Settling in Stirling: Go Have at it with helpless citizens

Relient K puts this well "The party scene is kind of mean." No, nobody was mean to me last night, but I still stand firmly and say that I am not much of a "party girl." Last night was the traditional karaoke night at the Meadowpark pub (the Med for short). Along with some ISS students and locals was Fudge; one of the worker's chocolate labs! She was adorable and was just wondering around the pub as people stopped to pet her. I really don't think she minded all the extra attention. As for singing, my friend Lauren and I serenaded some international students and locals with Complicated by Avril Lavigne. I don't mean to toot my own horn but I think we did pretty smashing! And I had fun too; I was so nervous but I had so much fun! After we sang, we got free admission to the Red Room, which is an addition to the Med and it's like a nightclub...I think. Loud music, obnoxious lights, and whistling locals; yep, that was the one. Now my rule of thumb is that I try something once; if I like it, great. If not, then sorry. So I tried it, knowing already it wasn't something I was never really into to begin with. I didn't even stay an hour, it was NUTS. People were yelling in my face, grabbing me to dance, and me and my friends even got cat-called by some locals. Then to make matters worse I ended up getting a really bad headache so I just left. Moral for me; never again. That scene works for some people, but not me. My ears were still ringing this morning. Not good, boo boo. Not good.

To make matters worse, I was only running on 6 hours of sleep for the entire day. Now normally for me I like to sleep at least 7 or 8 hours a night. Someone said there is something everyone in the world is OCD about. Well I am OCD about my sleeping, and 6 hours is...ok. I can function, but it takes me a while to get the engine running. Anyway, so today was our last ISS excursion to...Edinburgh!!!! Wow. What a gorgeous city! Again, the architecture was stunning; like none other. I spent the day with my friend, and we didn't know what we wanted to do or see really; we just had a few ideas and that was it. Our first stop was the Elephant House, AKA the birth place of Harry Potter!! Author J.K Rowling was noted for having made several appearances in that very cafe. I was expecting the food to be expensive, but it really wasn't. My lunch was 5 pounds 55 pence. Not. Bad. And man it was delicious! Ciabatta with pesto, mozzerella cheese and olives. YUMMO. Had a ginger beer to drink. Again, YUMMO. After lunch, we wanted to go to Mary King's Close, which was a part of the town that was underground and closed off when the bubonic plague struck Europe. Sadly, the only tours were in the evening, so we couldn't go.

So we made a detour to Prince Street's Gardens, which were absolutely beautiful! We found a carousel on the way, and yes, rode it and had a glorious time! Along the way to several of these venues, my friend wanted to find different stops where her favorite movie was filmed (Driving Lessons). She acted like a kid at Christmas time!!! Anyway, eventually we found the Camera Obscura and world Illusions Museum. AWESOME. It was just...really cool. I'll post a few pics on here, but see my facebook for the rest of them. At the end of the museum, there was a camera obscura, which is basically a large camera positioned at the top of the museum and you could see points of the city. Again, really cool; hadn't seen anything like that before. At the end though, the guy threw these cards onto the camera and if you folded them you could almost "pick off" parts of the picture; it was just an illusion thing. Had such a fun day, but man we were all exhausted. The evening ended with me, Lauren and my other friend Andrea piling into her flat and making grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner. There was awesome Cadbury ice cream in the end too! CHA-CHING.

And I get to go to Edinburgh tomorrow too for a class field trip!!! Ska-doosh! Time to get a wee bit of a paper written that's due on Monday. 2000 words, and I only have like 100 something. Better get busy, but enjoy the pics. Cheers!