5 George Street

When I came to Scotland I didn’t really have plans of what I would do or where I would go. I kept meaning to make a list of “things to do” but I just kind of kept getting overwhelmed and thinking, I’ll just get there and live. So, that’s kind of been my strategy. I’ve gone on a few amazing trips, and I’ll go on a few more! I’ve met some really great, interesting people from all different parts of the world.

I’ve also had the opportunity to learn a little about where my ancestors came from. Back in the 1700’s Mr. Scott, my great great great great great and more grandfather left Scotland, traveled to Canada, and eventually the Scotts ended up in Texas.(this information might not all be 100% accurate, hopefully family will correct me if I'm wrong) Finding out a little more about him or where he came from was one of the few things that I did definitely indent to do when in Scotland. Surprisingly enough, Mr. Scott lived in Edinburgh, at 5 George Street, right next to St. Andrews Square, a pretty little square, all of which are only a couple blocks from the Castle Gardens and the very center of the city. I go down to this area at least a couple times a week, to go to coffee shops, get groceries, and go to church. And I always wonder what the streets looked like almost 300 years ago, what the Scotts would have been doing, and if they ever would have thought or cared about their descendant coming back to Edinburgh, to find the place where they lived and the streets on which they walked. 5 George Street where the Scott's resided apparently burned down in the 1700’s, and now there is just one big Standard Life Investment building where their home would have been, but I can still imagine them going about their every day life in the beautiful city of Edinburgh, with the same church next door and the same Edinburgh Castle in the distance.

For a few weeks I wasn’t really doing any wandering or exploring around Edinburgh, mostly because of writing essays, trying to get things done during the week because of traveling on the weekend, and bad weather. So, last week when the skies were clear and the wind was calm I thought I should go and explore a little. There are tons of little shops on little cobblestone streets here. When I first got here, I thought I should wait to go into them, ya know, leave the best till the end of my stay? Well, I decided it was time to start going into all of them. After going into some old book shops and shops with old maps and prints of the city I just decided to wander around the city. When I stopped in one of the print shops, I asked if they had prints of George St. from the 1700’s, he didn’t, but he did have a map of the city, though. There was hardly anything on George Street at that time, because it was kind of the outskirts of the city, but there was a house at 5 George Street, pretty neat!

Of course I passed some beautiful buildings and churches, but I also found a giant bridge and a nice little creek. The leaves are starting to fall off the trees now, but the leaves are still all different colors, and it still surprises me how pretty it is, being from Texas where leaves kind of just turn brown and fall off. I also found a really pretty church, with a perfect view of the castle, and a beautiful, slightly spooky cemetery. I decided to take a bunch of pictures, and then the next day I figured out that this is the church where my family got married and buried back in the 1700’s, pretty cool! I found a couple of grave markers with the last name Scott, I don’t know if we’re related, I kind of figure, being in Scotland, Scott could be a pretty common surname. My next mission is to go into the church and maybe talk a little bit to someone and find out a little more about the history of the church and stuff.

Let’s see…what else has been going on? A couple weeks ago we celebrated Guy Fawkes Night. It's an annual celebration on the evening of the 5th of November. It celebrates the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot of the 5 November, 1605 in which a number of Catholic conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, were alleged to be attempting to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London, England.(Thanks Wikipedia) The International Student Centre had a group outing to go watch the fireworks and bonfire from Carlton Hill. I went with a couple of my friends, and as with most things with the International Centre, they kind of just walked the herd of all us international students to Carlton Hill, and then we didnt see them after that. It was a really foggy, misty night. The fireworks were really pretty and from the hill we could see all the lights and fireworks in Edinburgh. We stayed for as long as we could stand the mist and cold and then went to get hot chocolate at one of the campus pubs.

I went on a weekend away with the church I’ve been going to. The young adults/university students went to Lendrickmuir, a retreat centre kind of place about an hour north of Edinburgh. I always love these kinds of things, where you get to meet new people, study the bible, eat too much sugar, have good conversations, play outside, play cards, it was a good weekend! We talked about Job and suffering, which isn’t the happiest topic to study, but important and relevant, nonetheless. It’s always good to be reminded that God takes care of us and is in control and that life isn’t just about having fun and being happy. We did have fun though, we went on a little walk through the countryside, of course, and it was beautiful. I forgot my camera, but maybe I’ll steal my friend’s pictures to put up here. We also played this game called lion, which was kind of like a combination of capture the flag and stuck in the mud. We all dressed up in really dark clothes and went out to the woods in the dark. Thankfully, I’m pretty much blind in the dark…so that was good…I was a little bit scared, because I have been the soul cause of my team losing at capture the flag more than once. But this was much better, no flags to lose, just people to hide from. It was cold and the ground was wet, but I was determined to not get caught. I felt like I was in the army special forces crawling around on the ground, rolling down hills and hiding in fern bushes, running out to save my fellow team mates…..but I did also get caught quite a few times.

My philosophy of religion class and professor continue to completely amaze surprise and bore me, all within a two hour time span each week. My professor has managed to come to all eight of our classes wearing sweaters with holes in them, and trousers with broken zippers. I can understand the sweater thing; maybe he just needs to buy some mouse traps, or some moth balls…but the pants??? Who owns and wears multiple pairs of pants with broken zippers. One of my friends said, that “everyone has a pair of pants like that.” Haha, but you shouldn’t wear them every single day of your life!!

In Indigenous Peoples of Lowland South America we talked about Shamanism and how shamans become jaguars. Then we discussed if a shaman can ever fully become a jaguar. Then we discussed whether a jaguar could ever fully become a human, or just partially become a human. Seriously?!?!....How many of us know people that have turned into jaguars or jaguars that have turned into people? I should have my philosophy of religion professor talk to my anthropology class about a human not being able to become a crocodile, even if he really wanted to be a crocodile!

Here are a couple pictures of some of my favorite people here in Edinburgh, my Christian Union small group, and the Swahili Club. The day after I got back from Paris my small group made dinner, well Naomi and Tim, the leaders, made dinner and the rest of us brought pudding. I didn’t know what pudding was….but thanks to the internet I learned that pudding is the dessert course of a meal. I was inspired after being in Paris and eating so many crepes, so I attempted to make crepes. I’m not going to lie, after completely ruining the first batch and then actually going out and buying measuring cups and starting over, they turned out to be pretty good!

The Swahili Club had a goodbye dinner for one of the members, Sian, because she’s leaving to do PhD work in Antarctica for the next four months. I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone that’s gone to Antarctica before! We went to this really good east African restaurant for dinner and had a lot of fun! I’m going to miss these guys!

Well, this blog is getting pretty long, and it’s already all scattered and covers way too much time, so I’m going to end it here and hopefully I’ll be better about blogging for the next few weeks. I’m going to London Thursday night and I’ll be there for the weekend. I’m not sure exactly what we’ll be doing, or what we’ll see, but I’m excited! The first weekend of December I’m going to Inverness, where my flat mate Sammie is from. I’m really looking forward to that! Maybe we will see snow!