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Senses

Edinburgh smells like a brewery. Almost 24 hours a day, the warm smell of yeast filters down every street.  It                               smells a bit like masa to me.

Edinburgh tastes moist. If you had a sore throat, all you have to do is step outside.  The cool wet air instantly slides down to fill you with refreshment.

Edinburgh feels like the wind. Always blowing, sometimes whipping. 

Edinburgh sounds like buses, church bells, bag pipes when the wind blows (so faintly, most of the time), and feet on cobblestone streets.

Edinburgh looks like....well, you can see that in pictures.  At night though, there are a lot of lights reflecting off of the cool stone buildings.  

Where I live

The view from my window...

My neighbor to the left...
   Old College, part of the university.  Josh has class there.

My neighbor to the right....
  The Festival Theater.  Little Shop of Horrors up next.

And below me....
  The art store. They have great local art for sale. Be warned. You might get a present from this shop.

And behind me...
  The courtyard of my building.  Not that pleasant, but alright.




Don't I live in a cool place?

Did you know that Scottish kids get to go to university for free?  Other British kids get to go for about £2000, and EU kids get to go for about £4000.  And then there's us, who go for a lot more.  Anyways, so EAP has been giving us a lot of perks (because, really, we're paying for it). We've gotten two nice dinners and free drinks, a trip to the castle, a trip to the Falkirk Wheel, and at Thanksgiving they are throwing a big party with catering, live music, and a ceilidh.  Last weekend we went to the Castle.  The castle is pretty interesting.  It is on a giant slab of volcanic rock that was carved by a glacier so that it has three steep impenetrable sides, and only one entrance (a good spot for defense, I suppose).  It was completely destroyed around the 16th century by some Scots. They rescued it from the British invaders by climbing over the walls at night (the Brits thought that the cliff walls were safe, but those people probably grew up climbing that mound as kids, and knew the way up.  Anyways, after they rightfully seized it back, they decided to burn everything so that it couldn't be taken again. Smart.
  They left St. Margaret's Chapel (a native saint of Scotland), a tiny plain chapel. Its beautiful though. Every other building dates from after the last invasion.  It was pretty dismal until the late 1800's when Queen Victoria came during her honeymoon. She thought it wasn't "castley" enough, and added whimsical touches like a giant ball room, shiny cannons (that never were fired because they were made for ships) and the classic castle topping, the square checks on top of the building. Thanks Queen Victoria.



EAP also took us to the Falkirk Wheel, an engineering marvel.  It basically took the place of a series of 11 locks that used to connect two canals. Now, its like a boat elevator. "The world's first rotating boat lift!"  I fell asleep.  

Un petit language lesson:  Edinburgh is pronounced Edin-bra.  Everyone says cheers after everything, not just when you order a drink. Firth means estuary, so the Firth of Forth is the estuary of the River Forth.  Stewart is a very common name here, but people from North Ireland (they have the thickest accents) say it Stew-eh, practically swallowing the r; its one syllable too, like Stuy.

The Nawth Sea

Last Friday Josh and I went with the Canoe Club of Edinburgh to a day trip to a beach off of the eastern coast at Pease Beach, about 40 minutes from the city.  Its really a surf kayaking club, but there were a few longer kayaks, so we managed to hop into them and take them around the bend to gaze at the lovely but stark coast. There was a small harbor shielded by a large block wall that seemed to be a neighborhood harbor.  There were a few small fishing boats, and as we were going towards it, a man in a tiny motor boat came trolling through the waters from his fishing boat.  He was wearing a thick sweater, and it was the perfect image of the people of the North Sea.  We also got to see a pod of 5 porpoises, which was pretty lucky. That sea is pretty bare except for the occasional seal, porpoise, dolphin, and cold water fish.  But it was a great day--dreary, but not too cold.  

Halal

While it is commonly known that Britain is filled with Indians and southwest asians, I didn't quite realize how prevalent they would be here in Edinburgh. On further clarification, it seems that there are many combination Middle Eastern and Southwest Asians (Indians do not like to be left out of the "asian" catergory).  I live right around the corner from the central mosque (pretty, but blocky; almost as if it were made out of legos), and the entire neighborhood is filled with Falafel/Curry shops. This is quite good for me, you see, because I have had a summer-long obsession with falafel.  Also, there are many small Arab grocers, advertised as "halal", the equivalent of being kosher; they butcher meat as well.  These small stores are very interesting, filled with so many kinds of dates and breads and vegetables. Even avocados, although the one I had tasted a bit funny. 
    Anyways, its quite nice to see this ethic group that we are very much lacking either in Santa Cruz or San Bernardino.  They really are pleasant people. 

Gorgeous georgus!  So the top snapshot is the view from Calton Hill in the middle of the city.  This is half of the famous skyline.  The university is just to the left off of the picture.

The second one a shot of Waverly Station, the almost liquid main train hub (liquid because it seems like it takes the place of a central river, and because it just fits the spot). Above are some grand buildings beyond it. They are the start of the street that I live on (pretty damn regal if I have any say).

And the last is of the waning light of our first night in the city.  Edinburgh looks absolutely fantastic in purple...

Our city so far!  Quite blue and beautiful, but its not always that way.

Funny thing--as we were standing in line for that ice cream cone, we saw a man get hit by a car. He flew up like a cartoon character, maybe four feet into the air.  He picked himself up, but was obviously hurt. The emergency cars came: they are lime green and blue checkered and tiny. Not intimidating at all.

We're climbing Arthur's Seat, which is an old volcano site. I can't remember how high it was
(and who really cares?) but you can see everything, even the opening of the North Sea to the Firth of Forth.