Sarah!

Shortly after I arrived back in Edinburgh, my friend Sarah arrived from Canada. She had booked a three week tour of Europe, and stopped in Edinburgh for three days before heading down to London where the tour departed from. 

She arrived in the morning, so after dropping her bags off at my place, we grabbed some mochas to give us a caffeine boost before heading out into the city.

We walked through the meadows to the museum, where we went through the Scottish history portion of the museum...

(I always find it funny how much their historical looms look like Connie's loom)

We then headed over to the Elephant house to do the traditional Harry Potter fan in Edinburgh stop, before heading over to Grayfriars Kirkyard to compete the HP tour.

We also stopped at the Writer's Museum, which I had never been to before and was quite interesting, before heading down to Princes Street.

French Club

French Club is still going strong - besides one day the other weekend when 90% of the group had skipped town, we've been meeting once a week for over two months now. I have used my French language app 47 days in a row now. While my progress has slowed down somewhat now that I've hit things that I have never learned before in my previous attempts to learn the language, I'm still chugging away at it (and occasionally sending Alix incredulous messages questioning the validity of the entire language). Last Sunday we decided to meet at The Elephant House instead of our usual location of Waterstones, because we hadn't been there for a while, but we decided we probably wouldn't be doing that again, because The Elephant House is so popular, we felt really pressured to leave and give up our table, while at Waterstones we will sit for two hours no problem. After that we headed downtown as Alix and Melissa both wanted to try and find some nicer clothes for interviews, and I wanted some more button up shirts (I currently own three, one white one that has a grease stain on the chest, one plaid one with a rip in the armpit, and another plaid one that doesn't fit well... so I could really use some more). Unfortunately, I didn't manage to find any that really tickled my fancy, but I did get my very first pair of leggings, and Alix managed to get a super cute pair of heels from Office (Leanne was working... it was hilarious to see her standing behind the counters, which are designed for normal height people to stand behind, with her shoulders just peeking out). After that, we headed back up the mound, stopping at a drugstore where I finally managed to find the kind of floss I need for my permanent retainer (I may have bought three boxes... they were on sale too). Then we went to Subway for dinner, the only one in the city that actually has plain yellow mustard and thus my favourite one, before going next door to Frisky for bubble tea :) 

Awesome Sunday with the gurls :)

December!

It is officially December, and I am officially in a new flat! I will post some pictures tomorrow, but I am all moved in! Candice very kindly came and helped me with what was a bit of a process - while I managed to pack everything I had, there was too much for one taxi (and before you make a comment about how much stuff I must have bought while here, remember that I was having to move all of my food as well... Connie). So Candice helped me carry a load onto the street, the taxi came and drove us the couple of blocks to my new flat, where we unloaded, then carried all of it up four freaking flights of stairs. Which was exhausting. And I had no idea where I'd shoved my inhaler while packing, so I was wheezing like crazy. It was all very glamorous. Then we walked back to the old flat, and did it again. Though I very wisely moved all the heaviest bags first, so the second load was lighter and smaller, nicely balancing out how exhausted we were at that point. Then we went for late lunch at the pub just up the street, which was good (they had a deal - two meals for £10 - that included pretty much all of their vegetarian dishes, which was a pretty sweet deal) even if the service was really slow (and it was a sports bar so there were a bunch of dudebros yelling at the football match (soccer)).

I only have one roommate at the moment. My second roommate is moving in in a couple days.

My legs are killing me.

Anyways.

Last Sunday Alix and I boarded a bus to head up to what looked like an awesome vintage clothing sale. Much to our disappointment, it turned out to be mostly 70s and 80s fashion, which were basically two of the worst decades for fashion, and even some stuff from the 90s, which just makes me feel both old and indignant. After making fun of the clothes for a bit, we bussed back into the city and headed into Armstrong's, a vintage clothing store chain in the UK which was absolutely magical. I tried on so many dresses from the 50s, but alas, women then (and... actually... now) aren't really built like I am (as in, the national average height for a woman in the UK is 5ft3. I am 5ft10. Wow, that is actually a huge difference). BUT Alix and I did have a blast trying on all of the vintage fur coats (as I told Connie, while I am anti-fur, I don't mind vintage fur, because one the animal has been dead for ages, and two, buying fur from a vintage store isn't supporting an industry that continues to murder animals solely for their pelts, which is stupid and wasteful).

