Spring!

Spring is officially here in Edinburgh! One day this week it was so sunny that the Meadows was packed with people sitting on the grass and chatting, cycling on the bike paths or playing sports (including quidditch). I was jealous of everyone enjoying the sun, thinking I'd be stuck in tutorial all afternoon but my tutorial leader let us have class in Meadows. After class I went with Joe and Puck to Meadowberry in Bruntsfield to get frozen yoghurt. I got a mix of strawberry and plain with raspberries and chocolate drops as toppings. It was good but not as good as the froyo place I worked last summer! I think the best part of Spring here is the flowers blooming in Bruntsfield Links. They seemed to have popped up overnight in purple, white and yellow. The daffodils are the best.

On the 1st of March I took myself on a little exploration. I went to the Farmer's Market on Castle Terrace which I've been meaning to go to for a while. There were all sorts of local meats, cheeses, jams and homemade cakes and tarts.

View of Edinburgh Castle from Castle Terrace

I wandered through the Grassmarket where there were Morris dancers performing and another set of stalls selling local products. I found a cute little book shop which had a big box of postcards, 5 for a pound or something so I picked up some of those to send to friends. I followed the Morris dancers and the little bells attached to their outfits down to Princes Street where I did a little shopping and then stopped off in a cafe called Affogato where I went with Auntie Valerie and Uncle Adrian when they were visiting. I might have sampled a bit of their gelato! Princes Street Gardens looked great with all the Spring flowers.

Heading to the Grassmarket

Princes Street Gardens

The following Friday Puck, Joe and I went to see Erin perform in the Edinburgh University String Orchestra's Spring Concert. It was really good and amazing to see people my age with such talent and skill. It made me feel bad for not having playing an instrument! They played Adagio & Fugue by Mozart, 'Ich Habe Genug' by Bach and String Quartet No. 8 by Shostakovich. The last one was my favourite as they played really fast and crazy. The singer and flute soloists were great as well.

On Saturday night we went to see Bondax and Karma Kid (basically house music) at Liquid Rooms. It was a great night but was very busy compared to when we saw Breach and Route 94. Also someone stage-dived into my face at one point which hurt a lot!

This Wednesday we went to the pub quiz at the Golf Tavern. We haven't been in a while so it was good to make a return. We did fairly well with a round of musicals which had everyone singing songs from Grease.

Last night Amelia and I went to see another of Erin's concerts. This one was Symphony Orchestra Spring Concert. It was a much bigger performance and was held in Greyfriar's Kirk. The acoustics were great and it was great to see the inside of the church. They performed Wagner's Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde, Canteloube's Chants d'Auvergne and Tchaikovsky's Symphony no. 4. Apparently the singer was a professional and she added facial expressions and gestures to her singing so it was much more of a performance.

I'm feeling the school stress a bit at the moment as I have a Scottish Literature essay due on Wednesday and my final report for my group project assignment due on Thursday. The Scottish Literature essay is done now but it was about how Scottish writers draw on popular and vernacular culture to establish Scottish literary identity. The final report for my group project has me stumped with the stats and data analysis but hopefully I'll get it all sorted before Thursday. The good news is that after that's in I don't have any other assignments until exams in May. I got my exam schedule yesterday and I have exams on April 28th, 30th and May 9th. Considering my flight back to Atlanta is on May 30th it looks like I'll have a lot of free time (about 3 weeks!) after finishing school to hang out in Edinburgh/the UK before going back to Canada.

Uncle Keith is visiting me this weekend and should be arriving soon so I'd better get going!