"Right here, it's called a scrum, it's kinda like a huddle." "And is a hum kinda like a scruddle?" "Ross, they will kill you out there."

So its taking me no time to get used to this whole four day weekend thing.  I know it wont be like this forever, but for now its been wonderful.  For those of you who dont know/ haven't been paying attention, my MSP is from Glasgow and since Parliament isn't in session on Monday's or Friday's he doesn't come in, meaning that I don't have to go to work either.  Of course this four day weekend was slightly tainted by my final on Friday and Monday, but it was still quite enjoyable.

enjoying the delicious hamburgers

I had a great day at work on Thursday, it still shocks me how much responsibility they give us, I cant imagine any representative in the U.S. having me do the type of things I'm doing at Parliament.  On Thursday my MSP asked me to draft a letter to his constituents about the recent resignation of another MSP on his committee.  He read through and approved the letter of course, but the framework of it was totally me.  I was terrified at first since I had no idea what he wanted me to say, but the whole process ended up being really fun and my MSP kept a lot of my original language so that was pretty neat.  Later that night my friend Clark texted me to come have hamburgers at his place and since hamburgers clearly take priority over a final the next morning I headed over to partake in the deliciousness.  Apparently Clark's specialty is stuffing burgers with various things so we had bacon, cheese and mushroom stuffed burgers.  I was in heaven nd have no regrets about choosing hamburgers over studying. 

Friday morning I had my first final, Scottish Politics.  It wasnt too bad and considering that all my grades come back to SC as pass/fail I feel pretty confident that I at least passed the final. 

That night all the interns celebrated being done with our first final and week of work by having a huge party fully equipped with beer pong.

Just like a frat house!

Now for those of you who don't know Solo cups do not exist in Scotland, therefore the entirety of my time here I have been forced to drink out of normal, non-red, cups.  Only a fellow college student can understand how tragic this is.  Fortunately (although maybe no so fortunate for him) my friend Noah had Visa troubles and had to go back to New York to sort them out, so he was nice enough to return to Scotland with a full supply of red cups.  Needless to say the party was made that much better by the presence of our traditional college drinking containers :)


Saturday I woke up quite early to go to Newcastle with Molly.  Newcastle is a bigger city in Northern England, and very beautiful. We spent a great day just walking around the city and seeing the sites.  A definite highlight was sitting on a bench by the river watching all the locals walk by.  Seriously so many gingers in the UK.
By the time I got back that night I had fully exhausted my supply of energy and collapsed at 11, managing to sleep for 12 hours.  New record?

St. Nicholas Cathedral and on the Millennium Bridge overlooking the river 

Doing a scrum!

Some of the more mildly dressed fans we saw

I tried to get a little bit of work done Friday morning, but mostly I just prepared for the Ireland vs. Scotland rugby game!!! Every year there is a tournament in the UK called Six Nations where Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, France and Italy all play eachother for the title. USC was kind enough to get all of us in Edinburgh tickets to one of the games, so we all took the train over to Haymarket for our first rugby experience!  The whole day was incredible and was definitely one of my favorite things I've done in Scotland.   The gameday vibe reminded me so much of USC.  There were angry fans, vendors selling gear (I got a Scotland scarf for good measure) and yummy stadium food.  The stadium itself was a giant outdoor arena, so we were  lucky that it was sunny and not raining.  Our seats were pretty good too so we got a quality view of all the action. I dont know that much about rugby but I can definitely say that it is now one of my favorite sports to watch.  Everything is just so fast-paced and all the players have no fear since they basically charge into eachother (wearing minimal padding) at every opportunity.  My favorite part was when they throw a ball in from the sidelines each team literally lifts up one of their players so that they will get the ball first.  It's incredible.  The fans were also a really great part of the game.  They are all just so into it and have the greatest cheers.  Every time Scotland scores all the fans do this amazing dance that is basically a combination of the monkey and the twist. Of course the fans, being Scottish and rugby fans, are also ridiculous.  For example, the old Scot sitting next to me bought a cup of coffee then proceeded to take out a massive flask and pour about three shots worth of whiskey into it, when he caught me staring at him he offered me a pull from his flask.  Only in Scotland. 

hanging out outside the stadium

Today I had another final so my day was mostly spent recovering from that and getting ready for work tomorrow.  I did manage to make homemade chili for dinner tonight which was delicious if i do say so myself.  I think I'm really getting the hang of this whole cooking thing ;)

Talk to you all soon!

