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New Years Resolution: Back to the blog

So I've decided to start blogging again in the new year. It has been over a year since I have posted, and while things have changed a lot, everything is still pretty great. Look for my update post in early January. :-)

The Festival

I have to say, August was probably the best month I have spent in Edinburgh since arriving. It was festival time, and the city was even more amazing than usual. There are over 20 festivals going on during the summer months, but the biggest are the Fringe and the International  Festival. The Fringe is the largest performance arts gathering in the world, and the city goes from around 500,000 people to over 2 million. It was just crazy. I spent most of my time enjoying the Fringe, and general ambiance of Edinburgh, as well as spending as much time with friends as possible.

First outing to George Square! There are food trucks everywhere. One of my favorites was this Thai truck. Yum!

It was beautiful and sunny many days, and the ground was covered in turf, so sitting on the ground was perfectly comfortable as well. This night, I also took in my first show. I saw Josh Widdicombe, a comedian, for my first show of the Fringe.

My friend Nabeel also had a birthday. The boys did a little bar crawl up and down the Grassmarket after dinner, but I sat that one out!

Me and the birthday boy!

My pals Mike and Jenny had a little dinner to celebrate Jenny's return from the states. Their dog, Roo, is the sweetest thing. I told him I was going to be his new mommy whilst Jenny was away. I don't think he cared much. :-)

Jenny found the cutest little bird wine glass identifiers. They didn't stay on too well, but were adorable. 

Jenny and I. We were the last to stop the party!

Vijay and I in George Square.

My friend Steve and his wife moved to Dundee, and offered me to stay the night while I was in Dundee for work. We had such a lovely time!

Not only did I see Dundee, but Steve brought me to St. Andrews (the home of golf) for lunch on Saturday.

But before lunch, we stopped at Scone Palace for a bit of sightseeing and a bit of tea and coffee. Here, I am sitting on a replication of the Stone of Destiny, where Kings of the Scots had been crowned. The Stone of Destiny has quite a colorful history, for those interested!

Coffee, tea, and (what else?) scones. So delicious!

Me in front of Scone Palace.

This is a terrible photo, but the grounds were lovely.

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo also happens during August. It is basically a huge presentation of military drummers and performers from all over the world. There was New Zealand, Korea and more there this year. My friend Jonny organized a lovely Tattoo night, starting at the Scottish restaurant Stac Pollys, then wandering up the Royal Mile watching performers until it was time to go to the performance.

Cassie and I in front of the crowd.

Half of our group.

Some of the performance.

One of my favorite features of the Tattoo was the lighting up of the castle with different images that corresponded to the performance.

More drumming!

It was also the anniversary of the Korean War, so there was a moment of silence and a piper at the top of the castle that piped a traditional Korean song. It was very nice, especially since Korea was exhibiting at the Tattoo this year.

Union Jack castle.

More fun in George Square.

George Street was also a fun place to be. They shut much of the street down and put up outdoor bars. We met some English fellows were out for a night, and were good fun and company for a bit.

The second show I saw was The Boy With Tape on his Face. It was really funny! It was all prop-based physical comedy with audience interaction. This was my souvenir.

My friend Jonny had a pal whose band was playing their first show, so me and Nina joined him at the concert. It was really good, and we had some great cocktails after!

Nina and I. Nina and I actually had an epic and crazy night after this, one of our best ever. I ended up meeting a lovely Canadian musician/comedian who performed as Shirley Gnome. She was kind enough to invite me and some friends to her show, and I met with her once for drinks the night before she left. She is a great singer, and her performance was hilarious (though very adult oriented). It was such a random thing to run into her, but I am so glad I met her. Only during the Festival!

Amer, Cassie and I went out one night to a bar that I used to go too frequently in 2008, Three Sisters. Turns out, it is still a fun place! We had a great night, and danced to awesome songs for hours.

As soon as the third week of the Fringe was over, they started tearing stuff down.

Even though August was amazing, it was very bitter sweet. The 12 month students turned in their dissertations on 29 August, and unfortunately I had to say goodbye to some very good friends. Kieran was the first to leave, and he wasn't even able to stay for our party. :-(

But we did manage to get in a celebration with the remaining MBAs! The school hosted a party, but out classmate Jacqui threw us a pre-party in the MBA suite at school. We went through a lot of champagne!

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Me and the boys! It was a great way to start our evening, and the school hosted a wonderful party for the rest of the night in the city.

The next day, we needed to recuperate. Mac and cheese and bloody marys were the perfect solution.

Sadly, my very close friend Amer had to leave this day as well. One last gathering at 17 BP, and he was off.

Benn, Amer, me and Steve. He is already well missed.