I ended up buying the coat I'm wearing in the picture, which is suede with wool trim, and the fabulous hat as well (much to my regret, I could not justify the muff, no matter how cozy and awesome it was). Alix also left with the coat she is wearing.

After that we met up with Melissa for dinner and drinks at Biblos (student discount of 25% on all food, and G&Ts for only £1.95 means that we have officially found our new favourite place), after which we attended the 50th anniversary special of Doctor Who at the cinema, which was freaking AMAZING. It was part of a simulcast, watched in 94 countries and simultaneously screened in 3D to more than half a million people in cinemas across Latin America, North America and Europe, breaking a Guiness World Record. It was so much fun to attend a screening - there were people dressed up, and while pretty much everyone was dead silent the entire episode, there were certain moments (such as when the new doctor was briefly seen) that everyone cheered and clapped. Everyone also clapped when it ended. It was just such a fun experience. I love going to fan events where everyone is just unabashedly excited about this thing that we all love - not to mention the fact that there were both young fans and older men and women that had probably been watching the show since they were kids.

Wednesday night Alix and Melissa and I met up to plan our super secret project (to be revealed soon!), but before that we stopped to wander around the Christmas Market.

Everything is incredibly expensive, but man, does it smell good. There are all sorts of food stands, selling everything from churros to chocolate fountains with sticks of marshmallows, to hot beverages like mead and coffee. There are also loads of stands selling gifts, souvenirs, cheeses, and coffee beans.

We shared an order of churros (Melissa and mine's first ever). I always thought they were just an American thing, but apparently not. They were pretty good - I mean, they were basically deep fried dough rolled in sugar, its kinda hard to go wrong on that one.

The market is just overlooking the Princes Street Gardens, and includes a ferris wheel (that is eight freaking pounds) and a skating rink (ten freaking pounds).

Looking up the gardens towards North Bridge.

After we got bored of that, we headed up to the Elephant Room for food and hot chocolate. And to finally leave our mark on the bathroom!

Thursday was American Thanksgiving, which I actually celebrated for the first time with Kate and her roommates (two of whom are American). I'm still eating all the leftover mashed potatoes I ended up leaving with. I was horrifically full afterwards - it was so good. And Kate made this tofu-turkey roast thing that was completely delicious (unlike my last time trying tofurky).

I ate so many potatoes with cranberry sauce. I felt bad for how much cranberry sauce I was taking, but then I realized pretty much no one else was eating it, so I took more (Rachel, one of Kate's American roommates made it from scratch). Mashed potatoes with cranberry sauce is the best thing ever and no one can tell me any different.

I had the tiniest slice of pumpkin pie for dessert, I was so full, but it was so good. 

There were also several hilarious moments when all the non-Americans/Canadians just stood around taking pictures of the food, especially the turkey. There were also several rousing arguments about when the "real" Thanksgiving was.

This week was also Book Week Scotland, which my classmates made a series of promotional videos for, concluding with this video, a series of seflies from everyone on the course with their favourite book (or, in many cases, whatever they had on hand) - this was because selfie was named word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries.

I had someone recently ask me how, as an English major, Publishing student, and all around huge language nerd, I felt about the way language is changing. And in some ways I feel sad, because I do feel like we are losing something with the way digital language is evolving, but on the other hand, internet shorthand is not used in novels, where the richness of language is still valued and always will be valued. And really, internet shorthand is just that - shorthand to make communicating over a digital medium faster and more efficient. Overall, I enjoy watching language evolve. English has always evolved, appropriating words from other languages and transforming over the years, and, as any student who has attempted to read Chaucer in the original text can attest to, we wouldn't even recognize much of English language as it used to exist. Evolution is a natural part of language, and I don't think there is anything to mourn as it changes, nor do I think that including selfie as the word of the year indicates a general dumbing-down of our culture (selfies, after all, predate cameras), nor does it indicate, as so many columnists and writers claim over and over again, that my generation is more narcissistic and self-involved than any generation predating it.