"I'm Just A Coalminer's Daughter"

Ahhhh so many exciting things to update everyone on from this week!

So like I said on Thursday I met with my MSP and got a little taste of what I would be doing.  What I failed to mention (didnt have permission to talk about these things yet!) was that they also invited me to attend a training session in Glasgow on Saturday.  For those of you unaware Glasgow is the biggest city in Scotland (and third biggest in the UK) and is about an hour away from Edinburgh. This whole training session thing was a little short notice, but I didnt have any plans and I had never been to Glasgow so I agreed to go.

Unfortunately I didnt realize that my commitment to going to Glasgow meant that I needed to wake up at 6:30 in the morning to be at the train station by 7:30 to catch an 8 a.m. train into Glasgow. On top of all of this it started pouring down snow just as I was leaving my flat.  Not exactly the happiest thing to experience in the dark at 730 in the morning, but fortunately I made it to the train station no problem.  I rode over to Glasgow with two of my fellow interns Ian and Fergus (who's nickname is Cumbria....?).  They're both 19, at university in Edinburgh and very nice! Fergus took to calling me Georgia as soon as he found out where I was from which I didnt exactly enjoy, but hey at least we bonded.  Unfortunately I cant really say I saw much of Glasgow since we went straight from the train station to the metro to the office building where our training session was, but underground Glasgow seemed very nice....?

Despite the early morning wake up call the training was actually really fun.  Everyone there was in a good mood and we got to learn how to use photoshop to make campaign flyers and stuff. We also had competitions over who could finish their project the fastest and best, which clearly I won.  Those Scot's were obviously not at all prepared for an American overachiever.  I also taught the entire room how to play freecell and they were all very impressed with my skill, so thanks dad for playing that game nonstop when I was little!

Only true pros could get the metal opener stuck IN the bottle of wine

Sunday was spent mostly in the library trying to prepare for all my finals this week (still not really sure how those are going to go) but I did manage to meet up with Sarah and Becca later for a wine night :) Unfortunately this plan was better in theory because of a slight problem with a wine-opener and a corked bottle of red....oh well at least we know for next time.

Monday morning Becca and I went to this amazing cafe called Elephants and Bagels for lunch.  It was spectacular, just the name has two of my favorite things in it, plus the cafe is adorable. It has all of these cases full of elephant dolls and drawings, and they make their own cream cheese. Basically it is my Mecca.  Later that day everyone in the program met up again to watch a DVD about Scotland.  We ended up watching a Hitchcock movie I'd never seen called 39 Steps.  It was very good and was actually pretty accurate in its portrayal of Scotland, i'd definitely recommend it.

Yep, I'm a boss.

Now Tuesday was my exciting first day of work!!! I arrived at parliament at 10 a.m. and got my security badge, which may be my new favorite accessory.  Seriously this thing is awesome.  Its pink, and cased, and opens any door in parliament just by flashing it at a sensor.  I feel like such a bad ass using it.  Plus it allows me to sign anyone I want into Parliament so if you're in Edinburgh and want a behind the scenes tour of the Scottish Government I got you :)  Tuesday was mostly just spent getting settled and learning how to work everything.  I did get to summarize some reports on human trafficking and listen to some cases on law reform which was really interesting.  My MSP is super nice and I can already tell that working for him is going to be one of the most fun and educational experiences of my life.  Yes, I just used those two words together.


Today was mostly spent struggling to get a laptop working and setting up my email account but later in the day I was asked to research information on a bunch of Coal Mine Regeneration Projects in Scotland.  This may sound boring but it was actually really interesting to read all of the arguments for protection of the coal mines, especially since I never really thought anyone would want to protect a coal mine. Most of the arguments were pretty emotional too. I swear everyone in Scotland is related to someone who worked in a mine. 
I know I've only been in Parliament two days, but overall I think that I am going to love my time here.  Between my personal desk, my security badge and my close proximity to lawmaking its basically a dream come true.

