This weekend I celebrated Thanksgiving in a very untraditional manner. First of all it was held in Scotland, there was no stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams with marshmellows, green bean casserole or pumpkin pie, and I ended the night in a snow ball fight with strangers on a street under Edinburgh Castle. The weekend also involved mexican food, watching rugby, scottish dancing and irish pubs with live bands.
The weekend started off interestingly with a delayed train and reserved seats on a nonexistent coach E. Finally got to Edinburgh and our hostel, which is located right beneath the grand fortress that is Edinburgh castle, and decided the ghost walk we had planned on taking had been trumped by the need for dinner. We found a Mexican restaurant that actually wasn't too bad and had yummy fajitas and sangria. After leaving the mexican place we could hear music drifting out of this Irish pub down the street so naturally we wandered in and found a great atmosphere and a live band. We even were so bold as to request Sweet Home Alabama, the band was playing some good old American music so we didn't think the request would go amiss, and there we were dancing to a classic american tune in an irish pub in scotland!
We got up nice and early Saturday and took in the royal mile. Visited the Writer's Museum that had exhibits on Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir William Scott and Robert Burns, the three most notable Scottish literary figures of the 19th century. We then wandered to the other side of town where I found the location of our Christmas apartment on Thistle Street (very nice and made me super excited for next month!) We then met at the Roxburghe Hotel for Thanksgiving dinner and Ceilidh (traditional Scottish/Celtic dancing). Thanksgiving dinner was a bit of a disappointment as it wasn't really Thanksgiving but the fact that I still had a Thanksgiving, even if it wasn't traditional, is important. After eating we got to dance the afternoon away with the live band teaching us the dances. It was like being back in PE but one hundred times better. The dancing is similar to square dancing, lots of spinning and jumping around with various couples. I even danced with a guy in a kilt, as some of the guys in the program really took the dress code to heart. I loved it so much I'm going to find another Ceilidh to go to as soon as possible. After the formal event was done Amanda and I joined my program director, Hilary, and her fiance and a couple of other people to watch Rugby at the Cambridge pub. We then spent the night sampling the new town of Edinbrugh and meeting some cool people. Among them we made friends with a girl called Meredith who is from grass valley and also went to UCSB. We ended up really hitting it off with her and met up on Sunday for some sightseeing too!
The best moment happened when I least expected it, walking home to our hostel at 2:30am we found ourselves looking at snow falling softly on the streets of Edinburgh. Amanda wanted to go to bed but I couldn't possibly let myself sleep when it was snowing outside. So in my flannel PJ's and big pea coat I went outside along with about 15 other people from the hostel. We sang christmas carols and engaged in a full on snow ball fight in the middle of the street with the castle looming over us in the soft glow of the street lamps. I can't think of a time where I was so completely and utterly living in the moment with a heart that swelled close to bursting. There are not words that can possibly explain what I felt that night and I will forever cherish that memory.
Sunday we got up early again and went to the castle. I'd been before but this time I saw it properly and spent a good 2.5 hours listening to the audio guide and visiting all of the museums. Had lunch at Deacon Brodie's, a famous pub on the royal mile where we will probably be having Christmas eve dinner. We walked up to Carlton hill, the first public park in Scotland, and looked over the city just before dusk. Spent the last couple hours sitting in the Elephant House coffee bar where JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter novel drinking hot chocolate and shortbread cookies. It was a good end to an awesome weekend. However, when we finally got home I was extremely tired and was happy to be able to lay down in my own bed and sleep in on monday morning.
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