With that in mind, I leave you with this selfie.

My hair is getting out of control.

Graveyards & Lord Voldemort

Today, I went to a graveyard. 

You may remember a couple of weeks ago I went on a tour in the Greyfriars Kirkyard. I returned to the graveyard, in daylight this time, to take some photos and find the grave of Tom Riddle. (You may want to read or re-read that post, as there are a lot of stories in it that I'm not going to repeat). 

It is always so interesting to be in an old graveyard. A number of the larger and more ornate grave sites were decorated with angels and skulls.

Burials began here in the 16th century. 

Look! Frost!

Along the edges of some parts of the graveyard are what basically amount to little stone-walled rooms, some of which have no decoration in them, some of which, such as this one, are secured with bars and contain statues or other markers.

This one obviously does not have anything inside. Why, I could not tell you.

There are also a large number of free-standing tombstones, from the ornate to the simple.

This is the tomb of Sir George Mackenzie, who you might remember from my story about the Mackenzie poltergeist. Since 1999, when a homeless person broke into Mackenzie's stone coffin for the night, Greyfriars Churchyard has been the epicentre of an escalation of unexplained events linked to the ghost of Mackenzie; known colloquially as the Mackenzie Poltergeist. The Mackenzie Poltergeist has been called the most well-documented paranormal phenomenon in the world.

There are also markers on the wall of the church itself, as well as plaques on the wall surrounding the graveyard.

As seen here.

The graveyard is a popular tourist destination - there were a ton of other people wandering around while we were there.

This is the last standing segment of the wall which once surrounded Edinburgh to protect them from the English.

What looks to be a bench on the left of the photograph above is in fact a tomb - why it is made like that, I do not know, but there were several like that.

Again with the (very cool) skeletons and skulls.

Greyfriars Bobby is probably one of the most famous legends of Edinburgh. I think I had about four different people tell it to me when I told them I was moving to Edinburgh.

The story goes that Bobby belonged to John Gray, who worked for the Edinburgh City Police as a night watchman. When John Gray died he was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, the graveyard surrounding Greyfriars Kirk in the Old Town of Edinburgh. Bobby then became known locally, spending the rest of his life sitting on his master's grave until he died, 14 years later.

I was listening to a tour while waiting for Alix and Melissa though, and he said the entire story is BS. Gray did not own Bobby, but rather the dog was part of a group of cemetery dogs who would spend their time in graveyards as visitors, believing them to be waiting for their dead owners, would feed them.

Above is an example of a grave which has been protected against being dug up and having the body stolen for medical students. I still maintain that if you read between the lines, the main reason was zombies.

The grave of William McGonagall, the (apparently atrocious) Scottish poet who gave JK the inspiration for the name of Minerva McGonagall. Allegedly she would wander around the graveyard during her lunch breaks, reading the stones.

The council is undertaking a survey of all the graveyards in the city for safety, so any tombstones which are felt to be unstable have been laid down on the ground. While it isn't so bad in this particular graveyard, I have seen a couple that look like they have fallen victim to an especially vicious windstorm.

Photo credit: Melissa

While it took us a while to locate, we also found the grave of the man who gave his name to the infamous Tom Riddle.

There was a group of people hanging out at this end of the graveyard drinking. It was rather strange. They were harassing everyone taking pictures, and as we were leaving one of them complemented me on my hair, which prompted the group as a whole to serenade me with "Purple Rain".

We once again ended up at the Elephant House, where I had a totally awesome hot chocolate and a slice of almond and marzipan cake (yum!).

As I mentioned previously, the Elephant House is famous for being the most well-known location where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter. I had heard the bathrooms were a sight, but I wasn't quite prepared for what was inside...

Every bit of the wall (and some of the ceiling) was covered. I've got a sharpie in my purse now, so I'm prepared for next time I'm in the cafe... I just need to decide what to write.

Photo credit: Melissa

Finally, the view from the Elephant's House window... the descriptions of Hogwarts Castle make so much sense now, don't they?

All in all, a lovely Sunday.