I have my first final on Friday and my other two are next week so until then I will probably have a fairly limited social life.  Eight hours of work plus studying at night will do that to you, but I cant wait until theyre done and I can immerse myself fully in Parliament.  That and have my nights back ;)

Talk to you all soon!

"Why Does Congress Say One Thing and Do Another? Well, Tradition Mostly."

This week was my last week of classes so needless to say it was both very busy and very exciting.

Monday was dedicated to catching up on all the work I put off while Melanie and Johnni were here.  I also did laundry and realized that I pay less here to do laundry despite the exchange rate then I do at home without it.  There is something seriously wrong with that and I can't wait until next year when I can do laundry in our lovely house free of charge.

Monday night was definitely one of the  best Valentines day's I've had since my dad stopped buying me a box of chocolates at the age of 13.   Marchant, Libby, Kat, Molly and I all enjoyed a lovely night of red wine, dancing and chocolate.  It was all very romantic.

Edinburgh castle from the construction filled parking lot

Tuesday we had class in the morning and then walked over to the Royal Mile to go to the Writers Museum.  I wasnt that excited about the museum but it actually turned out to be really cool.  There were really neat exhibits with different things that Scotland's most famous writers owned.  My favorite was probably Sir Walter Scott's pipe. The pipe was literally two feet long and had an ivory mouthpiece with beautiful engravings all over.  After seeing that thing I  definitely better understood why people always say J.R.R. Tolkien was inspired by the Scots when he wrote about the hobbits love of pipe weed.....

Later that night a bunch of us in the parliamentary program met up to hang out at Lindsey's place.  It was really fun just to have a chill night getting to know everyone better.  I also learned my fun fact of the week about Scottish culture.  Scotland just started getting Krispy Kreme stores here like this year and all of the native Scots are obsessed and think that Krispy Kreme is the best thing to ever happen to them. I dont necessarily disagree, but it was still a little surprising that they were so excited about something that I've known about for years.

Foggy view of Edinburgh from the castle

Wednesday was our last day of class which our teacher celebrated by keeping us there a half hour late. Obviously we were all very happy with him by the end of that class.  Later that day we all went to the Edinburgh Castle, which is the massive castle that stands right in the middle of Edinburgh.  I hadnt been yet because it costs 15 pounds and since I new I was going with the program for free I just decided to wait.  The castle was pretty incredible and (since I've been to four castles and now consider myself a bit of an expert) in my personal opinion one of the better ones in the UK.  The whole thing is on this massive hill that overlooks the entire city, so when you're on the battlements you really can see all the way to the ocean. Its a pretty spectacular view.  The castle itself also has really nice exhibits, I got to see the Scottish crown jewels, the Stone of Destiny (Seriously thats its name! Its the coronation stone used in all royal ascensions. Pretty awesome huh?), a chapel dating back to the 11th century and a bunch of other really neat stuff.  Overall an evening well spent.

Despite all the exciting activities of earlier in the week the highlight was definitely Thursday when I finally got to meet my MSP!!! The meeting started off a little shaky since my MSP was nowhere to be found and because parliament is on recess this week there was literally no one in the normal areas to ask for help.  Fortunately however he managed to find me (turns out he was just meeting with the Scottish Secretary of State...can you say baller??) and we proceeded to enjoy a nice lunch together.  As I said before my MSP is Lib Dem Robert Brown from Glasgow, but it turns out im also going to be spending half my time interning for another candidate out of Edinburgh.  My other candidate is Alex Cole-Hamilton and he's a younger newbie on the political scene.  I like them both a lot, and I already know I'm going to get a lot out of my internship.

This weekend im dedicating myself to finals and work, but hopefully I'll still have some exciting updates too!

P.S.- I realize the title of this blog is neither positive nor about Scottish politics, but there were a limited number of political movie quotes to choose from and I always thought this Charlie Wilson's War gem was funny :)

I could get used to this view. Yep I'm used to it. Guys, I want a castle."

