Unfortunately, my time in Scotland is coming to an end. I leave this coming Saturday, much to my dismay. I’m sad I’m going to be without all of the wonderful people I’ve met here, but I’m excited to go home and not pay $5 for a cup of coffee. I’m also mostly ecstatic about being done with finals (As I’m procrastinating studying by writing this post…) Seeing my family is also what I’m looking forward to–It’s been a long 4 months away from them.
But, enough with this sappy stuff. Let me first make light of things by going through a list of things I definitely won’t miss.
Edinburgh, despite your beauty, you’re making it less difficult to leave due to these things:
5. The smell of cigarette smoke
Back in September, I liked the smell of cigarette smoke in the way some people weirdly like the smell of gasoline or new leather. For the record, I hate the smell of gasoline and new leather…So, before you go and criticize me for previously liking this smell, just know that you are just as weird to me. That said, I literally cannot handle the smell of cigarette smoke now. I’ve never been a smoker, and I definitely didn’t become one while here because of how ANNOYING cigarettes are in Europe. First off, everyone is smoking them while walking, eating, and doing just about any activity at all. I’m truly in shock that I haven’t been burned by one in my time here, because no one moves their arms when you’re trying to get by them in a crowd and their cigarette is down by their waist. I don’t know how the entirety of Europe hasn’t burned to the ground because of cigarette burns…but it hasn’t. Europe also has cigarette stations in airports. They’re non-ventilated areas in an airport where the cigarette-obsessed can smoke at their leisure. Oh, but just because they’re closed off, doesn’t mean the rest of the airport isn’t suffocating from the smell of cigarette smoke. It’s so bad. Lastly, they are just terrible for you. I’m absolutely not judging anyone who smokes cigarettes, just know that I am now completely and utterly repelled by the smell of you and your ugly cancer-stick and will probably cut you out of my life if you smoke around me. Rant over. Wow, that really was therapeutic. The smell is just awful. Getting a face full of cigarette smoke every time I walk outside will not be something I’ll miss.
4. Incessantly broken dryers in Robertson’s Close
This doesn’t need a long explanation. In my accommodation, there are about 240 people sharing 3 washers and 3 dryers. The dryers already sucked to start out with–You will never have dry sheets when you only dry once, but paying the extra pound for another hour of drying is just too expensive to do on a bi-monthly basis–and 2/3 dryers were broken for over a month. Now they work, but they still won’t dry your laundry load completely. So, that’s been super fun. I won’t miss doing laundry here whatsoever.
3. My bed
Every hostel/hotel bed was the most comfortable bed in the world compared to this piece of shiitake. The sheets were comparable to the free blanket you’re given on flights abroad–You know, the one that’s super scratchy and holds stains like it’s no one’s business. The mattress was so uncomfortable that I actually woke up with bruises my first night here. It was super uncomfortable because the springs (IN THE MATTRESS) on it poke out of the mattress. Actually, now that I think about it, it’s completely possible that this is a box-spring and not a mattress at all. In any case, I’m in need of a massage after a semester of sleeping on this. Goodbye, bed. I hated you, but you will never be forgotten.
2. Having a flatmate who doesn’t ever flush his feces correctly
I had five flatmates this semester. Four were perfectly normal and potty-trained. One was not. I shared a bathroom with this one. That is all I’m going to say. Goodbye, flatmate #1, I won’t miss you.
1. Poop on sidewalks
If you can’t tell, I hate fecal matter. I know, it’s a totally weird and random thing to hate. I’m just quirky and don’t like seeing poop anywhere. You could say I’m ‘normal,’ or whatever you want to call it. Anyway, Edinburgh is an old city with tons of cobblestone sidewalks. As a result, there really aren’t any patches of grass anywhere. That doesn’t stop people from walking their dogs…without leads–I swear this is to ensure they can justifiably ignore the fact that their dog has just pooped on the sidewalk, because they “weren’t watching it.” (Also, “lead(s)” is totally a word I picked up here. It means “leash.” I’m so Scottish now.) Oh, most of the time the fecal matter found isn’t near a corner or somewhere you can avoid. It’s typically in the middle of the narrow close I have to walk up to leave my accommodation and go anywhere. It’s a fun game of hop-scotch, especially when you honestly are convinced it’s human feces. Goodbye, poop everywhere. I won’t miss you.
Whoa, posting all of the things I won’t miss just got me riled up. But, I can’t go on without saying all of the things I will miss about my time spent abroad.
