This week was Freshers Week. All of the freshmen move in a week before classes start and then have a whole week free to participate in as many of the activities that the university has planned for them all day as they want. And did I mention the legal drinking age here is 18? They're all legal. And they are not a quiet bunch. (We live in an otherwise all freshmen building and my bedroom window is on ground level, right next to the main entrance to the building where everyone sits to smoke or stands to drunkenly yell things up to their friends.)
Freshers Week is what everyone going into college here looks forward to the most.
My personal favorite part of Freshers Week was last night while we were on our way back from the tail end of a jazz performance after the Liberal Democrats last-minute canceled their free pizza/meet a LibDem MP event that I had been looking forward to (I just really wanted to eat pizza on the LibDems' dime). One scrawny, drunk freshmen boy jump kicked a sign attached to a light pole and immediately succumbed to gravity, landing horizontally on the sidewalk. So that's Freshers Week.
We visited Scotland's European Parliament Office. Not too much was done or said there, as can be expected of those being paid to be diplomatic. I did get a couple free pens though.
We went to the National Gallery of Scotland as part of our weekly mandatory fun. They actually had a few Degas pieces (one of my favorite artists). Following that excursion, we headed to a little cafe that sold hot chocolate. But not just any hot chocolate. It was a mug of steamed milk with a spoon in it. But when you lift up the spoon, you find that it is covered with a giant glob of chocolate to stir in as it melts. It was awesome. And on the walk back, we passed by a house that Robert Louis Stevenson had lived in.
Last weekend there was a parade down the Royal Mile to commemorate all of the Scottish soldiers that had ever fallen in battle (with special emphasis on the Battle of Culloden). The parade featured a large marching group of bagpipes and drums followed by 270 horses and ended with the formal presentation of the untarnished banner of Edinburgh. Unfortunately, no candy was thrown.
This Sunday I will be taking a train with some friends to spend the day in Glasgow. I'm really excited to see more if Scotland. It really puts Scotland's size into perspective; with one 51 minutes train ride, I will have traveled from the East coast to the West coast.
We are down to less than a week until the referendum vote! With the "Yes" campaign slightly ahead, David Cameron, Nick Clegg, and Ed Miliband (the leaders of the three largest parties in the UK) have been in Scotland this past week to rally for the "Better Together" campaign (the campaign is also highly supported by J.K. Rowling, whose Twitter has been almost nothing else for quite a while). Both campaigns have relied heavily on social media, rallies, and word of mouth since neither can exceed a $2.5 million budget. With all of the same issues circling around and both sides contradicting each other entirely on speculation, who will win?
We will officially know one week from today when all of the votes have been counted.
Also, this happened In Glasgow when Labour MPs visited to campaign for "Better Together" this week (definitely worth watching):