It's still 3:30 am

Alright, time for an update on the weekend. It's hard to do this whole blog thing right now, since the computer lab is only open from 9-5 on weekdays, and closed weekends. I am discovering right now just how much of a computer junkie I really am. It's quite sad, really. I miss people- internet is not the same, but I'm grateful for it, because this would be a lot harder for me without it.

Anyway, on Friday I went into town with Diana and Alex, and after going to the tourist office to check out day tours, we wandered around the town and took lots and lots of pictures. Edinburgh isn't called "the Athens of the north" for nothing- this is by far the most beautiful city I've ever seen. The neogothic Sir Walter Scott monument rears up in its sinister blackened limestone, the gardens fill the valley, the castle juts out on volcanic rock over the city, and Calton hill is crowned with neoclassical columns. Just over in Holyrood park is the sizeable Arthur's Seat, a 300 million year old volcano. We also wandered into the Tron Kirk, the second oldest church in Edinburgh and now dedicated to information about the various ghost tours in the city. This place is gorgeous!

Eventually Diana left us, and Alex and I hit the Calton cemetary, which is beautiful in its own right. It's where David Hume and Alexander Bell are buried, and there's a massive obelisk commemorating some fellows. The grass is very green, and in the sunny late afternoon, the view from the top of the walls (which we of course climbed up on ^_^) was extraordinary. We eventually tore ourselves away from the cemetary, and went and caught a movie- "The Day After Tomorrow," which we both figured we needed to see on the big screen while we still could. It was an entertaining movie, full of the special effects we were expecting. Of course, the entertainment value of the movie increased because we each grabbed a pint at happy hour at Q Bar on our way to the theatre...

After te movie, Alex and I went to Tesco. After we got back from Tesco we headed out again really soon to go to The Oak, a pub just down the road. It was, unfortunately, exceedingly lame, because by the time we got there (around 11:15) everyone was drunk and singing kareoke, and it was mainly people from the Communications trip (also from ASU) who were there. Of course, that meant that I had to let Alex go and try to hit on the Comm. girls- he's doing pretty well for himself, but he's too shy to really ask any one girl out- which left me trying to find someone, anyone to talk to in the fray of drunken dancing idiots. It was a shame, but when we left, Alex made sure I had some people to walk back to the college with (a bunch of the others including him were taking taxis into town to find a club). One of these was a Comm. girl named Sarah, who was really very pleasant to chat with. I will say, however, that the highlight of the evening was that Mike, who has long, curly hair, had teased it up into a fro. Awesome, Mike, awesome.

Alright... Saturday... was cold and rainy. A fairly large group of us took the Hop-on Hop-off bus tour of Edinburgh, but we didn't get off anywhere- the weather really was miserable. We almost went to the Writer's Museum... but then we wussed out. Seriously, it was frigid. In the evening, Diana, Alex, Matt Neff and I went back to the movie theater and saw the latest Harry Potter movie. It was, like "The Day After Tomorrow," entertaining. Short, but entertaining.

On Sunday most of the people I know here went on a day tour to Loch Ness and Inverness, but since I plan on walking to Inverness with Jessamine, I declined to go. Instead, I took a walk to help me prepare for my trip with Jess. As near as I can tell, I walked about 13 5/12 miles, including climbing Arthur's Seat (the volcano I mentioned). It's really very beautiful up there- you can see very far in every direction, and as I ate my lunch, I could see a rainstorm headed for teh little mountain. I'll see if I can get pictures to show y'all. ^_^ On the way down I took a detour past St. Andrew's Chapel, a building of which only a small portion of one corner remains. The bset part, though, was that from up there I could hear, from somewhere off in the distance, some event playing the Proclaimer's song "I Would Walk 500 Miles" ober the loudspeaker. I also stopped off at the Palace of Holyroodhouse to see the gallery exhibit there on Dutch paintings in the collection of the royal family, because apparently the palace is going to be closed for the next two weeks while the queen is in residence there. It was a good show, and I was amused to see paintings which were recognizably by the same artists as pieces which I had discussed with Mel at the National Gallery of Ireland. Beautiful stuff.

On Monday morning I had class. My classes here really aren't bad, and I don't have too much of them. One is a history class on the places we're visiting, and the other is a literature class. They're really not bad at all, though yesterday we had them for four hours straight. Ouch. In the afternoon we met our group for a tour of Edinburgh Castle, which was interesting. We saw the room where James I of England was born, and still more breathtaking vistas. I can totally see why this is my sister's favorite city.

In the evening we borrowed a copy of "Donnie Darko" from Jason, and went and watched in a lounge. It's such a beautiful movie! Twisted and demented, but above all an excellent film. I'm now convinced, of course, that the opening scene was filmed on Dead Man's Curve in Colorado, and am no doubt wrong. ^_^ I remember the first time I ever heard about that movie- Evil Sean was taking me out, and he'd just seen it- he told me the entire plot, which doesn't make any sense even when you watch the movie.

Anyway, my watched stopped, so as far as I'm concerned, it's still 3:30 am. Of course, that was something of a problem when it came to getting up this morning for class, but I woke up in time. Alright, now it's essay writing time 5,000. Tscheuss!