Mom's Visit #1

So my mom visited for 10 days and left last Sunday. My dad was supposed to come too but he lost his passport and wasn't able to make it :( Of course we later found out there is an office in Washington, DC where you can get a passport if your flight is within the next six hours but we didn't know that then. Luckily Dad was able to get credit for his flight but unfortunately that means I won't see him until I go home! I was really looking forward to it too! This has made me rethink when I'll be returning home and I'm going to push it up a few weeks. Right now I'm entertaining July 20th but will confirm in a few weeks. I also really don't want to miss the opportunity at a great job that I might be too late for if I don't go back until the end of August!

It really was great seeing my mom! We spent a lot of time hanging around, chatting, and just enjoying being together. We didn't do much around Edinburgh but we did go check out the Royal Yacht Britannia in Leith. Here are some pictures of that.

 Dining room still used for corporate functions.

Sitting room for after dinner.

 

The Queen's bedroom made specifically to her liking. It even had a convenient door to the Duke's room!

Stay tuned for more pictures of our little vacation!

Edinburgh's Royal Residences

I've been living in Edinburgh for about seven months now and this was my first time seeing its castles. They're beautiful! I had lots of opportunities to see them before but I decided to wait until visitors arrived so I wouldn't have to see them multiple times as it's a bit expensive to get in (I think about 14 pounds for the castle and 6 or 7 pounds for Holyrood)

Edinburgh Castle

A stronghold that has never been taken by force, only siege.

 Holyrood Palace

Official residence for the Queen in Scotland

 Abbey ruins attached to Holyrood Palace (below)

 

Fruit & Veg Box

In order to eat better, I've decided I need to cut out some carbs and meat and eat more fruit and vegetables. Because it's easy, my meals usually consist of pasta or meat and potatoes. So last week I decided to get a box of fruit and vegetables delivered to my door fortnightly (every other Wednesday). I was stuck between two local Edinburgh farms but in the end I decided to go with East Coast Organics, mainly because they deliver on Wednesday and I don't have class so I'd be able to let them in.

Happily my first box came today! Sadly, they didn't buzz my flat so it was just sitting outside our building for who knows how long until my flatmate Sophie got home and saw it and brought it inside. I was quite angry about it at first since I'd been waiting around for it all day leaving me with a bit sour first impression of the farm. But my anger was (mostly) forgotten when I saw all my treasures.

I decided to go with the £6 fruit box and the £6 vegetable box. All the other boxes seemed like they'd just have way too much for just me. I offered to share it with my flatmates but neither of them were interested.

The veggies were nice and dirty, like they'd just been plucked from the earth. The web site said an average box came with 7 items (2 pounds of potatoes, 1 pound of carrots, 1 pound onions [these three will come in every box] and extras according to the season), I had specifically requested no onions so I really had no idea what I'd be getting. Here's what came:

-1 cauliflower (yum!)
-1 bag of salad (I prefer romaine or spinach leaves but I'll for myself to eat this kind...whatever kind it is)
-1 leek (never made anything with it but I've had leek and potato soup so I'll try to make something like that)
-4 carrots (always a good staple)
-6 potatoes (can't go wrong with them)
-5 beetroot (never had before! Suggestions??)
-2 parsnips (never cooked before - any ideas besides a soup?)

The website said I could expect 4-5 items (apples, bananas, oranges or clementines, pears, and kiwis and occasionally melons, lemons, and mangos). In the fruit box (or bag) I got:

 

-5 apples (that'll do)

-5 pears (really glad I got these, I have been wanting some pears)

-2 bunches of green bananas (I believe there are 8 or 9 in total. I'm glad they're green so I can eat other, riper things first)

-5 plums (yum! I love plums!)

I'm excited to see what this fruit and veggie scheme brings to my eating. Here's hoping I use fruit for snacks instead of chips or sweets and here's hoping I eat better dinners that are more filling with less calories. I'm not sure what I'll be making yet but I'm thinking of some soups for sure. I didn't use anything tonight because Sophie made me a yummy curry with chickpeas and spinach but I had a plum after! It should be an adventure!

The Weekend Wrap Up

There's nothing better than spending a cold winter's night wrapped up in a nice, warm blanket. But let's not kid ourselves. Edinburgh is going to be close all year round. Therefore I've come up with the idea of...

