The story begins on Sunday afternoon with a phone call from a familiar number that hadn't called me in months. My friend and his girlfriend had arrived in Edinburgh from Oslo, Norway, had gotten his parents settled into their hotel, and were now on their way to drop off their luggage before showing the parents around town so that they'd be able to navigate their own way around for the next few days. It was great to see them! They rolled their massive suitcases into our living room, we chatted with his parents for a few minutes, and then they all headed out to make use of the last hour of sunlight for their tour. That evening we had dinner together. Derek made toad-in-the-hole, which was excellent as usual. We watched tv (we had taped The Simpsons episode with the Norwegian descendants in Ogdenville, so that was a laugh finding out how much research they'd really done) and talked, and left them to settle in after opening up the sofa bed.
The next morning we got up fairly early like usual, and tiptoed into the dark living room. They got up fairly early as well, as my friend had to return to the airport. It turns out that at midnight when he'd opened his suitcase he'd discovered that it wasn't his. Luckily the woman who had taken his case before he'd made it to the carousel had texted him and already returned the case to the airport. So that was a pretty crazy start to the week. I had to take off and teach a couple tutorials, and they had planned to do some shopping (we found out that manufactured goods, clothes and other products are a lot cheaper here than in Norway, even though we find stuff here to much more expensive than back home in Canada) so we didn't see them for much of the day. Monday was also Derek's and my eighth anniversary, so we spent the afternoon at Edinburgh Castle, before getting a nice Indian takeaway-style dinner from M&S (and an apple pie for dessert). My friend was off to the university's Scandinavian Society's Christmas dinner, so he got all dressed up (and borrowed Derek's belt, having forgotten to bring one), and his girlfriend's good friend was playing music at a nearby pub so she went off to hear him play.
On Tuesday I had a couple meetings to go to, and spent the afternoon trying to finish marking my students' essays. That can be a rather depressing experience, especially as this batch was a lot worse in general than the set I marked in October. My friend had come home raving about an amazing slice of chocolate cake he'd had at a little Turkish cafe over on Nicholson, and promised to take me out for cake if I got my essays done. This proved to be an excellent incentive! I also started to put together plans for a Thursday Night Social for the new grads and current postgrads on Thursday night, which I got increasingly nervous about as the guest numbers rose. Eventually my nerves threatened to destroy my ability to enjoy the evening, so I ask a good friend to step in and host the party, which he did wonderfully. I still owe him a coffee :) That night we played a little Rock Band, rotating around the guitar, drums and microphone, but discovered our controllers were dying so MarioKart would have to wait.
Wednesday was the big day: MSc grad, the whole reason behind their visit. I was very happy that my friend's request for extra tickets had come through, so Derek and I were able to attend the ceremony at 3pm. I marked essays for the morning, and also had a student-staff liaison committee meeting at noon for the course I tutor, plus snuck in a quick chat with my supervisor before heading home for lunch. Unfortunately the weather was awful, cold and wet, but there was a break in the rain while I walked home and when we walked back to McEwan Hall for the ceremony. By the time I'd gotten home for lunch my friend was already suited up, complete with his white bow tie (Edinburgh Uni graduations are no boring black tie affairs!), so they left shortly after to pick up his parents and his robe. We dressed up and headed to the ceremony about half an hour later, where we were able to find them in the stands and watched with only a slightly obstructed view of the ceremony.
The university streams footage of the ceremony live on the web for family back home who can't attend. It was pretty exciting attending the ceremony, watching the 4 PhDs get tapped on the head (with a hat supposedly made from the material of John Knox's breeches) and thinking, 'that'll be me in 2 years!' And then one of the honorary doctorates went to a woman who had devoted her life to caring for donkeys, and it was quite amusing watching the entire population of the hall try not to giggle. I was able to watch many friends graduate. Derek captured it on video, and I took a few photos as I always do. My friend waved up in our direction after getting tapped on the head :) I had helped him out a bit in the last week of writing his dissertation back in August, mainly just trying to keep him feeling positive about it and being supportive, so I had a bit of an insight into how much he had put into that paper.
Afterwards the grads had been asked to head over to the history dept. for a wine reception with staff and for a big group photo of all the grads. This was the first chance I'd had to see some friends who'd left at the end of August, plus getting to see and meet friends' parents is always fun. Derek and I headed over to a pub to chat with a couple friends, then back to our place to relax for the evening while our house guests were out for a special dinner with his parents. After returning from dinner she and I had long chat, staying up until midnight while Derek was on the computer in the other room and 'the graduate' was out having a drink or two with friends.
This was the evening that we discovered the sofa bed was broken. Derek went to pull out the bed like normal, but the whole couch moved towards him. Us girls each took an end of the couch and braced ourselves against it, but Derek couldn't get the mattress to come out. It turns out that a spring had wedged itself somewhere it shouldn't be, but luckily it could be detached and removed with no permanent damage, and the bed still works fine with only one spring on one side. However, recalling this incident at the party on Thursday night led me to completely embarrass myself because I didn't think about my wording and didn't clarifying who I was with...
