A week in review

As I began to realize how little time I have left here (no, we are not allowed to talk about it), I started taking advantage of Scotland, its ease of travel, and the things Edinburgh has to offer. Now more than ever, I do not want to leave.

Last Friday, I went to visit Hanna and Steve, two friends from Wooster. They are both studying in Freiburg, Germany, about an hour train ride from the Swiss border, and right in the middle of wine country. After a few hours of travel (including running through Dublin Airport so I could catch my flight in my 1-hour layover), I arrived at the Karlsruhe Baden-Baden Airpark, a 2-hour bus/train ride from Freiburg. I got off the plane smiling, excited to see Hanna, who was supposed to pick me up... but when I got out of the gate she wasn't there. I waited a couple of minutes - maybe I just didn't see her. Still not there. Luckily, I'd had the foresight to ask her what her cell number was, so I gave her a call from a pay phone. "I'm all alone in a foreign country where I don't know the language!" I said. She told me that the trains had been striking, so she had to get on one that was a half hour later than her initial one, and arrived in another 20 minutes. I sat for a bit, bought a croissant for lunch (I didn't know how to order anything else), and finally she arrived. Lesson 1: "I would like to have" is "Ich hete gairn".

By the time we reached Freiburg (after waiting forever for a bus to the train station), it was dark. We stopped at a grocery store on the way to Hanna's flat and got a couple of cheap - but good - bottles of red wine. At 2 Euros each, I started to appreciate the perks of being in wine country. We then met up with Steve at an Indian restaurant, where I treated them to dinner (both of them thanked Pepe, who financed this wonderful trip), and then we went back to Hanna's to drink the wine together before going to visit one of Steve's friends in the dorms.

The next morning we got up early so that we could go to the farmer's market before heading to Switzerland. This market was enormous, and had everything from toys to spices to bratwursts to roses. Tons of gorgeous roses. The market takes place every day, but is especially large on Saturdays. It was a really cool experience walking through the market, eating roasted chestnuts and bratwursts, listening to people talk around me.

We then headed to the train station, where we caught a train to Basel, Switzerland. A few stops in, we realized that Steve didn't have his passport with him, but it turned out not to be a problem because nobody ever checked them anyway. We walked to the river, took a ferry across, and explored a street that reminded me very much of the Champs Elysees before going to a grocery store and stocking up on chocolate. We were basically just a few kids running around in a foreign country, acting as though we did it every day. It was pretty cool. We then stopped at a gay bar (Steve's was eager to go to one in a foreign country), then caught the train back.

We returned to Freiburg, where we drank the other bottle of wine and watched a movie before falling asleep. The next morning was another early morning, and we stopped at a cafe for coffee, muesli with milk and yoghurt, and rolls with lots of jam and butter. We then walked halfway up a big hill in the middle of Freiburg for some cool views of the city, but had to leave pretty quickly so Hanna and I could catch the train to get me back to the airport. Leaving them behind, who I've known for a couple of years instead of a couple of months, was really hard, but I was excited to get back to my mates here in Edinburgh.

When I walked into the flat, I looked around, saw Kate sitting on the floor watching TV, and saw a street barrier in our kitchen. "What did you DO this weekend?" I asked.

"That's Freddie, don't you like him?" she said.

"Well yeah, it's cool, but don't you think we might get in trouble?"

Solution to that, I guess, was hide it whenever the cleaners come. Freddie is a really good coat/scarf rack.

The next day, I made hot chocolate from scratch (99% dark chocolate, whole milk, and honey) with the chocolate I'd gotten in Switzerland for me and my flatmates. They said I should go to Switzerland more often so that I could make them hot chocolate - which pretty much means they liked it a lot.

Thursday was Thanksgiving, so on Wednesday I walked two miles uphill both ways in the rain to get turkey from M&S. It was worth it, because I got to wear my pink plaid wellies and our Thanksgiving feast was so amazing - six Americans, me, and ten Brits getting together for a huge potluck feast. People started showing up at 6 with food and drink in hands, and by about 6:30 we were sitting around in a huge mob with plates on our laps and cups of wine, beer, and cider at our sides. We all went around telling everyone what we were thankful for (I got a few "aww"s when I said "I'm thankful for the new friends I've made here and the old friends I've left behind"), then played flip cup and went to see the lights at the Winter Festival.

Yesterday morning, I got up early to go to Craigmillar Castle with a few friends. The castle is a 10-minute bus ride away. When we arrived, we found out that through the winter, the castle is closed on Thursdays and Fridays. Sitting around and contemplating whether to walk through the park to get back to our bus stop or down Death Lane (a really narrow street with no sidewalks), some men who were doing renovation work drove up in their van, ready to go on a lunch break, and told us that we could go in even though it was closed. None of the lights were on, but it was a sunny day and we were welcome to go explore.

This is the point where the four of us (Ricky, Carolyn, Lauren, and I, none of us British) decided that we love Scottish people and their super-accommodating hospitality.

We explored the castle a bit, all to ourselves, exploring even the pitch-dark staircases to see where they went, then returned to Edinburgh. Later in the day, after my lecture, Kate and I watched Grey's Anatomy, which I'd found streaming online.

Three weeks left. Totally not enough, but I'll make the best of it.