THE WEEKEND WRAP UP

I enjoy having something to do with my hands and something that doesn't take much concentrating is knitting. My knitting skills are fairly limited to squares and rectangles. All I've made so far are scarves. My skills levelled up a bit last year when I learned how to switch colours. This year with a couple of friends coming I knew I'd need another blanket so I decided to knit one! Every Sunday I will post the Weekend Wrap Up (in anticipation of being wrapped up in my hand knitted blanket) showing the details of how my blanket is coming along! I officially started this blanket a few days before I left to come back to Edinburgh (so lets say around the 7th of January) although to be honest I tried to start this project about two years ago when I originally bought the yarn. I ended up knitting about 6 purple squares and gave up because it was taking so long. I was using small needles (5, I believe) and I had to knit so many more rows to make the square. Now I've switched to size 11 and it only takes me 3-4 hours to do one (that may seem like a lot but really isn't not...and I'm probably slow). My goal is to have this finished by the middle of March. Let's see if I can do it! In this week alone I did one purple and one white.

Last Week:
None

Progress:

I started off by casting 30 and knit until I can meet both corners in the form of a triangle. Not exactly the best square prediction but it doesn't have to be perfect! The colours are actually a very deep, dark royal purple while this kind of looks black and the white has a slight more cream colour. I think it looks very nice together! What do you think? Can I do it??

There's Been A Murder...And It Be A Mystery

On Saturday my flatmates and I attended a murder mystery party our friend Danny had written. Since he didn't know us when he wrote it, we didn't get parts so we played as actors. I went as Dina Mite, Caoimh went as June Facepunch, Sophie went as Silver McStabsqwik, and Mags, who had a role, was Scarlet Monroe.

It was a lot of fun! It was great because everyone actually dressed up. Usually you get a lot of slackers but everyone put a lot of effort into their costumes which was awesome! We didn't stay too long after the mystery was solved (until about 12:30/1) because we were all really tired and we were meeting Sophie's aunt for lunch the next day.

Her aunt lives in the town of Penicuik which is about 10 miles outside of Edinburgh. We had a lovely three course meal of melon and cherries, a sausage casserole with rice, peppers, apricots, carrots, and mushrooms, and for dessert we had strawberry and blackberry crumble and strawberry trifle. It was all so yummy! It was wonderful to have a home cooked meal and it felt so homey in her house with its little gas fireplace (there was heat! it was so warm!). We then went on a walk around Penicuik House. I took some pictures with my phone for the first time. I'm really pleased with the quality but the colouring is a little off and I couldn't get it to zoom. I'll have to play around with it more.

Happy Birthday To Me!

On Friday, the 15th, I celebrated my 24th birthday. It wasn't anything too special. My flatmate, Sophie, made me cupcakes.

I opened my presents from my mom and dad, which I'd been holding on to for a few weeks and they consisted of the sequel to Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber (VERY good series! Hopefully the second book will continue that way. No idea when I'll have time to read it since I still haven't gotten to Mockingjay, the last book in the Hunger Games Trilogy), and the DVD Letters to Juliet. They also gave me some pounds to spend as I please. Isn't that nice?! I plan on buying some nice boots with it. My flatmates were really nice and got me cards as well. Caoimh got me a pretty necklace and Sophie got me a PostSecret book since I had been spying on hers.

I had a fairly laid back day. I didn't do anything different than usual (which means lying around watching tv and reading for school). We had people over to our flat and I wore my lovely birthday dress that I'd bought. Unfortunately, I had way too much wine to drink (probably over a bottle and a half in under 3 hours) and by the time we went out to Espionage to go dancing, I was done in. I left early, went home, and made good friends with my bed. This picture is me and my flatmate. I was struggling to be awake and alive at this point. I look wrecked (my mother kindly phrased it "toasted" when she saw them!) in almost every photo.

Saturday I was pretty much dead to the world with a hangover like no other and sat in my bed feeling sorry for myself, swearing off alcohol, and watching Project Runway. I managed to get up around 5pm, eat something, and walk to a bar where my friend Danny was having his belated birthday celebration.

In other news, fall has officially begun! Okay, the weather has been cold here for weeks and even colder lately and nearly all the leaves have changed and started falling but I bought canned pumpkin online and made my first batch of pumpkin goodies on Thursday. I make pumpkin chocolate chip muffins with a cream cheese center. Yum, yum, yum they were so good!

