Winding Down

Internship:

My Internship!

 My internship experience was pretty awesome. I loved being in a place where everyone got along with everyone. There was always something going on and even though we were busy all the time there was always something funny or amusing going on in the office to lighten everyone's mood. I learned a lot about office dynamic, even the little things make people happy, and lots more. I had a lot of fun working with the Partners on their projects, I also enjoyed working with the client contacts and writing letters to creditors and debtors. There is a lot to do and learn in an insolvency agency and I'm so glad that I could have this opportunity to intern here!

Classes:

Craiglockhart Campus

I took my last and only exam/test on Monday, the day that the buses started running regularly so that we could actually get to campus on time for the exam. I took two classes at Edinburgh Napier University, Brand Management and Modern Scottish History (1707 - 1914). Both classes only had two assignments, a paper and a test. I kept asking myself when they would stop pulling my leg and actually give me homework and papers and assignments. It never happened. There was so many times the bus made me late to class, but the main transportation around here is bus, so the professors don't bat an eye when a student walks in 25 minutes late. My classes were a nice break from my internship but didn't take up much of my time because the readings and the two assignments only took up a max of an hour a week. It was a nice reprieve from Albion classes which I will be going back to the third week of Albion!

Living on my own:

My Flat door

My flat is a ten to fifteen minute walk from Princes Street and from there its a short walk to the Royal Mile. I love our location because we have a bar right downstairs, a restaurant on the other side, and a grocer right across the street. Its very convenient and accessible to get things here, once you figure out where you can find them. In backwards land, pretzels are in the polish section of a supermarket and chocolate chips and food coloring are very difficult to find. There are many things that we cannot find here and this is because we are in the UK and they don't have all the amenities that we are used to in the USA because its expensive to ship things here. Pasta, chicken, hamburgers, frozen veggies, chicken casserole, and copious amounts of garlic powder got me through this semester abroad. Now back to the treadmill!



I hope you have had a swell time reading my blog about my semester abroad. I have had a great time experiencing all that I can in the wonderful capital of Scotland. I will definitely miss seeing the Edinburgh Castle every day. It has become a regular occurrence and I will definitely miss all of the history that I learned about in my class. The things I have valued most about being over here are; learning the history of the city I live in, my internship experience, and being able to live on my own in a strange city. I'm excited to come back to America and see my friends and reconnect. I'm nervous that everyone has changed over the semester and I will come back and nothing will be the same. I am also nervous that I won't know anyone on campus and will look like a first year. I hope I'm not mistaken for one of those! I leave early Monday morning for home (fingers crossed) and hopefully I will be on American soil around 5pm on Monday! Can't wait to see you all and adjust back to Eastern Standard Time.

Sunday Church Exploration #9

The church on Cannongate called Cannongate Kirk is where her Royal Majesty attends when she is Edinburgh. This interested Em and I so we decided to go a couple weeks ago. It was considerably the shortest service we ever attended. There were a lot of plaques on the wall commemorating where Kings or Queens had sat in the past. We sat in King James IV's row, I felt really important! We went to the family service so that we could go to lunch afterward and still have some afternoon left to do our own thing. So going to the family service was a no brainier because it was earlier in the day. What we didn't know was the service was only 30 minutes long with a short and to the point sermon. It was pretty awesome!

Sunday Church Exploration #8

St John's Episcopalian Church

I should probably go back and take a picture of the inside because do you see all of those windows? There are even more on the sides and the back but all of those windows are stained glass. Intricate detail on all of the stained glass, it was absolutely gorgeous inside. I have already been in an Episcopalian church but this one was different because they lite the Advent candle! I love Christmas time and I'm glad that I can go to church to see the Advent Candles and the atmosphere of Christmas. My brother gets here tomorrow so I'm going to try and stay warm! Can't wait to show him around :)

CLOSED

A snow storm has closed down the entire city of Edinburgh for the past couple of days. It started snowing on Saturday night and by Sunday Edinburgh Council didn't know what to do. But instead of staff getting in gritting lorries and salting the roads for safe driving come Monday morning, Edinburgh Council decided it didn't want to pay its drivers overtime so they waited for Monday morning. Not a good idea. By Monday morning it had been snowing for a solid 36 hours. There was at least 4 inches of snow on the ground and everyone was pretty much going crazy. Scotland, if there is one thing you need to do better on is handle snow. Edinburgh Airport has been closed from Monday to Thursday so they can have proper time to deice the runway (take a lesson from Detroit, deice the runway in three hours, not three days). Emily was in Rome this weekend and her flight was Monday, she eventually found her way back via Dublin and Glasgow and a train.

