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Anna Overseas

7/2/2005

The past couple of nights have been a bit surreal. I meant to post something last night about the Night Before the Big March Thingy, but got distracted by having too much work to do. Which is a good thing, some nights, but others, not so much.

Anyway, last night on the way to work, I saw bands of roaming police officers in groups of 12 - 15. At the corner just at the end of the North Bridge, they seemed to be escourting or watching or something as a bunch of kids that looked... scattered or bedraggled or something. Police officers here wear bright yellow vests, which makes them very easy to pick out of a crowd, or out of the dark.

I also was passed on the bridge by two full vans of police officers. They would have each been carrying at least six officers from what I could see. The whole thing seemed really... over policed, to me.

Then I got to work and they told me that was typical of a Friday night in Edinburgh.

Anyway, the night was quiet, all things considered, and I went home and fell into a very exhausted sleep.

The next day (which would be today, I guess), everything was eerily quiet around the hostel. I finally managed to get enough sleep, simply because the Royal Mile was closed off to most traffic, and so there was nothing to wake me up until the church bells started ringing at about 3:30. So, the question of whether I was going to go march or sleep was answered for me. Since every other morning the traffic or my room mates has woken me by noon... Well, I'm not sure if I'm disappointed or not.

One of the girls at the hostel did get out to watch the march. It started at 11, and she got to one of the streets it was on around 2, and watched it for an hour, and said the whole line was still going strong when she left at 3. She got some great pictures and the like, and there was a very active police presence for the whole day. I ended up taking a walk down to South Clerk Street, trying to find a laundry mat, and a lot of the roads were still closed, and the streets just seemed busier than they have on other days. I saw a lot of the signs still being carried, a lot of people in shirts and carrying banners and the like, and stuff like that.

Oh, that was one of the things I wanted to mention. There have been banners everywhere for the past two days, being put up by the city on the lamp posts, being carried around by people on bikes, and even one that looks picture-postcard perfect stuck in the ground around the castle. The view of it from Princes Street is great, and I really should get out there with a camera.

A lot of the businesses that closed have "Make Poverty History" signs on their windows. My friend, who makes cynical look good, made the comment of "Of course, if the capitalists are on your side, you won't loot them during the riots."

Tonight seemed really quiet when I came in to work, so I don't know what will happen. I suspect that all the preparations and the like will feel like they were for naught, but perhaps they were a good idea. You know how it is, when you plan for a disaster and nothing happens, you feel a bit let down. But the weekend isn't over yet, and the G8 summit is still on the horizon.

Anna stopped here at 6:17 PM

6/30/2005

This might be a bit of a disjointed entry because I'm at work. Just waiting for some programs to finish their run, and hey, there's internet at the front desk! *grin*

It was kinda strange walking to work tonight. As probably most of you know, the G8 summit is being held in this area, and the Make Poverty History March is being held on Jul 2nd. There are quite a few protests planned for this coming week, and the city has this feeling of bucking down and waiting for the storm to hit.

Most of the businesses in the area I live in right now are closed for the weekend, one of them writing on thier sign "so our employees can go to the Make Poverty History March, and so should you". A few had already begun bording up the windows, and I suspect there will be more of that over the next couple of days. The hotels have all been warned of what the police expect, and my boss explained to me that when the UK police say they're going to take you down, they mean it. So I'm a bit nervous about the whole thing.

Part of me wants to participate, but the rest of me just wants to go to sleep...

Anna stopped here at 10:12 PM

6/28/2005

Random Thoughts and Reflections After Being in Edinburgh for a Week, a not-quite-list, by jo


  1. Odd things are "backwards". The handle on the toilet is on the opposite side, the "on" for switches is the opposite.
  2. They really use words like "bril" and "fab" in job interviews.
  3. They also use the word "fortnight" all the time over here.
  4. I have yet to meet anyone actually born in Edinburgh.
  5. There is apparently only one gaming store in this city. I have yet to find it, but I haven't been looking that hard.
  6. I had a conversation with someone today where he told me, "Well, yeah, I'm sure it's all interesting to you, but I've been here for 10 years now. It's boring."
  7. My internal response to that was "You have a castle! How can you not love having a castle? Are you all insane?"
  8. I have accidentally stepped on a couple of people's toes by mentioning "Britain". I mustn't do that, because I am in Scotland. I shouldn't refer to England as Britain.
  9. Most people overseas don't like Americans. I've realized that this is a difference between American vacationers, American travelers, and Americans who don't leave the country. The vacationers are really annoying, not so much the rest.
  10. The sun sets very late at this time of year (it's just setting now, and it's after ten), and it rises very early (I have seen 4:30 a.m. far too often, but I know the sun rises here around that time).
  11. I can look across the street right now and see someone sitting on the window sill and looking down at the street below.
  12. I really don't want to spend the summer living in a hostel.
In unrelated news, I got a job.

Anna stopped here at 2:49 PM

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.

People I Could Pick Out of a Police Lineup
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