An explanation of why it was that sort of day has to take us back to Monday, after I turned in my Orality essay. All the snow was still charming and lovely, and upon my return from class, I found Caroline making Christmas decorations, and I decided to join in on the making of paper chains, while watching Elf, so obviously, I got none of my archaeology work done at all. Five hours and many Christmas songs later, we had covered the entire flat in paper chains, made more decorations out of magazine pages, and I was pretty sleepy, so I went to bed. The next day, I tried again to do some archaeology work, and succeeded in getting maybe one paper (out of six) done by the time I had to go to class at 4.
our delightful decorations!
Wednesday, I had planned to wake up super early, write some reports, and then spend Chelsea and my weekly Wednesday hangout at the Christmas market and then go to the IFSA-Butler tea. This is when things started getting hairy. I woke up late and Katherine and I ended up going to the National Museum of Scotland to do our project for archaeology. It was miserable outside. Remember my last entry, when I was so pleased with snow? Well, it was cute at first when Edinburgh had no idea how to cope with a teensy weensy (by Rochester/Chicago/Minneapolis standards) bit of snow, but after days of slippery sidewalks, everything being closed, and snow, icicles, and occasionally drainpipes falling off our building, it was starting to get really old. We got word that IFSA-Butler cancelled our afternoon tea, to which we'd really been looking forward becuase we were getting hoodies (wooo) and cupcakes (om nom nom), so Chelsea and Katherine (whose class was cancelled) and I regrouped and decided that we would meet for lunch at one of the Indian restaurants on Clerk St. After deciding that one of them was really expensive, we went to a different place, where I got amazing sweet potato/butternut squash soup and tea, which was really nice. We sat around whining about not wanting to do our archaeology papers, and when we were all done, braved the further deteriorating weather to go home. I'd planned to go to the library, but it was just really gross out and my feet were soaked. Chelsea and I decided that we would go to the carnival at night, when everything would be lit up. We ended up not going 'cause the weather was so awful.
This brings us to Thursday. Having written maybe one and a half of my reports by this time, I was starting to get a little worried, especially because the Classics Society Christmas Meal was that night and I wanted to be able to have fun. Well, in the morning we got an email saying that Monday exams were being postponed due to the inability to move furniture into exam locations and get the script books delivered (what bs!!). Normally, this would be great, but in fact, it was terrible for Chelsea and me, as our exam Monday would now be Saturday or later... awful because we had an exam Saturday already, and were leaving for London and Paris the next day. So, both of us were seething for a while, and we went to class to find that almost everybody else was just as upset. One girl had a flight back to Minnesota on the 10th, and it would cost $2000 to change it. Our course organizer told us there was really nothing we could do, so Chelsea and I were all worried and upset.
I went home, tried to write more, and managed to finish all but two and a half of my essays. I figured they'd both take a pretty significant time, so I resigned myself to the fact that I'd have to leave post-meal drinks pretty early. Dinner was so fantastic. We had it at an Italian restaurant, Ciao Roma, that seemed to have a weird pirate theme going on (I couldn't figure out why). There was a skeleton in a cage hanging from the ceiling, and dead pirate type things lying around. I kid you not. Anyway, I ended up having crostini, beef medallions with asparagus, and profiteroles. Such a good meal. So delicious. I was so full. It was really strange, because in the US, I feel like I have a much more casual relationship with a lot of my professors than the formality that is demanded here for the most part, however, I can't imagine more than a few of them joining a bunch of students for a big meal, and more, joining them in drinking.
