Week 6

Hi ya!

This week I decided I needed to culturally experience Edinburgh a little more.

Last Saturday, Ashley and I decided to go out and check out some touristy sites around Edinburgh. We started at the Museum of Edinburgh which was just right of the Royal Mile. The museum basically just explained how Edinburgh emerged into the city it is today. The museum occupied Huntly House which dates back to the 16th century. The museum was pretty small so it didn't take long to go through. When we came out, we decided to check out Canongate Kirk which was right across the street. We couldn't go in the church but we walked around the graveyard and saw the grave of the poet Robert Fergusson. From there, we decided since it wasn't much farther down, we would go check out Scottish Parliament. It turned out they were open to the public so we decided to go in and check out the debating chamber. It kind of reminded me of seeing the UN. We just went in and looked but I think I'd like to go back and take a guided tour to learn more about everything. We've been talking about it in my Scottish history class but I still don't have much of a grasp on British politics.

Wednesday we got 2 pound tickets from the International Student Center to finally go and see the Castle. Tickets are normally around 10 pounds so it was definitely a good deal. We had to meet at the ISC at 1:35 but we ended up standing around for almost a half hour waiting for everyone, which was pretty annoying. They gave us a hand out and when we got over to the castle we were free to wander as we liked. Not only were there great views of the city, but a lot of small museums associated with war and Scottish history to see. The people I was with didn't seem to care too much about all the museum stuff so they went through pretty quickly and I stuck behind to look at everything. The Crown Jewels were pretty cool and I also really liked seeing the prisoner of war stuff. They had barracks all set up like they would have been when prisoners were actually detained there. It took me about 2 hours to go through everything, and I think I may have even missed some things. But it was definitely cool to see considering its such a famous landmark in the city. And of course, its always nice when you don't have to pay full price!

Today I met up with my falafel friend Lily and we went to the Fruitmarket Gallery which is a contemporary art gallery built in the original Edinburgh fruit market. They only have one exhibit at a time and right now it is an exhibit by Scottish artist Claire Barclay. It was mostly sculpture but she also had some water colors and screen prints which were my favorite part of teh exhibit. Lily and I both decided we found her work very visually appealing but didn't really understand the message. A lot of the pieces were untitled which I also didn't like very much. I think it's always easier to interpret art when you have a title to go off of, kind of like in poetry as well. Anyways, you can check out more about the exhibit here on the Fruitmarket's website http://www.fruitmarket.co.uk/exhibitions/current/. Since it was only one exhibit it didn't take too long to go through so we decided to check out the City Art Center which was right across the street. They had a lot of really cool modern art including an exhibit of Bob Dylan's work. Lily and I were both unaware that he was also an artist but we both enjoyed his stuff. For a sample check out this link http://www.bobdylanart.com/index.php?section_id=3&subsection_id=1&category_id=1&subcategory_id=1&shopId=1&id=1. From there, we went over to Princes Street and got some tea. From there we parted ways and I headed back towards Pollock. I decided to wander around a little on my way back and saw some of the city I haven't seen before. I was kind of worried about getting lost, especially because I didn't have a map on me but I was fine. I found my way to the Meadows and once you're there it is pretty easy to find where you have to go. The whole city is so beautiful, it was really nice to just walk around and enjoy everything.

This week, we're reading Roderick Random by Tobias Smollett for my English class. I haven't gotten too far but like the other books we've had to read lately, it doesn't seem to exciting.

I've uploaded some more pictures that you can check out here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/NedPix/NEDINBURGH02?authkey=Xk_DqPcaT3c#

Also, here's a panoramic video I took of New Town from the Castle:

Hope all is well with all of you!