Despite getting the recommended about of sleep last night, the alarm seemed to go off as soon as I'd stopped tossing and turning. Getting ready proved to be a slight challenge since there's once bathroom for 3 girls (a worse ratio than at the flat) and the mirror and hair dryer are located immediately outside the bathroom door in a way that makes it impossible to go in and out of the bathroom without running into someone. My bed it also smack dab in the middle of what would ordinarily be a little free space. Alls well that ends well though, and we made it to breakfast with relatively few issues. Tomorrow we'll definitely be at breakfast earlier because for those who had more time, there was fresh made eggs to order, sausage, and the other fixings of a full English breakfast. Personally I was perfectly content with my dry Shreddies (great discovery, they're like a wheat Chex with a little bit of sugar on them) and fresh scone. The unpredictability of the weather here - the only predictable thing is that it's bound to start raining at any second - and the sizeable walk to our destination meant that we once again piled in cabs. It was less hectic than yesterday for sure, I imagine we'll get quite good at it, and soon we found ourselves outside the Scottish Law Society on a very windy day. A very nice man whose name I am currently blanking on (I'll look it up and add it to the bottom of the post) gave us an informative and interesting lecture on Scottish history. It proved very useful only a few hours later and I'm sure this will continue to be the case. Afterwards, we had an amazing talk by one Ian Dunkin about the Parliaments at play in Scotland. Yes, that is plural on purpose, the Scottish Parliament, Westminster Parliament, and EU Parliament all play a role in Scotland's unique governing situation. We went into detail about each body and how they impact and are impacted by Scotland. The speaker's frankness in regards to the positions of several groups was refreshing and made it easier to get a handle on what is going on. This was easily my favorite talk so far. Afterwards we had time for a lunch break and another student and I found a nice little café with good, inexpensive food with a great atmosphere. It was a great place to grab a bite and recharge since we had one more lecture later in the afternoon. Although the morning had been windy but sunny, it had darkened considerably since then and on the way back from lunch it began to mist. The final lecture was on economics in Scotland. Probably my least favorite lecture but it was short. It was very dense and heavy of data with less explanation as to why those figures matter. Just as we were leaving, the skies opened and full on rain began. Since we were almost immediately soaked in spite of our rain gear, we decided to just tough it out and keep exploring. On tap for our afternoon was the Elephant House. The tucked away café doesn’t appear to be anything special from the outside, that is until you notice the writing on one of the windows announcing that this is where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter. Although I certainly am not as crazy a Harry Potter fan as some and I'm far from obsessive over it, I would be remiss to pass up the opportunity. These books and characters are ones I grew up with, and who grew up with me; the series began when I was in Lane (elementary school) and spanned all the way through my high school career. By the time we'd arrived at Elephant House we were soaked through, I was literally dripping as we sat down. It was really coolly decorated on the inside, with elephants everywhere. I'd gone with the girls I was staying with and we all relaxed with some tea to dry off a bit and soak up the atmosphere. Afterwards, it had stopped raining so we did a little walking around and shopping before walking home. We dried off and attempted to warm up hanging out in our room before once again heading out into the elements. This time we were in search of dinner and found Mother's Kitchen, an Indian place a few blocks from us. I was glad it wasn't too far a walk because it's decidedly cold out and I should've brought more warm clothes. When we got back, our room became dubbed the Island of Misfit Toys. Since we were right by the front door, we would let people into the building when their key got stuck (the lock was finicky) and they'd wind up chilling in our room. There was also only one set of keys for each room so some people couldn't get into their rooms for a while. It was a lot of fun though and our room was full with laughter for hours before people headed off to bed. Now it's my turn to hit the sack too, hopefully the weather defies the forecast and it's dryer and or warmer tomorrow.
Note: Speakers were Mike Clancy from the Law Society of Scotland, Dr Ian Duncan Clerk to the European & External Relations Committee and European Officer, Scottish Parliament, and Lucy Proud & Graeme Kemlo, Office of the Chief Economic Officer for the Scottish Government
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