I Tried Calling, but There Was No Answer...

A post in which I give up the anonymity of some of my friends.

Oof. My sister K has come to visit me here in the lovely city of Edinburgh. In preparation for her visit, I have been foolhardy enough to try and get ahead in my homework and prepare for exams, which I am quickly losing ground on. That is the clearest and concisest explanation I can give for leaving all 22 of you, my official followers, in the dark for so long. That, and the fact that the past few weeks have been a little bit of a roller coaster ride internally for me. I don't want to write and publish my less-than-ebullient internal monologues any more than you want to listen to them. However, all that aside, K and I have been having a wonderful time!

Thursday morning she arrived, and she went off to see Parliament while I went to class, and then we met up afterward in Parliament and watched the Themed Question and Answer session that happens every Thursday. This week's theme was primary and secondary education in Scotland, which was interesting, but they spoke quickly and still, some of their accents gave me a bit of trouble. Afterwards, we were right at Holyrood Palace, so we jaunted over there and had a jolly cold time looking through the palace, retracing Mary Queen of Scots' (where does the possessive go?! I can think of nowhere else to put it!) life.

Thursday evening, we high-tailed it to the New Town over to Rachel's flat, where Rachel and her flatmate were hosting dinner. (There were so many Thanksgiving feasts to attend - I had been invited to two others that evening, one hosted by my own flatmates. It was probably a bad of mine that I went over to the New Town instead of staying at my own flat, but Rachel had invited me a couple of weeks ago.) K and I brought an apple crumble, and together we made a party of about twelve people, all basking in the wonderful tradition of gratitude, feasting, and relationship-building that is Thanksgiving. I was sad to be away from a gigantic contingent of my family, but this was a very good substitute. I knew this before, but I'm experiencing how family be built by more than just blood ties.

Friday morning, I had to go to class again, so I was ready to go adventuring in the late morning. K and I went over to the airport where we had reserved a car. Shortly after getting in the car, we decided that we didn't want to deal with the hassle of driving on the left side of the road in a manual. So we turned in the car and hiked up Arthur's Seat instead. The day was clear but cold, which meant that our visibility was fantastic. For K, I think it was easily the highlight of her trip so far, and it was good for me to hike up the Seat again. After all, I haven't been back since my trip up there the first week of the semester. After dinner off of Princes Street, we walked to the German Christmas market in the street which just opened the day before, where I soon took my leave of K. Friday night was when there was a stake-wide ceilidh over at the Church, and K had been planning on going with me. It had been a long day, though, and she was still jet-lagged, so she retired early to catch up on sleep, and I went to the ceilidh by myself.

I love me a good ceilidh, and this one was good. Some of my Church friends were there, so I could hang out with them between dances and actually had partners that I knew this time. There is something very satisfying about dancing with a guy in a kilt. It's grand when the kilt flaps out behind the guy. I get a similar feeling when I'm twirling around in a long, flowy skirt. As we were at the ceilidh, it started snowing - first snow of the season. Absolutely magical. The dance ended around 11 pm on account of the inclement weather, but after everyone else had left, about seven or eight of us had a wee snowball fight in the parking lot. After that, we went to a chippy, and I stayed out way too late by watching Elf with the rest of our little Young Adult group. I shouldn't have, but it was totally worth it.

Wow, this is a discombobulated post. Sorry it's such a laundry-list. I'll try and do a few more pensive, image-based meditations on my experiences later when I'm not so tired and trying not to get all of these things out and onto the 'page' and recorded.

Today, I woke up comparatively early, and K and I went for a tour trip through the southern Highlands. Wow. It felt like the whole of Scotland was frosted over in spun sugar, like it was a Winter Wonderland. Today: Stirling Castle, Loch Lomond, and Ghost Tour to vaults beneath South Bridge.

Lovely days pass away so, so quickly.

Pictures to come soon.