The Last Blog

Last Thursday my mom arrived in Edinburgh and since then I have been too busy to write. We've gone to the Edinburgh zoo, the Royal Botanical Gardens, St. Andrews, tour bus rides, and much more. I got some amazing pictures, but I can't put all of them on the blog. So here are some of the ones that I like the most.

baby penguins!!!!!

They have this thing called the penguin parade, where they let some penguins out of the cage and walk around through all the people, so adorable!

Completely awesome flower. I can't remember the name (my mom will kill me for not remembering).

Look at those storm clouds!

Found a cute cat at the gardens!

This is the monster hedge that is like 200 years old. So huge! 

They look like trees in whoville:)

Unfortunately, the fun always has to end. Tomorrow is a day full of cleaning, packing and bringing things I can't take home to charity. Not a very fun way to spend my last day in Edinburgh, but it has to be done. I have to say that this trip has definitely been worth it and I've had such a great experience. I was thinking today of all of the things I'm going to miss about Edinburgh, and here they are:

First of all, my flatmates. Most people will tell you not to live with you’re best friends because you end up hating each other but I totally don’t agree. My flatmates are my best friends here and I am going to miss them a lot.

Second, the chickens outside our building. Yes they may wake me up at extremely early hours of the mornings, but they still make me laugh, seeing them fighting in the trees outside our window.

Third, the buildings. Edinburgh has some beautiful architecture, with a mixture of old and new, you never get bored. I am still in awe of how beautiful the city is when ever I walk around (although I must say I miss all the views of the country).

Fourth, the city. I love the country but it’s also really nice to be so close to everything. There’s no need for a car, I can walk almost everywhere and if I can’t walk I can take the bus. Everything is very convenient.

Fifth, being legal. Yes I know, it sounds like something a young teenager wants, being able to buy obscene amounts of alcohol, but it’s not for that reason. I hate that in the US I can’t go buy wine to cook with or to have with dinner. Or just have a nice corona while relaxing. Stupid US. I think Europe has it right with making the legal drinking age 18.

Sixth, SHOPPING. Clothing may be extremely expensive over here but it’s totally worth it. The clothes are so much better over here. Enough said.

Seventh, chips and cheese. Yes they do have cheese fries in the US but chips and cheese is just a much cooler name, and I love how they give you the fries topped with cheese in a box and you have to wait for the cheese to melt before you eat it. The anticipation is great.

Eighth, Cadbury crème eggs. Do you know those amazing chocolate eggs filled with crème that you only get at Easter in the US? Yea well those amazing tasting candies are in stores all year round in Edinburgh, I guess its cause Cadbury is a British company.

Ninth, Ryanair. The cheapest airline ever is called Ryanair. You may get what you pay for, meaning tiny seats, strict luggage restrictions and absolutely no free food or drinks on flights, but it’s still amazingly cheap to fly around Europe.

And Tenth, Double-decker buses, they are so awesome. Sitting in the front row on the top level is so cool, you can see everything and it always feels like the bus is going to tip over. 

Now I must say there are a lot of things I will be looking forward to when I get home, my dogs, friends, family, my car, Mexican food (it's awful here), the sun and the heat, and oh so much more.

My flight tomorrow leaves around 8 to London Heathrow, then I get to spend the night in the airport and then catch my flight back to Raleigh at 12 Thursday morning and be home Thursday afternoon. Sleeping in the airport will not be fun, but it will be worth it to see my cute little Kiwi (who I miss the most) again!

(she's so cute!)

This does also mean that I am done with this blog, so now I say goodbye and it has certainly been fun!

Poor College Students

Yesterday I officially finished my year at the University of Edinburgh. I must say that it is very bittersweet. I am happy to be done and to be going home soon but I'm also going to miss everyone here and miss being in a beautiful city. My flatmates and I are all still in denial, thinking that there's no way we are all leaving so soon. We've also all been a bit nostalgic, re-hashing all of the fun stuff that we've done together this year.
Two days from now is my flatmate Vivian's birthday, and we had been considering buying her guitar lessons, only problem is that I am broke (as a typical college student should be). So I told my other flatmates they'll have to get the guitar lessons for her on their own and I'd have to be a bit creative.
So what I came up with was to make her truffles (which are inexpensive to make since there's only chocolate, sugar and butter and I already have the sugar and butter) and then put them in an origami box that I made and decorated. So far I've made the box, and tomorrow I'll make all of the truffles.