Thursday I was absolutely determined to get the essays marked. I was also determined not to let the impending party that night get me too stressed out, and when I admitted that it was already bothering me my friend made that wonderful suggestion of asking our mutual friend to host it. I spent the day marking, taught a tutorial at 2pm, then marked some more before figuring out the party details with my hosting friend. I was also a little stressed because at 5pm I had to attend a seminar paper given by a historian/Presbyterian minister who studies and has published on a similar topic to mine, and whom my supervisor wanted to introduce me to afterwards. This meant that I not only did I have to try to stay awake (by this time in the week I was seriously lacking sleep), but I'd also need to be able to discuss and explain my topic to an accomplished historian and let my supervisor show me off. I did make a good first impression I think. he seemed to think my topic was exciting, and he gave me his card and said we could meet for a chat sometime soon, which would be great. I made it home around 6:40 or so, in time for dinner and some Biggest Loser Australia and relaxing before grabbing our dozen bags of tortilla chips, bottle of Pepsi and heading off to the party.
The party turned out to be a great event. The boys had 'decorated' the room (which was in amongst our offices) with streamers and had masks and crowns and whistles as party favours. There were cookies and brownies, some wine and a ton of chips. I chatted with friends I hadn't seen in ages, and there was music. I also took lots of photos, as did Derek, who managed to capture a series of rediculous moments which were the result of me suggesting it'd be great to get a photo of me sitting in between my newly-graduated friend, who began elbowing me in the ribs after giving the host rabbit ears, and my party hosting friend, who had a mouth full of brownie and thought the whole thing was silly. Fabulously rediculous photos. I was also feeling great because 2 minutes before having to leave for the 5pm seminar I had finished marking my last essay!! Woo hoo!!!
On Friday morning the four of us in our place trekked across the town to a little coffee shop for another friend's 'office hour,' a tradition she'd developed last year and invited us all to join here before flying home to Finland that afternoon. So this was a fun chance to sit and chat in a quieter environment than the party the night before. It was also crazy cold outside, so it was nice to be in a little place with warm drinks, surrounded by good friends who I'd missed. Derek and I walked back for lunch while our friends headed over to the Botanic Gardens. We strolled through St. James' Shopping Centre on our way, keeping an eye out for potential Christmas presents. After a quick-ish lunch I headed back to school to attend a 4th year seminar taught by my supervisor, who had asked me to join them for the day as a 'slavery expert,' as the day's topic was the abolition of the British slave trade. That was quite fun, actually :)
Friday night was great. Our guests took us out for dinner at a pizza place in Grassmarket with great pizza and a crazy range of toppings, with the standards (pepperoni, olives, mushrooms...) unusual ones (apples and bananas, baked beans, cactus) and even sweet ones (chocolate and marshmallows, anyone?). Going out to dinner is such a treat in itself, but to be taken out by good friends was really special and we truly appreciated it. After adding to the snack supply (she bought chocolate; we still had 9 bags of chips leftover from the night before), we settled in for an evening of MarioKart and Rock Band. I love singing, but only certain songs, and the drumming is just so hard and funny sometimes. I have a tendency to scream slightly when I get out of rhythm while drumming , and I think my friend was swearing in Norwegian while running into trouble during MarioKart (but I can't be sure...).
Saturday saw a lazy start to the day. So many late nights had led to our alarm going from its usual 7:30 am, to 8, to turned off temporarily, to turned off period. We maybe made it out of bed around 9:15. In the morning we all took off shopping, first stopping by the school's visitor's centre and store, then to a cashmere store on the Royal Mile before hitting the mall. Derek and I came home for lunch, and then my friend stopped by to drop off his shopping bags and take me out for the much-anticipated slice of cake. It was definitely good, a triple-layer chocolate cake with thick, rich chocolate icing and chocolate shavings on top. My slice was about twice as thick as his, which he ribbed the waitress about, but he refused to switch with me, saying that then he wouldn't be able to order a second piece. In the end I couldn't finish my piece, so I had some help. It was a good chance to talk and get all caught up before he'd fly home the next day. That evening our friends went out for dinner and drinks with their friends from here, so Derek and I spent evening relaxing in front of the telly.
Sunday morning went by pretty fast. Again we all slept in, and then our friends had to somehow find space in their luggage for the mountain of shopping that had accumulated around their suitcases. They had brought extra empty backpacks for just such an occasion. I'm impressed that the living remained as neat and usable as it did with all the stuff in here, including normal items like the table and chairs and kitchen and coffee table, plus a drying rack which had quickly become a necessity with all the rain and being a good place to hang towels. After a record-breaking packing session we broke out the Rock Band for a few final songs before they loaded up and headed off to the airport bus. Its a bit unreal that they're gone, really. The flat seems so quiet! And I miss the late night chats. But I am looking forward to visiting them in Oslo at some point :)
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