Spring Break 2012 Continued!

Well, Spring Break 2012 has come and gone already. I have roughly 5 weeks left in Scotland, 37 days until my flight lands in the MSP airport again. It's a completely overwhelming thought. Things here at the house are going so great and I know that my experience here has had such a huge impact on who I am. But that doesn't mean that I'm not eager to be home again and to see my family, friends and even people that I hate (well maybe not hate, but dislike). So I'm experiencing conflicting emotions at the time, which I think will result in my time here passing by quite quickly.

I'm not sure if I've talked about them much, but my roommates are so wonderful. They're all so different with great personalities, but we also have things in common. I consider myself extremely lucky to have ended up living with the 4 of them for the semester. It's actually going to be kind of sad when I'm not waking up with them in the mornings and falling asleep with them at night. I think it's pretty neat that we've gotten through so much of the semester but that we still get along and enjoy each other. In my experience, that hasn't always happened. At the moment, I am sitting in my bed, eating Dove chocolates dipped in peanut butter while they're all doing their own thing. And I am going to talk about my spring break.

The beginning of spring break was a bit awful, considering that I had to stay in my creepy bedroom all alone for 2 nights. I was also having stomach problems so it was not fun. It really helped to have my friend Chelsea around though because I had always wanted to spend more time getting to know her and we ended up doing a bit of bonding. Her mom arrived on Saturday which left me alone, so I decided that it was a good idea to watch National Treasure and Spongebob on Netflix all day. And that is exactly what I did. Then I took a melatonin pill to help me sleep through the whole night because my family was arriving the next evening!

On Sunday, I finished my packing because I was staying with my family at the Holyrood ApartHotel, near the Royal Mile. I rode the bus to Edinburgh and walked to the alleyway where our hotel was situated and then I waited until I spotted my family. I felt kind of odd and uncomfortable waiting there because I really had no clue when they were going to show up and they had no way to notify me since their phones wouldn't work internationally. Luckily though, I saw their taxi drive right past me and I ran through the alley chasing them with my luggage. That was fun. None of them had seen me when they drove past, so I snuck up on them and they all hugged me. We checked into our room which was very European (every room had a door on it so there was just a long hallway connecting everything, it was very compartmentalized), and they changed their clothes so they would "fit in" better. We walked up the Royal Mile (I think my family was impressed by my speediness going up the hill, I'm not sure if they were prepared for all of the hills in the city) and got dinner at a baked potato shop. I was so excited because I was finally able to get sour cream on my potato. It's not a common potato topping here like it is in the states so I felt so special to finally have some. Then I introduced my family to Tesco Express. Tesco is the local grocery store here and there are Tesco Expresses throughout the city. They're just like little convenience stores at gas stations. After shopping for some alcoholic beverages, we ended up back in our room and I had to try to keep them all awake until 9 o'clock. They were all passed out on the couch by then so I retired to my room.

The next day, we got up late. We actually got a late start every day but that was okay with me. We walked to the Lothian Bus Station to buy them bus passes for the week and then we walked to where the tour buses were located. We bought a ticket that would enable us to ride 3 different bus tours in 48 hours. The tour that we took that day brought us by the Royal Botanical Gardens, by the Royal Yacht Britannica, by St. Andrew's House, by Holyrood Palace and the Scottish Parliament building. It was cool because I saw some places that I hadn't seen in town before. Then that night we went to a restaurant called Mamma's American Pizza over in the Grassmarket area. They had gluten free pizza there and it was pretty good. After dinner we rode the bus all the way to the Tesco store that I do my grocery shopping and we got some food for later in the week. On the bus ride back to the city, my family got to experience some of the crazy local people because an elderly man was making a scene and hit on my mother. Can't blame him though ;)

Me and my mother at the Scottish Poetry Library

It's like the Scotsman newspaper from home!

The view of the St. Andrew house and Calton Hill from North Bridge

On Tuesday we went on another bus tour around the city. Then we got dinner at Mamma's again.

