I am one of the only graduate students in the study abroad group, so unlike the others I don’t have work due along the way, but I do have a large paper to work on. I have not been the best student in that I am both terrified by the ticking clock that draws my due date ever nearer, and completely unmotivated to work. Everyone else has tons of work due now so they are all freaking out. I need to work more. I have been gathering sources, but I have yet to write a word of my 25 page paper. This is problematic.
Yesterday Emily, Amelia, Kristina and I all climbed Great Saint Mary’s Church Tower. We were told the view is amazing up there. You know how I feel about towers and windy steps, but I forced myself to do it. In a way the steps were worse than at Warwick because there was one staircase in which to go up and down. But, the steps weren’t crumbling and there were places to step off to the side and take a break so that was nice.
Dinner last night was a really disgusting venison burger. I had never had venison before so I was trying to keep an open mind, but that was one of the worst bites of food I have had in a very long time. I had to go home and make myself a bagel.
This morning was more exciting than I generally like my mornings to be. I was eating next to the Dorseys when things went very wrong. Suddenly Molly was saying something about veins and holding her head, then she slumped over and collapsed. When her husband picked her up she was like rigid and her eyes were staring but not looking at anything. There was quite a while (which may have actually only been a few seconds) in which she was unresponsive. It was really scary. I thought she had an aneurism or a stroke or something. For a few seconds I was afraid she might just die at the breakfast table. Her youngest was too young to understand, I think he thought she was playing because he was giggling the whole time and was completely fine with everything. The older boy was a bit worried but he held himself together better than I would have in that situation. There was talk of getting an ambulance but she seemed to come around and they took her down to the JCR to rest. The two kids stayed up at breakfast though, so a bunch of us tried to look after them and act as normal as possible but I was really freaked out. Hanging out with the kids was pretty calming after a while, though, because we just talked about Lord of the Rings with the youngest kid who was just very happy and silly. At least she doesn’t have a class to teach today. I don’t know if she will be coming along on the Scotland trip after all, though. At least if she doesn’t go she will have some quiet days without teaching.
I am very excited about Edinburgh. I haven’t been able to focus on my work and have instead been planning what to do in Edinburgh. We will be staying in Pollack Halls which are dorms for the university there. I think that supposedly I will get my own room to myself which is very exciting. Sadly the only meals included there are breakfast and we are on our own for lunch and dinner. The first full day there we are going to Edinburgh Castle as a group and then have the rest of the day off except that we are going to the Tattoo that night. My plan (and lots of people seem to want to jump in on my plan) is to go to the Elephant House where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter for lunch. Then we walk down the Royal Mile to Holyrood Palace and do the tour. Then walk back up the Royal Mile to the Edinburgh Dungeon. That is right near the Tattoo so we can do dinner around there and be ready for the Tattoo. The next day I will go to the National Museum of Scotland in the morning. They have an exhibit on Scots in the Commonwealth fighting in WWI. They also have stuff about Vikings which has me terribly excited 🙂 Then I will grab lunch in the area. Kari, Kristina, and I all have tickets to see Austentatious, an improve show based on Jane Austen novels. I’m terribly excited. But that leaves a few hours afterwards that I haven’t planned out yet. Well, I’d best get back to work.