Halloween in Edinburgh

This week was a really fun week! I had my first (and, luckily, only) essay of the semester due on Monday, so I had a lot more free time this week than I have had in the past couple of weeks. I used some of that time to start reviewing for my Chinese test at the end of the semester, but I also did some fun social things!

On Wednesday, LangSoc put on another lecture. This one was about dialect literature, which was really fascinating. Afterwards, we went to a pub to talk. I always have such a nice time talking with the people from LangSoc. I was having such a good time that I stayed and talked for four hours!

On Thursday, I went to a flat party with my friends Jen and Emma from LangSoc. It was really nice just to talk. I had a lovely time. Technically it was a costume party for Halloween (or fancy dress as the Brits call it), so I drew tally marks on my face so I was Any Pond, but I think that's the most pathetic costume I've ever put together. Unfortunately, I just didn't have time to plan out or buy the materials for a costume.

On Friday, which was Halloween, Chloe came over to the flat and we left to go to the Royal Mile to see the Samhuinn Fire Festival. I had only vague plans to check it out, but I thought it was really cool. Unfortunately, I was an idiot and didn't bring a camera. Luckily Nikki and Emma let me post some of their pictures. 

These are Nikki's pictures from the parade (her blog is here):

The festival started out on the Royal Mile and paraded down to the Mound. We initially were going to follow the parade, but we decided instead to go a different way and try to beat the parade to the Mound so we would be able to get a good place to stand. So we RAN down South/North Bridge and down Princes Street. We ended up getting a really good place to stand, but it was extremely crowded and was raining the whole time. Nevertheless I thought it was so cool. The people in the parade represented either summer (red people) or winter (blue people). The performance ended with the winter king killing the summer king, which represented the transition to autumn. I think the weather was a little ambitious, because it's been cold and rainy here for a few weeks. But anyway it was a really fun experience and I would highly recommend it.

And here are Emma's pictures from the performance at the end. Emma has her own blog here, by the way.

Saturday I let myself sleep in until 11 and then I had a lazy morning until I went to the Language Cafe. This week there weren't many people, probably since it was the day after Halloween, so my options for practicing were Mandarin and Spanish. That was fine with me. I still got some good practice in and met some interesting people.

This morning, Nikki and I got up early and Chloe met us at the flat at 9:30 and we left to catch a bus to the Pentlands. We got to Princes Street in plenty of time, but the bus we wanted to catch did not stop at the stop, even though the timetable and the website said it would. The next bus left at 1:45 in the afternoon, so our plans to go hike for a few hours didn't work out. The second part of our plan for the day was to watch the mid-season finale of Outlander together, so we just went home and did that. We also ended up chatting way too long, and so we all got started on work and chores a little later than we should have, but that's okay. 

And that's what I've been up to lately!