And that is how I spent August. It was so much fun, but also incredibly sad to say goodbye to friends. My favorite part of this year was meeting my classmates and developing such wonderful friendships. I know that I will see them again (my "Countries to Visit" list has grown by about 25!), but I am still sorry to see them go. Luckily I still have many wonderful friends in Edinburgh to keep me occupied, and a visit home coming up. I'm sure I won't stay down long!

Has it really been two months?

I've clearly struggled with updating over the past few months! Summer has been crazy and wonderful, and especially with the 12 month program finishing up, it has been a personal challenge for me to spend as much time with friends as possible before everyone goes back to "real life".

Since so much has happened, I am just going to post pictures, and explain it all in captions!

July:

With the new flat, I needed to pick up a few things from Ikea. My dear friend Rajil volunteered to drive me so I didn't have to struggle on the bus with book shelves.

Success!

We also stopped at Costco to pick a few things up. Luckily Rajil is a cheap date... The only payment he wanted was a baked potato from the little food area! They were delicious, though. 

My friend Elisa's flat has a beautiful view from the roof. It was such a lovely day, we just had to go up and enjoy it.

I also started my new internship in July (which has been amazing!). Right outside Appleton Tower (the building I work in) is George Square, a major festival venue. Set up for the festival started in early July.

Appleton Tower is one of the tallest buildings in Edinburgh, and affords a great view!

A night out with the girls at The Queens Arms.

An attempt at tater tot hot dish. Without tater tots, it did not turn out so great. :-(

Rajil drove me and Cassie down to South Queenserry, and area outside of Edinburgh, where you can view the Forth bridges.

The red bridge on the right is the Forth Bridge, which is for trains, and the left is the Forth Road Bridge. The Forth Road Bridge is being replaced by the under construction Queensferry Crossing, which should be done in 2016. Some classmates used the new bridge as a case in the Project Management course, but I did not take that one. 

A road in South Queensferry

Edinburgh had a little heat wave in late July. Residents said it was the warmest stretch in over five years. It was really lovely weather, though the hottest it got was around 75. We got some ice cream to cool down, though!

After South Queensferry, we went to Crammond Beach and had a lovely walk to the little island/peninsula in the middle. When the tide comes in, the path is covered, so there are signs that tell the estimated time of the tides. It was very beautiful.

We were not the only people who wanted to go to Crammond Beach this day. There was a total traffic jam trying to get out because with the parked cars, there was only room for traffic to go one way. It took about 20 minutes to sort out.

We found a beautiful little cafe along the stream and stopped for a lovely little lunch. Another great day out in Edinburgh!

The third movie in a loose trilogy came out in July. The movies were called the "Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy" (Cornetto are delicious ice cream treats in the UK). The movies are Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The Worlds End (the newest). While they don't have the same characters, they have the same main actors and director and writers. I invited classmates to go with me to see all three of the films in a row, with the newest showing at midnight.  Only two were up to the challenge! We had dinner and Cornettos at my flat to prepare for 7 hours at the movie theater.

Vijay and me with a minion.

Me and Nabeel at snack time during an intermission.

In the theater. Only one more to go!

Jonny had a little gathering at his flat followed by bowling. It was a super fun night, and gave me my first introduction to Pimms. It is delicious! This was my lane of bowlers.

Jenny and I.

There was also an arcade.

Mike and Jenny got super hardcore with the basketball. Later, Mike and I played against Jonny and Jenny. I am sorry to say we lost. :-(

Ready for the festival!

Bristo Square, in the center of the main campus, was another major Festival destination.

After a few bad rains, I decided enough was enough and got outfitted. I bought Hunter Wellington boots and a Fulton umbrella to protect me from the elements. Both very British brands (used by the Queen!), so hopefully up to the task of protecting me from this British rain. 

We had a lovely tapas night out, and Jenny and I decided to treat ourselves to the special. It was so much food, but so delicious. This was a Spanish omelette and scallops for our first course. 

No trouble finishing those off.

Next course was huge! Duck, fish, salad, potatoes and meat! It was all so good, though.

We did it!

Aaaaand we finished our Girls Night with some gelato from the best shop in town, Affogato.

There was a random owl exhibit outside the shopping center one day. I was pretty happy about it.

This is a barn owl, one of my favorite varieties.

Another setup for the Festival right by my office.

My friend Nina has a membership to the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, and she got us a reservation for dinner one night. It was amazing. this was the amuse-bouche, served with a paired whisky.

This was my starter. Venison and a rye crisp with beetroot and greens. It was glorious. I have been very into venison as of late. 

And my main: a fresh mozzarella  and roasted tomato tart. It was great as well.

I went Salsa dancing with friends. It was a lot of fun! I have been thinking about doing regular classes, but I just haven't found the time or motivation.

And, at the end of the month, we had our Retro-themed Flat Warming! It was a great time, with lots of people coming out to help us break it in. 

And that pretty much sums up the rest of July! It was a fun month, but nothing compared to August. That will be coming soon! :-)