Here are the top 5 things I’ll will miss on a daily basis:
5. Hearing bagpipes every time I go outside
Contrary to popular belief of my SnapChat followers, Edinburgh is in SCOTLAND. Edinburgh isn’t in Germany, Ireland, or any of the other totally random places you idiots were convinced Edinburgh was. I realize the name might not sound “Scottish” to you, but it’s the capitol of Scotland. Read a map. (Jokes.) Well, Scotland is obviously known for bagpipers. This isn’t a joke at all. On my walk into New Town, there is always a bagpiper in the same exact spot (About a 3 minute walk from me.) Who the bagpiper is changes depending on their shifts (I’m convinced being a bagpiper in the street is an actual occupation here, despite the fact that they’re actually just well-dressed beggars beautifully playing this beloved instrument.) It’s not uncommon to walk anywhere in Scotland and hear a bagpiper. Actually, I’d say it’s more uncommon to not constantly hear one when you open your window. This might just be because of where I live in Edinburgh, but it’s absolutely lovely and I always appreciate it. Bagpiper street-performers, I will miss you.
4. Christmas markets
Pictured from left to right: Copenhagen (Nyhavn), Edinburgh (New Town), Hyde Park (London), and Budapest (Where our hostel was…)
Unless you’ve lived in another country around Christmas time, or have the money and time to travel to a European country during the holidays, this actually might be news to you. (This was certainly something I was unfamiliar with until after halloween.) The Christmas spirit in Europe is very much alive and well. There are Christmas markets in so many places–and each one is different and unique in it’s own way. Something that I also wouldn’t have noticed, had it not been for Lucas, is that these are actually more for the locals than the tourists. Certain attractions in European cities make it obvious that they’re for tourists, and lots of things are. Tourism is a great industry. Yet, the Christmas markets are for everyone! While Lucas was here, he was looking for Scottish presents for his family. We went to the Christmas markets to look around and everything was Christmas themed. There were no stereotypically “Scottish” ornaments in sight! Everything was simply Christmas. It’s the beauty of these Christmas markets–They celebrate Christmas out of the goodness of their heart. And I’m definitely going to miss being able to grab the local mulled-wine in every country (/country-themed Christmas stand) I can. So far, I’ve had mulled wine, glygg, and gluhwein. What’s next? Are there more? European Christmas markets, I’ll miss you.
3. Being able to travel every weekend
One of the things that made this semester super hard on me was that I constantly was away on the weekends. While this may be reflected in my Islamic History grade (Sorry, Mom and Dad), the experiences I had while traveling expanded my worldview in a way simple education never could. Getting to travel all over Scotland and Ireland on day-long bus-tours were things I thought I’d never do. Having the opportunity to fully geek-out as a tourist in cities like Copenhagen, Rome, Budapest, London, Munich, and Paris will forever be the best weekends of my life. At Santa Clara, I don’t really get to travel on the weekends. While the workload at the University of Edinburgh is actually pretty similar to that of SCU, I felt justified going and spending a weekend away because of the cultural insight I was gaining. Riley Vaske joked last week that the only thing we truly grasped in the language of each of the cities we’d visited was the correct local pronunciation of the city. While this is probably true (and all of my attempts to speak the local languages were harsh and offensive), we also mastered the ability to travel. I am now a master-packer. A few days ago, I fit 5 days worth of cold-weather clothing (including 2 pairs of shoes and a swimsuit) into my smaller-than-a-carry-on backpack for my final trip with absolutely no qualms. I am a magician. I also finally feel comfortable with public transportation. I come from Dallas, and have honestly never used the DART. I rarely go up to San Francisco when I’m at SCU, and when I do, my friends are the ones who know how to get there by Cal-Train and BART. I have successfully navigated Google Maps and subway stations. I now know that each city works completely differently, but I also have the confidence to figure out how to get from one place to another. Not knowing any of these things before was a big culture shock when I got here and realized I couldn’t Uber on my phone because my Nokia didn’t have the capability of using the app and because that’s far too expensive (Not to mention, most places in Europe actually suggest you use their trusted taxi drivers rather than the random Uber ones.) Okay, I’m rambling now. But I have become a confident traveler who somehow didn’t get pick-pocketted her entire time in Europe. If that’s not impressive, I don’t know what is.
