Two Michael Jacksons, Charlie Chaplin, & A Swan

Elysse & I in front of the view of Arthur's Seat at Calton Hill

This weekend was fun packed! On Thursday night, Elysse arrived in good ol' Edinburgh! Friday we explored campus, ate Malaysian, meandered around the Royal Mile, Victoria's Street, Grassmarket, the castle, Calton Hill...It was lovely. The weather was stunning. It was absolutely perfect. It wasn't windy and it SUNNY! Calton Hill was beautiful. The views were breathtaking. Calton Hill is known for its architecture and there were a few monuments that stuck out. By the time we got to there though, the Nelson Monument was already closed. But even without it, the views were something to behold.

A Postcard friendly view of Edinburgh

One of the most impressive structures on Calton Hill

A monument that greets you as you walk up to Calton Hill

The Nelson Monument with the moon in the background

We had our usual Friday night mac & cheese. It was scrumptious. Then Semeli, Elysse & I went to see Watchmen. We arrived twenty minutes before the show started. It was PACKED...but we lingered by the front and ended up being the first people in the theater although others had been waiting way before us. That would never had happened to me in the city. It's quite interesting to see a movie in the U.K. For one, it's cheaper. But the advertisements are targeted for a different crowd, they also have a Royal Marines ad (instead of the National Guard) and they catered to a different type of humor. We three were puzzled by one ad but the rest of the audience found it hilarious. The advertisements last 20 minutes and then there's like 5 minutes of previews. Watchmen was wonderfully entertaining. There were moments though that made me squeamish, not just in the gore, but the way the content was handled. Since I have not read the graphic novel I can't say if it was accurate (but Semeli was pleasantly surprised but she acknowledged discrepancies). But it was disturbing on many levels dealing with rape, murder, molestation, and racism. But I LOVED Patrick Wilson's Night Owl II, he was adorkable. It was a good movie, just a bit jarring in many aspects.

Saturday, Sara's friend, Megan came for her Spring Break. Claire's brother, Mathieu had arrived the night before. What else would we do but go and eat PIG!? Elysse is a sucker for a good sandwhich, so I had to show her the goodness of Oink. And it did not disappoint, it was tasty! Afterwards we walked around the Royal Mile. Claire, Mathieu, Elysse and I climbed Walter Scott Monument. It was WINDY and just so narrow. But it was fun. Afterwards we went to Chocolate Soup. Ah! I got a CRUNCHIE hot chocolate, it was revolutionary.

Elysse & I on the Walter Scott Monument

Ahhh, chocolate-y goodness

That night we ate dinner, drank cider and played games. The first, righty drawey (at least that is what I call it) is where everyone writes a sentence and then passes it their paper to the right of them. That person then draws a picture of the sentence, folds over the sentence, and passes it to the right of them. Then that next person has to write a sentence off of what they see in the picture. You get some pretty wacktastic things. We have some running jokes in Flat 29 that just came out screaming. We laughed too hard. My side hurt afterwards. The second game we played is everyone writes six subjects (places, people, things) and then you split into teams. Once you have a team it's broken down into three levels. The first level you have to make your team members guess what is written on the paper without revealing what is written. So if your clue was "Michael Jackson" you can say, "He was once black but he's now white..." or "he's a singer" until someone guesses it. The concept it to get as many right in a minute. The second round is similar--but instead of words you can only mime it. The third is you can choose only one word to describe what's written. It was HILARITY. In one of the games, it kept coming back to Charlie Chaplin even though he wasn't even written down on a paper! Mathieu knows English, but hasn't spoken it for a while, so he came across a clue (swan) and had no idea what it was. It was flustering him, but it was just so funny. It was good times.

Sunday, Elysse left. Hopefully she had a wonderful time! I think we really explored Edinburgh! I had so much work to do. The "X." I have to read The Autobiography of Malcolm X and every page I think, "damn the white man!" He just has so much anger. It's beyond interesting, but just, wow, anger. Tonight we're going to eat some authentic Scottish cuisine, cullen skink anyone? Should be interesting!

A note to leave you with...