Goodbye, For Now, Edinburgh

To say these past two months have flown by is an understatement. They've gone by so quickly that I keep thinking I'm going home and still have my summer ahead of me. More like I'm heading back to school in a week! But I wouldn't trade my time in Scotland for anything.

Edinburgh has been incredible. The people, the city, the experiences. I cannot thank everyone enough for making my time here so special. I will never forget everyone at the NHS and QMU, my flatmate, and the friends I've made along the way.

I came to Scotland with a few stereotypes in mind. For example, the Scots love to drink, they play bagpipes on every corner, they actually do wear kilts, they eat fried anything, it rains a lot, and they're downright friendly. Turns out every one of these is true, but that's precisely why I've enjoyed it so much.

The day I visited Edinburgh Castle and climbed up Arthur's Seat and took in the views from both places will forever stick in my mind as the defining moment that made me fall in love with Scotland. The views were some of the most striking I've ever seen. Medieval buildings, beautiful gardens, and the ocean all within an arm's reach.

Living in another country is on my bucket list, and even though I can now successfully check it off, I know this won't be the last time I visit Scotland or Edinburgh. I would love to come back for Edinburgh's famous Hogmanay (one of the biggest New Year's celebrations in the world), but regardless of when and why I come back, I look forward to the day.

And with that I say, goodbye, for now, Scotland. Cheers, I'll be seeing you.

London Calling

Today, I am heading to London for a few days to see my parents after almost two months. I am definitely excited to see them and to have the chance to relax and travel around while abroad.

We are going to Parliament, afternoon tea, a theater show, and I'm sure I can convince my parents to go shopping. I am also excited to have some delicious food since I've been keeping myself on a strict budget here!

While I am excited to be in London with them, I am more excited for them to fly back up to Edinburgh with me so that I can show them all around the city and they can see what I have been up to during the summer. We have dinner reservations at some great restaurants, are going to the Royal Military Tattoo, seeing the Scottish Highlands, and going to all the best sights.

It's crazy to think that after my parents fly back home, I will be seeing them again in only a week because my time in Scotland will have come to an end. The summer is flying by more quickly than I like to admit.

Aye, the Scottish Accent

Seeing as to how I spent my past weekend in London, and got a refresher on the posh London English accent, now seems like the perfect time to reflect on the Scottish accent. Where to begin…

When I first arrived in Edinburgh, I didn’t know what to expect apart from watching a few YouTube videos of Scottish people talking. I was aware that the Scottish accent and English accent are quite different, so I immediately began to take note of how the Scots sound. I had always liked the English accent because they sound so refined compared to many Americans, but I wasn’t sure how I felt about the Scottish accent at first. A part of me wanted to think that the Scots sounded slightly uneducated, but then I realized this was probably because I couldn’t understand a lot of them in the beginning, so I assumed they were mumbling and ineloquent.

However, now that I only have a few weeks left in the UK, I can say hands down that one of the things I will miss the most is the sound of a Scot chatting away. The Scots slightly roll the letter R. Not to the same degree as someone speaking Spanish for example, but it’s definitely noticeable and enjoyable to the ears. Strangely enough, the word murder is a perfect example for how captivating a Scottish person can sound. If you’re ever visiting, ask someone to say murder with the thickest Scottish accent possible, and you’ll see what I mean. A lot of people will greet you with “Hiya!” instead of hello and good evening would be something like guid eenin. They use a glottal stop, which comes from the throat, and while I've tried again and again to imitate them, I end up making a fool of myself more than anything.

Scotland can be confusing in terms of its languages. English is obviously spoken by nearly everyone, but in certain regions, Scottish Gaelic is also spoken, and there is a BBC channel entirely in Gaelic. While Gaelic is fairly uncommon today, a language called Scots is often times used in junction with English. For example, instead of saying yes, it is very common for a Scot to say aye. Almost every Scot speaks a degree of Scots and will throw Scots words into their sentences. If they know they’re speaking to an American though, aye will immediately turn into yes.