So I know it's been a while since my last update, but after a crazy week this is the first chance I've had to catch up on everything. First thing to know about this week is that it was the month mark for my time in Edinburgh. I can't believe that I've already been here a month.  It has gone by incredibly fast and considering the rate at which my weekends are booking up I'm starting to realize why everyone told me my semester would go by in the blink of the eye.

This week was pretty much dedicated to class and political activities.  Tuesday we got to go to the European Union office in Edinburgh which was very exciting.  Our lecturer was very passionate about the EU and I really enjoyed hearing  the British perspective on EU membership, which isn't exactly positive, especially in Scotland.  On Wednesday we went to the National Museum of Scotland which was incredible.  Admission was free and it was filled with all these really neat artifacts from Scottish history.  I swear I saw the treasure chest from that one Pawn Stars episode.  The museum also has Dolly the cloned sheep in it!! Like seriously, the actual sheep.  I thought it was just a model, but according to my flatmate it is literally the taxidermied corpse of the cloned sheep.  Somewhat disgusting but also super cool.

The big news from classes this week was that I've finally been assigned my Member of Scottish Parliament (MSP)!!!! His name is Robert Brown and he is a Liberal Democrat from Glasgow.  For those of you who don't know the Lib Dems are the biggest third party in the UK and they are currently part of the coalition government with the Conservatives in Westminster.  Because it's a third party the Lib Dems don't have that many MSPs so I'm the only one in my program interning for them.  Despite the fact that they are small and definitely wont ever have a majority in parliament I'm pretty excited to be working with them.  Since we don't have any third parties with a legitimate role in the US I know its going to be a really exciting experience seeing how one works here.  Unfortunately however I'm not  allowed to blog about my internship without the specific approval of my MSP so until I get that I'm sure it will pain you all to hear that I'm gonna have to keep the political talk to a minimum.

This weekend Johnni and Melanie spent the weekend with me in Edinburgh!!!

Friday we spent the day walking around the city managing to make it to the oldest cemetery in Scotland (where we saw Adam Smith's grave), the cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote a lot of Harry Potter (needless to say Mel and I died), the Walter Scott Monument and a local Urban Outfitters.  Unfortunately on the walk back I managed to get us incredibly lost, thank god for friendly Scots otherwise we probably would have ended up at the ocean.  Once we finally got back to my place I embarked on my dangerous mission to make dinner for everyone. 

Amazing prep school we stumbled across while lost in Edinburgh

Setup for my cooking adventure!

Mel basketspinning!!!

My flatmates cook amazing meals all the time and make my daily grilled cheese and soup look pretty bad, so when my flatmate Emily offered to teach me how to make homemade bolognese sauce I couldnt exactly turn her down.  With Emily's careful supervision and Johnni and Melanie's help I managed to put together a rather delicious meal.  And the best part is I now have leftovers I can eat this week! Seriously this cooking thing may not be so bad....After my bolognese adventure we all went to a  Ceilidh, my new favorite activity. Mel and Johnni took to the dancing very well if I do say so myself, Melanie even engaged in the challenging "basketspin" dance thus earning her the champion title of the night.  Between the kilts, the dancing and the drinks I think its safe to say we all greatly enjoyed ourselves.

Saturday we woke up early to head over to Bamburgh castle with the International Student Society.  Bamburgh castle is this amazing medieval castle right on the beach in England.  It is also the largest privately owned castle in England. Seriously, one family owns this gigantic place. We were lucky enough to stumble upon the owners family album, and learned that there are three kids, the oldest of which is a boy my age.  I have made it my sole mission in life to meet this man so that we can get married and I can live in a castle.

great hall of Bamburgh Castle

Bamburgh Castle from the beach

After the castle we took a walk on the beach which was wonderful (I had forgotten how much I missed the water) and then headed over to Melrose Abbey for the afternoon.  Melrose Abbey is a beautiful old church in Scotland parts of which date back to the 11th century!!! It is also the supposed resting place of Robert the Bruce's heart. Once again somewhat disgusting, but still pretty cool.

Top of Arthurs seat!!! Pre-fall.

