It's
already been a week here, and wow it seems like I have done a lot. Yesterday I
had class in the morning for an hour and then after that I decided to see some
sights in the main part of the city (my classes are about a 40 minute walk from
the main city which is where I live). I first went to the National
Library of Scotland; you need to register to get into the main part so I
decided I would come back when I need to study. Next I went to an area called
the Grassmarket. It’s named the Grassmarket because long ago, vendors used to
sell grass and hay and the like. The area had mostly shops, which got boring so
I ended up wandering around and taking pictures. I also found this really neat
path that led around the base of the castle here. Well, since I wasn’t really
paying attention to where I was going I got rather lost; I was on a set of
streets below where I wanted to be. After some random turns, I finally found
myself on a street I knew of, and was so relieved to be back in a familiar place
that I just went into the first café I saw for lunch. Let’s just say that it
wasn’t the best lunch I’ve had here. And in the tiny place the only other
customers were what seemed like a group of Scottish mafia type men. Needless to
say, I got out of there as fast as possible. I headed over to the National
Museum of Scotland; this place was huge- 7 floors! I only had two hours to
spend there, but I will for sure be going back sometime soon. In the animal
section, they had a scale that told you what animal weighed the same as you-
apparently I weigh as much as a giant anteater. Good to know. I also thoroughly
enjoyed this video playing that was basically a bunch of consolidated
interviews with people living in Scotland. One of the questions asked was “What
is your favorite Scottish phrase?” and I had to put my ear right up to the
speaker and I still couldn’t understand a word they were saying! They basically
have their own mini language.
After
the museum, I headed over to the bus stop to take to class but still had some
time to kill before it came so I wandered up a new street and it led to this
prep school academy; it must have been right when school let out because there
were little Scottish kids everywhere in their plaid uniforms heading home from
school. They were adorable! Then I had class, and at night went to a friend’s
apartment for dinner. Her flatmates also invited a few people over, and at one
point there were 4 languages being spoken in one room: English, Dutch, French
and Spanish! It makes me wish I could speak another language fluently (my
mediocre Spanish doesn’t quite make the cut). We all shared weird phrases we have
in our languages; everyone thought it was funny that in America we say “Shoot
me a text.” I never even thought about how odd some of our phrases are. Later
that night, we went out to a club.
This
morning, I had no voice when I woke up! Probably from it being so cold here all
the time, not sleeping enough, going out, I’m not quite sure. I’m drinking hot
water and going to gargle with salt water, but if anyone knows of good home
remedies, PLEASE let me know. It’s so frustrating to hang out with people when
you can barely talk to them!
I
had class from 11 to 12 today and then after that met up with a friend and we
went on a free tour of the city. Our tour guide sort of looked like a smaller Hagrid
from Harry Potter (for those of you who don’t know, imagine a pirate of sorts).
The tour covered a good deal of Scottish history, and their battles with
England. Our guide loved to point out all the gory, creepy, or nasty details.
For example, people used to dispose of their human waste in the streets by
throwing it out their windows, even when they lived very high up in buildings.
Before they threw it down, they would scream something to let people know to
get out of the way. But those who late at night were coming back from the bar
weren’t always paying attention. They would hear someone scream something from
above, look up, and then oftentimes get hit in the face with the waste, hence
the term “shitfaced” that we here in America use to mean very drunk. We also
heard some dramatic stories about a rock owned by Scotland that was taken by
the British, stolen back, and so on. All in all, it was a really informative
tour.
A funny postcard I saw
Then
tonight, a group of us went to a restaurant to get fish and chips! (Fish and French
fries for us Americans.) I normally don’t like fish, but the kind I got was
greasy and fried; it didn’t have that fishy taste or smell really. It was so
good! Though I’m sure not the healthiest thing… The French fries were the same
as at home. Everyone got a laugh out of trying to understand me; I eventually
wrote down what I wanted to say on a napkin. When we left the restaurant, it
had been snowing for a few hours and had built up on the streets. Here in the
UK they don’t believe in plowing or shoveling I’ve been told, so everything was
super slushy. One of my friends had never seen it snowing before so we had a
good time playing in it. We hung out and watched a movie, and then I headed
home to try to cure myself of this no voice plague. I stocked up on orange juice,
apples, and soup; we’ll see if it works!
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