"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!