Parental Visit to Edinburgh

I am writing this post from my Auntie Joanne and Uncle Neil's house in England. I'm about to start work on my paper that I have to write over the holidays but I thought I'd write this blog post first to ease myself into the work!

My parents arrived in Edinburgh about an hour or so after my final exam. I met up with them at their B&B and took them to an Italian restaurant for dinner. I'd been there twice before - once with my Auntie Valerie and Uncle Adrian and once on my birthday. My mum and I both had the lasagna and my dad had spaghetti bolognese - nice, comforting food after their long day! Afterwards I showed them around my house and they met one of my housemates, Emma. They were quite tired from their flight and so they went to bed after that. I stayed up and celebrated the end of exams with my flat and friends playing a game and drinking wine. It was fun to do that right before everyone left for the break.

The next day I took my parents up Arthur's Seat. It was pretty tiring to be honest, especially because it was very cold and VERY windy. We made it up there though and enjoyed the scenery. I think my parents enjoyed being able to see the Firth of Forth from the top.

Snow capped mountains

We stopped for a nice lunch in Elaine's Cuppa Cake which was very quaint with tea pots with knitted tea cozies and Victoria Sponge cake.This revived us and so we headed off down Nicholson to the Royal Mile. We bought me one of my Christmas presents (a Black Watch tartan scarf) and went in lots of tartan/tweed shops. We stopped in at St. Giles Cathedral which was stunning. A girls' choir was practicing and there was a big Christmas tree. We walked up to the top of the Royal Mile to where the castle is. I took lots of photos and we went through the first gate and into the gift shop but couldn't be bothered to pay the extortionate fee to go inside. As Emma says, "it's just like every other castle really". And there are plenty of castles in Britain! After the castle we went down to the Christmas Market to do a little shopping. All three of us went on the carousel which brought back the child in each of us I think! We were thoroughly exhausted at this point as we had walked a long way and were chilled to the bone. We stopped in at Starbucks for a hot chocolate before heading back home. We split up for an hour or two and then met up again for dinner. We tried to go to the Golf Tavern but it was too busy and everywhere else turned us away too so we ended up at the Best Western brasserie. I had the special which was Turkey and all the trimmings followed by Sticky Toffee Pudding, yum!

Old College

The next day we weren't sure what to do as we had covered so much ground the day before. We decided to walk through the Meadows and go to Greyfriar's Kirkyard, the Grassmarket (which my parents loved) and back to Princes Street to finish our Christmas shopping. After that we stopped in at the Museum of Scotland. My mum and I walked around the Scottish history exhibits which were pretty interesting. They had a display on Scots in Canada which was cool. My favourite part though was a video of different people from Scotland talking about their favourite Scottish food, slang and what they think Scots are best known for. That night we had an Indian meal for dinner which was delicious. Apparently there had been construction work outside that day and so they couldn't offer us any water because it was not working. And they brought us a giant naan bread!

We left Edinburgh on Saturday and drove to my Auntie Valerie and Uncle Adrian's house in Yorkshire. We went out to the pub with them and I had butternut squash risotto. Back at the house we had not one but two desserts - an apple strudel and a chocolate cheesecake. My parents and aunt and uncle sipped on whisky in the evening and we sat in front of the fire. Also there was their dog Bryn who I bonded with. My bed that night was super comfy and the duvet was so heavy and warm - it was awesome.

Now we are at Auntie Joanne and Uncle Neil's after another day of driving, the highlight of which was seeing a double rainbow! Catherine was already here having arrived almost a week ago to spend time with the family and to help with preparations for Christmas. I have been enjoying playing with Rosie and Grace the dogs.

Christmas Is Coming...

Exam season is upon us all here at the University of Edinburgh (and back home at Queen's too). So far I have had one exam and I have noticed a few differences.

1. We have assigned seating which means no more filling in endless bubbles on scantron sheets
2. We have less time. My exams are either one or two hours whereas usually they are three hours.
3. They are worth more. My lowest value exam is worth 50% of my mark and my highest is worth 100% of my mark. At home mine usually range from 20%-40%.

I have three exams and an essay. Social Psychology I already took and I think it went OK. Next Monday is Psychology Methodology 1 and I am very nervous about it! On Wednesday is Perception and then I am finished --- apart from a paper worth 100% I must write over the break, boo! Scottish Literature's exam is not until next year. On the topic of courses I have also finalized my schedule for next semester. I am taking Scottish Literature (part 2), Psychology Methodology 2, Social Work (it has lots of guest lecturers talking about their jobs which I'm excited about) and the Psychology Group Project. I'll be doing it on the topic of Space Coding in Touch. I will design an experiment and write up a report with a group of other students. I'm hoping it will help prep me for my thesis next year.

Despite exams it has not been all work and no play for me. I saw my friend Shannon last week to say goodbye to her before she went home for the holidays. We watched Brave New World and shared some snacks and talked about what it would be like going home. I won't be going home until June but I am missing my friends and Kingston now. It would have been nice to see them over Christmas but I'm really looking forward to having my parents and sister visit me in Edinburgh and seeing the extended family in England.

I have also been to the Edinburgh Christmas Market downtown on Princes Street. The stalls are amazing - Dutch pastries, Gluhwein, crepes, mulled cider and lots of homemade crafts. I went once with Erin, Puck and Amelia and we got mulled wine and watched the ice skaters trying to navigate the ice rink (they were not very good and my expert Canadian opinion said that the ice really needed zamboni-ing). There's a big ride that goes really high in the air and then spins you around. I was too chicken to go on it but Amelia and I watched Puck and Erin go on it. I went to the market a second time with Aidan and we had crepes, sampled some German chocolates and went on the "Big Wheel" ferris wheel which was absolutely terrifying. I love the market and definitely want to go again soon. It's open until sometime early January so I'll be able to take my family!

Puck, Erin, Amelia, Aidan, Joe, Tom and I all organized a Christmas Dinner together to help alleviate exam stress. We all contributed to the meal and we ate a splendid array of turkey, ham, bacon wrapped sausages, stuffing, roast potatoes, parsnips, sprouts, carrots, mashed sweet potatoes, key lime pie and mince pies as well as lots of alcohol. It was delicious and I was so impressed by everyone's cooking. Sadly we were too full to cook the Christmas Pudding as well. Of course we had Christmas crackers with the usual corny jokes and hats. It was interesting to watch Aidan experience British Christmas as I understand they do things differently in the States. My family and I have always celebrated Christmas this way, even when we had it in Canada. It was fun teaching him that crackers are not actually "crackers" and that mince pies do not have meat in them. After the meal we had games and a Christmas Quiz created by Aidan who was in charge of entertainment. We did an egg toss (I dropped the egg AND managed to get it onto the carpet despite us laying down newspaper beforehand) and a game where you had to eat a doughnut off a piece of string. It was so much fun and really got me in the mood for December 25th!

On Monday night, to celebrate my first exam being over Aidan and I went out to have a few drinks. We did a bit of a pub crawl (Greenmantle, The Blind Poet and Southsider) and stumbled upon a Poetry Slam at The Blind Poet. It was actually really awesome and so sad that I discovered it when it was the last one of the year. The guy that went last said there will be a new slam starting in Teviot, the student union, next year once a month so I will definitely be going to that! It was really interesting to hear people reading/performing their poems. There were a lot of Christmas themed ones, some funny poems, some with a political message and some really deep poems. I really enjoyed it!

No exciting plans for the future at the moment, just trying to get through my next two exams!