Author: Kim Winter

Hiya friendos,

Just wanted to let you all know that I’m still abroad and that I haven’t dropped off the face of the Earth! These past three weekends I’ve been traveling to different countries and either haven’t had good wifi or a computer to use to post. I’m not going to post every single detail, but rather some highlights from each trip. Aside from that, during the week I continue to work for the Scottish Parliament and I’m having a blast! I love it and I don’t want to go home.

Anyway, my first trip was off to Iceland. It was gorgeous, in a strange, sort of surreal way. I’ve been describing it as a more extreme Scotland, really, but that doesn’t help if you’ve never been to Scotland. What I saw was a lot of perfectly flat lava plains that would suddenly rise up into towering mountains; black sand beaches, lagoons full of icebergs. While I was out there I got to hike a glacier and see the Northern lights, definitely checking two items off of my bucket list. It goes without saying that it was absolutely bloody freezing there. No matter how many layers you wear (and trust me, I wore a LOT) it was still unbelievably cold.

 

Thanksgiving weekend I was off to Krakow, Poland. I have to say, that was one of my favorite trips, despite the disorienting experience of being in a country where I had absolutely no grasp on the language at all. Krakow is a really beautiful city; I’ve been told its a lot like Prague but I’ve never been to Prague so I cannot confirm. We toured the city, ate lots of pierogis, saw Polish cathedrals and castles, a local flea market (where I got an LL Bean sweater for 6$!), and the Christmas Market. But, I have to say, the definitive highlight of the trip was going to Auschwitz 1 concentration camp and Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. It’s one thing to have studied the Holocaust in school; its another matter entirely to be standing in the places where such atrocities occurred. It was deceptively peaceful; unnaturally quiet, seemingly devoid of life, sun shining gently and almost surreally in a grey-pink shroud at the end of the day. It was most certainly a somber experience, but I think, a necessary one. It serves as a warning and a reminder of what the worst parts of humanity can become, and an obligation that all must be done to prevent this from happening again.

 

My last trip was to Gibraltar and Morocco via Spain. This I think was the trip with the most culture shock for me. The Moroccan cities I visited were different from any I’ve ever been, no European influence in the slightest. I think my favorite part of the whole experience was just sitting outside in the early evening and listening to all the calls for prayer at all the different mosques. While the tour I did was a bargain, I definitely got what I paid for in that the trip itself wasn’t quite as good as the others I’ve done. Regardless, Morocco is a wonderful country, and I wish I could go back and learn more about the culture without a 100 other American college students.

The last leg of my journey was a slight (intentional) detour. I flew in to Glasgow from Spain and then the next day I flew out to Dublin, caught a bus, and drove out to Limerick. I went out to see a band called British Lion, which is a side project of the bassist for Iron Maiden, Steve Harris, and my favorite bassist and the genius behind Maiden, my favorite band. It was a long day of traveling; I think I walked about 8 miles that day, but it was absolutely worth it to be in the front row of the concert and be so close and to get his autograph and photo after.

Anyway, I’m exhausted so that’s all from me. It looks like this might be my last post, as a week from now I’ll be heading home… However, I may have some fun stories from the SNP Christmas party! Fingers crossed I can get a picture with the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon…

Cheers,

Kim

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

The 5th of November

Hiya everyone, happy Guy Fawke’s Day, or bonfire night as its also known.

For those who don’t know (because I didn’t before today either!) tonight there will be fireworks lit off all across the UK to commemorate the arrest of Guy Fawkes who was associated with the gunpowder plot to blow up the Parliament back in the 1600s. Since then the holiday has been celebrated with bonfires and fireworks ever since.

Earlier tonight my friends and I went up to Calton Hill in New town. We were hoping to see the big annual fireworks display, but it was cancelled tonight due to wind. We still got to see some other, smaller displays from that view, but nothing as big and spectacular as we were expecting.

The rest of my week hasn’t been too exciting, aside from my parents coming to visit me. Unfortunately I had to work through the whole week, so I only really got to see them at meal times.

This week in Parliament, I got to learn a lot about biodiversity in Scotland (long story short: it needs to get better) as I had to help write two speeches for my MSP. One was about a spider, for which he is species champion, and the other welcoming a report on biodiversity by the Scottish Parliament.

Yesterday I went out to the constituency office in Grangemouth. I had the opportunity to go with my MSP to his surgery (Which, as I found out, does not mean ‘surgery’ as in the medical term like we use here in the US– here surgery can mean an overall appointment) in Bo’ness. He had meetings with some local people to listen to their concerns in person and to assure them he will do all he can to help them. After that we went to a local chippy and got some lunch. We rounded out the trip with a visit to the Kelpies, a relatively new, but no less spectacular, landmark in Falkirk. They’re basically giant (like, almost the size of the statue of liberty) steel statues of horse heads to commemorate the Clydesdale horses that used to pull barges up and down the canals. The name ‘kelpies’ comes from the Scottish myth of beautiful young women who used to lure young men down to the river, transform into horse-headed monsters, and drown them. Warm and fuzzy, I know.

Anyway, my head is really hurting right now and I really am quite tired; that’s all from me this week folks!

Cheers,

Kim