Sunday, November 6, 2011

Remember Remember the Fifth of November...

Despite being rather scholastically unproductive this weekend, I had a good time. Strange, almost as though those things go hand in hand. Saturday was the 5th of November, which is Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes Night. It is an odd day, it celebrates the failure of the Gunpowder Plot in the 1605. Essentially some people wanted to bomb the British Parliament building, in order to kill King James the 1st and free Britain from tyranny. What really makes this day interesting is that in England it is a celebration of the plans failure, while here in Scotland and other countries that were once cruelly ruled over by the British, it seems like people celebrate a credible attempt to end British tyranny, by killing the King. Anyway enough of the history lesson. My friends and I went up to Arthur's Seat at around 8pm and watched the fireworks from the highest point in Edinburgh. Although we were a little let down because there was no real city funded firework show. We essentially watched people lighting off fireworks in their backyards, which was still pretty cool, because we could see the whole city. I tried to take some pictures but it was too dark to really capture anything substantial. We stayed up there for about an hour before the frigid air slowly began to freeze us. On the way down we got a wee bit lost, because none of us had been up there in the darkness, or maybe it was because we had been drinking a little. After a short team meeting to decide which path would be the least steep and therefor the easiest to descend, we left. The usual 30 minute decent from the top ended up taking about an hour but we all had a fun time slipping in the long, wet grass finding our way home. It was a fun night.

Today I had a few errands to run, like buying a new pair of pants that actually fit. The curse of shrinking whilst away from home I suppose. It seems I will have to slowly convert my wardrobe on the fly, making changes when necessary, but sparingly in order to conserve funds. This week will be relatively filled with school work, but I will simply take it one day at a time until the weekend begins again. And as each weekend comes and goes I become closer to home. With only 4 weeks of classes left, I'm reaching the final stretch. Which is comforting. 3 weeks of classes, 1 day in London, 1 last week of classes, 1 week in Paris, 1 week of studying, 1 day of test taking, and then 1 week of Scottish exploring until I return State-Side. When put that way it really doesn't seem that bad.

3 comments:

  1. I love your comments on the count down for your trip back to the states. Stay safe and enjoy.
    Love you, NANA

    ReplyDelete
  2. Another great blog post, Scott! Sounds like a very fun night up on that hill. I am so proud of you and everything that you are doing at the University.
    Keep up the great work and we will see you very soon.

    Continue to study hard sweetie.
    Lots of love,
    Mum

    ReplyDelete
  3. Uh-oh. You said "a wee bit" and "whilst". I hope I can understand your speaking when you get home - you might all taking in the Scotish language.

    ReplyDelete