2. Edinburgh
Before I started my semester at the University of Edinburgh, I was extremely worried that I would forget to take in my city for what it was. I knew I’d be traveling so much on the weekends, and I was worried Edinburgh would simply become the place I stayed between trips instead of it becoming the place I lived. Man, was I wrong on that one. Edinburgh is completely my home right now. I can actually successfully get around this city without any maps at all (This may have just happened two weeks ago, but it happened, nonetheless.) The character of “Edinburghers” is also something that can’t go unmentioned. Edinburgh is an extremely safe place to live. The homeless people are kind and quiet, and the city is without thieves almost entirely. Sure, you get one person who isn’t like this at all every once in a while. But Edinburgh is the kind of place where, for instance, you can leave your phone or wallet in a bathroom at a pub or on a counter at Starbucks for 20 minutes, and when you panic and realize your stuff is missing, it’s in the exact place it was before. (Both of these things happened to Riley Vaske, FYI.) It’s not even that someone handed it to the cashiers or the bartenders for safe-keeping, but everyone has so much confidence in the honesty of the people around them, that no one touches it at all. Even visitors adopt this persona and become very trusting. I’m still not someone to leave my computer out on the library tables while I look for a book elsewhere, but I am someone who will leave my entire hand-written study guide out on my desk with complete confidence that it will go untouched, even by classmate passersby. Edinburgh and your ornate personality, I will truly miss you.
1. My flatmates and friends
I have met the most incredible people while abroad. As I stated earlier, I had five flatmates this fall, four of whom will now be featured below (in no particular order):
Laura is the girl who not only saved me from a bee in my room at 9am one fateful morning, but who also managed to save the bee and successfully bring it outside and place it in the “garden” below our accommodation. I’ll truly miss her positive go-getter attitude and all of the crazy things she “makes up” (admits) when she has a little bit of alcohol in her system. Playing never have I ever with this girl one of the first nights in Edinburgh was truly memorable and full of laughs, and I’m going to miss Laura so much.
Prarthana is a true gem and saw me through the good, the bad, and the ugly this year. I’ve never met someone who gets as intense a hangover as me, and for that, she is my soulmate. Additionally, this girl is the funniest thing I’ve ever met and I’m truly sad she already left us. While she made me turn in to the most gullible person ever, I’ll never forget all of the times we’d crack up because she’d go out and tell everyone some intense lie about being of royalty to get free drinks or she’d fake a (pretty good but not good enough in the UK) British accent to passersby on the street.
Yannik is the original founder of “The Cage,” which is the gay club in our kitchen. It was established a few weeks ago after MK and I came home to Yannik and Kiran dancing the night away in our kitchen, and we joined in. 4 people automatically made it a proper club, and the rest is history. Yannik is a fantastic guy to talk to about anything. Yannik is the type of guy who exclusively drinks red wine out of coffee mugs (Except in this one picture.) I’m going to miss all of the (surprisingly) good smelling food this beginner chef makes in our kitchen, and I’m going to miss his constantly positive spirit.
MK came into our lives later in the game (She replaced Giuseppe, the nice Italian man who lived in room 4, who left Edinburgh after a few short weeks.) While we miss Giuseppe, having MK move in was the best thing to happen to our flat. Her constant upbeat attitude truly had an impact on our flat. She made us more cohesive, and completely bonded all of us. She is our glue. Without MK, I don’t think any of us would’ve gotten as close as we did. She is the funniest and nicest person I will probably ever meet, and I’m so glad I got to hang out with this girl as much as I did, as well as even have the best travel experience (in Budapest) with. I will miss her so much.
And of course, nothing at all would’ve been possible without the lifelong homies I made here. We are winos and we aren’t afraid to admit that being avid (crappy) wine drinkers is probably how most of us initially became friends. These girls have seen me through my best and worst times. I love every single one of them, and cannot even go into how much each one means to me because I’m about to cry right here in my kitchen while I write this. Winos, just know that our mission (declared rn) to save every last wino on this earth will be continued by Jane as she heads into this next semester at the University of Edinburgh.
To the people I’ve met in my semester abroad: I’d just like to say that this is just a “see you later,” not a “goodbye.” You all have impacted my life so immensely in so many unique ways, and I know we’re going to all meet up at some point later in life. Whether it be in grad school, another Europe adventure, or even a road trip around the states, I know we’ll see each other again. I love each and every single one of you, even if you weren’t mentioned in this blog. You all have helped me grow into the person I am, and that person is far wiser (and about 15 pounds heavier) than I was when I got here. It was through the time spent with you guys that I gained the confidence to travel, try new things (like escargot), and even cook. I will never forget my time in Edinburgh. Thank you for all who made this semester possible. Without you, I wouldn’t have this renewed appreciation for all of the wonderful things the world has to offer. World, I love you. And friends, I love you more.
an idiot aBRONd 