Saturday, February 2nd
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| Botanic Garden |
With the whole day ahead of me, I decided to go on a longer
run/adventure. I headed to the Royal Botanic Garden, about three miles away. It
was completely free, I got some great pictures, and it was a nice break from
the city. These past couple days, I’ve just been craving the countryside. This
is really the first time I’ve ever lived in a city, and I usually love it because
there’s always something to do, and there’s so much more culture, but sometimes
it just gets too loud, too dirty, too hectic. So today was the perfect break.
And I saw a squirrel! On the run back home, I stopped at the National Gallery (perk
of the city), but it really wasn’t my thing. I really haven’t got a clue what
all the art means, what the “hidden message” is. Later, I was so hungry that I
caved and went to Subway (I know…). So worth it though!
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| Waterfall at the Botanic Garden |
Sunday, February 3rd
Today was my “chill” day- I met up with a friend for lunch
in Black Medicine, one of my favorite cafes here, and went grocery shopping. At
night, I met up with Laura and Miren and we went to one of the student pubs
here to watch the superbowl! It’s 5 hours later here, so kickoff didn’t start
until 11:30pm. The place was completely packed, mostly with American guys, and
I had forgotten how obnoxious they can be sometimes, especially when mixed with
beer and football! We stayed for the first half or so, then called it a night.
Monday, February 4th
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| Near Arthur's Seat |
I signed up for a half marathon! It’s in April right here in
the city. I am now kicking my training up a notch. This morning, I had a few
hours before class so I went out for a long run. Somehow, I ended up in what I
like to call the ghetto here. Of course, the street names were things like “Spring
Gardens” or “Royal Park Terrace,” notably littered with
garbage and the signs covered in graffiti. Message to Britain: cute street names
only do so much. The rest of the day, I had class then went to the library to
work on an essay. Boring, but it had to be done! And actually the topic I’m
writing about is pretty interesting: mercury pollution in the Arctic and how it
accumulates in organisms and magnifies as you go up the food chain. After a
long night of work, I came home, had dinner, skyped a friend, and went to bed.
Tuesday, February 5th
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| The view from the path I run on |
The beginning of today was pretty standard: class, worked on
a paper, class. On the way home, I was so hungry I went right to the grocery
store and bought 5 bags of chips, or crisps as they are called here. That night, we had a brief meeting with our RA here so he
could let us know how much electricity we’ve used in the past few weeks. We
were right below average. If you’re way under, you get reimbursed; if you are
way over you have to pay extra. It was actually pretty neat to know how much we
had used; I will definitely be more conscious of it now that I know they
monitor it. From what I’m gathering, the UK does a pretty decent job with sustainability
and conservation. For example, in many public places, toilet paper isn’t on a
roll, it’s in individual sheets. As random as that is, I definitely use less
paper this way. All the outlets here need to be turned on to use them. The hot water in
our kitchen sink is low flow. That’s all I can think of so far, but it seems
like America could take a few tips from the UK.
Wednesday, February 6th
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| "Selfie," I had to do it... |
Today I went for a run in the morning, to the trail around
the base of Arthur’s Seat again. This time I brought a camera! And 5 emergency pounds (no I did not bring extra weight with me, pounds is the currency here). Since I knew
where I was going, the run seemed way shorter, so short in fact that I added a
bit more on afterwards- I found this bike path called “Innocent Bike Path,”
extremely sketchy (dodgy as they say here), needless to say I didn’t stay on it
for too long. After the run I went to the library to work on a paper, then home
for dinner. Hopefully once I finish this paper the next few days will be more
exciting!
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