Edinburgh Exchanges

Hi! Wow, all of a sudden I have a to-do-list of 5 things. Pretty good, huh?

So! What's new? I guess... Christmas is coming. That's what it feels like. Already, lecturers are speaking about the last practicals, the last parciales, the revision sessions and stuff like that. I guess by now it's nearly exam time in Edinburgh, so I'm glad I'm not quite at that stage yet. I'm going to have to work, and work hard, over the Crimbo period, but I think it should be okay in the end. Operating Systems is the subject which I'm dreading...

Anyway! I could blabber on about university and this and that, but I won't. It's probably getting a bit old... and there's plenty more time for me to talk about that. This weekend I went for a jaunt to a “Casa De Colonies” up a mountain near Llinars Del Vallès, a wee town about 40 minutes outside Barcelona in the county of “El Maresme.” There was a fairly big group of us, I was the only non-Spaniard there, so I had lots of opportunities to practise the language skills!

We caught the Renfe from Sants (the main train station), but got off one stop too soon. Bravo! Of course, I was just doing as I was told so it wasn't my fault. Eventually we caught the next one, and started the hike up the hill to the house. Perhaps it was more like Bennachie than Everest, but when we actually got to the place we were definitely in need of some grub. Just to get us off to an even better start, the water in the house wasn't working. Some of the people who owned the place eventually got that fixed, but it was una mica inconvenient!

We basically spent the time playing games, messing about, eating and drinking. You know what? Spending a weekend speaking a LOT, and all in Catalan and Spanish, is really tiring! By Sunday night I was like... spent, words-wise. On Saturday night we played good old “Never Ever Have I Ever...” but “Nunca Nunca” or “Mai Mai”, as they call it here. That's always interesting! And the ones who end up tipsiest are the ones who have to drink after each “jo mai mai...” which consequently makes them the ones who say the most interesting “jo mai mais!” Yup, learned a thing or two.

Another odd thing? It was cold up there. I'm not used to that. I hear there's lots of snow at home right now, but I'm used to having desires to go and soak up some rays!

Anyway here's some photos from the weekend:

This Thursday it's a holiday for the FIB (my faculty). No clue why, we don't have to do anything in particular, but it means I can have a decent Wednesday night for a change, instead of hitting the hay so I can make my 8am lecture the next day!

PS – one cool thing. I must look like a proper Barceloní because this guy in the street stopped and started asking me questions about my career (trying to get me to do some job thingy), and he was surprised when I was like “aunque... no soy Español.” Yuss. My "guiri" face must be wearing away! I'm not a tourist any more!

Last week entirely led up to our weekend in Prague. So on friday morning, at the ungodly hour of 8 a.m., I found myself on a bus with six other friends; bleary-eyed and eating pringles for breakfast. We soon perked up when we encountered our first snow of the year as we sped through the Czech countryside. We then set about capturing our glee on camera:

(I've finally worked out how to do it!)

When we eventually arrived in Prague, we immediately fell in love with it! It's hard to describe just how pretty the city is with the castle, the bridges and more churches than you can count. Having managed to work out how the transport system works (not easy since none of us know how to say anything other than 'pivo prosim!' - 'Beer please!') we arrived at our hostel - Sir Toby's. It was really one of the nicest hostels I've stayed in; the staff were, for the most part, very friendly and helpful and our room was really nice for hostel standards - we had also managed to book a private dorm which meant we could make as much mess as we liked. The bar downstairs offered cheap beer and good banter, as well as playing cards and board games. The all you can eat breakfast was amazing - with make your own pancakes and omelettes which provided endless amusement.

Having found sustenance in cheeseburgers (and for the those who don't eat meat - fried cheese! - which we all agreed is something you'd expect to find in Scotland but for some reason don't.) we headed to the castle and spent the afternoon wandering around and taking hundreds of pictures. We then walked down to Charles Bridge and the old town, stopping on the way for hot chocolate in order to escape the hail. Unable to feel our toes we headed home and spent the evening thawing out in the hostel pub and discovering just how different our political views are.

The next day began with breakfast and a snow ball fight since the snow had eventually reached Prague. I have to say that Prague under a coating of snow and with a clear blue sky is perfect. My enjoyment of it was further heightened by the purchase of a ridiculous, yet amazing, hat. We spent the day properly exploring the city - returning to the old town and Charles Bridge, but also taking in the Jewish Quarter and a short river cruise. That evening we collapsed on our beds, absolutely exhausted, but soon re-energised after a good meal and hit the hostel pub again (it really was far too cold to venture further). We spent the night playing card games and trying to learn Dutch and Finnish - I have to say I was slightly more successful at Dutch than at Finnish, which is still a complete mystery to me but atleast our attempts at pronouncing it amused Juho, and he though Gaelic was weird!

Our bus journey home the next day turned out to be actually rather luxurious! Having left it quite late to book transport we'd ended up booking two separate bus companies. The way up was the more touristy one, the way back being a Czech company which we'd discovered through a Czech girl in halls. For the price of 10 euros we enjoyed films, music, free drinks and leather seats with a lot of leg-room! It was a good way to end our trip!

So now it's back to reality - the next few weeks are going to be pretty intense with studying in an attempt to not have to bring any revision home with me at Christmas. The next trip is Basel in two weeks time and I really can't wait! Until next time!