So... St. Giles Uses Wine for Communion

In case you're worried about the title, don't be. I'll explain later. 

I think the last thing I left you with was about stuff on Thursday morning. That was a bit ago, sorry. Thursday night we went to the Scottish Military Tattoo. NO, I did not GET a tattoo, I WENT to one. This one showed a bunch of military bands who performed a number of pieces. Some were original compositions, some were random pop songs played by musicians in uniforms dancing to the beat and making formation after formation. It was kind of like drum line show or ice show. There were spotlights and projections of images on the castle wall. (oh, sorry forgot to mention it was just outside the gates of Edinburgh Castle) There were fireworks throughout the show and all kinds of performances from bands from Scotland, South Africa, Switzerland, and many others. My guess is that they were all countries in alliance or who help out/are part of the Scottish military. Not exactly sure how it works but it was really cool. At the beginning of the show before things got started the announcer got over the loud speaker and welcomed each group of attendants from each of their countries and each country's citizen's cheered when they were announced. Sadly, our England Term group also cheered when the name of Robert Burns was announced, for it is the 240th anniversary of his birth or death. Can't remember. But then again, what do you expect from a bunch of English Lit nerds? (see bottom for video)

A few of Burns' poems were read and dances were done along to the reading. There were also a couple of his poems that were sung by a performer. Oh, and at the very beginning of the show, they very first performance was about a hundred bagpipers marching in formation playing a couple of pieces. It was awesome! I have a video of it and if I can, I will post it. If you guys ever have a chance to go to a military tattoo anywhere, I HIGHLY suggest you go, though you will have to be on the lookout for tickets WAY in advance. We got ours in January and we didn't even have main seats. We could definitely see everything, but I was literally the last person in the middle row on the very end of the stadium.

Friday morning we had class again at Edinburgh University. We had a Robert Burns impersonator/interpreter come in and give a "one man show" of sorts. He gave info about his life growing up and how he got into writing poetry and then worked in some of his poetry into the performance. At one point he got so intense in his recitation that he kind of started foaming at the mouth, but I think it was really just spit from speaking so fast and in a heavy Scottish accent. And about halfway through he asked for two guy volunteers to act out a drinking poem with him. He took them aside and told them what he wanted and then they sat down and started singing one of Burns' drinking poems and "taking shots". One of the volunteers was a theatre major so he really hammed up the drinking of the "whisky", which was really tea. It was really funny! After class and questions to Chris Tait (the Burns guy) we had the day free. Some of the group was going to a professional Fringe play called Iago (a one man show, and a take off of Othello) and the rest of us are going tonight. During the rest of the day I went with a group and my professor Mark Bruce, to the Scottish History Museum where there were a ton of artifacts and these guys playing sweet scottish music. After a while I got a little bored and ventured away with another group to the Elephant House Café where J.K. Rowling first went to write Harry Potter. It was small but nice. You can see Edinburgh Castle from the back window! After that I went back to my flat and chilled, then went to the Metropole Café (where I've been every day this week) and had coffee and did homework and went to bed. 

Wait, I lied. I also went to the Palace at Holyrood where the Queen comes to stay when she's in Scotland. It was a loooooong walk there but totally worth it! The palace was amazing! The grounds were huge and there was a gorgeous hill next to it which I did not climb. Others did, but me and my posse were tired from the day and had a lot to carry. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the palace but I'm sure you can find them online. Me and another friend went to a Fringe show called "How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse". It was a "seminar" on...how to survive a zombie apocalypse. Pretty self explanatory. It was really funny and well written. We finished there and then walked back and went to bed. Yep, I think that's it for Friday. 

Saturday dawned and we had a day trip planned with Mark to another palace and another Castle. Linlithgow Palace was this abandoned old ruin of a castle...HUGE and very, windy. We got to go to the top of one of the turrets and look down. It looked higher once you were up there than when you were down on the ground looking up. Me and a friend had to use the bathroom and discovered they didn't have one so we had to trek down to a public loo and pay ten pence to use it. It was worth it. 

Our next stop was at Stirling Castle. IT WAS SO GORGEOUS. Looked around a little and sat down on a hill to write and look out over the land. Google pics of it, it's so pretty! We got back from that and everyone took naps and got awakened by a loud fire alarm set off by someone's shower steam. Second time that's happened this week. Annoying. We just kinda hung around our flat and made a spaghetti dinner. Me and three others then went to another Fringe show called Broken Holmes which was a take off of a Sherlock Holmes play. Funny for the most part. 

Today (Sunday), I went to church with friends at St. Giles church in Edinburgh. It is a Presbyterian church and a really pretty venue. There was communion and apparently I hadn't thought to think about whether I'd be wine or grape juice. I should have know it'd be wine, but in my little Baptist-grape-juice train of thought, it just didn't come up. So it was only after I tasted it that I realized it tasted a little more...alcoholic than what I was used to. But everything else went well and the church service and "sermon" picked up right where my church back home left off-exactly. Funny how that works huh?

And that leads up until right now, where I am writing this blog and plan to do laundry later and repack my suitcase. It has somehow kind of exploded. So, I think that's it and comment please!

Thanks for reading! More photos to come for the last bit of this entry...didn't upload them from camera yet.