 

What's interesting is that going just six miles outside of the city center to Musselburgh, where part of my internship is based, the accents already get thicker. There have been times on my daily bus ride where I try to understand what people are saying to absolutely no avail. I have been asked to repeat myself only a couple of times due to someone not understanding my American accent, but I've realized that I don't know how to "turn down" my accent. The Scottish people can definitely turn down their accents though, and I even had one person tell me that he would try to not roll his r's for my sake.

My flatmate and I joke (though I’m not sure how much we are actually joking) that we want to marry Scottish men just because their accents make them so attractive. Hey, maybe one of us will! A girl can dream right?

It's Official: I Love Edinburgh

The past week has been nothing but kind to me. First of all, the weather! Wow. As I write this during my lunch break, it's a sunny 79 degrees. Yes, you read that right. It's basically 80 degrees here (which I think is about 25 Celsius..still trying to get the conversions down). The hottest it has ever been on record in Edinburgh is 88, so this bout of perfect weather is a real treat. I'm still thinking I brought the San Diego sunshine with me!

With the good weather, we decided this past weekend was the perfect time to visit Edinburgh Castle, head to the Edinburgh seaside, and climb the looming Arthur's Seat. On Saturday, we visited the castle and the views were incredible. Essentially, if you make your way around the castle parameters, you get a 360 degree view of the entire city. The seats for the Military Tattoo are set up outside the castle and got me excited for when the family comes to visit.

View from Edinburgh Castle

Our lunch consisted of Cadbury Flake McFlurries in Princes Street Gardens. Yes, we got lunch at McDonald's, but they were Cadbury chocolate flavored, which is something you surely can't find at home. Next up, a stop at Calton Hill, the location of the Scottish National Monument, and then off to Portobello Beach. Google Maps deceived us on this one. We walked and we walked and we walked, for about an hour and a half before making it to the cute seaside town. The beach was one of my favorite attractions so far. Obviously crowded due to the weather, we couldn't help but find ourselves comparing the different sights seen at American and Scottish beaches. First off, there are zero waves, not a single one rolled onto the shore. Alcohol in glass bottles and dogs without leashes seems to be commonplace, as evidenced by random dogs running up to me and a man drinking straight from his handle of Smirnoff. Easily the strangest sight though was the lack of bathing suits. Only the kids were wearing bathing suits, while almost every adult was in normal clothing. Oh and of course, where you'd find a hamburger and hot dog stand at a beach at home, we found a fish and chips restaurant. There's nothing quite like a dinner of fish and chips with some vinegar and brown sauce (instead of ketchup) on the beach to finish off a lovely Saturday.

Lunch in Princes Street Gardens

Fish and Chips Dinner (w/ Scotland's favorite soda Irn Bru)

Portobello Beach

Dreading the thought of another hour and a half walk, we hopped on the bus to get home. One of the nice things about the buses here is that almost all of them stop in the center of town, so you can usually hop on any of them and not end up lost.

Sunday morning brought more sunshine, so it was time for the climb up Arthur's Seat. Arthur's Seat is the highest peak of a set of hills that make up an extinct volcanic site. The ascent is physically demanding, but well worth it. The views at the top made me stop and realize just how much I love Edinburgh. Edinburgh is by far one of the best European cities because it has everything a city has to offer without being overwhelmingly large. It's easy to get from one place to the next, it's beautiful, the people are nice, and the history is rich.

View from Arthur's Seat looking towards the Firth of Forth

View from Arthur's Seat looking onto the city of Edinburgh

The entrance to Arthur's Seat borders the Scottish Parliament building and Holyrood Palace, where the Queen stays when she visits Edinburgh every summer. We walked towards the Scottish Parliament building, and even though I just said Edinburgh is beautiful, the Scottish Parliament building is just about one of the ugliest buildings ever. It was built in 1999, since Scotland's own Parliament is fairly young. I don't know if the architects were trying to be different and modern, but they really should have just stuck with the traditional architecture of the city. The Scots know they have an ugly government headquarters and it's become a bit of either a joke or a sore spot, depending on who you ask.

