In Pursuit of Adventure: The SNP, It's a Party

This week was my second to last week in Parliament. I spent it mostly on short briefs, Christmas Cards, the December newsletter, and other miscellaneous items.

The SNP Christmas Party was Thursday night. It was so much fun. We went home from work and got ready. We walked over to the venue around 7:45. It was held in The Caves, it's a UNESCO World Heritage site. It's not underground, which I was expecting, but the walls were low archways and stone and it was very cool. The SNP is currently the majority party in the Scottish Parliament. The party was for all the SNP MSPs and their office staff.

The party was so much fun. It started off with a speech from the First Minister. My MSP played the bagpipes for a little bit and another MSP played the guitar for a little bit. A lot of the men wore kilts, which was fun. One guy wore a sweater with a kilt and it was a great combination.

The First Minister making his speech

I spent a lot of time talking to my MSP and the people who work in my office. They are all really friendly people and it was really nice to talk to them. My office consists of me, the other intern I work with, Josh, two office managers, Iain and Niall, and my MSP, Stuart.

Me, Iain, Stuart, Josh, and Niall

The party went by so fast. After I talked to my office for awhile, I went and joined the Ceilidh. I knew how to Ceilidh a little bit because I had at the EAP Thanksgiving event, but it was with all other Americans who had no idea what they were doing. I had already danced one ceilidh dance that night with my two office managers. It was a fun dance that you danced in groups of three that went around in a big circle. I danced one that involved two big circles spinning and another that was two lines that involved a lot of hooking your partner's elbow and spinning around. It was so much fun.

When the Ceilidh was over at midnight, the 'disco' started. They had a very strange playlist that was very fun to dance along to. Most of the MSPs left, but most of the office staff and interns stayed. They played everything from Nicki Minaj to Teenage Dirtbag to the Jurassic Park theme song to California Girls to 80s rock music. Everyone just jumped up and down and twirled and spun each other and danced around. There was the perfect amount of people dancing because it was crowded enough to where you didn't feel silly dancing around, but not too crowded so you still had room to dance. The only thing I worried about was that someone's hair was going to catch on fire from all the candles they had lining the walls at ponytail level. It was great to talk to everyone throughout the night and everyone had so much fun together. The party ended at three and there was an after party, but my roommates and I were too tired, so we headed home.

Today I gave Erik a tour of the Parliament. After work, we headed to the Scotsman, a very classy restaurant near the Royal Mile on North Bridge to have high tea. It's really fun to get tea and it is surprisingly filling.

I got 'Famous Edinburgh' tea. We each got our own little pot of tea. We also got trays full of food. There were ham, chutney, salmon, and egg finger sandwiches (I tried all except the salmon. The egg sandwich was my favorite!). They also had scones with clotted cream and jam. For dessert there were these mini super sweet desserts. There were flapjacks, tiny vanilla and chocolate cupcakes, mini macaroons, and these little shortbread, caramel, and chocolate squares that was really good.