Fun > Vitamin D

One thing that's really fun about everyone here is that everyone's always down to do something. I think I have a day to relax and catch up on Facebook and whatnot, but everyone's always throwing out suggestions for stuff to do. Which is great, because I feel like I'm really taking advantage of my time here! I hope so at least. 

Last weekend was our intern Halloween party. It was fun to dress up and hang out with everyone and play Halloween themed games. 

I went as a hippie!

The day after the Halloween party several of us worked up the motivation to hike Arthur's Seat. We couldn't have picked a prettier day to go. We made it all the way to the top, and the views of Edinburgh on this clear day were spectacular. 

Reppin school spirit on the top of Arthur's Seat

Monday was Guy Fawkes's Night. Some guy named Guy Fawkes tried to overthrow parliament in the 1600s so people celebrate the fact that he was unsuccessful. Fireworks go off for weeks before. On Monday the fireworks would go for a few minutes and then stop and sporadically start up again and they went the whole day. Julianne and I had gone shopping after work and we went to Primark and got fleece onesies. They're great because it's so cold here, but the only problem is that I never want to change out of it into my work clothes. So we wore our onesies while all of us watched V for Vendetta, which I had never seen before. 

My roommates and I watched the fireworks from my bedroom because it was cold outside

 

Primark Onesies

This week at work was pretty slow work wise. We finally finished up the newsletters. I also wrote one motion and one brief. The motion was about a Youth Project that received funding from the Big Lottery Fund. It was located in my MSP’s region and he wanted me to make sure I got it lodged before any of the other MSPs from that region or constituency, which I thought was interesting that he specified that he wanted to me to make sure to claim that topic for a motion before anyone else. The brief I wrote was about prison reform. My MSP wanted to ask a parliamentary question about the economic effects of building a new prison in his region. It is a women’s prison built as a part of recommendations made by a commission to improve the treatment of women prisoners and decrease the chances of someone becoming a repeat offender. 

The coolest part of the week was being at parliament for the election. I spent a lot of time at work on CNN playing around with the interactive maps with the swing states. Everyone at the parliament was extremely interested in the outcome. It may be because I am surrounded by politicians and people interested in politics, but people seemed to care a lot about the outcome and overwhelmingly supported Obama. All the parties, including the conservatives, support Obama. I checked the polls constantly and everyone discussed the issues and the candidates leading up to the election. 

That evening we tried to go to a North American Association event at the University of Edinburgh that was having lectures and coverage of the election, but it filled up very fast. So we went to a pub for a little bit, and then to one of the permanent intern's apartments to watch CNN. My plan was to only stay up until Ohio got called, but I thought that it would get called by like one or two my time, and it definitely did not. We all ended up going home at that point, still in suspense, and Julianne and I ended up staying up until 5 am our time to hear the results. We were watching it on BBC which had about a fifteen to twenty minute delay on the receipt of information, so we kept refreshing the internet at the same time. Julianne said suddenly "Obama got Ohio! He won!" So that was very exciting. 

Mondays and Fridays are relaxed days since the MSPs are in their constituencies and its only the interns in the parliament, so we get to dress down. On Friday we explored the debating chamber. 

Where the SNP MSPs sit

We went dress shopping on Friday as well for the Thanksgiving event and got to walk along the Royal Mile and Waverely bridge. This is one of my favorite views of this city. This was also at around 5 o'clock I think. 

That's the castle to the left

On Friday night, some of the interns went bowling. It was quite the adventure getting there as it was on a complete opposite side of Edinburgh that I have ever been to. I've gotten to explore the fringes of the city quite a lot this week. On Wednesday I had to go to the post office depot to pick up my Ed Sheeran tickets because I was at work when they got delivered and couldn't sign for them. I had to take a bus out to East Edinburgh. I kept asking the driver when to get off the bus, and when he told me I couldn't understand him so I just sat there for awhile until I finally figured out what he was saying. I wandered around aimlessly in the misty Edinburgh evening until I stopped the only person I saw to ask for directions. She was very friendly and walked me to the post office, which I never would have found on my own because you had to take like five left turns to spiral into the business park. It was an adventure to say the least. 

Bowling was very fun though. I haven't been in forever and I am really bad at it, but so was everyone else. Our game had a special twist on it as well because the computer kept being spastic, so sometimes people would get three or four turns in a row, or get strikes when it should have been a gutter ball. The gutter balls were especially impressive though considering we had bumpers. It was a great craic as they say though and I'm glad we went. 

