Walking, and still walking... Where's my car???

I keep forgetting how far away things are without my car. And it doesn't matter if those shoes that are adorable and are comfortable to walk in for short distances are necessarily good for anything more than that... Roughly translated, my feet hurt and if I want to wear cuter shoes (ie- not my sneakers) then I have to carry them with me to my destination and switch them there.

And for all of you hopeful people out there I am now a size 10 (thanks to a differing clothing size system) and have size 6-7 feet (This one I'm still having issues with..). For those of you who have been waiting for this, enjoy... For now...


So I've been busy (hence it's been awhile since I've posted anything). Freshers week is finally upon us so now we have more people coming to the Uni (which is the short term for University). Luckily for me (since I have my first exams next week-Prayers welcome) most of the entire section of the building that we're in is just Vet students. This means we'll have massive parties, but only when it's convenient for us and this week it should be quiet in our stairwell.

Yes, apparently even graduate students have this fresher mentality of partying... It's a little strange to see people my age still acting like they're 18 (aging hasn't caught up to them yet).

So here's the latest update on my goings ons:

If you haven't seen the Facebook album "Edinburgh Hills" click here to see it. I climbed to the top of Arthur's Seat, which is part of Holyrood Park next to the University and is an easy walk from my flat. Arthur's Seat is the tallest of the hills there and the easiest way to get up there is on the opposite side of where I started (not that I knew that at the time). So I climbed a steep path up to the top, winding around the hill next to it and looking back at the craigs (which there are few pictures of the back of it in the album, it overlooks the city). After climbing to the top, I looked around and spied a small stone castle-ly ruin thing on the other side of the park, so after looking around for a bit, I trekked across the park (taking a much much easier path this time) and checked it out. It was St. Anthony's Chapel, originally built in the early 15th century (the 1400's for those who are trying to figure that out) and all that's left is a wall and a half. Very pretty if you look at the pictures (I may have misslabeled them as St. Andrew's... He's something different). I tried to take my pictures of it creatively due to some teenagers hanging out in the doorway of it giving my crazy looks of "you are disturbing us" which I ignored because they were dumb to pick a tourist hotspot if they wanted any privacy...

I am eventually going to make it to Calton Hill which has the national monument on it among other things and a very lovely view of Prince's Street.

So basically, I tried to wear out the bottoms of my shoes (my socks aren't lasting but my shoes are holding in there) because from the back of Holyrood I walked to the end of the Leith Walk (which is crazy) and then back home (even crazier). In order to appreciate the amount of walking that I did, leave your house one day and walk to the store for milk. Roughly, that's what I'm doing. (And if you live next to a convenience store that doesn't count).

With the Fringe Festival done and to end the International Festival they had a fireworks display at the castle that is accompanied with a live Orchestra. Pyrotechnics at its best. I went with the rest of the vet students back to Holyrood and climbed to the top of the Craigs to watch and listen to the broadcast of the music over the radio. I found out the next day that we had quite possibly the worst seats because there was so much that we missed due to being behind the castle and from so far away (for example, they apparently had a firework waterfall go over the castle wall T.T ). As it is Labor Day weekend, I'm feeling a little torn as to whether I'd like to be here to see it properly or be home at the fair (Fair's winning in case you were wondering).

Words:

You remember a while back I was having issues with the cookie biscuit thing? Well, problem solved: they're all biscuits unless their cakes. Today I was given yet another cookie and then heard that they're not sure whether to call it a biscuit or a cake (and remember that this thing looks to me like a cookie). Apparently they get very agitated about these sorts of things and there was some sort of lawsuit over whether or not these things were biscuits or cakes. Honestly, this is cake:



Ok, I was amused by the divorce cake (not divorce itself, just the cake because blood is involved and it's one of the first things to appear when you image search cake).

This has been followed with being offered a cup of squash.



As it would turn out, squash does not have the vegetable in it. It's a fruit juice-like concentrate that is very sweet and you add water to (but juice is something else which wasn't exactly explained to me...). As it would turn out, I had apple pear squash and liked it (keeping in mind that I don't like apples or pears).

I also recently learned the word "posh" (because it's not very used in my area and I was left making funny faces at people trying to guess from sentences what it meant).

While I was wandering around last week, I somehow managed to continuously find everyone in Edinburgh who I know should be speaking English, but the accent on them was so thick that I could decipher what they were trying to say. One was this nice guy behind a counter who I think thought it was funny that I couldn't keep up in the conversation.

And at the moment, I am currently the only American in church. One person wanted to know why I didn't sound like I was from NYC (which I explained no proper upstate New Yorker would ever want to sound like they were from the city) and I've been giving as much travel advice as those who ask (there's been lots of inquiries on Autumn and the changing leaf colors). And many of the times I have to explain where in the country NY is (which is ok because I fail at geography but at least I know where my state is).

Until Next time!!