Do the Twist

If nothing else this experience has taught me to live simply. Because my dear, I am simply broke. But I am a ever evolving creature (not to mention modest) so I am constantly finding ways to budget and bargain. Take the other night, a friends birthday which for some people would have meant taking a stroll down to Topshop...but I decided to hit up the charity shops and go retro because vintage is always in. When you dress like a 60's housewife you'd be suprised at how many old men hit on you...perhaps they thought they were young lads again.....cool it daddio. Behold, the rise and fall of the bee hive...groooovy baby.

Gilligan...and the Skipper too

The city is just starting to blossom as I am getting ready to leave! Tommarow marks the beginning of the Edinburgh Film Festival and then after that it's officially countdown to the festival in August...when all of Edinburgh unravels itself into a bohemian paradise (or so I hear).

I am starting to question my accent radar as I hear it less and less. Sure there is the occasional Leith-er who sounds as if he has marbles in his mouth but it's smooth sailing for the most part.

There are moments when I try to plan trips and wonder why it's harder to navigate around or when I go to the grocery store and am puzzled by the lack of fruit diversity, a constant breeze, seagulls in a city setting and it all at once hits me.....HOLY SHIT I AM TRAPPED ON AN ISLAND! A very pretty, rolling green island but an ISLAND non the less.

In other news and events I am off to Belgium on Saturday.....stay classy why I'm gone Scottyland.

Spring Cleaning

Mall in France

The only mall I have been to since being here. I love the design of this compared to American malls. There are no indoor fake trees and big food courts.

Tre Chic, no?

Leith Waterfront

Don't let the older generation of Edinburgh folks foul you who are stuck in their ways...the waterfront of Leith is alive and well! Completly revamped with outdoor cafe's and some of the best seafood I have had in my life.

As soon as I booked my ticket home and put a date on my return I became re-energized with all these ideas of activities I want to do before leaving. You don't know what you've got till it's (almost) gone.

Who was I to complain about having an extra week without work....it's like being retired without having to work 30 years first!

I do cherish my friends that I have met here and my hope of all hopes is that a few stay with me or I can return.

view from the bottom of the stairs in my flat.

Lately I have been lazy about writing...I have no excuse besides the fact that my time here is coming to an end and with that in sight it's been difficult to be present and to feel the need to familiarise myself with the settings here as I am beginning to see them as temporary. And to be quite honest I am already getting a case of the woulda shoulda's.

Have my friend, Puppy, coming to visit at the end of the month so that will be lovely and I have aquired a bike which I am elated about!

My stint at my job has ended somewhat abruptly. I wasn't fired but I was suddenly without shifts when I returned from vacation. Effed up? Yes. Suprising? No.

One lesson I have learned from working here is to never rely on one source of income, entertainment, friendship but to take them seriously none the less.

Oban O8

I highly reccomend going to the HIGHlands via train...the landscape is incredible and it beats the prices on petro. (gas). Oban, the gateway to the highlands is a tucked away place that seemed to only have British tourists which was a nice escape from Edinburgh.

Sound as a pound

I have always felt physically safe walking around Edinburgh. In the winter when it was cold my thought process was, "It's fine because no one is on the streets..they are virtually empty and no one lingers around and I am walking as fast as my legs can carry me...everyone is in a cab or in a pub." and now it's turned into, "It's broad daylight here...all the time and everyone is out..not much is going to go down here." It could be the safest place I have ever lived (knock on wood).

I'm finally ready to declare it's spring.

Trouble is it's almost summer.

The Brits throw themselves into any qualifying UV ray more than a chaste teenage boy to his first girlfriend.

Margaret Thatcher Naked on a cold day!

Seeing the family supassed any of my expectations and believe me I was practically peeing in my pants to see them so that says alot. It was the first time I have been around a group of American's since leaving the states. The tribe was impossible to miss-Dad in his bright orange baltimore orioles shirt, Mom entusiastically waving her hand like it was a dogs tail, and 'Tina, the well adjusted, easy going, healthy travel as always. They were so American...in the loveliest of ways.

I sitll can't believe that I am worth visiting and I can appreciate them all on different levels- as a comfort (my past), as friends (the present), and my future, always.

To have home come to me while remaining in this bubble of a vacation and to be able to show them what I have been experiencing over the last few months is truely special.

Enough with this mushy shit, I know no one reads the blog for that so I'll try to get back to doing what I do best-being witty and abusiving the English language where it hurts it most, in the most grammatical of ways

Big ups Powers'. <3