Hiya everyone, hope you all are doing well what with all the craziness going on. It certainly has been an exhausting week for me.
On Sunday I decided to go out and explore Edinburgh a bit; I wandered around, up and down the streets, poking into some shops I’ve been meaning to look at. I ended up meandering over to Dean’s Village, a neat little neighborhood over in Newtown overlooking the Leith. It’s a quaint little place, with buildings that seem almost fairytale-esque. There’s admittedly not much to do over there, but it is very pretty.
Tuesday, as you all well know was Election Day. And man oh man what a crazy day it was. I went on a run at 7am (sunrise here up north in Scotland…) and was rewarded with this beautiful sunrise.
Runs in Edinburgh are always worth it; the city is beautiful, especially in the morning when no ones awake yet. Not too mention that there probably are few places in the world where you can casually run around a volcano!
That evening, after finishing work and a quick nap, some friends and I went to a pub to watch the election coverage. Now, I need to remind you that Edinburgh is five hours ahead of the East Coast, to say nothing about the West. We’re about eight hours ahead of there. So, the coverage already started pretty late. What with the results being completely unexpected and a very close race, we ended up staying until 5am (What can I say?! We’re Poli Sci students!) I won’t say anything here about the politics itself, but needless to say everyone was in a bit of a daze at work the next day.
Thursday was a bit of a change from my usual routine of researching and writing things for my MSP. We had a group of people from the Forth Valley Sensory Center come in for a tour of Parliament, sit in on First Minister Questions, and meet with my boss. I was very grateful for the chance to meet all of them; they were delightful and very funny people! I also had the opportunity to go on their tour with them. I was grateful I asked to go because in addition to the usual stops on tour (and believe me, I’ve been on enough to know the routine by now) we got to go onto the floor of the debating chamber where all the MSPs and presiding officer sit.
I was also very lucky to get an extra ticket to FMQs; usually they’re booked up to months in advance and people in Parliament are send out emails every week pleading for extras. They seemed especially rowdy this week, with all the questions either being about the National Health Service or Donald Trump (Yes, really.) If you want to read about it click here.
The guests from the FVSC met with my MSP over lunch after that. I think one of the most valuable things I’m learning about politics from this internship is about how everything they do is for their country. They aren’t called the National Scottish Party for nothing! For these people the most valuable things you can do is to meet and listen to your constituents. My MSP and his staff do so much to try and help their people; it clearly must work because from the first time to the second time he was elected my MSP doubled his majority. For the Scottish National Party as a whole, half of voters voted for their party, giving them a near majority in a system which is designed to discourage majorities. So, clearly, they must be doing something right.
I like to think I played my part by getting my visitors a photo op with the First Minister herself 😉
Today I got to go to my first rugby game! I like to think I understand it pretty well; it’s a lot like football but paced like soccer and with some unique rules, like how you can’t throw forwards. The game I went to see was Scotland VS Australia! It’s a bit of a rivalry as Scotland had a tough loss to Australia a couple years ago. They had another tough loss today, unfortunately, losing right at the end of the game by just one point. Despite that, I had a really great time, and the atmosphere was really fantastic! Where else but Scotland do you have pipers in the crowd playing the national anthem to rally fans before halftime?
As you might be able to tell, it’s packed! I wish I could include a video of the singing of the anthem, because it’s really something special. And, I might be biased, but Scotland definitely has the best national anthem. If you ever needed to know anything about the Scots, just know that their anthem is all about how they will rise again against the English just like they did back in the day against King Edward II, who national hero Robert the Bruce soundly defeated in the 1300s.
Anyway, that’s all from me for this week. Warrior women, good luck at your race this weekend! Talk to you next week from balmy Iceland 😉
Cheers xx
Kim