May 13, 2011
8:15am
Beeeep, beeeep, beeeep!!!
The WORST sound in the history of sounds.
...The ALARM...
Unfortunately, sometimes the most awesome days have to start with that ugly sound, and this study abroad is no exception. Even though I got about 12 hours of sleep, the morning came too soon for my taste. Still exhausted from my journey across the pond, it was a struggle to get out of bed the first real morning of my trip. I didn't even have a roommate to help force me out of my {comatose state} either. This actually proved to be rather disconcerting on another level as well because in my groggy state of mind, I wasn't entirely sure I knew when and where we were supposed to meet as a class to depart for our first business visit. I kept listening to noises in the hallway to make sure I wouldn't get left behind.
To make matters worse, while I was getting ready for the day I tried to straighten my hair. Bad news. My transformer isn't powerful enough to handle my straightener. This ended in
1) A useless straightener and 2) a pungent smell of electrical fire in my room.
Perfect.
Plus, I didn't hem my dress pants before I left, so I can only wear them with heels...
Result:
Half-straightened hair and uncomfortable high heels to be worn the rest of the day...on cobblestones.
Even better.
9:00am
I was running a little late so I hurried out the door, worried about being left behind (since I didn’t have a roommate to confirm times with me). However, I had enough time to grab a quick breakfast of cereal in the hotel restaurant. I sat down with Rogelio, Hannah and Heather for a couple minutes, then we all (the class) headed to the bus to go. We drove about 25 minutes to the University of Edinburgh campus where we visited the Scottish Microelectronics Company. It’s a non-profit company that is part of the university that began in 1960. It was pretty interesting I thought. We listened for a few minutes to a general powerpoint presentation about what SM and microelectronics are, and then we divided into three groups for a tour of the facility. It was fun listening to our guide because he had a great Scottish accent. He was super nice too, and was really good at dumbing down the technological processes for us. Basically, microelectronics is an industry that prepares electronic chips that work as the blueprints for the actual machinery and factory processes that go into manufacturing a product. It’s like the pre-manufacturing technology...it’s difficult to understand and even more difficult to explain. The CEO described it as a company that “creates wealth out of innovation.” (i.e. they sell knowledge and innovation in the form of wafers, or chips). What I got out of it was that the workers looked cool and official because they had to wear haz-mat suits. It looks very intense. Although, in actuality, they wear them because the rooms are controlled environments to keep the air sterile. The chips are super sensitive so they ventilate and filter the air multiple times to prevent dust and bacteria from entering the rooms. It’s very intense.
Another cool thing (literally) I learned was that they have a huge tank (thousands of liters) of nitrogen that has tons of ice buildup on the piping outside. They use it to keep the machinery cool and ventilated and, get this, it has to be refilled every six days! Even so, apparently it is cheaper than milk! So, I’m thinking that if the economy continues to decline, liquid nitrogen may be a good alternative...food for thought. (Or, drink, in this case...)
Final fun fact: At the end of our tour and debriefing, SMC gave us each
the world’s smallest televisions to take home...
....but they didn’t explain what that meant...
Basically they are just tiny chips at the end of a small strip (like a Listerine mouthstrip size). I’m assuming they are microchips that go into the televions’ makeup. But I have no idea how, so its unfortunately not about to show me the world’s smallest HD version of Lord of the Rings. Oh well, I’m pretty sure the picture would be about the size of my pupil so it probably wouldn’t be that great anyways...
11:30am
We then took the bus to the Royal Mile in downtown Edinburgh where we were dropped off and had free time for two hours. I went with a few people and we walked down the street to...wait for it....the Elephant House! Don’t recognize the name? Perhaps you will appreciate it more when I tell you that it is in fact the very cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote {Harry Potter} I bet that’s a name you’ve heard! We took pictures in front and walked in, but didn’t want to stay to eat or anything, so we just looked at a few newspaper clippings on the wall. That was about all there was to look at anyways. But still really cool.
{Harry Potter! Harry Potter, ooh! Harry Potter! ...DUMBLEDORE!}
{Old church along the Royal Mile}
{Classic Red Telephone Booths shot down the Royal Mile}
After that we walked back up the street and down the Royal Mile (apparently the only famous thing in Edinburgh). It’s just a popular and overpriced market street that I assume extends a mile (go figure). So we just walked around, looked at a beautiful old church, and took pictures of the Royal Palace from a bridge (it was across the river). Then we grabbed lunch from a nice little corner sandwich shop. It was really good, and the two owners were super nice. We took forever deciding what to order because there were tons of interesting and delicious-sounding choices. We eventually all got our food though and then meandered down the Royal Mile to the end where the Scottish Parliament building resides.
Note:
Do not attempt to walk the Royal Mile (or around any other cobblestoned city) with high heels. It is not comfortable, and it is not worth it. Trust me. I lasted for about an hour (which is actually pretty good I think) before my feet began to scream. Literally. I think I heard them crying from the ground, “Ahhhh! Stop Brittney! Just cut us off! It’s not worth it. You don’t really need feet anyways. We won’t blame you, just put us out of our misery!!!”
That’s a direct quote right there.
View of Edinburgh Royal Palace from Bridge off the Royal Mile
{You may not be able to tell, but my feet are killing me here...}
1:45pm
At the Parliament I took the opportunity to use change out of my business attire and change out of my heels into my flats. The Scottish Parliament was pretty interesting...at least architecturally. According to our tour guide––who had no problem expounding on every single detail about Parliament, the building, and the politics––every detail about this modern parliament building told a story and had symbolic meaning related to the physical land of Scotland, its people, its language, culture and politics. It honestly was pretty impressive, but the tour lasted an hour, it was all standing and walking (except for the very end where we could sit) and I had been walking around in heels all day so I was so ready rest. Oh, and I had to use the restroom, so my bladder was not helping the situation at all. In a word, I was just really impatient. However, she did say some interesting things, and I would recommend looking up the Scottish Parliament sometime...but I’m not going to go into any more detail here (yeah, you’re welcome).
After the tour I walked up with the group to the Edinburgh Castle. We walked through the castle (for 14£, what a rip off) and saw all the different rooms and buildings (e.g. dungeons, cannons, halls, the crown jewels, dining and living areas etc.). I liked the cannons...mostly because they remind me of Brian Regan’s “cannonball wound” bit. (I promise I’m not completely obsessed...just mostly).
View from Edinburgh Castle
Step 1: Do not stand directly in front of a cannon.
Fun fact:
The oldest structure on the mound was the small chapel near the cannons, built in the 12th century.
