Goodbye, Scotland!

Apologies for the two hastily written blogs before this. Since landing in Edinburgh, the EngSem team has been on hyperdrive. Places to go, things to do, all that jazz. Last night was our last night in Edinburgh, and we ended it with an intrepid night hike to the top of Arthur's Seat. We didn't know about that until Wednesday morning. It was on the schedule, but it only said "Speed of Light." It ended up being part of the Edinburgh International Festival, and we were part audience, part participant in the show.

Firstly, we donned our coats (for it rained BUCKETS yesterday) and were handed glowing staffs that blinked whenever they struck the ground. You can imagine the epic Gandalf jokes we made ("YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!"). Secondly, we went out with guides to the top of the summit, which was a two and a half hour hike. Runners dressed in TRON suits (OK, they called them "light suits", but they were basically TRON suits) ran up and down Arthur's Seat in formation in the dark. It was pretty cool, actually, especially once we hiked up to the summit:

Edinburgh from Arthur's Seat at night.

   Once we reached the plateau before the summit we started hearing strange ringing noises. At first we were confused (I thought it was an ambulance down below), but then we realized that our staffs were "singing." It was part of the performance. Then once we reached the summit (a pretty treacherous hike up slippery rocks) we unscrewed the part of the staffs that blinked and connected them to a device on the highest point of the summit, making a modern "cairn."

 Then we got back to the hotel at 1am and had to get up early to go to the Lake District (not in Scotland). Other things happened as well. Brittany and I had lunch at The Elephant House, where J.K Rowling wrote part of Harry Potter (it has an excellent view of the Edinburgh Castle from one of the windowseats, which supposedly inspired Hogwarts). The bathrooms are full of handwritten messages to Rowling and quotations from Potterheads. 

Today we rode to the Lake District, where William Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter lived. On the way we stopped by Gretna Green. What is that? Two words: GUNSHOT MARRIAGES. English couples used to hop over the border to Scotland to bypass marriage laws requiring couples to be 21 and have parental consent. Then we stopped by a stone circle and took pictures of the English countryside. 

Now if you excuse me, I have 15 chapters of Wuthering Heights to read by tomorrow morning.