You'd Think This Were a Tumble Blog II

I am in the midst of writing an exam essay, and I thought about putting this as the concluding paragraph and remarks. However, I felt it had a bit more potential than to be consigned to the end of a paper and then lost to oblivion. So I tweaked it a little bit, turning it into more of a creative-writing piece. This is a significant moment for me; I have forged a link between criticism and creativity. I have proved to myself that such a feat can be done, even if not well. I will wrise again.

‘The power of the city lies in the fact that it disconcerts you. You can try to master it, and for a time, you might succeed. Although you should never, ever forget that it has the ultimate control. Its an ever-shifting, ever-moving buzz. Oh, laddie, it is not safe at all. The only safety it affords is the anonymity, of getting lost in the crowds. The city is the important thing, the powerful thing. And you are living in a postmodern city. Postmodernism means refuting Lyotard’s ‘grand narrative’ theory, it means disruption and change and being unanchored. Cutting yourself off. From agriculture, from family, from friends – even though we play with a superimposed structure on our friends via the city, these little closes and alleys running into each other, like a game of cat-and-mouse. Only, you don't know that you're not the cat, or even the mouse. It means confusion, it means Edinburgh.’

Americans in Edinburgh

Happy birthday to my friend Claudia! She turned 21 tonight, and she wanted to do the typical American rituals. A big group of us gathered at her flat, ate cake, made sure we were liquidated, and then set out for Koko, a shnazzy little bar-restaurant near George Square, where most of us students hang out. I'd never been there before, and it was nice being in a bit of a more upscale place than places like the Montague, the Library Bar, the Southsider, Newington Fish and Chips, or even Iman's and - heaven forbid - Globetrotters.

There were lots of shots around, and people drinking absinthe. I was content with my lemon and lime bitters :) We sat, we chatted, a group of us even played pool with a billiard set (because we didn't know how to play billiards).

It was a good night. Pictures to come later. Tomorrow, more writing exam essays and studying for exams. Onwards! Less than a week until I'm done with all my exams, and then a few more days and I'll be on my way home.

Home. I'm feeling ambivalent about it right now. Static. I'm going to miss this place, and the people I've met here, but it will be so, so good to be back home.

Video Blogging, Take One

It worked, it worked! At least for me - I put the video settings on private, so you might have trouble viewing it via Youtube. And here comes the confession where I hate the sound of my voice - it sounds high-pitched, nasally, and annoying. Especially when I trail off and finish a sentence weakly. 

Anyway, I'm afraid of heights.

Featured in this video: Claudia, Lindsey, Chelsea, and Lauren!

The Top of a Ferris Wheel is a Bad Place to Remember You're Afraid of Heights

Do you know what this is? This is my 200th post! And what better way than to celebrate it than with a video on a ferris wheel? First up for the evening (Friday night, yesh) was the Christmas Market, in which I got a free sweet mince pie and a ride on the ferris wheel, and where I filmed this video:

Apparently the video refuses to upload properly, so here are a few pictures:

Fire Punch makes fire lasers launch from your eyes.

Lindsey in front of the Ferris Wheel.

Blurry view of the festivities.

Claudia and Lindsey being themselves.

You'll just have to take my word for it until the video loads properly that the top of a ferris wheel is a very bad place to remember suddenly that you're afraid of heights.

Afterwards, I went to the cinema with some friends and saw the best worst Christmas-horror film imaginable. It's called Rare Export. Let me take a minute, just sit right there, I'll tell you why it's better than 'Fresh Prince of Bel Air'. First of all, it was made in Finland. That earns this film points for being foreign, and the country is just  random enough without being obscure: Finland's status as one of the countries with the happiest overall population, good educational system, etc., means that they should know how to pull off a reasonably good film.

Secondly, it was about Santa being a gigantic horned demon, frozen and buried beneath a mountain. Of course, the wealthy Americans had to go and dig it up for prophet, and then the Finns must save the day by blowing up the thawing Santa-demon. The first half of the movie is quite jumpy, really, until halfway through the film when you begin to have armies of old, nude men ('elves') running through Finnish forests, the film evokes a whole new type of fear.

However, they do end up producing a line of Santas from the old men. What makes this gold is that they have an assembly line of Santas, perfecting their Santa-ness under Bolshevik-like surveillance. Take my word - hilarious.

From "Set in Darkness"

"'I'm serious. We all come from darkness, you have to remember that, and we sleep during the night to escape the fact. I'll bet you have trouble sleeping at night, don't you?' He didn't say anything. Her face grew less animated. 'We'll all return to darkness one day, when the sun burns out.' A sudden smile lit her eyes. '"Though my soul may set in darkness, It will rise in perfect light."'
"'A poem?' he guessed.
"She nodded. 'I forget the rest.'"

-Ian Rankin, Set in Darkness


Next post will, I hope, be something special. Also, happy birthday to Aniue-san (J-Chan)! 

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.

Adventures in Scotland: Edinburgh

After two weeks of journeying throughout the United Kingdom with my parents, and after arriving in Edinburgh four days ago, I have finally begun my program! As everyone else arrived, jet-lagged and disgruntled, I was pretty chipper and wanted to go out and take a few walks around the city, all of which I got a little lost on and had to "wing it" (though I got lost on purpose the third walk I took with my orientation roomie and a friend we met during dinner - whoo making friends).

Although I love my parents very dearly, and I am very grateful they took the time to fly out to the UK and to have the patience to deal with me, it was like a breath of fresh air to be on my own again. The evening I first met my parents in Frankfurt, I couldn't stop talking to them, and I was so happy to see them. The following two weeks were filled with sightseeing and traveling by car with them, after which everyone gets a little cranky. We were with each other all day, and although we had some very good conversations, I readily accepted my regained freedom.

Along with settling down into life in Edinburgh, it has a few striking differences to Madrid and America. For the first time in more than three months, my clothes don't stick to me with sweat. No more cold showers at 12:30 a.m. or leaving most of the water on my body to evaporate. No more waiting until the "hot part" of the day has passed before I can start doing errands on a Saturday.

The "downtown" of the city is actually pretty small. There are very few tall buildings, and there are tons of winding streets which are easy to lose yourself in. However, most of these streets go through, so it's not a problem. All in all, I think I'm going to like Edinburgh, a city which is big enough without being overwhelmingly huge.

I'm tired, so there will have to be more tomorrow.

Also: too much SEO makes me fizzle and fall apart and have haunting memories of Germans with keyboards.