Visitors Week

It was a week of visiting guests for us here at Churchill House last week. My cousin Dimple and her husband Ed decided to book a last-minute trip to Edinburgh the day before my big exam. Craving for anything familial and familiar, I was excited to meet them Tuesday afternoon even though I had to rush out of work at 4 to view a flat at half 4, then rushed out of that to go to Hollyrood Palace where we decided to meet. I told them to go around the Palace while they waited for me but unfortunately, royalty was also in town which meant that the Palace was closed to visitors until the 25th of June.

To welcome them properly to Edinburgh, I had Ed and Dimple try Haggis, Neeps, and Tatties (translation: Haggis, Turnips, and Mashed Potatoes) at the local pub, the World's End. Haggis is Scotland's version of what we Filipinos call sisig. It's sheep's heart, lung and liver cooked in a pig's stomach for a couple of hours. It sounds gross but like sisig, is actually pretty good. After scarfing down our food, we walked around the city, touring Calton Hill then the Princes Street Gardens. Around 8pm, I rushed back home and crammed for my Acoustics exam the following day.

Scottish Haggis, Neeps, and Tatties

The dreaded Wednesday came, and my exam was actually not that bad. For the first time in years, I took an exam which asked me what I know. I guess I am really miles away from De La Salle. Anyhow, I met with Dimps and Ed that afternoon and we did the Mary King's close dungeon tour which personally, I found disappointing. I have been on other ghost tours before and I enjoyed them more than this one. That night, to celebrate their last night in Edinburgh, I took them to another famous local pub, called The Royal Oak. It was smaller to the pubs I usually go to but this one is famous for its folk music so for the ultimate Scottish experience, I decided to take them there. Every week, a bunch of old Scottish men would sing these folk songs either in acapella or with a guitar and violin in the background. They would encourage us to sing along, muttering the lyrics so we could join in. Even the bartender would play the mandolin if he wasn't busy attending to the customers. I was told that all the people who worked there knew how to play at least one instrument. It was really cool and we found ourselves singing with the old men and having fun.

Inside The Royal Oak Pub

Megan's friend Sarah was also visiting that week. She is a bit quiet but she is an awesome girl and for her last day here, we took her to Portobello beach where we had proper fish and chips facing the sea, because, as my friend Gwen would say, that's the only way to eat fish and chips. True enough, it was the best fish and chips I have ever had since I've been here. Being in Portobello made me all warm inside even though it was about 14 degrees. And even though the weather wasn't perfect, it didn't rain. So I took off my shoes and ran and skipped and dug my toes on the sand like I did back home. I have never been happier in weeks.

My food and my feet

Sunny Day in the Park

This is how a sunny day in Scotland looks like.

couple walking their baby

Bianca under the tree

a sculpture by a Filipino

And here I am, enjoying my view, while lying down with Bianca.

After an awful week of cold wind and fog, today reminded me that Edinburgh is live-able. Thank God the sun came out! I was beginning to think that Spring will never arrive.

Oh Holy Week...

It's Easter Sunday today and although I have plans to cook dinner with a few friends tonight, I can't help but feel homesick. In my family, Holy week comes second to Christmas for the most important holiday to look forward to during the year. While other Catholics fast, reflect and pray during this time, my family likes to go to some remote beach paradise so we can bake in the sun and drink the night away while singing cheesy telenovela-inspired love songs with the karaoke machine.

This is not my first time to miss one of our annual island get-aways but I suppose being in a non-religious country during the event that practically inspired my faith just didn't feel right to me. And since being in this God forsaken country means never having to enjoy a warm day at the beach anyway, I decided to do a religious practice that I have not done in years. I messaged my Maltese friend Julienne and convinced her to do the Bisita Iglesia (7 visits to churches) with me on Good Friday. Julienne, who is also a Catholic, tells me that they do the same thing in Malta and since she was homesick as well, she said yes to my brilliant plan. The only problem is, can we find 7 Catholic churches in Edinburgh? With the power of Google earth, I had a list of 9 potential Catholic churches within minutes. But then, I found out that 3 of these churches are so far we would need to take a bus in order to go there. We don't have the time or money to do that. So, Julienne and I decided to just walk around in the hopes that maybe, we might just discover a "secret" church while going to the other 6.

And so began our mission to go to 7 churches around the city. We braved the Scottish wind, encountered homeless weirdos, tripped over the cobblestoned streets, and endured starvation (okay, LIE, Julienne was the only one who fasted, I couldn't last 5 hours of walking without food). The point is, we were the only idiots in the entire city who seemed to be doing the bisita iglesia. And that made me sad. There was even one church that was closed! On Good Friday! And they call themselves Catholic. Tsktsktsk. It was actually funny because we ended up praying outside the church door, using its cross carving as the well, altar cross and we couldn't stop laughing. We counted that church anyway.

Around 5 o'clock, we have already visited 5 churches and just needed 2 more. But it was too late to go anywhere else and the bus times have been changed due to the road works around the city. We decided to cheat and had tea at Starbucks instead. It was the best damn tea ever. Around 7pm now fully recharged, we walked to St. Mary's Cathedral where we joined the congregation for the Stations of the Cross completing our Bisita Iglesia. Well, minus one.

School's Over But The Real Work Has Begun.

I can't believe school is over. I am officially done with lectures, hand-ins, and tutorials. Well, I still have a couple of hand-ins after Easter and an exam in May but I want to focus on the present. So, right now, yes, school is over. It has gone by so fast and right now, on my first Saturday off. I am thinking, okay, what now? I'm bored. I guess I have been a workaholic the past few months especially during the last 2 weeks of term where I hid in Studio 4 at Alison House, the music building. I barely had the time to talk to my friends and since I was away from home, I have been living off the restaurants and bagel shops around the uni. I haven't seen my kitchen cupboard until yesterday and I haven't replenished my fridge shelf until a couple of days ago. Although, if I am to be completely objective, life during my undergraduate years in La Salle was way waaaay waaaay worse but I suppose I am not 19 anymore and so my body can't take the sleepless nights and stress the way it used to. Plus, the hole I have been burning in my wallet is just frightening.

