Exploring the city, one pub at a time

I left off at Tuesday afternoon, so moving on to Tuesday night: Another pub, of course. Luckily there's tons of pubs within walking distance and probably hundreds if not thousands in Edinburgh. So it will be hard to get bored. Gotta "see the city," right?

We went to a pub called Bannermans, which is only a two minute walk from my apartment. The international student office hosts a karaoke night there once a week, and while I didn't get up and sing I have big plans to whip out my signature song next time. FYI it's "You're So Vain" for those who don't know already.  It was a very cozy, dimly lit, authentic-feeling pub and it was packed. It took us forever to get drinks. Fun fact: bartenders in Scotland do not get tipped - a shame since all the bartenders I've encountered seem frazzled and overworked.

[caption id="attachment_83" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="At Bannermans - sorry there are not any photos of the pub itself. I'm still working on my blogging photography skills!"][/caption]

Wednesday morning was our first section of Scottish culture and society class, taught by the fabulous Paddy. He's really the ideal person to teach this kind of class since he screams Scottish culture. We started by going around the room and naming off things, places and people we associate with Scotland. My list comprised of kilts, the Loch Ness monster, whisky, haggis, and cold, rainy, and wet weather. Paddy then spent the rest of the class going through an abbreviated history of Scotland. I wish I had more knowledge of European politics and geography: I was only able to roughly identify where Edinburgh was on a map of Scotland. It makes me think history classes in the U.S. are too self-centric.

Wednesday afternoon included a tour of the National Library, which is basically Scotland's equivalent of the Library of Congress. It's an impressive building but only three floors are open to the public. Our tour guide spent most of his time telling us what we couldn't do there: no checking out books, making photocopies, carrying a bag, drinking or eating...the list goes on. I don't really think I'll be going there to study.

Following the tour I did something I've wanted to do for a long time: go to the coffee shop where J.K. Rowling famously wrote the first Harry Potter book. It's called the Elephant House, and it's just a stone's throw from the National Library. Several places here claim to have that distinction, but this one is the most reputable. I wanted to take pictures, but I didn't bring my camera - shucks! I'll go back for sure.

That night some of us went to our building's welcome party. By party I mean they herded us to a restaurant, made us sit down, came around and told us the rules of the building, and then gave us vouchers for free hamburgers and soft drinks. It wasn't so hopping. The burger was pretty abysmal, but I was just excited to get free food.  I met a guy from Southern California who attends the university as a full-time student and he basically just rambled on about how much he hated USC and California. I guess he did have a point about the smog, but I went to bat for my school.

One thing I've noticed already here is how hands-off the university is in dealing with students. I'm pretty sure the welcome shindig is the only event the building RAs plan all semester - I'm used to the at least once-a-week events my freshman year RA at USC organized. They definitely don't hold your hand here.  It's a little unnerving as a new student, but I know I'm getting more guidance in the parliament program than my friends who are just studying at the university.

We followed dinner with what some of the other interns branded as a "pub crawl," but I think in going to two pubs we didn't really fulfill the requirements. But it was really fun anyway and nice to see some of the other interns outside of class since we're going to be spending a ridiculous amount of time together in the coming weeks. We started at Frankenstein's, a pub themed as its name might suggest, and I tried pear cider for the first time. I think that brings my cider brand count to four now, and I'm still a Strongbow devotee. We next hopped over to Paddys, an authentic Irish pub that had fiddlers. I wasn't expecting to hear the fiddlers play Johnny Cash, but anything goes here. Some of us even got up to dance at one point to another Johnny Cash song.

[caption id="attachment_87" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Drinking pear cider at Frankenstein's with fellow interns."][/caption]

British politics met today for the first time, and it seems as though it may be the most difficult class I'll take here. The lecture was interesting, although it's becoming increasingly harder to concentrate for two hours straight. But I'm officially done with 20% of my classes this semester as of today! Be jealous.

I forced myself to go to the grocery store during my lunch break. I've been putting it off because it's so darn cold  that I'm not really motivated to spend any more time outside than I have to. Lame, I know. But my food situation was getting desperate, so I grabbed my huge backpacking backpack and trudged out of my apartment. I felt a little foolish, but man the backpack saved me. I went to two stores, one called Pharm Fresh known for its cheap frozen food (sort of ironic that it has "fresh" in its name) and Tesco's. Grocery shopping is very different here than it is in the U.S. The stores are much smaller with fewer choices, and it seems as though most people buy less items at one time and go shopping more frequently. Maybe because they have to carry by hand everything they buy. No parking lots here.

In the afternoon we had a tutorial with a punchy university librarian who was pretty hilarious. She repeatedly told us she didn't want to be there and criticized the library numerous times. Apparently the library isn't open early on Sunday mornings because students like to get "hammered" on Saturday nights.  I love the Scottish.

Thursday night is movie-viewing night for the interns, and tonight we had the pleasure of watching the BBC's recording of the opening ceremony of the Scottish Parliament. People gave speeches, sang, read poems, blah blah blah. It was really interesting to see the parliament building for the first time, though. It's really stunning in my opinion, but it's widely criticized here because it's modern architecture as opposed to the "old" that prevails in the rest of the city. We're going to visit next week, I'm excited.

Tomorrow is my day off, and I plan to sleep until noon if I can. This weekend I'm going to stay in Edinburgh and do some exploring. Later mates!