Greetings from a place where I’m still wearing summer dresses and Birkenstocks! (They’ve already put up Christmas directions in the street…but it’s like 75 degrees every day…)
This past weekend was a long one! I traveled to Amsterdam and Cologne, Germany with Steph! We both loved Amsterdam, even though we didn’t understand the little bit of Dutch we heard. We went on a canal cruise, rented bikes and rode around, went to the flower market, the Heineken Experience, and some other things. I also went back to Amsterdam for a day by myself and saw the Anne Frank house, which was very emotional and utterly amazing. It was surreal to be where she hid with her family.
When we were trying to climb up on the giant letters, I was having trouble fitting between the a and m while Steph was taking pictures…and there was a guy hysterically laughing at me behind her. What can I say, when you lift as much as we do, these quads aren’t fitting in a space that small! (I’ve included a picture for your enjoyment).
We also went to Germany…and understood literally nothing. SO MUCH GERMAN. But nonetheless, we had a good time. Good German food, chocolate, and most importantly…a hockey game. Needless to say I was quite emotional when we stumbled across the local team’s home game. There were two players on opposite teams that both played in Hershey, PA at one point, which is pretty cool (to me anyway).
Now I’m back in Granada enjoying (not really) catching up on all the work I neglected to do. I’m looking forward to taking a day trip with my program this weekend and then relaxing on Sunday. The weekend after that I’ll be headed to….Africa (Morocco) (as long as everything works out). I’m pretty stoked!
I miss you all so very much. I hope you all had a great Halloween and killed it at the costume lift! Hard to believe that I’ll be home in less than two months!
Wowza, can’t believe its time for me to post here again, feels like it was only just a few days ago that I made my other post! Time really is flying by; I can’t believe it’s been two months since I’ve gotten to Edinburgh!
Anyway, I’m kind of tired right now so this (hopefully) won’t be too long of a post.
I (officially) started work at the Scottish Parliament this week; starting my first official work/internship experience has certainly been interesting! The main thing I’ve been focusing on so far has been research for my final project, which is about the Nordic countries and how they have/are addressing climate change, and whether Scotland (being of similar population and climate) can possibly replicate any of those changes. My MSP has a real interest in not only the Nordic countries, but climate change as well; he sits on an environment and climate change committee and even gave a speech during a debate in Parliament about a motion he wrote on Thursday (unfortunately I couldn’t watch as I had an ergo session at that time).
Did I ever mention how Scotland has the best Parliament? Because it does.
Other duties so far have included learning how to write motions, sitting in on meetings, and helping get a Gaelic children’s choir settled before an event on Wednesday. Monday and Friday of this coming week I’ll be going back to the constituency to help out at the office there, in addition to coming into work in Edinburgh on Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday.
In other news, my parents and my neighbors have come to visit me here. They’re staying about a five minute walk away, and don’t seem to believe me when I tell them how easy it is to walk to just about any place in the city.
Yesterday they arrived and I showed them around Parliament (got those special visitor passes and everything– intern perks!) and then we paid a quick visit to Holyrood Palace, a residence of the Queen when she’s in Edinburgh (which isn’t very often… Except, it seems, when I visited Scotland last. Oh well.)
It’s not a very big palace, but it certainly is quite lavish. Most definitely fit for royalty. I wish I had pictures from inside, but, alas, no pictures allowed. Here’s some from outside and the Holyrood Abbey instead.
Holyrood AbbeyOutside the palace
That evening, after we ate dinner, we went to go see a band called Wishbone Ash play at a theater across the city in New Town. Now, I quite like this band, but they are most definitely a 70s band. I’m pretty sure I was the only person under 30 there. Anyways, they were pretty good and if you like that kind of 1970s British rock I definitely recommend you give them a listen. Aside from some issues with the sound tech, they were pretty good, almost as good as they are from their hey day.
Today my dad, my neighbor, and I went on a day trip to Stirling Castle and other places in the area (my mom and my neighbor’s wife were supposed to join us but they were both sick, unfortunately). Now, I’ve already been to Stirling Castle a couple times, but the castle is a true gem and never fails to impress, especially as we were graced by a typical Scottish day full of moody grey skies and mist covered hills. It’s really quite spectacular. As usual, photos don’t do it justice.
Following that we made a couple quick stops; first at Doune Castle where they filmed scenes from Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail (the scene where they ride up to the French castle with the coconuts… the ‘your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries’ scene… you know the one), from Game of Thrones (Winterfell, or at least part of it), and Outlander (Castle Leoch!!).
We also stopped for a quick photo op with some highland coos, aka the furry red cows that Scotland is famous for. Did you know that they were the first official breed of cow, having been bred for centuries before there even were official breeds of cows? And that if you stand to close (as I found out the hard way…) they’ll thump you with their massive horns (which both males and females have). Not to worry, it didn’t actually hurt. Regardless, they’re pretty darn cute.
It took FOREVER to get this picture; they wouldn’t stand still!
After that we had a quick lunch break at a mountaintop cafe where they offered zip-lining (alas that we didn’t have enough time to go on!) and then we stopped at another little town and had some ice cream (Kinder Surprise bar ice cream… mmmm). Our last stop was (yet another) whiskey distillery. Did you know that it contributes billions of dollars a year to the Scottish economy?
Anyway, that’s all from me for now. Hope everyone has a happy Halloween!
Hola amigos! Not too much to report this week from Spain! I’m still going to class every day and watching the little boy, Carlos, twice a week. I’m thoroughly enjoying every day I get to spend here, it’s amazing! Also, my Spanish has gotten 10x better, which I would never have been able to do in the US.
This weekend we had to do a scavenger hunt for my Bucknell class. We got to go to a lot of places that I would have never known were in Granada (…because they were suuuuuper far way). My friend Maha and I walked about 7 miles on both Saturday and Sunday! Unfortunately, a lot of it was uphill too… I’ve added some of our pictures from the hunt!
It’s very interesting that everyone here wants to talk about the elections in the US. We talk about it in class, in restaurants, and here in my host mom’s house. Yesterday I sent in my absentee ballot, which was super complicated, but I did it!
That’s about it from this week! On Friday I fly to Amsterdam! Can’t wait to tell you all about it!
Hope everything is going well across the ocean! Miss you all
