Enrollment and Edinburgh

This past week has been a very relaxed week, I spent most of my time enrolling for classes, and figuring out which books I actually had to buy, and which books I could just find in the library. After some of the usual stress, such as my classes not all fitting together, and getting charged one extra pound to take a Biology course I am finally settled, the only thing I have to learn now is where my classes will be (which will require some campus exploring on my part) and when my seminar classes will take place (which will cause stress on the teaching staff’s part (yes)). Even after all of the general hullabaloo about school, I am very excited to start my classes this Monday! I will be starting my day at 10 in the morning with Scottish Literature where we will be reading some very exciting books, some are even in Scots, and I will be finishing my day with Celtic Civilization where I will be learning about everything Ancient Celts.  On Tuesday I get to start my day with Human Form and Function which sounds very exciting, and three hours later I will be in my Ecology and Conservation class. So I am all settled there, but I did have to do something actually exciting this week so, I went on a trip.

At the very end of my week one of my friends (Erin) and I decided that we should have a day trip to Edinburgh, so we did. We got on a train at Glasgow Queen Station and about 50 minutes later we were in Edinburgh Waverly station (This semester I am reading Waverley by Sir Walter Scott, coincidence?). At this point we tried to find the Royal Mile to make our way to Edinburgh Castle, but instead we just found our way there without the Royal Mile. This did let us discover a very cool park next to the Castle though.  The Castle was a wee bit expensive (EEK) but we still had fun. Now I have to decide if I will be seeing enough Castles here in Scotland to really need to purchase the explorer card. We got to wander around several different rooms, and see some historical things, and learn some facts. We looked at the Crown Jewels of Scotland, which were in this funny storytelling maze with all sorts of mannequins and drawings, and panoramas. We also visited the Prisons of War area of the castle, where we looked at some graffiti on the prison doors from different wars. We also got to see some of the things the prisoners made while they were staying at the castle. Then we went to the Military Prison which was much nicer by comparison, although it was sadly reminiscent of my dorm room here. They had the same size bed, some cabinets, a writing space, and a wash hand basin, all in the room, just like my room… (Does this mean I am in the Prison of School?) We ended our trip to the castle in the Great Hall where there was a lot of armor, and some swords, daggers, and goblets. The Castle was very fun in the end.

A view of the Castle and the park we walked through to get there



One thing to be wary of at this Castle is the ever changing weather. We got there and it was sunny, then it started to rain, then it was raining and windy, then the wind was blowing, then it was really sunny, then it started to get hot. So in Scotland you must travel with your jackets, several layers of clothes, and also your umbrella (that happens to be pink with polka-dots, and have a ruffle on the edge!)

Erin and I at the top of the Castle when it was very windy

After the Castle we found the Royal Mile and got to look around, there were lots of things going on in the streets and we got to see many a wee shop. We stopped for fish n chips which was delicious, the batter I think was all butter, the only downside was that I think I ate the whole fish, and that was a little unnecessary. We did discover a great fudge shop as well, so we got some! Then we wandered our way back to the train station after a very eventful and tiring day in the city of Edinburgh.



A Church on the Royal Mile

At the absolute end of the week we went to the Grosvenor Theater on Ashton Lane, and got to watch the movie ‘Tamara Drewe’ in big comfy seats, and the best part was that the movie theater is attached to a bar, so you can bring some drinks in with you if you so desire, which means that any movie theater from now on that allows you to enjoy a drink with your movie is the movie theater for me.  All in all a good week, even though it was for the most part uneventful. And I am very excited for my classes to begin. It should be a very different but at the same time awesome experience.

Man on a horse statue in Edinburgh