The hideous Scottish Parliament building

Our afternoon included a walk through Greyfriars Kirkyard. This graveyard hosts the gravesite of John Grey, a man whose dog watched over his grave for fourteen years until his own death. It's also about a minute's walk from The Elephant House, where J.K. Rowling wrote much of Harry Potter. The graveyard has a tombstone labeled, "Thomas Riddell," which the locals say was inspiration for Tom Riddle/Voldemort's name in the Harry Potter series. We finished the day off with a walk through the Meadows to see all of the sunny weather BBQs and a stop at S. Luca's ice cream. It's a famous ice cream store with every local, and I can see why. It was delicious.

S. Luca's Chocolate and Nutella ice cream

Being in Europe, I clearly walk from place to place a lot more than in the States. Obviously, I don't have a car, but neither do most people who live in the city, and European cities are typically more walkable than anything back home. Out of curiosity, I google mapped everywhere we walked this weekend. Take a guess, how many miles do you think we walked?

Twenty!

Needless to say, I saw so much of what Edinburgh has to offer this past weekend, and I made use of my iPhone's panorama photo feature so that I will always remember just how beautiful this city is.

Glasvegas and Edinbourgeois

First off, I just realized that I have no idea what people from Edinburgh are called. And according to the Internet, neither do the Edinburgh natives. Is someone from Edinburgh an Edinburger? An Edinburgian? An Edinbourgeois? While I'm only kidding about the Edinbourgeois nickname, it correctly plays on Edinburgh's classy reputation. Glasgow, on the other hand, has a reputation as being less pretty, but more fun. Therefore, for the sake of this blog post, let's call Edinburgh, "Edinbourgeois," and Glasgow, "Glasvegas." 

Edinburgh

Glasgow

I spent my saturday in Glasvegas and my Sunday back in Edinbourgeois. To sum up the two, Glasgow is better for shopping and nightlife, while Edinburgh is better for culture and history. In Glasgow, we headed to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, followed by a walk through the University of Glasgow and its Hunterian Art Gallery and Museum. Kelvingrove and Glasgow Uni are housed in beautiful buildings. Glasgow Uni reminded me of something out of Hogwarts and I couldn't help but feel very studious when wandering the courtyards. Next up, a walk through the Kelvingrove Park on the way to the Glasgow Cathedral. Next to the beautiful Cathedral is the Necropolis cemetery with ancient, towering tombstones. Finally, dinner at a cute, eclectic restaurant where we each ate an entire pizza after having walked for six hours straight.

Glasvegas was definitely worth seeing. I got to experience the thick Glasgow accent and friendly people that the city is famous for. Glasvegas is an appropriate title when considering the sheer amount of nightclubs, pubs, and bars we walked past to get from one place to the next. My roommate's friend, a Glasgow native, spent a good amount of time talking about the Glasgow nightlife, but we had to catch our bus back that night, so I didn't get to experience it. Maybe I'll have to stop by again - it's only an hour and twenty minute bus ride!

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

University of Glasgow

Not to say that the nightlife in Edinburgh isn't impressive. After some well-deserved relaxing on the couch, we headed to the Three Sisters Pub and Bar, Malone's Irish Pub, and finally, Espionage. Three Sisters was crowded and HOT. I have been missing the heat of Southern California, but this was the kind of heat from way too many sweaty people in one place. The employees wear kilts and I snapped a few photos to add to my collection of men wearing kilts. At Malone's, the band sang 500 Miles by The Proclaimers (so Scottish), and Espionage was a maze of multiple stories. I'm still not sure how I found my way out. The Scottish party hard, probably harder than Americans, and enjoy laughing, singing, and dancing like fools.

