vacationing!

Recipe: Spinach Parmesian Risotto
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Ingredients
1/3c Rice
2c chopped Spinach
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 tbsp Olive oil
Bit of parsley, if you so choose


Instructions
Pop the rice into the rice cooker.  Meanwhile, sauté onions until translucent, add spinach and garlic and when spinach is just wilted add to rice.  (So rice will be about halfway done in the rice cooker, and now you are just adding the spinach, onions and garlic in to cook along with the rice) After rice is finished grate in some parmesian and add salt and pepper to taste, add parsley to garnish.
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     As classes started up this past week I began running into people I knew again, and starting up the old familiar conversation, “How are you, how was your vacation, how are classes?” a similar theme began to emerge.  While everyone was (for the most part) happy with their classes, there was a reluctance to return to school.  This is because while school is in session we tend to walk a well-worn path - home, school, library, home - and rarely deviate from it.
    Then, suddenly, classes ended, and like patients waking from a coma we all suddenly realized we live in Edinburgh.  There are numerous traditions, events, and attractions in Edinburgh.  As I sat down trying to write a blog about the few of them that I experienced over the holidays I realized something: the blog was going to be ten pages long before I ever got through half.  So here, in it’s place, is a small sampling of the things Alan and I did when I was FINALLY FINISHED WISH CLASS! (Finals were stressful, is that coming through adequately?  I’m not sure, sometimes I think I’m too subtle).

1) Firstly, we went to bars.  This may be shocking to some people who know me as not that big a drinker, but I’ll have them know that I ordered a whole pint of coke or sprite almost every night (no, seriously) and nursed it for a good three hours while listening to celtic music.  The music in Scottish pubs is to me incomparable.  Not least because it’s free, and certainly not least because you can join in (see photo).  But only if you are Hannah.

Tree! (Photo cred Alan)

2)  We went out and (I) hugged some trees.  Specifically Redwood trees.  They were located at Edinburgh’s botanical gardens (about a mile from my house).  The breadth of species in the garden is incredible.  As are the number of birds.  As is standing on top of a mountain filled with Chinese flora, and looking out over miles and miles of tightly packed buildings below you.  Most incredible of all though, is getting outside and enjoying all six hours of daylight.  Going to the library while it was still dark (at nine o’clock) and then coming home when it was dark (at four o’clock) was thoroughly depressing. (Really, finals were hard.  Have I been clear about this?)

Attack of the birds (photo cred Alan)

3) We fed the birds!  This was really cool, as being able to throw bread in the air and watch the seagulls dive for it is amazing.  I just wish I hadn’t ever watched “The Birds”.







4) We saw actual Reindeer (from Cairngorns National Park in Scotland)!  I felt a bit sorry for them though, and wished they were back in Cairngorns National park.

Christmas Market

5) We walked through the Christmas market.  Or rather, sort of levitated with the flow of traffic through the Christmas market.  But it was still cool to see all the food and kitschy stuff.  The rides weren’t as cool.  Especially as they took over Prince’s Garden, which is my running and peaceful space.

Stirling Castle

6) We visited Stirling castle, which is the most beautiful castle I have seen so far in Scotland.  It also has a very interesting history, which nice guides will tell you about for free, and has re-makes of the Unicorn tapestries (the originals of which are currently displayed in the cloisters in New York.)  I tried asking a man dressed as the Queen’s regent if they were on display because they had once been in the castle, but apparently the actors in the castle all have to stay in character.  It was very hard to phrase my question so that a man speaking as if the 16th century is present day could answer it.
    Me: So those tapestries.  Are they hanging in the castle now because they were here back in... now?
    Regent: Excuse me madam?

    Finally we worked it so that the regent said “we have records of different tapestries believed to be from the unicorn series on display over a few centuries.”  Whoo!

7) We went to Edinburgh zoo to see the brand new pandas!  Then watched the PENGUIN WALK! SO CUTE! (is it clear I think one of these is much more exciting than the other?)  I then got kicked out early because 100km winds were knocking down trees. Which I thought was totally lame. It’s Edinburgh.  Trees get knocked down.  If you haven’t learned to dodge the errant flying trashcan yet, then you don’t belong here.

8) We headed down to London to see the sights.  And the clock counting down to the Olympics.  It was nice (especially an Italian dinner of buffalo mozzarella pizza) but I still prefer Edinburgh.  I could spend a few weeks alone in the Victoria and Albert museum, though.  The British museum may be bigger but to me nothing beats the sheer beauty of the Victoria and Albert.  Maybe it’s something about layout, but the V&A makes you want to move in (or appropriate all the objects), while the British museum just makes me feel overwhelmed.

9) We travelled up to the highlands (because no one should come to Scotland without seeing the highlands).  Initially, I was afraid the highlands would be cold, dark, and possibly slushy and dull.  Instead, they looked like this.  We stayed at the world’s cutest B&B by the seashore.  It had a huge tub (with lion claw feet!) and I locked myself into the bathroom for about an hour, enjoying the bubble bath I had gotten for Christmas, and read a book.  Though we didn’t go to Loch Ness, we did tour Fort George, an active fort, but also a historical landmark.  Located on the Firth of Moray, it’s incredibly scenic, as well as being thoroughly interesting.  There’s something to the highlands.  Edinburgh is incredible, but it doesn’t have the same romance as the highlands.  You arrive up there and you just feel peaceful - as though any minute sweeping music is going to start playing in the background.  Everything you see seems straight out of a book, and eventually you realize that is because the highlands is what people write about.  Whenever you open a book hoping to escape, the highlands, in one form or another, is where you are trying to go.  Also, cows. CUTE cows!

10) We climbed Arthur’s seat at Holyrood park.  Holyrood park is a tailor-made escape in the middle of the city.  Here, Alan and I stand on top of Arthur’s seat (the historical significance of which no one can really figure out although they are quick to state Arthur is very frequently and validly associated with Scotland).  Arthur’s seat offers great 360 views of the city. I could wander Holyrood for days.