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Anna Overseas

6/26/2005

I climbed to the top of a very very tall hill today.

Heh. "Climbed". Makes it sound like I hammered spikes into the side of the rock face or something like that.

Basically, I spent the morning (and part of the afternoon) on Arthur's Seat, which is this rather largish hill thingy just down the road from here. It was a very intense workout for someone as incredibly out of shape as I am.

The view, though....

More on that later.

One of the things that got to me, though, was the people who were just barrelling up there, head down, not looking what they were passing. Every few minutes, the view became more majestic, and I could see something different. First, it was just the grounds around Holyrood Palace, but as I got higher I could see the ocean, the castle, the big churches (there are a lot more of them than I thought), the other big hill in Edinburgh, and the whole city spread out below me. I don't know why anyone wouldn't want to enjoy every moment of that.

Well, except for the fact that I picked one of the harder walks on the way to the top. Because I am oh so clever. *sigh*

The original plan was to take one of the easier routes (not the really easy one, since that really lacked the beautiful views and isn't nearly as satisfying), but got distracted by the first path I saw and went up that instead. It went over the crags, first, then up the steep side. I'll admit it, I spent about half an hour all told just sitting and staring at the view, and trying not to notice how sore my ankles were getting.

(Oh, but the view....)

I spent a bit of time beratting myself. I mean, I know people who could have rushed up to the top of the hill without breaking a sweat, and there I was, barely able to pull myself up to the last little plateau thingy, and then climbing up to the top of the actual rock itself. I kept telling myself how incredibly out of shape I was.

Then I rememebered that none of those people are in Scotland right now.

I have got to stop comparing myself to other people. So I can't run up the side of a hill without breaking a sweat. I don't get anxious anymore about dealing with new situations.

So, yeah, I got to the top of the hill, and looked out over all of Edinburgh, out over the ocean, down to the city, and got a real sense of where I was. The view was outstanding, and so appreciated for taking the long way of getting there.

But I took the easy way down.

Anna stopped here at 5:43 PM

 mind the gap

A 20-something Canadian who used to teach English in China. There's lots in the archives about my experiences with teaching, with culture shock, and with my adventures in China. Occasionally it meanders into melancholy (part of the culture shock), which must be very dull to read, so you can skip that.

But right now, I'm back in Canada, and kinda determined to do something with the several thousand photos I took, as well as write more about China and other stuff.

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