Hello everyone! Sorry that I couldn’t post last week. I was staying at a hostel in the Highlands and the Wifi was unbelievably slow…. Like, DSL slow… Anyways, here is the post I wrote last week, in addition to some updates on what I’ve been up to since then! Warning: it is quite long!
First of all, excellent news: it turns out one of Edinburgh’s best pie shops is right around the corner from my flat. I feel truly blessed by the availability of cheap and delicious Scottish meat pies.
What have I been up to last week? Well, as you’re probably aware, last Monday (Tuesday, technically for us) was the first presidential debate. Being good poli sci students, my fellow interns and I stayed up until 2am to watch it. (Note: I actually went to bed at 10pm and then woke up at 1:30 then went to bed promptly after, but still the point remains) Raucous entertainment, to be sure.
Thursday morning one of my flatmates and I decided it was finally time to head out to Edinburgh castle. I love the castle, however being caught in the rain in not exactly ideal castle-viewing weather. Luckily for us, the weather always seems to change in Scotland and soon the rain cleared up and we were blessed with one of the most vibrant rainbows I’ve ever seen.
Thursday afternoon I finally met the MSP I’m going to be working for. His name is Angus MacDonald and it is quite possibly the most Scottish name I’ve ever heard. He represents the area of East Falkirk and is from the town of Grangemouth which has just received the first shipment of shale gas from none other than the great state of Pennsylvania. Considering this and the heightened interest in alternative energy and global warming, the project I’m going to be working on primarily is to do with climate change. I’ve already been asked to come in to parliament and sit in on a committee meeting with Norwegian climate experts on Tuesday to take notes. It’s a little different from my comfort zone of women’s issues, but I’m still very excited to start my work… if only I didn’t have to worry about studying for finals alongside it!
After the meeting, I came back to my flat and was pleasantly surprised by my fellow interns with some birthday cake, since I wouldn’t be around to celebrate with them this weekend! In a cheeky move, they got two necessities as a gift to me: Nutella and parmesan cheese (which I had been looking EVERYWHERE for and couldn’t find!!) [Update as of 10/7/16: Parmesan cheese fell on the floor and had to be vacuumed away. RIP]
Friday morning I left with a group of fellow Arcadia abroad students on a trip to the Scottish Highlands (Note: last week I went to the lowlands and Edinburgh is in the midlands. This has less to do with the height of the actual land [as they are all quite high indeed] and more to do with its placement on a map). We started our journey at Glencoe which is a picturesque valley near Loch Lomond. One of the forests on its slopes was where the scenes for Hagrid’s hut in Harry Potter were filmed. I explored a little bit in the hour allotted and was rewarded with a quiet lane that wound up the side of the valley, giving me a lovely view of the surrounding mountains.
Following that, we drove up to Loch Ness to stop at Urquhart castle. Loch Ness is one of my favorite places in Scotland; the loch is long and narrow and unfathomably deep as it is formed by a fissure in between two tectonic plates. It is regarded as the border between the Highlands and the rest of Scotland. Despite its reputation for a certain sea monster, Loch Ness really is quite picturesque and despite the morning rain we were graced by beautiful weather in the afternoon. It was a little brisk but the sunshine warded off the chill. It actually reminded me of some beautiful afternoons from both Georgia and Virginia training trips.
On the shores of Loch Ness sits Urquhart Castle, one of the most famous Scottish castles. Its history begins with a visit to Pictish lords by the St. Columba of Ireland. From there it gets much bloodier and laden with conflict and the castle changes hands many times, often undergoing alternating destruction and then renovation. One cool point to note: at one point Clan Macdonald raided and subsequently conquered the castle, much to the chagrin of the Grant lords. What makes this fact particularly fun is that the raiding Macdonalds of the Isles are my ancestors! Unfortunately, their insurrection of the Macdonalds was not well received by the ruling king and they were subsequently punished. The castle’s history culminates in the 1700s with the Jacobite (supporters of King James and Bonnie Prince Charlie who believed a Catholic king ought to rule Scotland) rebellion. The Jacobite army marched on the castle, intending to take it over, and rather than hand the castle over, the lords of the castle blew it up instead. Truthfully, many of the castles in Scotland are not in ruins because they are so very old but rather because they were deliberately blown to pieces.
That evening we went to our hostel in Inverness. A couple friends and I went into town and found a lovely pub to have dinner in where I had a delicious venison burger (my first time having venison!) We were also pleasantly surprised with the performance of a live Ceilidh band (a band playing traditional Scottish folk music) and I even got to dance with a Scottish lady who showed me the steps to one of the dances. The atmosphere of the place was lovely; it was packed with both visitors and locals alike, all clapping along and enjoying the music.
