Day 11: Chillin with the Parliament

I’m beginning to get in the swing of things, which is nice. I know where to find the free bus, which grocery stores are cheap, that it’s ALWAYS colder than you think it is outside, and that I should turn on the heater in the bathroom long before I plan to take a shower. So all in all, I’m feeling settled in. I’m still figuring out what work I need to be doing for class; so far only a few chapters of reading have been assigned, in only one of my classes. If I was back at Cornell, I would have already handed in problem sets and I’d be working on the next couple. So the workload appears to be very different here. Most of your grade is based on the final exam, so I’m guessing when that comes around there will be lots more work.

The outside of the Scottish Parliament building

Yesterday I had planned to do some exploring in the morning but ended up sleeping in, leaving only a little bit of time before my classes started. I have been absolutely craving a good American sub sandwich, so I went on a hunt for one. I found a promising place- Peckham’s deli, but there were so many options that I got overwhelmed and left. I went to a smaller, cozier sandwich place instead. I got turkey, cheese and mayo on a sub roll, attempting to recreate what I love at home. The verdict? Not quite the same. They do have a subway here and I may hit that up in the near future… While at lunch, I read in the newspaper that it was supposedly the most depressing day of the entire year. I believe they used a sophisticated formula based on daylight hours, taxes, and days since the last major holiday. Who decides to do a study on that? I decided that I would try to make it just the opposite. I then took the bus to class which I had from 2 to 5pm. In my pollution class we talked about the effects of hydrofracking and how nuclear power plants work. In my soil, water and atmospheric processes class, we discussed the energy balance on Earth.

An entryway to the Parliament building

After class, I cooked dinner- rice and chicken. I will not be purchasing that kind of rice again. Later, a few friends and I met up at a bar for a pub quiz (also known as Trivia Night back at home). There were 5 rounds of questions and you got points for each correct answer. Thank god we had two people from the UK in our group; us Americans were no help at all. A lot of the questions were about British sports or entertainment. In one round, they played songs and we had to write the name and artist. I impressed my group by knowing one by Taylor Swift, my shining moment of the night. We had some greasy pub fries; they made up for my sub-par dinner fortunately.

The Queen's Palace in Scotland

Today I had class in the morning then did some exploring of the city. I had heard that the Scottish Parliament building had unique architecture, so I headed there. The building truly was like something out of this world! Once inside, I was able to sit in on a Parliament session! This was AWESOME. Though I couldn’t quite grasp what they were talking about (something about the budget?), I felt so lucky to be able to sit it on the meeting. When the person speaking said something controversial, others would try to butt in or a chatter would begin amongst the rest of the members; I was surprised how unofficial that aspect of it was. After sitting in awe for a while, I headed out. Along the way back, I walked by the Palace of Holyroodhouse- where the Queen stays when she visits! Normally, I’m not too obsessed with the Royal Family, but being so close to it all got me excited. The next free day I have, I’m going to do a tour of the palace. I headed back to class from 4:10-5pm. My friend and I took the bus back (we may have cut the line in order to get on!) which leads me to now.