Months ago, I have been promising myself to go out there and get a job but due to my schedule, I couldn't accept jobs that were offered to me. It was a stroke of luck when I passed by the Apple reseller store, Cancom, a couple of weeks ago. They were looking for some part time sales associates and so I decided to apply hoping that my certification as a Mac Technician would give me an advantage. A week later, they emailed me and interviewed me. Another week went by, they told me I was one of the finalists for the job. I bombarded heaven with prayers that I'll be accepted. I needed this job! My friends are all going home for the Easter break and some are doing travelling in the coming months. I can't be bored and alone. Finally, the manager, who is a lovely gay man, called me about a week ago to offer me the job. I started last Thursday and today was my second day but my first try on the shop floor. I still needed practice handling the "till" which is the cash register and there is so much to learn about all the products in the store. But all in all, I think I did pretty well for my first day. I was able to sell a couple of data cables, software, accessories, and my very first Macbook! It is just so overwhelming. I am living the ultimate international student life! I love it. Now with my new fancy job, I can save and maybe go travelling in the summer. *Cross fingers*

Dancing Queen

I love to dance. Those who know me pretty well know this fact. Unfortunately though, I am not blessed with this talent and so secretly, I have always wanted to take dance classes. Jazz, salsa, samba, hiphop, even ceilidh dancing! Back home, dance classes were too expensive or they were held in really posh places or I was too shy. I don't know which excuse I used but I always had one whenever I would think about enrolling into a class.

Last term, I decided to be cool and so I took up ceilidh dancing. It was by far the most Scottish thing that I did since I came here. Every Thursday, I would walk to St. Peter's Church, which was about a 15min walk from my residence, and dance for an hour with locals and other eager beaver foreigners. I learned how to do the Virginia Reel, the Flying Scotsman, and my all time favorite, the Belgian dance. It was so much fun to twirl and spin and to skip and hop with strangers but my favorite dance partner is my flatmate Megan. Because let's be honest, most white people can't dance. But you didn't hear that from me. And then I got tired of ceilidh dancing. Well not really, I am usually busy Thursday nights because most of my submissions are on a Friday morning so I haven't been to ceilidh class in a month. But since I have been eating so much lately, I decided to do be more active. I don't walk around the city as much as I'd like to because it's just so damn cold all the time and that's why I end up stuffing my face with whatever I can find.

Yesterday after class, I went to the university gym with my friend Quianna. We attended the hiphop dance class which was being taught by this short hairy white guy who I think is from Aberdeen 'cause he keeps saying "Yeah?" all the time but Quianna thinks he is Spanish. And what was so funny was that Quianna was the only Black person in that entire class. There were a couple of Asians there but mostly Europeans and Americans. Majority of the class were women too. And I reiterate... Most white people can't dance. So for an hour, we were busting our moves to Rihanna, Neyo, JT, Mario, and Beyonce. You gotta love the British, they are so behind the times when it comes to music. Anyway, the dance routine was actually pretty easy so we didn't have any trouble learning it. And except for his high pitched whistle, I really liked the instructor. I had to laugh though when we were doing the "chest bump" because as you know, I am not really gifted in that department either.

I just love the fact that this city has given me the chance to do the things I have always wanted to do. Again, Edinburgh has given me one more reason to love it even more.


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On a totally unrelated note, my sister Hannah has given birth to a beautiful baby boy yesterday. :) I can't wait to see the little guy!

Calton Hill Climb

I have always wanted to climb Calton Hill since I got here. Before coming to Edinburgh, I would google for images of the city out of curiousity and these beautiful pictures taken on the hill would come up. One of those photos is the one I am using for my header (see top of page). I have never gotten around to climbing it last term because it was always dark and dreary and quite depressing. This morning, my two friends, Stephanie and Dave, and I decided to walk up to Calton hill at 10 in the morning. It was quite a challenge getting out of bed but after reaching the top, I must say the view was worth getting up for.

The hill is located at the center of New Town and overlooks Hollyrood Palace on one side, and gives you a magnificent view of the sea and Inchkeith Island (which I also plan to visit), on the other. The hill also includes several iconic monuments and buildings: the National Monument, the Nelson's Monument, the Dugald Stewart Monument, the New Parliament House and the City Observatory.

This is a photo of the National Monument in the middle of the grounds.

This is the view of Arthur's Seat from the hill. Arthur's Seat is a dead volcano in the middle of Hollyrood Park and is the main peak of the city. It is quite popular to walk there since it gives amazing panoramic views of the city and it is an easy climb as well.

Portuguese Filipinos

Alex, my Portuguese flatmate, always insisted on calling me a "Philippinian". Last term, we would have endless debates about how people from the Philippines ought to be called. He told me that he couldn't call me a Filipino because they were biscuits in his country. Now, Alex can be a pain in the arse sometimes and he loves teasing me in the kitchen with my mad cooking skills (i.e me cutting myself with the butter knife and burning myself with the damn faucet all the time). So naturally, I expected the Filipino biscuits to be one of his stupid antics to get me annoyed. But when he knocked on my door a few days ago, back from his holiday in Portugal, he thrusted the pack of Filipinos in my face. Omigod, he really wasn't kidding! I just had to laugh.



Alex: See Ida, I told you and you didn't believe me. We eat Filipinos for breakfast.
Ida: Oh shut up, Alex.