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See with a little creativity you can always think of a nice gift for a friend, no money needed! 

Must Love Dogs

If you were ever considering volunteering at an animal shelter, I have just one question for you, do you really love dogs (or cats)? Because if the answer is without a doubt yes then go ahead, but if there's any doubt in your mind then do not work at an animal shelter! I came back today wet, cold and muddy. Of course when I got up this morning it was raining, well more like pouring. thankfully by the time I got to the shelter it had died down, but that didn't entirely help. I had to take all of the dogs for a walk again and the areas to take them out were completely muddy. This would be fine since I was wearing my wellies but of course the crazy dogs kept jumping all over me with their muddy paws. I had to endure two hours of this. But I love dogs so I didn't mind riding the bus home all wet and muddy, having people give me dirty looks for being so dirty on the bus haha. Although I did get to play with some adorable puppies, which was certainly worth it. So again I say make sure you really love dogs before you volunteer because rainy days are certainly not fun. Time to curl up in bed with some hot chocolate and a good movie...

First Day

Today was my first day at the Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home. I had a lot of fun. I got there around 9:45 and left at 1:30. The first thing I had to do was squeegee all the soapy water into the drain. Kinda reminded me of tennis camp when it has rained the night before and we have to soak up all the water on the courts the next day. The only difference was I had maybe 20 dogs barking at me. A lot of them would follow the squeegee back and forth and would try to attack it when it was close to their kennel, pretty funny actually. Once I had finished with that I had to wash all of the dog bowls. Then the fun part started. They had three large grassy enclosed areas where dogs could run around. So the girl I was working for in one of the kennels  wrote me a list of dogs that I could take into the areas. I think I took about 10 of them out there (one at a time of course) and I just got to run around and play with them. Some of them were interested in their own running of course but others had a lot of fun with fetch and tug-o-war. My favorite dog was Rex, a Staffie (Staffordshire terrier), he was so cute and insisted upon being a lap dog, and also would not allow me to stop playing with him. The four hours went by very quickly, although I had a lot of fun!

Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home

This morning at 11 I had a meeting with the manager of the Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home. I decided to volunteer there since I have quite a lot of time on my hands, what with classes being over and everything. I was very impressed by the shelter, it was really much nicer than any I have seen. The shelter can hold 250 dogs and 100 cats, the amazing part is that it's mostly a no-kill shelter. Occasionally they have to put animals to sleep but last year out of the 3,000 animals they only put 27 down, which is really impressive. The shelter also acts as a boarding for family pets. I am excited to start volunteering, they had a lot of cute puppies and kittens which I can't wait to play with (I might try to sneak my camera in to take some pictures)!

Canary Islands!

On March 30th my flatmates Jenny and Vivian and I got on a flight to Lanzarote, part of the Canary Islands, in Spain and late afternoon yesterday I got home. It was really a great vacation. We stayed at the Bellevue Aquarius hotel, which was amazingly beautiful. We got an all-inclusive package which was great because we were given breakfast, lunch, dinner, and drinks basically for free since the cost for the hotel was relatively cheap. The food was good, a bit repetitive but good. I honestly don't think that I could put the trip into words so I will just put up the pictures and allow you to imagine how my trip was (I'm gonna make them bigger then normal just to show how amazing they are)/

We had a lot of cat visitors at the hotel! We named all of them :)

The hotel

Whaaatt??

This morning I got up early and as I was looking out my window an egret landed in the yard next to my flat (this is where the chickens and ducks come from). Guess I've got a new friend!

Now that's some crazy weather!

In North Carolina I always thought we had the craziest weather, it would change so quickly, hot one day cold the next. It always drove me crazy. But Edinburgh totally surpasses North Carolina's crazy weather. This morning I woke up to beautiful blue skies and lots of sun. Giving me the urge to go for a nice long walk. Before I was about to leave for my walk I looked out the window to see dark clouds and rain. Great. I sat at my computer and started to hear that the rain suddenly turned into hail, I watched my window and soon I couldn't see because it was hailing so hard and there was tons of wind. In an instant the hail stopped and suddenly the blue skies and sun returned. So I decided I should take advantage of the momentary sun, so I went to the store. When I got out of the store it was cloudy again and when I got back to my flat it started hailing again! And now as I sit here in my room I can see blazing sun and blue skies. Now realize that this all happened between 10 am and 1pm. Wow! Can't wait to see what happens next....

