On Friday night, we all went out to the Southern, where I tried a new kind of cider, but basically was bored and tired. The week had caught up with me.
Saturday, Kim, Matt and I went to the Farmer's Market! It's a walk that took us past Grassmarket (where the GF pizza is) and up a long, steep flight of stairs. Across from the market is a huge mountain with a castle built into it. The market itself was smaller than we expected, but still fun. There were stands of homemade jams, breads, soaps, meats, etc, all made by the people who harvested the goods. The most interesting things had to be the ostrich burgers and wild boar burgers, which Kim and Matt tried. I opted to try porridge, which is basically oatmeal. I decided to take the risk with the oats because I was freezing. The porridge was delicious. They mixed in raspberries, honey, and cream. It warmed me up and didn't make me sick, which is a good sign.
Afterward, I mentioned that I wondered if they had craft fairs where we could buy homemade Scottish things. Sure enough, as we turned onto the road leading to Prince's Street, we passed a churchyard with a big sign about crafts. The churchyard was old and obviously not used as a church anymore. We went down the path to a little FairTrade store. Kim and I bought Indian soapstone chess pieces for 10p (pence). Matt bought tea.
Then we headed to the National Gallery. It was starting to rain and really, really cold out. We slipped in to look at Van Goghs, Monets, Rembrants, and some others. It was neat to see so many original pieces of well-known painters hung in the Scottish National Gallery. Even some American artists were hung there!
Finally, we went back. Matt and I watched Crank and Heroes and then met Kim at Sainsbury's to buy dinner and drinks. We all ate together, and Aimee came over, too. While we cooked, we talked to the Spanish girls in Matt's kitchen. Then we basically played cards with Aimee's pink-and-blue deck, played pictionary, and cherades. It was a pretty low-key night.
Tonight I plan on doing "homework" for the first time. We don't really have homework here but we do have reading. I need to do things to turn in for my tutorials on Tuesday, and I need to start reading for a paper I have due on the 5th of Feb. The week after that, we have a week off, so we plan on taking cheap flights (about 9.99 pounds) to Belgium and France for my birthday!!
Things here are going pretty well, but I'm ready for some sun to come back! Sun, and temperatures out of the 30s!
-A-