Not up to much this week except more classes and readings! However I have begun to piece together my costume for a certain pirate party I am attending on Saturday. Will possibly be awesome. Arrrrrrrrrrr.

The New Flat

Well, I'm all moved into my new flat! I'm really loving it so far!! On Friday I had to wait until 2 to get my keys so I went over there and met my flatmate Sophie and we signed our leases. I went back to the B&B for a bit and then got a taxi over to the flat. There I met Sophie's parents, Nick and Fiona, who were just adorable! Later that evening Caoimh arrived with her parents, Bert and JJ, and I helped her bring her stuff up and then we made a quick trip to the grocery store.

Saturday morning I took a trip to IKEA with Sophie and her parents and bought a lamp, waste bin, some organizers, and a bathroom rug. We then went to a large Sainsburys (grocery store) in Cameron Toll and did a big shop for food and there I also found an alarm clock and thing for my toothbrush in the bathroom. After we got back and unpacked, I just went walking. I had a few things in mind that I wanted to do so I headed up past George Square and down to Grassmarket where I was looking for a certain shop someone had told me about but didn't see. Then I went up to Princes Street and got my mom her birthday present before heading back down to Tollcross to the Pound Stretcher where I got the rest of my hangers, standing mirror, and a little space organizer to go under my sink. I took the bus back to the flat and unpacked everything. My room looks like this now!

My closets:

My bathroom:


The kitchen:


The living room and hall:

Sunday morning there was International Day at the university. I went at 10 to see what it was all about but it seemed to be catered to students who had just arrived and based on the people I met, most just had. So it was all about learning the city and where things were. There were a few talks I thought might be interesting but I stayed for 2 hours for the general session and then decided to head back to my flat. That night Caoimh's parents made a Sunday roast (which apparently everyone has) which was very yummy! Sophie's parents headed back to Northern Ireland that evening and Caoimh's parents went back to Ireland the next morning.

On Monday I mailed off some birthday presents and spent the afternoon at Starbucks using their wireless. That evening, Caoimh and I went to a wine and cheese for postgrads and mature students. It was VERY crowded and the cheese was all gone by the time we got there.

On Tuesday I waited around in the morning for the cleaners (because the flat was a bit dirty when we moved in) who mopped and hoovered. Then I had to wait for the Virgin Media man for our broadband who finally came around 1 (so we have internet now yay!). Caoimh and I then headed to our Freshers' Week Postgrad Taught Masters/Diploma Students Welcome Session (there are two categories of graduate work (1) Postgraduate Taught Masters and Diploma [which is pretty much taking classes but not writing a dissertation] and (2) Postgraduate Research Masters and PhD). This was a pretty boring two hours of people just saying good luck! Welcome! Make friends! Edinburgh is amazing! So many students were super rude and just walked out while people were in the middle of presenting. I stuck around in case there was anything useful but there wasn't really. We then headed to a wine reception afterwards where we sat with two very nice girls. One was named Mags and she was from Cambridge, England but spent some years in the US growing up. The other was from (Middlesburg?) England. Sophie joined us and we all went out to dinner together.

All night all the girls were trying to convince me to go to a ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee; a Scottish dance) that was being offered for postgraduate students. I wanted to go but I didn't want to dance but I ended up going. There were a lot of people there and we ended up getting there about an hour after it started so everyone had already paired up. There was, surprisingly, a large number of boys there (but of course more girls). Mags and Sophie got asked to dance but Mags didn't want to so Caoimh dance with them instead. I didn't really want to do a partner dance but all night they'd been talking about a dance called Strip the Willow. We all went down for it so we had four girls and two boys and Sophie and Mags recruited two more so we all had parents. Pretty much you stand in two lines and there are four couples. It goes like Couple 1 Spins, Boy 1 spins with Girl 2 while Girl 1 spins with Boy 2, Couple 1 Spins, Boy 1 spins with Girl 3 while Girl 1 spins with Boy 3 and while this happens Couple 2 starts spinning with each other so you keep going down the line.
You can get a better idea of it here - it's almost like line dancing but more same, same but different.

It's great! It was an amazing experience! I'm so glad I went!