Me covered in mud.  Post-fall.

Sunday I woke up at five to take Mel to the bus station (that's love right there) and then later in the day Johnni and I hiked Arthur's seat (the giant extinct volcano in the center of Edinburgh).  Although a beautiful place with incredible views, Arthur's Seat was a little more intense physically than I expected and considering the fact that I haven't worked out since I've been in Scotland I was definitely a little out of breath by the end of our trek.  It was also raining during our hike creating a precarious mud situation on the hike down.  Of course I slipped and fell covering myself in mud and severely bruising my upper thighs.  This would be my luck, I've avoided hiking for the past three years and the first time I go I end up lying in a pile of mud at the bottom of a hill.....

Despite the Arthur's seat incident the whole weekend was pretty spectacular. I got to spend time doing a lot of the touristy things I haven't yet done in Edinburgh, and I got to show off the city I love to my friends.  If all my weeks keep going the way this one did I know the rest of my time here will fly by.

Props to all of you for sticking with this post for so long! Talk to you all soon!

"You Sound Like You're From London"

I'm warning all of you now, this is going to be an exceptionally long post.

One of the many beautiful sights on the train to London.

On Thursday I headed out to London from Edinburgh.  I decided to take the train, which was a great decision.  First of all trains are always on time; they leave exactly when scheduled so you never have to worry about being delayed or stuck in the station. Considering my love of promptness this obviously made me quite happy. Even better than the timing was the ride itself, the entire trip was spectacular. It reminded me of the coast road in California since the first half of the four hour trip was along the ocean. Plus the whole train was spacious and fast and not that unreasonably priced so if you're ever traveling in the UK (Caroline!) I definitely recommend taking the train at least somewhere. Okay train advertisement over.  Seriously they should hire me.

I arrived at Kings Cross station in London where I was promptly pummeled by all the aggressive business people trying to get home, who knew a walk through a train station could be so hazardous? After figuring out the metro system (so proud of myself for that one) I met up with Shawn and Cassie who was kind enough to give Shawn and I a place to stay for the weekend.  Since we were all pretty tired we took it easy that night and just went down the street to one of the local pubs. 

Pi Love in London <3

Tower of London!!!

The next morning Shawn and I woke up around 9 (huge achievement for us) and took the train to the Tower of London.  It was a little expensive but an amazing experience.  We started off on a tour but after our tour guide insulted both Texans and Redheads I decided that maybe it was safer to take Shawn away from the group....It was pretty incredible seeing all of the ancient artifacts that I grew up reading about.   Between the crown jewels and Henry VIII's armor i was definitely in heaven. 

The Egyptian Room at Harrods

After the Tower of London we took the metro back up to Hyde Park where we got to experience the wonder that is Harrods.  Harrods is the single biggest department store I've ever seen and each room has a theme and a specialty.  There was a room for caviar, that's how ridiculous this place is.  Definitely worth a visit.

Ryan, Shawn, and I in the IceBar!!!

Later that night Shawn and I met up with my friend Ryan and went to the Absolut IceBar.  The IceBar is just this giant freezer like room made entirely of ice. Seriously everything is ice, the cups, the bar, the tables everything. It was so cool (no pun intended). I probably wouldn't do it again just because it was a bit expensive and you can only stay for 40 minutes but it was still pretty fun.  After the IceBar we went to this club called Cargo where there was a giant dance party and some great people watching- the women in London are just all so edgy and fabulous. Also shout-out to Shawn for getting ready in twenty minutes to go out, if you know Shawn you'll know just how big an achievement this was ;)

Westminster Abbey!

My delicious beans and toast!

Saturday we woke up a little late and had an amazing brunch at a local restaurant.  I ate beans and toast which is a traditional English dish that I was little scared of but turned out to be amazing. Then Shawn and I caught the bus (a double-decker!!) to head over to Westminster Abbey.  Unfortunately the abbey was closed so we didn't get to go inside which was kind of a let down but I know I'll be back so hopefully ill get the chance to go then. 

