Light in the End of a Dark Tunnel

Hello my dear friends. I feel happy, for the first time here I feel really, really happy. Yesterday was probably the best day here so far, and now I feel that there are many more to come.

First, there was Edinburgh, my beloved Edinburgh, where I went on a bus trip arranged by our active International Society. Two bus-fulls of people set off toward this beautiful city at 9AM on Saturday morning - yes, I was tired, but the sight of Edinburgh one hour later wiped away my weariness. My god, that city is one beauty queen, I tell you. After the dismal streets of Glasgow, Edinburgh felt like a breeze of fresh and welcoming air. The sight of Arthur's Seat, the Castle, Calton Hill and all that took my breath away. All the time I was climbing up the castle hill towards the main gate and breathing in the ancient atmosphere I had this ridiculous, ear-to-ear grin on my face. I just couldn't help it. Gosh :D
First we checked out the castle. I had been there before, albeit nine and a half years ago. The highlight of the visit was, without doubt, the Stone of Scone, which assumedly was lying behind a protected glass with some glittering crown jewels (which I didn't find as interesting, 'cos I'm not really into such trinkets :P ). I have to consult my dad (Bruno the Self-Educated Historian) on this though, 'cos I wasn't 100% sure whether that stone was THE ancient and sacred coronation stone that was kept in England for 400 years or so and only recently returned to Scotland. Come to think of it, however, what else could it have been? A random stone kept behind a bullet-proof glass? I reckon that was the real thing. Wow.
Even the weather was in favour of at least the first half of our trip. After a wee bit of rambling around the Royal Mile and Princes Street, Scottish weather took us by surprise, again. The sky went all grey and started pouring down cats and dogs upon us poor tourists. That didn't matter, however, 'cos we (me, Anna-Riitta, Petra and an Australian girl Prue) found this huge Waterstone's bookstore, where we could easily spend the time we had left before the busses departed back to Glasgow. I made some real bargains and bought three books for the price of two - Kate Mosse's Labyrinth (a novel on the legend of the Holy Grail set in Carcassonne), Dan Brown's Angels and demons (haven't read that yet), and Zadie Smith's On Beauty (one of the most critically-acclaimed novels from last year). That's enough books for many years to come, 'cos I'll never have the time to read them anyway :D Well, I'm counting upon my looong and hot summer holiday in Finland.

Here's one pic taken in the castle. Anna-Riitta's expression says it all :D



The evening (and the night, obviously) was the icing on the cake. Sam & Harry threw a party in their attic flat, which will undoubtedly be granted the honour of being THE place to party and socialize during these five months. Besides Sam and Harry the Party Flat is shared by Harry's girlfriend Robin and this lunatic Indian guy, who is, scarily enough, a doctor.
That party really brightened my mood. I realised that wow, I've got these wonderful, crazy and artistic people around me, and what have I been doing? Like asking myself what the heck I'm doing here? Now I know what I'm doing here. I'm here to get to know these wonderful people, to spend six awesome months in Scotland. Now I feel alive again, like someone had lifted a veil off of my eyes and wiped away all the sadness and pessimism. Now that I'm reborn, I have even started to make plans for this spring. Today I marked all important dates on my calendar and checked when my essays are due. I also checked SECC's website for gig and concert listings and found at least three gigs that interest me - Faithless, Incubus and Justin Timberlake are on tour, whee! :D I even booked tickets to Clannad's concert on Friday, which is remarkable as the band hasn't thrown a gig for 10 years or so. I wonder why I didn't do that earlier, 'cos I've got all their records and have been a fan for like 10 years... Well, better late than never.

So this is all starting to look a lot brighter. No more crying, no more longing for home whatsoever. I'm really looking forward to this spring now.

Below are some pictures from the party. Enjoy :)


Sam, Sarah, Harry & Robin, Petra (in front of them), Gayathri, Maija, and the Indian doctor.


Me, Eva and Sarah.


LOL.


Sam and Eva making some music.