Dad and Hayden on the tour bus

Me & Mom on the bus in front of Princes Street Gardens

The Scots Monument

Mom & Me

The Physician's House

Queen Street

Downtown Edinburgh

Downtown Edinburgh

St. John's Episcopal Church

The Castle from behind

Usher Hall

A footbridge over Leith Walk

Hayden's tourist pic

Mom & Hayden at Mamma's

Me & Dad at Mamma's

My nachos from Mamma's

On Wednesday we went on yet another bus tour, our final one, thankfully. Then afterwards we went to Dalkeith so I could show them around. They got to meet my friend Katlyn because she was already back from her spring break trip so we walked around town with her. We got baked potatoes at Franco's  and ate them outside because they weather was gorgeous. They really lucked out with the weather that week because it was the best weather we've had here all week, in the 60's and 70's almost the whole time! I had to enroll for classes that day as well and luckily I got into all of them. That night for dinner we went to a small cafe on the Royal Mile and got salads.

The Scottish Parliament Building

The gates at the Holyrood Palace

Arthurs Seat

The Scottish Parliament Building

Visiting my house in Dalkeith

My yummy Greek salad

Thursday was the day that we went to the Edinburgh Castle. Hayden loved the war museum there and was fascinated by the cannons. We found some pretty cool stuff in the gifts shops there. We went to some tourist shops on the Royal Mile and then we went to Bella Italia for dinner. Hayden and I both had pasta carbonara which was really delicious but Mom's food was the best, she got risotto stuffed red peppers with goat cheese on top, goodness were they good! We also had a hell of a time trying to figure out how to work the washer/dryer combo that night. There are pretty much no public laundromats in the city, there are only laundrettes where other people do your laundry for you. You should ask my mother or father about the experience, all I'm going to say is that I almost peed my pants from laughing so hard!

Hayden, me & Mom at the Edinburgh Castle

Hayden, me & Dad at the Edinburgh Castle 

(Dad was worried about getting sunburned)

Me & Mom and the Earl of Haig statue

Me, Dad & Mom at the Castle

The view of the city

The view from the castle

Princes Street

The view of the city

Stuffed Red Peppers and salad!

On Friday we had a lazy day and watched some good ol' British telly. We watched a show called Four in a Bed where 4 bed & breakfast owners would go to each other's places, stay the night, and rate them based on their amenities and experiences. It was a pretty interesting show. We went to an organic specialty store where we found some gluten free groceries, so Mom cooked our dinner at the hotel instead of eating out. That night we went to the Ocean Terminal mall, walked around, and got some DVDs to watch at nighttime.

The Royal Mile in the evening

My gin & tonic (it was disgusting!)

Dad loves British television!

On Saturday, we took the bus all the way to Seton Sands, a town that lies on the coast of the sea. It was a beautiful bus ride and it was nice to be out of the city center for a while.

The beaches at Seton Sands

Sunday was another lazy day and I began to pack my stuff up because I had planned on returning to my house that evening. Mom made a huge dinner though and I was too stuffed to go back that night, plus I wasn't quite ready to leave them yet. It was weird because I didn't think I would have a hard time leaving since I know that I'll be back so soon. I think it's because I'm used to traveling with them, so it felt unnatural to have to leave them behind.

I left early on Monday morning because I had a class at 9:50. It was raining so my dad called a cab for me, it was way nicer to not have to deal with all of the people on the bus. I wasn't happy to say goodbye to them, but it had to finally happen. And this week has passed so quickly, too, it's already Wednesday afternoon! I have a lot to get done, academically, before I leave. This morning, the girls in my poetry class convinced our professor to write 10 extra poems instead of writing a poetry analysis paper. I was the one who came up with the idea, but it means that I now have to write 37 poems this semester. Holy shit, right? For my globalization class, I have to write an essay that's worth 50% of my grade and also give a presentation about gender inequality, both due on April 23rd. For my creative writing class I have to continue with the poems, and I also have to write a short story to hand out to my classmates for next Thursday. And for my technical writing class, which I'm least worried about, I have to write a 10+ page analytical report. It should be the easiest of all of my assignments since I'm doing spectacularly well in that class this semester. And this half of the semester, I have a kitchen job to do every Tuesday and Thursday and it's definitely more taxing than my house job that I had earlier. With all of that said, I should end this now and go do something productive with my time! TTFN

My roommate Jordan dressed to face the cold