One of the younger lecturers and a lecturer who is on maternity leave right now but had come to the dinner anyway (incidentally, the one who was supposed to be teaching one of my classes, and more incidentally, knew Oliver Nicholson!) were gossiping about students with my friends. Anyway, after the dinner, we went to a bar nearby and had convinced a number of the lecturers to come along for 'just one drink'. Admittedly, all of them did leave after the one drink (but the drinks lasted a while), but one of them stayed on past when I left, and apparently the goal of all of the students was to get him quite drunk (a plan that seemed to be working well). It was all very weird. I was having a great time until I realized it was midnight, and I announced that my carriage had turned back into a pumpkin and so I had to leave to write my essays. Craig and Veronica were trying to convince me to stay, but I resisted. However, on my way out, I was persuaded to do a tequila shot with everybody. It was hilarious, because one of the girls didn't know the proper order to take the shot (salt, tequila, lime), which is a big joke in an episode of Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but nobody else knew why I thought it was so funny. Anyway, I went home, wrote about 300 words, and then fell asleep.
I woke up around 6:30 and managed to be out of bed, writing by 7. I was hoping to have everything done and be at the library by 12:45, so I'd have plenty of time to print everything and get it turned in before we had to go to the rescheduled butler tea, which was going to be at 2:00. I actually managed to get everything done relatively quickly, until it came to getting the bibliography ready to go. Somehow, this took me an inordinate amount of time, and I was running quite late. I got to the library and started trying to print, but it wasn't working. I think that the printers won't print anything that is saved in .odf (Open document format), so I got around it. I had to print like 50 pages of reports. It was ridiculous. The University goes on about green initiatives, but all the departments insist that you turn in 2 single-sided copies of your essays. With everything all turned in, we went to tea.
Tea was lovely, but I was so exhausted at this point. The cupcakes were yummy, and I saw a lot of people I hadn't seen for ages. I hadn't seen my friend LeeAnn since our Highlands trip in early October, so it was really great to get to chat with her for a while. It was sad to pretty much be saying goodbye to everybody, and to say goodbye to Deirda and Ruth. I was really sad that Katharine wasn't there too, because I wanted to say goodbye. The three of them have been so helpful to me. I didn't expect that I would use much of the IFSA support while I was here, but it ended up being important, and they are all really fantastic people! LeeAnn and I walked back, while Chelsea, Sarah, Lindsey, and Sam walked the other way into New Town to do some shopping. LeeAnn ended up coming over for hot chocolate and more leftover pie and we just sat around talking for like two and a half hours. I was so tired, I'd planned to take a nap before the evening, but I didn't get around to it.
At 6:30, a bunch of Crofties (and Chelsea and Lindsey... pretending to be Crofties, even though they got found out pretty quickly) went on an excursion to the Winter Carnival/German Christmas Market in New Town, and some of the Croft social funds went to buying us all a ride on the Ferris wheel. Chelsea, Lindsey, Liz, Lauren, and I all went on together, and then we realized that 1) we are all sort of afraid of heights and 2) we could make the car spin around. The views from the top were amazing... all the lights and decorations in New Town were beautiful, plus Arthur's Seat and Calton Hill were beautiful in the background. We then partook of Prince's Street Punch, which was, I think mulled wine with brandy in it. It sounded pretty sketchy... and it was. I think I'll have to stand in the really long line for the real Gluwein next time I pop by the German Market (and get some spaetzle and donuts mmmmm). We checked out the whole area, and Chelsea bought a teeny nutcracker. We decided to go home after that. I was going to stop by a pup we hadn't been to yet with some of my friends, but I was so so so so so tired, that I went home, watched 30 Rock, ate dinner, and fell asleep. I slept for like 11 hours, and I was still exhausted when I woke up.
I guess essays do that to you.
the ferris wheel
Edinburgh is beautiful
Oh, also, we found out that our exam for Orality will in fact take place on Monday (which is good!), through special permission, so now I have a lot of studying to do before then. I have a strategy, so it should be okay.
OH OH OH. An exciting thing that I almost forgot... my 21st birthday is on WEDNESDAY! Not that it matters here, but it's still a big deal among my American friends, and even among my British friends, 21st birthdays seem to be worth a fuss. We're using it as an excuse to go out and blow off some steam during finals week. I think it's going to be a really fantastic time, though I'm sad that I can't celebrate with my friends at home. We'll have to do that later!
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