Beautiful Weather Today

Well, woke up this morning thinking that it would be raining and was surprised to find that the sun was out. I walked down to Princes Street Park today and lounged out on the grass writing articles and reading a book. Was a nice relaxing day. The sun was out and the temperature was around 70 degrees. Around 4pm the clouds began to move in and it started to rain. Went in the National Museum of Scotland and saw some really interesting paintings. The nice thing about the museums over here is that they are free to see. The staircases at the museum were sort of creepy because there were all of these plaster heads lining the wall. I did manage to make it up Arthur's Seat yesterday with Josef. I didn't realize that he had been running and cycling his entire life before I agreed to go running with him. Surprisingly, I managed to keep up with him and actually was ahead of him on a lot of the uphill portions.

On another note, I was walking home from the store today and I walked past this old church that had purple doors. I stopped and read the sign in front of it and it was a light store! Imagine that, they put a light store inside of a REALLY old church! Weird if you ask me. Well, better be going now, hope everyone is doing well!

Running In The Rain

Well, nothing too exciting today. I woke up and saw that it was pouring rain outside. So I figured I would just stay in today and write articles. I have written a bunch of articles on pet health and have one that has sparked up a debate and I have had over 200 people view it in 2 days, which is a good thing because the more people that view it, the more $ I make. I will be going for a run in the rain around 7pm with Josef (the German guy). Hopefully I won't be too drenched afterwards. Hope everyone doing great! Cheers!

Tour of the Easter Bush Veterinary Center

So I had an official tour of the Easter Bush Veterinary center today. The place is quite large and there is A LOT of construction going on right now. Lucky for me, I came just in time that I will be enjoying brand new buildings for 3 years. Woohoo! Unfortunately, they don't have digital radiography. What am I ever going to do! I have been spoiled with digital! Does this mean I have to develop film again? Ugghhh! Anyway, the facilities are very nice at the center. Here are some pictures from the visit. Not much more went on today, I have been inside ever since 2pm. It was raining quite a bit today. I was going to walk to Rosslyn Chapel today (3 mile walk from the veterinary center) but opted against doing so because it was raining so much. I'm thinking that decision was a smart choice. Otherwise, I would have been soaking wet in the rain. Well, off to write articles. Talk with you all soon! Don't forget to try and get Skype so I can talk with you eventually.

Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies

Climbing Arthur's Seat

So, I managed to climb up Arthur's Seat today. Basically, it is an extinct volcano in the middle of Edinburgh. I didn't realize how steep the hike was going to be until I got onto the trail. I must have walked about 20 miles today. I walked all over the city looking for a phone adapter so I could plug a phone into my computer to call back home (found it by the way). Then I went to Sony to see if they could fix it and they said it was the laptop itself. In the end, I ended up with an evaluation version of Windows 7. Pretty cool! It is only good for a year, but I can officially say that I am using the new operating system. Not that it is really exciting. I made it to the top of Arthur's Seat around 5pm. The bad thing about getting to the top that late was that I was starting to get a little hungry and had no food with me at the time. I knew I had a long walk ahead of me to get home, so I only stayed at the top for about 35 min. Below are the photos I took while on the top. It was absolutely amazing from the top. The wind picked up and it felt so good blowing in my face. The sun was out ALL day today and there was one moment where it rained for about 5 minutes. It is so weird how all of a sudden, when it has been sunny out all day, it starts raining. If you can believe it, I actually got a sunburn today on the back of my neck! Yeah, the girl Sylvia at the house I am at pointed that out. I was shocked!

Before I end this post, I wanted to share with you a couple of things that I have seen in the city that are funny and puzzling. First, there is this door in Edinburgh that I always walk past on the way to the city center. Every time I go past the door, there is a person standing in front of it knocking on the door with cash in their hand. I don't know what they are giving out there, interesting...The second thing I wanted to share (which is pretty funny) is that when I was walking up The Royal Mile today, I saw this car driving up the street and it was squirting three big streaks of water in the air. A lady walking on the curb was soaked by them! I was amused by this. The car was an Audi A5, I didn't know the car came equipped with super soakers for windshield washers!

Well, enjoy the latest pictures. I will be visiting the veterinary school tomorrow that is about 30 min from the city. I will definitely post pictures of the school tomorrow. Hope everyone is having a fantabulous day!

Arthur's Seat

Free Food! This City Gets Better and Better!

