July 1-Alicia Smith

Today was another great day in the city of Edinburgh! It was especially pleasant being able to sleep in a little later since our class was pushed back two hours. (whoop whoop!) Last night we had our second group dinner at Monster Mash located in old town. The Monster Mash is a retro café with a traditional British Menu. I, along with quite a few others in the group, got the macaroni cheese pie with tomatoes and chips. Others seemed to branch out a little more by trying things such as the Shepard’s pie, sausage, and haggis. Haggis is a traditional Scottish dish that involves intestines. I haven’t been able to bring myself to try it but I hear it is quite good. Moose sure looked like he enjoyed his because he left none behind. Half way through our meals we were feeling quite stuffed but since we had pre-paid for this meal before the trip we got dessert as well, we kept pushing through, all the way through dessert! Although I was feeling a little sick in the stomach from shoving down too much food, it was totally delicious and worth all that hard work.

During class, Dr. Long gave us three options to choose from as one of our excursions for the day. We could either go to a lecture on Rousseau and Hume, a museum on the origins of surgery, or hike up Arthur’s seat! I had been wanting to hike up Arthur’s seat ever since I saw it from parliament, and all of that eating from night before gave me that little extra oomph I needed to venture off on a scenic, yet strenuous hike. Michelle, Xuan, and Kat joined me as well. Arthur’s seat is located about a mile east of the Edinburgh Castle. Arthur’s seat is the main peak of the group of hills which form most of Holyrood Park. The hill rises above the city to a height of 251 m (823.5 feet). The seat was formed by a glacier moving west to east about 2 million years ago. Many claim that its name is a derivation of a myriad of legends pertaining to King Arthur. Anywho, the four of us decided to conquer this seat! We didn’t want to take the easy way out so we took the path that looked the steepest and literally “Spidermaned” our way up the side. Half way up I looked down and immediately regretted this decision. We made it up however and decided to keep pressing forward. As we continued hiking and enjoying the beautiful scenery, we noticed that our path was starting to take us back down. As we continued walking we realized that our hike had not even begun and that we hadn’t even hit the bottom of the real Arthur’s seat. About 20 minutes or so later we made it up to the top! Although it was cloudy and then eventually rained on us, we were all feeling good about the mission that we came to conquer. Looking out on the city of Edinburgh made me think about all of the fun and interesting things that I have done on this study abroad trip so far. It was a nice way to say goodbye to a beautiful city that I will be leaving in two days. Although I will be sad to leave this city that has already felt like a new home, I am happy to have spent my first two weeks here and am looking forward to the next two weeks that lie ahead.