Kilts abound

Today, we headed to the Royal Botanic Gardens. We got a little lost on the way, but it was worth it because we came across a vantage point with a loch (the Scots never say lake) and a view of the entire city, including the castle and Arthur's Seat. After being lost, I was pretty thirsty once we made it to the gardens. We stopped off at the terrace cafe, and the great scenic views and heavily overpriced apple lemonade mango drink concoctions are exactly why Edinbourgeois is a rightful title. Dinner tonight was haggis, neeps, and tatties. I actually enjoyed this concoction of sheep's heart, liver, and lungs minced up with onions, spices, turnips, and mashed potatoes. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it's definitely a must if you're visiting Scotland. After all, it's the national dish.

Haggis, neeps, and tatties

Views of the city

On to the third week of my internship. This week I'm going to start setting up interviews with NHS employees to put together a report on leadership, gender, and structural changes occurring in the NHS Lothian region. I'm looking forward to meeting new people and have definitely enjoyed how my internship has allowed me to talk to people from all over the world. Which reminds me, I've marked my calendar to go get hamburgers and french fries (not calling them chips this time around) on the Fourth of July. Can't wait for a little taste of home!

Wonderful Weekend

I wish the weekend wasn't coming to an end (like always), because it has definitely been a good one. I got off of work a little early on Friday afternoon and took the chance to finally run a few errands. Every type of convenience store here seems to close at 5, and I can't figure out how people ever run their errands if they work until 5. I'll have to ask some locals what the reasoning for this is! My weekend quickly became exciting as soon as my flatmate and I headed off to the pubs in celebration of both completing the first week of our internships and the longest day of the year. The sun wasn't scheduled to set in Edinburgh until after 10, so we headed off with the sun still shining!

First stop: Finnigan's Wake. A quintessential Irish pub with live music and a happy crowd. Ciders in hand, we enjoyed the live band and the rowdy Scots. I couldn't help but laugh when the band started performing "American Idiot" by Green Day. Thankfully, both an Australian and a Scot complimented us on our American accents not too long after, making up for the embarrassing Green Day lyrics.

Next stop: Frankenstein Pub. Frankenstein's is pretty quirky. It's Halloween/monster/scary themed, complete with a Frankenstein monster that suspends from the ceiling at midnight. In Scotland, bachelor parties are called a stag do and bachelorette parties are called a hen do. A bunch of groomsmen were inside for a stag do, dressed as nuns and dancing the night away. I noticed pretty quickly that it's typical for men to dress in silly costumes for bachelor parties. I've seen nuns, nurses, French maids, etc. For the next few hours, we chatted with people from Canada, Poland, Ireland, and of course, Scotland. Scottish people have a more indirect form of communication than Americans and are frankly, hard to understand at times. Whereas Americans come right out and say it, the Scots will try to skirt around a topic. Speaking from personal experience, they use this tactic to their advantage to poke fun at the foreigners. As if hearing people in loud clubs wasn't hard enough, add a Scottish accent to the mix and you're sure to be saying "Sorry, what?" every two seconds. (The Scottish accent will  get its own blog post at some point)

Needless to say, it was a late night, so we slept in on Saturday morning. And finally, I got the real Edinburgh experience. RAIN. Subsequently, it seemed fitting to visit a museum. Off to the National Museum of Scotland we went! What a great museum. Each floor houses a different part of Scottish history, and as I made my way up each floor, I made my way into modern Scotland. The museum was complete with history on whisky, tartan plaid, and Celtic clans. After the museum, we were craving some greasy food and visited a Turkish kebab shop. The lamb kebabs and chips (french fries) were delicious, and a nice way to pass the time during the rain.