So I went into the city centre today and walked around quite a bit. I had forgotten that it was Sunday and most of the shops were closed. I walked down towards St. Cuthbert's church today and walked through a really old graveyard. I went to the Starbucks again and wrote articles for about 3 hours. When I was finished I walked past the National Museum and saw that there was an enormous gathering of people and one really long line! So I went to go check it out to see what the heck was going on. Apparently there is a new Spain exhibit at the museum and there was a festival going on called "A Taste of Spain". There was this enormous cooking bowl and this man had a HUGE spoon that he was using to stir the chicken and rice. I swear, this bowl could have easily served a thousand people or more! They were handing out free bowls of the rice and let me tell you, it was awesome! On top of tasting good it was free, you can't beat that! I can't wait 'til the big festivals begin, there's no telling what will happen at those. I came very close to climbing Arthur's Seat today since it was so nice out. It was sunny and about 65 degrees all day long. There were spurts of rain here and there, but not much. I will most likely go hiking tomorrow (depends on the weather). I updated the slideshow with new photos. Not all of the photos are there because it takes so darn long to upload them into Picassa. Enjoy the new pictures everyone!

Blisters and Homeless for 30 minutes...

So, even though my feet were hurting today, I had to check on my data recovery at the PC shop again and walk all that distance. When I woke up this morning, I took my sock off on my right foot and saw that I had 5 blisters, and one of them was a blood blister. I couldn't even bend my toes without the blisters causing pain. It is slightly better now, but man did they hurt last night. That goes to show you how many miles I have walked. I have walked about 9-12 miles per day for the last 5 days, that is a lot! I think I will start taking the buses more frequently now or buy a bicycle. Either way, my feet have had enough walking. So, the latest news brings me to yet ANOTHER speed bump I encountered. Ever since the laptop repair issue costing me nearly $400, I have had numerous problems it seems.

So, here goes: First, I spoke with the lady regarding the payment for the bed and breakfast and the amount of time I would be staying with her. Well, I do not have the money from the university until the first week of August. So I asked her if it would be OK if I were to pay her half now and half at the end. She didn't seem too worried about it, but then yesterday I walked through the door and she was in the hallway (ahhh!). She started rambling on about how she was nervous about the whole situation and that she wanted me out of the B&B by Tuesday. I had this warm sensation that spread throughout my entire body and my heart dropped to the floor! I couldn't believe this was happening to me. Seriously, what else could possibly go wrong? Ever since I applied for the visa, it seems like I have had one problem after the other. So the lady kept rambling on and was making a HUGE ordeal about the whole situation. I couldn't even get a word in, and when I did, she acted confused and didn't know what I was trying to say. In the end, I told her that I had the full payment for the entire stay and that I would pay her right then and there. She simply said NO and that she did not want to deal with it anymore.

So, I immediately get on the internet searching for a hostel to stay in or a B&B. All of the B&B's were completely booked and so were the hostels. I was getting nervous and very worried. I was picturing myself sleeping in one of the nearby parks (sad for you all, I would not be able to write any more posts for a while). So I went to go see Daphne (lady I am staying with beginning on August 1st) and told her of the situation. She has 3 flats that she rents out right now, so she phoned Joseph, a student at one of the flats. She asked if a room is still available and if I would be able to stay there until August 1st. He had no problems with that and I am still paying the same rate. Daphne and I walked to the flat and arrived after 30 minutes. The flat is TONS better than that stupid B&B closet room. I now have a bigger room, house, my own kitchen, backyard, washing machine, stove, oven, microwave, THE WORKS! So in the end, it worked in my favor. I am actually glad that the crazy scottish lady at the B&B kicked me out. I was so confined in that tiny room. I had about a 6x4 foot space to move around in, NOT fun. Hope everyone is doing great back home and I will keep you all updated on the latest! (hopefully there will be no more speed bumps encountered along the way! Of course, I am sure you guys are amused reading about them!)

Rain, rain, rain, rain...

Well, it was nice for a while until today. I woke up this morning and headed down to the PC shop to check the progress of the data recovery. The guy came out and said that it didn't look very good and that the data may not be recoverable (there was a big sigh from me). So, the guy told me to try back later on. So I headed down the main road and ended up walking for quite a while. I found the HUGE Starbucks that I went to a couple years back. It is upstairs and overlooks the castle (sorry, no pictures, will take some for everyone eventually). I worked on my laptop at the table for about an hour and wrote down ideas for article writing. I went back outside and started the trek back home and ended up getting a nice big blister on my right foot from walking 9 miles a day for 4 days straight now.

I also had quite the experience with the city buses today. It has been raining all day and the rain collects in small pockets on the road fairly close to the curbing. I was walking down the sidewalk and a bus drove my splashing water all over my pants! Those buses are dangerous I tell ya! I was not a happy camper...

I popped back into the PC shop and when I went to the back, I was welcomed with good news. All of my data had been successfully recovered, and all that I have to do now is bring my external hard drive in to transfer the data over tomorrow. Woohoo! Finally, something went right! I found the Summerhall Veterinary School this afternoon and took some pictures of it. This is the old building and I will be in this facility for a year. The last 3 years will be at their brand new teaching hospital and buildings at the Easter Bush campus.

On another note, I received my bank card for Lloyds TSB today and am official. I can now buy my phone once the funds from the loan have transferred over, which will be a couple of weeks from now. Well, this post is rather long, so I should be going. I hope everyone is doing well and miss you all.