More procrastination.

(At least everyone's panicking about the Latin midterm?)

I'm not on vacation, I'm not on vacation, I'm not on vacation. (Maybe one of these days I'll start believing it... Probably the day I realize I'll have to repeat beginning Latin.) I did study some today, but I also went with a couple archery friends to do the whole tourist thing and wander through Holyrood Palace, which is where the queen stays when she's in Edinburgh. (Mary, Queen of Scots also lived there.)

I'll admit I didn't find the inside of the palace particularly impressive. There were some cool bits--a chair that had all of Robert Burns' "Tam O'Shanter" engraved onto it, a room where Mary, Queen of Scots' husband killed her Italian friend (by stabbing the poor guy fifty-six times), including the exact spot where the body was abandoned, and... um, what else? A frighteningly dinky little staircase. Some odd Hercules paintings in the king's bedroom.

We'd had enough fun hanging out on the walk out to the palace that once we were supposed to quiet down and listen to those ridiculous little pre-recorded tours (which were told by very boring voices, I might add) it was just... you know. A little difficult to settle.

Okay, we were like a bunch of high school freshmen trying to remember how to behave like adults. Having way too much fun to be quiet and learn something, to even really care about learning something, and just wanting to be entertained.

And it probably didn't help that one of us (codename: London, because that's where he did his undergrad) kept making obscene jokes. Fart jokes about the throne, for pete's sake.

The outside grounds, though--god, it was beautiful. The leaves have begun to change color, the grass is blindingly green (and perfect in all respects, since no one's allowed to walk on it) and there are so many different kinds of trees here!

Crooked view of the castle! :)

Aaannnd...

Ruins of the abbey that's attached to the palace. After a lengthy, roundabout and basically useless discussion, we're still not sure why the abbey was left to crumble while the rest of the palace has been so painstakingly kept up.

(You can also see a bit of Arthur's Seat in the background behind the abbey. It's the mountain-looking peak. Haven't been up there yet, but it's supposed to be a fantastic view.)

I love, love love this city. Not gonna lie, there's bit a bit of uneasiness/off-kilter-ness setting in, which might just be a bit of culture shock, but I am happy here. There are still some things that make my head spin a bit, there're things that still feel foreign, and I've definitely been (mostly unsuccessfully) fighting off vacation mode since I arrived, but Edinburgh is the "different" kind of life I've been looking for since I realized how weird southern California can be sometimes. I do miss home, but I'm not homesick. (Except for the sun and beach.)

This Friday a friend from Santa Barbara (Sunshinebucket) is flying in from Bordeaux, where she's studying for the semester. She'll be here until next Wednesday. I'm excited--Scotland is on her bucket list, so we're going to cram a whoooole lotta fun into a little less than a week. It can totally be done. :)

Whoa, man. Caffeine.

The world is full of details! Color! Excitement! Andeveryoneismovingtooslowly!

lol. I wish. I'm not that caffeinated, but I'm getting there. I try not to rely on it too much, but this week (and possibly next week?) I need it. I'm not going to make it through life without a pretty little stimulant.

I have a Latin midterm next week. During class yesterday the lecturer (they're not called profs over here) made it very clear that even if we started right then, it is impossible to teach yourself everything we've covered in the last five weeks. Insert silent panic attack here, because I'm so confused and so far behind that's exactly what I was planning on doing this week.

And you know how I got a hold of myself? It was a spiteful little bit of work, even though I (obviously) didn't say anything out loud. But I had a moment of, "Fine. Challenge accepted. I'll prove you so wrong you'll be too embarrassed to say something like that to your students next year."

So I've worked it out that I need to cover two chapters a day. (And by cover, I mean memorize the contents of.) Lots of memory work, but hopefully I'll be able to handle it.

Hopefully.

Other than my panic attack and general sleep deprivation, this has been a pretty fantastic week. Yesterday I received another congratulatory email from the Writer's Digest competition--which was thrilling enough in and of itself, but they awarded the only good haiku I've ever written FIFTH PLACE. Fifth place! I'm in the top ten of the non-rhyming poetry category!! Part of the rewards include fifty dollars (first time I've ever gotten money for my writing--Neil Gaiman was right, this is the COOLEST THING EVER), a copy of the 2011 Writer's Market (which is an immensely useful book if you're looking for places that might publish your work), and fifty bucks worth of Writer's Digest books. How fantastic is that? I feel so spoiled! :)