Last night we had the UC wide EAP Thanksgiving event. We got lucky because it's hosted in Edinburgh. We dressed up and walked over to the Hub yesterday evening at 6 (it was already pitch black outside). The Hub is on the Royal Mile near the castle and it's this very old venue where really classy events are held. There were 200 UC students there who were studying somewhere in the UK or Ireland who had traveled to Edinburgh for the weekend. We checked our coats, which wasn't that exciting but I always feel really fancy when I check my coat. We waited in a long line to get in and when I got up to the front to get my name tag I realized the girl checking people in lived on my floor freshman year. So that was nice to see her. My name tag had my name, my school, and my program. We mingled for a bit and I ran into someone who I worked with in Santa Barbara, which was also cool. We ate dinner in the big hall. I sat with all the people from my program. We got turkey, stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes, green beans, bread, and chocolate pie. It was all very Thanksgivingy foods, but it was done in a Scottish way, if that makes sense. It was all very tasty food, but I would imagine it would be like if someone from Mexico ate at a Mexican restaurant in the United States. Technically it's Mexican food, but it has an American spin on it. 

It was also interesting because my program was definitely the most subdued. We talked about it and we think it may have something to do with the fact that we're working 40 hours a week instead of just going to uni, so we felt like we had to act more mature because we were working instead of students. It is nice though, because everyone in my program is pretty close, so it was fun to hang out with everyone. On the contrary, the other group of people I was associated with that night was the UCSB group, which was the most rowdy. At the end of the night someone even started an "Ole, ole, ole, ole, gauchos, gauchos" cheer and many a Santa Barbarans joined in. I am the sole SB rep in my program, so it was interesting to be surrounded by people from my school again. It's also funny because university stereotypes were very apparent the whole night. I did very much like being associated with the interns though. We were a small group but we have a pretty cool program I think. 

The best part of the night was definitely the ceilidh dancing (pronounced 'kaley', I don't even know what to comment about who decided to spell it like that). It is pretty similar to American folk dancing, even though it is traditional Scottish. It's not exactly the same, but it involved a lot of do-si-do ing and hooking arms with your partner and spinning them around. We danced for a couple hours and no one really knew what they were doing so everyone ran into each other a lot and spun at the wrong times and made up their own dance moves, but it was a blast. 

7 of the 9 UC Interns next to the Scottish Turkey

We stopped by one of the permanent intern's apartments super quick on our way back, just to say hi, and it was completely unnoteworthy save for the fact that in the very short time we were there we saw an MSP playing beer pong, which was pretty surreal. We all caught a cab home together, which felt like a very city like thing to do. 

This morning I woke up and had an English breakfast. Eggs and beans on toast. It's a very delicious meal that I have gotten hooked on. 

Today was a lazy day. One thing that people warned me about was how early it got dark here during the winter, but I still wasn't prepared for it. It is a very unique experience having the sun set by 4 and it be pitch black outside by a little past 5. It's definitely something to get used to. Your perception of time gets all screwed up, too. Every night we start getting ready for bed and then we realize it's only 7. That may have something to do with still adjusting to the 40 hour work week, but it's also hard to tell what time it is when it's dark all day. Edinburgh in the Fall is gorgeous for the few hours it's sunny all day though, so it's worth being Vitamin D deficient. 

The view from my bedroom window

I have some really fun stuff planned that I'm looking forward to. Tomorrow I'm going to a concert in Edinburgh with two of the other interns. We also have tentative plans to go to Stirling, as well as an intern Thanksgiving coming up. I would like to make one more trip before I head home in 6 weeks, these past two months have gone by unbelievably fast, but I'm not sure if anyone else wants to do anymore traveling, so we'll see. Even if I just spend the next 6 weeks in Edinburgh, I'd be really happy because I love this city. I really do like traveling and being constantly on the move though, so it would be nice to see some more cities. I at least want to check out Glasgow at some point, and hopefully the Highlands too! 

Going to see Ed Sheeran tomorrow! :)

 My chocolate addiction has been exacerbated by the deliciousness of Cadbury chocolate and its availability at my work. The chocolate also helps me get through the long work day, along with multiple cups of coffee. 

Amazing chocolate

In other news, today was spent attempting to clean my room and do other householdy tasks. So I didn't end up actually doing much today except procrastinating on all of that. I did get a load of laundry in. We have a washer in our kitchen that has the capacity to wash about one sweatshirt at a time. Technically it's a washer/dryer combination but it doesn't actually dry, so we hang our clothes from the ceiling to dry them. I find it somewhat amusing, especially when rouge socks jump down from the drying rack and attack someone on their way to the bathroom. 

I guess it's more environmentally friendly?

I'm looking forward to this week, and I hope everyone's Novembers are going well. Also, a very special happy 90th birthday to Grandma Kathe! I loved the pictures and I hope it was a good one!