I get to work on Monday morning and listen as the stories start flying from the office ladies. Three double decker buses on Fredrick (my street) were seen going sideways up the road because of the snow. All the schools are closed which does not make PG a happy camper, "its only going to get worse, my kids need their education." No one in the office except for me have proper shoe attire to walk in the snow, so I am the gopher made to go get the milk and coffee because we are out, down at the local co-op. Walking there takes ages even in my wellies, not on account of me walking slow but on account of everyone else not knowing how to walk at all. The sidewalks aren't shoveled so the strip right next to the buildings where it emanates heat is the only place everyone and their mums can walk on. Which you would think would leave the rest of the sidewalk free, well you are wrong, there must be dozens of people lined up along the roads waiting for non existent buses.

Looking on the website when I get back to the office, most of the buses are not running today, if they are running they are running partial routes, and no trains out of Edinburgh (but Glasgow trains are coming in). Some of my office mates are stuck in little towns right outside of Edinburgh because of the train/bus situation. During lunch half the office left to go try and find wellies so they can survive in the wilds of Edinburgh. They come back 2 hours later spouting off stories about having to walk the whole of Princes(s) street looking for wellies and only have 45 minutes of walking against the crowd do they discover Office where they have wellies. Everyone comes back with a pair of them but only after waiting in the queue for over 30 minutes to pay.

A look at Old Town from Princes St

The way these guys are bundled up makes me think of The Christmas Story because my office mates have literally never seen this much snow. There must be 6 or 7 inches of snow and the town has literally gone crazy. One of the office ladies who I walk home with sometimes because she lives a couple rows down says she has the perfect way to get back today instead of walking we will sledge down the hill taking turn on the sledge. I laughed because I knew if going uphill in snow was difficult, going down hill (and not slipping) would be even more difficult. I enjoyed her idea because we would then have an excuse to be snowy instead of having to tell the embarrassing story of our fall. Even though the snow has caused problems there is always a bright side, like how beautiful the snow looks on the castle. It brightens my day, every time I walk to work and see the pristine Castle just sitting there.

One last thing before I drift off. Another thing that Scotland needs to be better on in the snow is the Royal Mail. The office and the flat only just today received their first mail all week (office mail was piled high) and only just yesterday did the Royal Mail pick up the mail across the street and at the office. It astounds me that some days you just don't get your mail in the UK, compared to America posties here are wimps. Snow is not horrible its pretty much the best thing, winter is my favourite season because of hot chocolate, Christmas, Thanksgiving, snow, gathering around a warm fire, sledding and many more! I can't wait for Sean to be here so we can revel in the awkwardness of how Scotland handles snow and see all the cool places!

Sunday Church Exploration #7

Looking through the cemetery at St Cuthberts.

I went to sleep Saturday night wondering which church I would end up at. Sunday morning and I discovered myself here at St Cuthberts Parish Church at the end of Princes St. Snow covered everything and while walking to church I discovered many hidden slush puddles, however I did make it to church just in time to hear the bells ring. It was an awesome sound to hear while walking up to this massive church. The thing that drew me to this church is probably the fact that is situated right below the castle in a cemetery. There are many old gravestones and I could have probably looked around more if it wasn't for church starting! It was the first advent Sunday, to commemorate we sang songs that remind me of Christmas like "Come O Come Emmanuel". 

The inside of this church had an intimate feeling yet was rather large and had a balcony for more seating. I really enjoyed the sermon and feel of the church. If I had more Sundays to explore churches in Scotland I definitely would go back to St Cuthbert's again. The history surrounding the church was impressive, there was a sign by the church that told some of the history, saying that there had been a church on this location since the early 1100s. Seeing as the church rests right below Edinburgh Castle there has been considerable damage done to the church every time there was a fight fought at the Castle. The thing that impressed me the most though was that every time the church was knocked down, they would always rebuild, always. The sermon was delivered by the outgoing student and was quite fun to listen to. He used different voices to grab your attention and once he had it he didn't let go. There is a lot I took to heart during his sermon. Needless to say I will always appreciate St Cuthberts as an awesome church even with half the congregation snowed in!