This whole week is threatening sunshine, warmth, and general pleasantness. I don't know what to do! What does this mean? The whole city is in a state of panic! This could be the end!
Actually, everyone is taking full advantage of the weather and soaking in every ray of sunlight to prepare for the coming onslaught of freezing nastiness that is sure to come with the new month. For now, however, it is lovely. I went out and picked up my phone. I have a Pay as You Go plan, which I may switch to a monthly plan depending on what turns out to be more lucrative. For now, I think that I won't use it often enough to justify anything more. Plus, I get international minutes so I can shock people with random calls from thousands of miles away!
The Vodafone store was on Princes Street, which is behind my building near that ostentatious Sir Walter Scott Monument. Remember this thing?
Yes, so right across the street is the place of phones! I finally have a way to call people and not feel completely and totally isolated from everyone as soon as I leave the comfort of Wi-Fi.
Also, I can check the time on it, which is a use I didn't realize I was so dependent on until I was without a phone. Yay digital clock!
I brought a book with me because I knew I'd want to linger in the Princes Street Garden after I obtained the phone and enjoy the weather a bit.
Oh, I didn't mention the library yet, did I?
Well, the campus library is hideous. It hurts the eyes. It makes the book lover's soul weep and the aesthetics loving soul mourn. It basically looks like a parking garage from the outside and the inside is utilitarian and dull. The stacks take up several of the floors with computers and desks spread throughout. There are windows, at least, with nice views, but that's about all I can say in its favor as far as appearances go.
But then I found my books. They are a little spread out. I have access to the Celtic Library, which is a room in the Celtic and Scottish Studies building that is just for students like me to use, but you are generally discouraged from taking the books out of the room. I wanted to borrow several, so I used the Main Library.
There are
so many books! I confess that despite the fact that I am in a country where Celtic studies is rather a bigger deal than in, say, rural Virginia, I still half expected to find a paltry selection of old books that hadn't been touched in a decade.
Instead, I found shelves and shelves and shelves of books... on Welsh literature! And then there were the Irish books! There were Scottish ones too! And even a section on Cornish and Breton texts! It was heavenly. I probably looked slightly deranged as I ran my fingers across the spines of the rows of books and grinned insanely as one title after another seemed to draw my attention. I want to read them
all!
No, seriously, all of them.
But I only took five because I had to carry them nearly a mile up the road back to my room. I can always go back for more soon. Very, very soon...
I chose one recommended by one of my supervisors, a text examining the influence of Irish on Welsh literature and after I obtained the precious phone, I found a bench in the park and stretched out in the warm sunshine with my lovely literary analysis for a good two hours. I could see the castle, the cityscape of Edinburgh, and a lovely stretch of green park directly in front of me. I didn't even need my sweater because the sun was so warm. My book was fascinating.
And if all goes as planned, there will be castles on the weekend!
