Touring

Took a video of the city skyline. The first three-quarters is pretty light and defined, but the actual old city in the last quarter of the video is, sadly, a little dark.

After a morning of Scottish history, cultural info, and a presentation by a policeman about staying safe in the city, we took a bus tour of the city. Our guide, Ross, clad in tartan kilt, pointed out such places as Robert Louis Stevenson's home (17 Heriot Street), Edinburgh Castle (now a military base), Holyroodhouse Palace (where the Queen spends one week a year), and the largest momument in the world devoted to a literary figure - a gothic spire with a statue of Sir Walter Scott inside. The city is split into two parts: the old city and the new city. The old city dates back to the middle ages. The 'new' city was built beginning in the 1760s, when America wasn't even a country yet. Still sounds old by our standards.

So I found out that an apartment building is in fact called a 'tenement,' or a 'block of flats.' Mystery solved.

Went out to a pub called Doctors last night. Pretty good time. The student I'm sharing the hotel room with has two friends also in the program, so I tagged along and we had a few rounds. Most of the Edinburgh natives were all watching the Arsenal - Manchester football game. They all looked funny because the pub had a big 3D TV and to watch properly you needed these thick glasses that look like black raybans.

Going to get dinner with two girls I met on the plane ride over and a guy who goes to Lafayette. I think we are going to buy cell phones afterwards - either little pre-paid things or else I might get my sim card unlocked and get a European one. We'll see.

The policeman today in his lecture explained how if you see some fellow hunched over in the street covered in his own vomit asking you for change or help that it likely won't be a college kid or homeless person, "but probably my accountant or electrician, hell it might be a member of Parliament! We Scots may have invented the television, penicillin, and the raincoat, but when we aren't inventing awesome stuff we're probably getting hammered." An interesting policeman, for sure. But overall, I see that Scots view drinking as not as much of a touchy or serious topic as Americans do. It really is a big part of there culture. On our tour Ross explained that a certain building we passed once had a hole blown through it after a cannon was set off by a troop of drunk soldiers. The site is now a local landmark and the soldiers are folk heroes. Edinburgh's paper - The Scotsman - even has a section devoted solely to Whisky. It's right next to the "Money" and "Property" sections.

Scottish accents are also starting to sound more normal and understandable, though I've been told that the East Coast Edinburgh accent is a lot softer than its West Coast cousin.

Off to dinner and phone buying.