Just another day in front of Parliament

Now it is worth mentioning that throughout our day around the Abbey and Parliament Shawn and I kept noticing all these weirdly dressed people.  There were cows, ketchup bottles, rugby players and various other weird things.  At first just wrote all this off to London being London but then we noticed that they were all converging in front of Parliament. We then asked a friendly policeman what was happening and he informed us that it was New Zealand's independence day and that everyone was celebrating their freedom from the British Empire by staging an impromptu rager outside of Parliament.  The whole thing was so insane.  There were drunken New Zealanders everywhere just shouting and doing some dance, at one point we witnessed a guy doing a beer bong. In front of Parliament!! Just like right there, with the police looking on! Can you imagine anything like that happening outside of the Capital??? I think not.

So after hanging out with the New Zealanders for a bit we managed to make it to Buckingham Palace, a boat tour on the Thames, and back to Johnni's to meet up with her, Taylor and their roommate Rebecca for a fun night out.  Overall a pretty quality Saturday.

Sunday I took the train back up to Edinburgh, a trip much improved by the beautiful British man sitting next to me, then I just chilled and did some work for the rest of the day until the Superbowl.  Our student union was having a huge Superbowl party so Lindsey, Alyssa (she was here for the weekend from Manchester) and I all went.  It was so much fun, despite the fact it was one a.m. on a Sunday everyone was just drinking and having a good time and it felt so much like home just to be with Americans watching football and relaxing.  Unfortunately however the Superbowl commericals don't air in the UK so I'm going to have to catch them all on youtube!!!

That's all for now! Talk to you all soon!

"I Could Have Danced All Night"

So this may seem like a  slightly odd title considering my disdain for dancing, but after experiencing the joy of traditional Scottish dance I am seriously reconsidering my opinions on the activity.

Sunday night my flatmate Emily informed me that her and her boyfriend were heading to a Ceilidh ( pronounced kay-lee, trust me I had trouble with it too) and invited me to come.  Basically a Ceilidh is a massive three hour long dance where they teach you all these old Scottish routines and play traditional music. Not exactly something I would ever get the chance to do in my normal life so I agreed to go. First thing to know about a Ceilidh is that it is incredibly intense. Like seriously I was sweating.  The dances are all really fast paced and involve a lot of running and spinning which gets pretty exhausting after a while.  Luckily they gave us a few breaks so I could rehydrate and stretch.  Another important thing to know about Ceilidhs is to wear shoes with serious tread;  I didn't and definitely caused a little bit of trouble during all the spinning and twirling...  Despite the intense workout and my slippery shoes the whole experience was incredible.  The dances were so much fun and I felt like I was in a scene from Pride and Prejudice or something, it was so great.  Although just a warning many Scottish men attend these events in kilts, and sometimes you see a little more than you necessarily want during all that spinning...

Since our classes are only five weeks long (its so weird that I only have two more weeks of class left) we've already gotten our midterm assignments so Monday I spent my day locked in the library trying to finish one of my papers.  I have to say the University of Edinburgh library puts Leavey to shame.  Its open and spacious and has huge windows out of which you can watch shirtless rugby players practice.  Between that and the success of finishing my paper it was a very pleasant library experience.  That  night I went out with a bunch of the girls in my program to a local club. Since it was a Monday there weren't that many people out but the club we went to was having an eighties night and was playing a wonderful assortment of Michael Jackson and Van Halen so needless to say we enjoyed ourselves quite a bit.

Today we visited John Knox's house, he was a Presbyterian reformer during the reformation and pretty much an overall bad ass, however his house was definitely not that cool.  Apparently he only lived there for five months and the whole place is pretty small and doesn't really have that much you couldn't learn online or at one of the other reformation sights in Edinburgh.  Overall definitely one of the least exciting places I've been so far.

Tonight I'm heading over to my friend Marchant's  flat to eat some homemade Mexican food. This may be the highlight of my week considering how much I miss Mexican food, if there's guacamole I may cry of joy.  I also managed to find tequila which was a huge achievement considering the fact that no one in Scotland seems to know what it is. 

Tomorrow i head off to London for the weekend so I'll be sure to have a much more exciting blog post then!!! Talk to you all soon!