"Chips" and brown sauce

On Saturday night, we went on the Literary Pub Tour. This famous tour takes people from pub to pub, with one tour guide telling tales of how Scotland's famous poets and novelists partook in endless drunken nights all across the city's pubs, while the other tour guide told a rosier version of the story. Both recited poems and pieces of literature in the traditional Scots language, which is nearly impossible for a native English speaker to understand, but beautiful nonetheless. Courtenay, our coordinator for our time in Edinburg, joined us on the tour and then took us to the RatPack Piano Bar afterwards where we listened to a man sing the tunes of Frank Sinatra and Michael Bublé. Saturday was a success!

To finish the weekend off, we trekked to the nearest grocery store before heading off to the Royal Mile and Princes Street. On the Royal Mile, we stopped in St. Giles Cathedral, the principle place of worship in Edinburgh. As it contains memorials to over 200 famous Scots, the cathedral is a must see. On Princes Street, we found a store called Americandy where I bought an Arizona Iced Tea and spotted the otherwise hard to find Hershey's Chocolate. The Scots and English don't like Hershey's Chocolate. They think it's far too bitter and prefer much sweeter chocolate. I have yet to try Cadbury's or Galaxy chocolate, but it's definitely on my to do list. In the UK, a Mars Bar is the equivalent of our Milky Way, and if I'm feeling brave, I might also try a deep fried Mars Bar. As for the iced tea, Brits still give iced tea the cold shoulder and it's been the hardest food/drink from home to give up.

The Royal Mile with St. Giles Cathedral in back

Tonight, we are trying to figure out how to operate our washer/dryer and are making a Edinburgh/Scotland Bucket List. Dinner is some veggies and a traditional Scotch pie! Mondays aren't my favorite, but I'm headed to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary tomorrow, which is sure to be a great experience.

The Bucket List

TGI(almost)F

As I sit here on my couch, looking out the window at a 10:30 p.m. sky that compares to the sky at dusk back home, I find myself reflecting on my first week in Edinburgh almost coming to a close. This past week has definitely flown by, and by no means have I found myself bored.

When I first arrived, the skies were cloudy and gray and I couldn't help but feel myself missing the sunny SoCal weather. But, nothing says, "Welcome to Great Britain" like rain right? Drizzly weather and all, my excitement ran high as we headed towards our flat. On the way to the flat, I encountered the first obvious cultural difference: I was sitting in the passenger seat on the left side of the car. Driving on the opposite side of the road and having to look the opposite direction when I'm crossing the street is something I don't think I could ever get used to. But that's another story. When we arrived, our flat was exactly what I expected. It's quintessentially European with a strange bathroom, small kitchen appliances, and mismatched furniture, but the woodwork and old architecture adds a sense of charm you just don't find in the States. Of course with my luck, the electricity wasn't working, so after a quick (and delicious) dinner at the local pub, we headed to the gym down the street to take a shower. I must say that I do not recommend a gym shower to wash away so many hours of traveling. Eager to sleep but even more eager to feed my Internet needs, I took a look at our fuse boxes and alas, I fixed the electricity! Certainly a good ending to the busy, tiring day.

Sunday morning we went to the local grocery store. First things first, cilantro = coriander, zucchini = courgette, oatmeal = porridge, soda = fizzy juice, shopping cart = trolley, candy = sweets, chips = crisps, french fries = chips, cookies = biscuits, and the list goes on. Sadly, my Arizona Iced Tea addiction will not be fed over the next two months, but I've decided to go the British route and drink hot English Breakfast tea instead. Next up, we explored the city and I got my first feel for just how great and "brilliant" Edinburgh really is. There's so much to see and so much to do over these next few months and I can't wait for what's ahead! Just look at how beautiful it is.

On Monday the 17th (17/6/2013 in the U.K.), my internship with NHS Lothian and Queen Margaret University began. It's been quite a crazy first week of interning and definitely deserves a post of its own, but more on that tomorrow.

For now, I'm off to bed even though the sun hasn't set cause that's the Edinburgh way.