Thursday, February 7th
The highlight of today was a salsa lesson- we went over the
turns again and finally it clicked. The nice thing about these lessons is that
you switch partners all the time, so if one guy is just as confused as you are,
there’s always the chance that the next guy might know what’s going on. I
finally found that guy! And although his pants were tighter than mine, he was
an awesome dancer; dancing with him really helped me learn the new moves.
Friday, February 8th
It was Miren’s 21st birthday
today; she had us over for breakfast in the morning: crepes and nutella! I went
to class, then met up with Laura to go shopping for Miren’s birthday present! We
bought a few shirts and also meat and cheese then all had lunch together with
the crepes that were left over. That night, a bunch of us went to TGIFriday’s
for a birthday dinner- who knew they had Friday’s over here?! It was one of the
best meals I’ve had here (is that sad?) We had bought a cake for her and
brought that out for dessert. Later, we headed to one of the ‘classier’ clubs
to go dancing.
Saturday, February 9th
I have never seen more Scottish pride than
I saw at this game. Kilts, flags, fish and chips, face paint… it was the
perfect day!
And, to make it even better Scotland kicked
Italy’s butt!
Rugby was certainly an interesting game,
similar to American football but they formed these huddles all the time and
built these people pyramids every so often. (If you actually understand rugby,
I’m sure I’m doing a terrible job at describing it…)
Later that night, my flatmates and I went
to an Irish pub to celebrate. There was live music, good-natured dancing, all
in all we had a great time!
Sunday, February 10th
Brunch this morning with Laura and Miren.
Drumroll please…. I cooked pancakes! They had never had “American” pancakes
before so I offered to make them. They came out great! Apparently no one here
knows how we get our pancakes so fluffy, meanwhile I had never even realized
that it was something special.
Later, I went for a run. I’ve wanted to go
to the beach for awhile because I knew that it was fairly close so I finally
looked on a map online. My flatmate had been to a beach called Portobello,
which seemed like the closest one, so I looked up that one. It appeared that I
was supposed to go straight…on one road….the entire time. Easy enough, I
thought. I brought a small map with me, but it didn’t even have the beach on
it, so it wasn’t much help. I started off, and of course at one point the road
came to a fork (why did I not see this on the map…) I chose the way that felt
right and continued along. Eventually, I saw a sign that said “Portobello: 1.”
I kilometre? 1 mile? 1 minute? I didn’t even care. All I knew was that 1 of
anything couldn’t take all that long.
Soon, a “Welcome to Portobello: Edinburgh’s
seaside” sign appeared. Other than that plaque, there were literally NO signs
of any beach. I was welcomed into Portobello through a dark, dirty, graffiti
covered tunnel. I wasn’t going to let it deter me though. In a few minutes,
finally the shore appeared through the city streets, a very odd set up for a
beach but it was a beach nonetheless.
I walked along the sand, took some
pictures, felt the water, and ran for a bit left and then right. If it’s not
warm enough to sunbathe or go swimming, the beach is quite an awkward place. I
didn’t know what else to do with myself, so I finally headed back the way I
came.
The rest of the day I just relaxed and did
mundane chores- laundry, grocery shopping, printing a few things at the
library. All in all, it was a great weekend!
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