Wind, Rain, Snow, and Shine

We hang out with the Scottish interns more and more. They've been telling us every week that it's going to get darker earlier and colder and we don't believe them because it's hard to believe that it could get darker earlier than 4 o'clock or colder, but it does. I've taken to wearing my onesie around the flat everyday because it's so cold. But even as we were shivering walking home from Waverley train station yesterday in the pitch black at 5 o'clock yesterday evening, my roommates and I were talking about how we don't want to leave and all the stuff we still want to do here and how we love it here so much. 

Monday after work, Oriel, Julianne, and I walked from the Parliament building up the Royal Mile, around the castle, to Usher Hall. Quick word about fashion here for those curious - almost anything goes here fashion wise. You can be super trendy or really quirky and it's really fun. The only two things that don't really go here are anything too slobby and anything not super conservative. This is interesting coming from Santa Barbara where I wear yoga pants and sweatshirts every day or tank tops and running shorts with running shoes or flip flops. So to work I mostly wear high waisted black skirts with black tights, oxford shoes, and sweaters. On the weekends when I'm not in my onesie, I'll wear boots with jeans and thick patterned sweaters. And then on top of everything you always have to wear at least one coat, if not two, a scarf, gloves, and a hat. 

Back to the interesting stuff. We went to eat at Nando's and then we got in line for the concert. We were there relatively early, so we were pretty close. There were two really tall people standing in front of me, but it wasn't too bad. Ed Sheeran is unbelievably talented. Besides being a lyrical genius and incredible with the guitar, he has a great stage presence and really interacts with the audience. He does all the music himself, so when the song is more than just him singing and playing guitar, he does all the beats and the background music himself on stage and then puts it on a loop pedal. It was absolutely incredible. For the encore he did this one song fifteen minute song that was crazy amazing. He rapped really fast for most of it, then sang, and did crazy guitar solos, and even tripped twice on stage and kept going. If you would like any recommendations for his music, I really like his acoustic stuff, so my favorite I think is "Give Me Love" (I do not recommend watching the music video however), but one of his most popular songs is "The A Team" which is also very good. If you'd like to see him do some crazy loop pedal vocals, check out "Wayfaring Stranger" and if you'd like to hear him rap, listen to "You Need Me, I Don't Need You". He is very talented though, and I'm very glad we went. They call him the "ginger genius" and I see why for sure. 

This week at work I wrote two motions and worked on a project for my MSP about city names in the region he represents. Other than that, the week was full of a lot of mochas, baguettes at the cafeteria, checking BBC news, discussing independence, and making Scottish politics jokes.

We are trying to maximize our time here, so we hopped on a train yesterday morning to Stirling. With out student rail cards it was only 6 pounds round trip. We got lunch at a pub and then explored Stirling Castle and the graveyard nearby. It was sunny, then it was windy, then it snowed, and then it rained. 

View from the castle

Stirling was very cool and I'm glad we went. Our plans for the next few weeks include a very expensive Mumford and Sons concert in Glasgow and a weekend trip to Barcelona. We also want to check out the Christmas market here, we're going to have a Thanksgiving dinner party here, we have a SNP Christmas Party, my friend Jacob's coming to visit me, and more! 

Happy birthday Grandma Donna! Also, Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I wish I could celebrate at home, but I'm very thankful to be here!