End of Week 2/beginning of Week 3

It's hard to believe that I have only been in Edinburgh for 19 days, just short of three weeks! It feels so much longer than that, but that is probably because I've done a lot of things in my short time here so far. They say that times flies when you're having fun though so I guess it makes sense that these past few weeks flew by!

On Wednesday I got tea with Nikhita at the Forest Cafe. It is a cafe that is run entirely by volunteers! Pretty cool concept if you ask me. After I ate lunch and went to class, I went to the National Museum of Scotland with my friends! It's a very interactive museum, and best of all it was free. We stopped at Black Medicine Coffee afterwards and I split a delicious peanut butter cake with Bri. For dinner I went to the Midweek Meal at the CSU! We had risotto and carrot butternut squash soup, which were both sooo good. To round out the evening, I called my roommate from last semester to wish her a happy birthday and catch up about life back at UConn (hi if you're reading this!).

Thursday was a pretty chill day. I didn't do too much besides laundry and cooking dinner with Naomi. We made a chicken and soy sauce rice bowl dish. We basically winged the entire thing but it was edible and we actually were quite proud of how it turned out! I'm still figuring out this cooking for myself/being self sufficient thing. It often means that I am texting my mom asking about general food safety standards and what I should make for dinner (love you Mom, probably would have food poisoning by now if it wasn't for you!).

Friday was Burn's Night! It is a night dedicated to Robert Burns, a famous Scottish poet. It essentially means that you go out and have a good time with friends, all in the name of Robert Burns. My friends and I got together and had a potluck dinner! It was definitely very carb-filled, which obviously means that it was a great dinner. I went on a wild goose chase to find this cider that we liked, but I ended up finding a similar drink instead. I also tried a mojito for the first time! It was good, but personally

not my drink of choice.

On Saturday I went to the market of Grassmarket to support my flatmate! A society he's in is raising money through the sale of homemade soap bars, so I figured I would support my flatmate and a good cause as well. Two birds with one stone, am I right? For most of the afternoon I sat in the Levels Cafe and Coffee Angel just reading with my friends. We also made tentative plans for our April break, but that's a story for another day... I bonded with another one of my flatmates over dinner, and then my friends came over for movie night! We watched Dumplin', which I highly recommend.

Today was another day of markers and sitting in a cafe while reading with friends. I went to the Stockbridge Market, which allowed me to explore a part of the city I had never seen before. I got some smoked cheddar cheese, and shared Udon and Gyoza (types of Japanese food) with Emily. After that we went to Caffe Nero to do work and read. After powering through for a good two hours, we left to go see the botanical gardens, but sadly they were closed. To round out the night, I went to church and talked to people in the CSU afterwards. All in all it was a nice end to a good weekend!