Hmm Sweden for the weekend? Yes I think so.

This past weekend two of my friends and I went to Stockholm, Sweden for the weekend. My cousin was nice enough to allow us to stay in his flat while he was away on vacation, so we were right in the city center. I was their official tour guide for the weekend, seeing as I've been to Stockholm a million times. Our adventures started Saturday morning where we went to the open market and a cool modern furniture store. After that we went to Skansen, my favorite part of Sweden.

Me on a Dala Hast, a traditional Swedish figure, except normally a lot smaller.

Bison!

Lynx!

Ahahahah I love the squirrel's ears

Fighting seals!

Moose!

There was a baby moose that kept coming up to the fence wanting people to pet him. He came up to me so I started petting him. As soon as I stopped he would nudge my hand, just like a dog would, he didn't want me to stop petting him! I told my friends that the trick with any animal is just to scratch them behind the ears, they love it!

Luckily we had beautiful blue skies and sunshine that day!

And there was still snow on the ground!

Overall it was a nice relaxing and fun weekend. And of course I did enjoy eating some great Swedish candy, no one makes candy like they do.

This morning when I woke up I heard a funny noise outside, I'm of course used to the chickens making noise but now it sounded like the chicken had a cold (we'd have that in common). So when I got up and looked out the window I was surprised to see that we now have a family of ducks living outside! 

That explains the funny noise...

More Eggs!

Next Weekend I'm going to Stockholm with a few friends and my cousin was kind enough to let us stay in his flat. So I decided to make two eggs for his daughters since when I went to visit them they wouldn't let me stop drawing pictures for them.

This is one side of the first one

Here's the other side

The second one

The other side of the second one.

Then I decided that I'd have a bit of fun and make one that has meaning to it, or at least all of the designs have a certain meaning, according to a website that I found on pysanky. 

So this egg has two rams on it, I chose the ram because 1. he's cute 2. I'm born the year of the ram and 3.  they are symbols of strength, dignity, leadership and perseverance. So the next band around the egg (called an eternity band) is a symbol of protection. Then the diamond sieves symbolize the separation of good and evil. Next the pink waves around the egg symbolize harmony and immortality.

In between the two rams is a sun which symbolizes life, warmth and love. 

If you want to look at what all the symbols that can be made represent, here is the website that I used Pysanky Symbolism.

National Museum of Scotland

For my architectural history class I have to write an essay on a building in Edinburgh, describing the building and giving a critical analysis. I chose to write about the National Museum of Scotland, built in 1998, that sits in the middle of Old Town. The great thing about this is that it's pretty close to my flat so today I went to the museum and took tones of notes and pictures of the architectural aspects of the museum.  I had intended on actually looking at the exhibitions but the architecture of this building stuck out so much that I didn't have any time to look at the exhibitions.

I didn't actually take this picture, I had to get it off the Internet. It was raining today so the picture wouldn't have done the building justice. But as you can tell the building is very modern and sticks out among all of the older buildings around it. 

This is the main entrance part of the museum...doesn't exactly look like a museum right?

This is looking down from the 5th floor at the main entrance.

All along the stairs and in random parts of the museums there were these seats carved into the walls, which I thought was very cool.

There were tons of these niches and cut outs in the walls that serve absolutely no purpose but they were part of the reason I never looked at the exhibition, they were everywhere! And always different shapes...

See here are more odd cutouts...I don't think I even looked at the displays beneath them.

I thought this was really cool. Again serve no purpose, but you can see through them to the other side and I guess they make going down stairs a little more interesting.

I'm certainly going to have my work cut out for me analyzing this building. There was really so much to it and I actually got lost quite a bit (my map didn't help). Maybe I'll go back one day and actually look at the exhibit, which shows the changes Edinburgh's gone through since it's founding.