Ahhh... I need some Mexican food!

That is the one thing that I really miss over here in Scotland (besides my friends and family of course). Good Mexican food. I've attempted to make some.. but not very sucessfully. I made a burrito.. but with kinda retarded beans because they don't have any refried beans here. I might try to make some myself.. but I'm not sure yet. I also attempted some enchiladas, but without any enchilada sauce they were more like beef burritos with melted cheese, although it was very nice with sour cream and avacado on top. Here is a picture of me with my amazing "enchiladas".
So there are a couple of Mexican restaurants in the city and I am planning an outing to one of them sometime soon. Well, there is my rant of the week.

On another note, I had coffee with Renee last night. It was really good to talk with her because I haven't seen her that often because we don't have any classes together and she lives in a different area. We sat in a coffee shop for a couple hours and had fun chatting about anything and everything. I hope to get my computer all connected today...it has been really difficult not have the internet right there. Ok, well I think I'm gonna go get some lunch. Cheers!

Weather and Weekend Fun

The weather here is pretty crazy. If you ask people about it, they would tell you if you didn't like the weather to wait an hour. Because it changes all the time. All the time. On Friday, evertime I came out of the building the weather would be different, raining one time and sunny the next.. I even saw a rainbow because it was sunny and rainy at the same time. It is also ridiculously windy, especially up on top of Arthur's seat. (its between a mountain and a hill where you have a nice panoramic view of the city... hopefully I'll put up some pictures soon... I'm still working on getting internet in my room.)

This Saturday, Arcadia had a trip to Falkland Palace and St. Andrews, a city on the eastern coast. Renee and I went to the beach and actually into the water... it was freezing cold, and the waves were tiny, but fun to see the ocean. We also went to the castle, cathedral and graveyard. I have an interesting (at least I like to think it is interesting) fascination with graveyards. It is just cool to read what other people were like and to imagine what their day to day life was like.

On Sunday, the rugby team had a game in Glasgow (on the west coast of Scotland, about an hour away) it was pretty fun, but we got clobbered. I also played alot of different positions, none of which were my normal one, that was exciting. Then when we came back I went to an evening service at Carruber's Church which is on the Royal Mile(also known as High Street with the Castle on one end and Holyrood Palace on the other) there was also a student night after the service and some people I knew from the CU were there and the leader was American so that was nice and we sang songs I knew.

Last night, we had a party for our friend Josiah from Seattle who turned 22. My flatmates and I made him a coffee cake because he is a coffee-aholic/ conisore. Then we went to some other people's flat and had pancakes, but more like Swedish style, kinda like crepes or something in America and then we went back to another flat and watched Garden State... I love that movie. All in all a good night. Especially because my first class was at 2 today. Anyway hope everyone is having fun in the States, I appreciate all your comments and emails. Cheers!

Amusements...

So one thing (among many) that I find amusing about Edinburgh is that there is a plethora of seagulls. I mean I never expected to see seagulls so far away from warmness. I guess it kinda makes sense because we are close to water, but I had no idea that they lived so far north. There are some seagulls in this picture... see those white specks? And this isn't Edinburgh, it's St. Andrew's but you know you'll just have to deal without the Edinburgh birds and trust me that these are pretty similar!



Another thing that my flatmates and I find amusing is the little differences in words. Like they use maths instead of math. Or a line where people are waiting for their turn is called a queue. Anyway, we have spent hours and hours just making fun of each other.. it is really cool. And it is nice to have people to banter with in the absense of my old abusees.
I saw the new Pride and Prejudice last night. It was pretty good. But I definitely like the Colin Firth version better. But there is some pretty cool cinemetography in the new one. And I also like the new Mr. Collins better, but it definitely missed some of the little subtleties of the Jane Austen awesomeness. Anyhow hope the rain over in Cali is subsiding...hehe. Cheers.

Oh and another thing...

I also found a swing dancing club... which doesn't quite compare to the amazing swingers I know in the states, but it is definitely better than nothing and only £5 for the entire semester... talk about a deal. Went to my first engineering lecture today for my Environmental Engineering class... should be pretty cool, we have to design a sewer system for a part of Edinburgh..
We also had an introduction to Gaelic yesterday, that class should be really fun as well.
My flat is planning to have an ice cream party for our block on Sunday and I would appreciate prayer for that to go smoothly. Well I guess that is it for now, I need to go do some laundry. ;D

The Nee Nee

For another exciting perspective on the wonders of Edinburgh, visit Renee's site:

http://reneecampbell.blogspot.com/

From the land o` the Scots...

Hello everyone!

The past two weeks have been amazing, Edinburgh is such a beautiful city and I am so excited to be here. I realize it has taken me a bit of time to actually post something, but I think I'll blame it on not really having consistent internet access.

So I arrived in Edinburgh after 11 hours of flying and met Renee at the airport. We took our stuff to the hotel and ate at a quaint little pub on the Royal Mile (the street that goes from Edinburgh Castle down to Holyrood Palace, where the Queen stays when she is here). We also did a bit of exploring before the Arcadia program started and we got to meet all the other students and the program directors. In the next few days we went on a variety of tours and we had talks on some of the differences between America and the UK.

After the Arcadia program, we took taxis to our semester accomadations. I am in a flat in Sciennes which is about ten minutes walking distance from the main campus where 2 of my 4 classes will be. My address is : 20/3 Sciennes
Edinburgh, EH9 NJ1
Scotland

if anyone would like to send me some "post." I have 3 flatmates, Ida, Fiona, and H (short for Henrietta). Ida is from Sweden and was an au pair in England last year. Fiona is from London and worked in a Baptist church last year in the city. H is from Kent, which is south of London and spent last year traveling. So we are all older than most "freshers" and I am the oldest, but only by a month or so. This is Fiona in the kitchen/common room.


So last week was "Fresher's Week" where there were like 25 events every day and big parties at the student unions at night. There were also some Christian Union events that I was able to go to, including a "grub crawl" (in American: progressive dinner) and also a Ceidhl ( pronounced kay-lee) which is basically Scottish line dancing.. it was really fun. My flatmates and I actually went to two last week, and now we are experts..hehe. There is also a small group for our flats, that is meeting tonight. And there are like 30 churches in the city, so I've been trying to go to different ones. One of the ones I went to was really nice and a family took us to their house for lunch. They also have Christian Union large group meetings on Fridays which I also plan to attend.

I also joined the rugby team, we had a training session on Friday and our first game on Sunday. It was pretty crazy, I played for a bit of the second half, but I was one of the few new players who had played that much before. We played this club team full of big old ladies and we were ahead most of the game, but ended up losing 41-40. But we played really well for the first time playing together and it was pretty cool. I also met some Christians on the rugby team, so that was really awesome.

Yesterday was a bank holiday here in Edinburgh, so Ida, Fiona, our friends Josiah and Dave, and I decided to climb up to Arthur's Seat which is a big hill overlooking the city, it was pretty, except that is was really windy and a bit rainy, but I found some heather and was satisfied.

Ok, well I think that is about good for now... my classes start today, although my engineering ones don't start until next Monday. Hope everyone is having a good time wherever they are. Cheers!