guessed that Ireland had won, but it was hard to tell. I then took the bus back to St Andrews and Destiny stayed behind, since her flight back to Germany was set to leave Edinburgh the next morning. A lovely day, in all, and certainly a city I want to revisit to see more.

On another, totally unrelated note, I've joined the "swimming club" here at St Andrews, and swam for the first, painful time Monday, and again last night (Wednesday). I thought the Knox College swim team was pretty laid back, which it is. The St Andrews swimming club is super laid back. As in, really, really laid back. They have "training sessions" Monday through Thursday, for an hour each time, and I think, on average, people go about twice a week. The socials, the first of which I will be attending tomorrow night, are much more important than practice. This is decidedly different than anything I'm used to or have been taught, but I'm not complaining - it's a pretty good deal for someone studying abroad, who doesn't want to spend all the time she's in Europe in a pool. The Brits certainly know how to make swimming sound exciting, though, not that I don't love the sport already. Swim suits are "swimming costumes" here and meets are "galas." It sounds kind of like a party to me.

The University doesn't have its own pool so we practice at the local leisure centre. It's definitely a leisure centre rather than a racing pool. It's like bathwater in there, and the ceiling and the lines on it are slanted, so good luck swimming backstroke in a straight line. Bonus feature, though: there's a waterslide (and co-ed showers and changing rooms, though I haven't yet decided if that's a bonus or not). Thankfully, we swim on the right side of the pool. I was afraid I was going to have to reverse circle swim on the left side - that's a 12 and a half year habit that would have been difficult to break. The club is a good chance for me to meet full-time students, and people my own age, since most of the people living in the halls here are first years.

To meet more people, I've also been playing in the Baroque Orchestra. This is another good chance to be culturally assimilated, since many of the music terms are totally different here. A quarter note is a crochet, an eigth note a quaver, and a sixteenth note a semi-quaver. And here I thought music was a universal language, one I wouldn't have to translate. No such luck. It might have been easier to have studied abroad in France, where I wouldn't have been expected to know a language I don't. Now I'm just afraid I'll go back home and people won't understand me. I'm already saying "cheers" all the time, and some of my inflections are changing, particularly in questions. I always thought it would be harder to latch on to other people's dialects and languages than it actually is.