Today it was my birthday [It is actually no longer my birthday; I wrote this a week ago when it actually was my birthday]! We started the day with a drive out to the Isle of Skye. We stopped in a little village on the way before we crossed the bridge over to the Isle and here I thought, “Kim, what is the most Scottish thing you could do in this moment?” Well, the opportunity presented itself most conveniently in the form of Irn Bru Scottish ice cream (Irn Bru is a very sweet bubblegum flavored Scottish soda… in my experience one either loves it or hates it). I thought it was wonderful.
We went on to the Isle of Skye, literally walking over the bridge to get there. Our first stop was an alpaca farm. The alpacas–particularly George, Hamish, and Brodie– were adorable fellas who loved hamming it up for a group of doting American college students. We got to hand feed them, which was quite an interesting experience— they were surprisingly gentle despite their large teeth.
As we continued to drive around Skye we stopped at several points of interest: one was a tore, the ruins of an old tower that would have been used in the Stone Age, and the other was a stop at some sea cliffs that looked reminiscent of the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland (but without the crowds of tourists). My friends got some black pudding there (aka cooked sheep blood!) and claims it was delicious… I tried some and although it was good, it was kind of hard to wrap my mind around the idea of eating blood.
We rounded out the day with a stop in the seaside town of Portree (Gaelic: Port Reigh, aka Port Royal in English, named so after the visit of one of the King James’). There we got some fish and chips freshly caught and made and ate it on the side of the harbor walls. You really can’t beat this view!
The next day was the last day of our Highland weekend trip. First of all we made it out to Culloden Moor, the site of a battle between the British army and the Jacobite army that sought to return a Catholic king to the throne of England. Wihle they were mostly known for being Highland Scots, there were French and Irish Jacobite supporters as well. If you have read or watched the series Outlander, you’ll know the outcome of the battle. The exhibit they have on the battle is fantastic, and allows you to learn about the developments of the British and the Jacobite armies side by side, ultimately culminating in a recreation of the battle. Outside on the moor there are red and blue flags to symbolize where exactly the opposing forces stood before the battle began. There are stones to commemorate each clan on the sites of mass graves. As we made our way back to Edinburgh, we made a stop at another whiskey distillery in a little town called Blair Athol.
This past week was the last week of classes, which means the next will be all finals. Mostly I’ve been studying to prepare for those, but there were a few highlights from this past week.
Tuesday night I got to go to my first official Parliament business, a talk hosted by a group called Nordic Horizons. The topic was given by a Norwegian climate change expert about Norway and Scotland with regards to climate change. This was a great introduction to the topic I’m going to be researching for my MSP. I’m going to be looking at the Nordic countries and researching how they have addressed climate change and, given that they are of similar populations and climate as Scotland, how Scotland can look towards the Nordics and have a positive impact on climate change. The meeting itself was very informative, and although I won’t bore you with details, one interesting topic the presenter posed was to imagine Scotland becoming a Nordic country itself. A crazy thought, to be sure: Scotland in my head will always be British. But then again, Scotland does have it’s own Viking heritage, and as I mentioned given its climate and population, this probably isn’t too much of a stretch. Kind of blew my mind!
Aside from that, I also got to experience my first really professional setting, which I was quite pleased with. My MSP introduced me to other MSPs, I got to meet the person giving us the talk (and they even took my picture with him! Me, a lowly intern!!) And I even got to sit at ‘the big kids table’ during the meeting, the one with all the microphones and stuff, rubbing elbows with other politicians. I was quite chuffed by the whole event to say the least!
Friday morning we got to go to a presentation by two people from the European Council, a body (not related to the EU!) that has representatives from all over Europe that are elected to oversee the support of democracy all over Europe. I’ll be honest, I almost missed the event because I thought it was going to be in the afternoon and not the morning… but I still managed to be the first one there, showered and presentable!
Today I spent mostly studying, but I did get to take a break and go for a row with the club rowing team on the Union Canal. It’s a beautiful spot, for sure, but incredibly narrow! It’s barely wide enough for a four, and passing boats is a bit of an ordeal. Even still, the water was flat and it felt good to get out and have a crack at rowing a single again.
Hope everything is going well back in the ‘Burg, I miss you all! If you’ve read this far I hope you have a wonderful day 😉
Best,
Kim