Blogging... IN Edinburgh

Well, it's official that I'm too advanced for my Chinese class at U of Edinburgh... well, of course we all knew that already, having studied 6+ years of it now. Yet it was frustrating for my classmates to have someone who knew the language well already. So today I was kind of banned from the beginner oral class, banned from speaking anyway, and learned that at least there will be an advanced class starting at the Confucius Institute that just opened up this fall in Edinburgh, which works with the university.

Here is what I did within 12 hours (9am to 9pm) of coming to a city I didn't really know anything about from streets to people, while struggling with luggage and not knowing where the heck I was most of the time:

• Arrived in Edinburgh's really small International airport.
• Repacked my luggage at Edinburgh's airport due to both suitcases zipper being open (and pretty much broken... it's either safety pins & duct tape when I go back, or new suitcases)
• Found the University of Edinburgh's airport help desk, but very little help.
• With bags toppling over each other, road the Edinburgh Airport-City center bus with camcorder in hand and a big Scottish woman sitting next to me telling me what I was looking at (but half understanding what she said through her accident)
• With 6 bags of 80 kilos, spent a 1/2 hours with sweat pouring down my face as I tried to cross the cobblestone street as people watch but no one helped... just to get a taxi! (You have to get them at taxi stands)
• Learned now I have to tip taxi drivers again (So nice in China for them, waiters, and other service people to not even want a tip because their fair or wages is what they are worth!)
• Arrived in a nice bed and breakfast I only heard about, but never been in. Floors creek, but the beds and everything is nice, with a basin in the room. The sign on the front door says “Sorry, No Vacancies” but I haven’t seen nor heard another living soul here except for the Arabic couple who run the Ivy Guest House.
• Took pictures of a cathedral’s tower from my window, just blocks from my room, not 'til the next morning realizing it was my church! (see below on where I ended up my first day)
• Took a shower with what I guess is a typical British shower, where an electric power pump that makes huge howling noises (like a vacuum cleaner and hairdryer put together) to get the water out. Was quite good pressure though!
• Ventured out onto the streets of Edinburgh (3 1/2 hours after arriving) without even a clue what street I was on! Fortunately I had a gut instinct on which way was north. While I keep reminding myself they drive on the left, it is still soooo confusing to cross the street. For one it is hard to tell if a street is one-way or not, for the lines on the side of the road are yellow, and everything in-between is white and dashed. Walk signals are different too, and don’t say “Walk” when I would expect to go with traffic the same way. Oh, and what British friends have said is true, they are the king of Chinese take-out…about every block has “Chinese take-out” and at least every hour I can hear someone speaking Chinese. That is cool.
• Once I figured out how to find a street's name in the bricks of the corner buildings, I came to a small cafe with a 5.5 pound lunch special. Ordered to dishes that I was not familiar with (seemed Italian, and I never spent much time getting my Italian food vocab down) from a waitress I could hardly understand.
• Headed over to George Square, Edinburgh, the one place on campus I had looked at with GoogleEarth.com. There was no big gate or anything to signify I was in the university (like in China), just all the sudden the outside stairwells of small town-house like buildings had the university emblem with the department, such as "Scottish History studies" beside the door.
• Found the woman who and helped me the most on the Internet from the Chinese studies department, but oddly she wasn't that thrilled to meet me or that helpful.
• I went to the International studies office as she advised me, and got tons of help there on the full schedule I will have next week, and what I need to do before registering.
• Went to the College of Humanities ad Social Sciences postgrad office as told I should do, and while they told me I didn't need to go there, got info from the very helpful lady on what I could even do about getting cell phone service if I wanted to, and where to find an Internet cafe.
• Internet cafe was a let-down, and found I could sit in a small park and get free wireless. Parks and lawns everywhere are dotted with people laying out or even sleeping, from well-dressed college students studying, to bums, to a Korean family with 3 kids. I sent email and my lost blog entry to friends and family from there.
• It's now about 4pm, I get up and continue walking north, where I get to the Royal Mile, the street that goes up to not only the Edinburgh castle (and the most touristy street) but the dorm I would move into the next day. I finally found my dorm, which has a breath-taking view of the city along the bay in the north (well, I hope I'm on that side, or else I will just be looking at other dorms in the court)
• Went into the biggest church with the one steeple you can see looming over the town from most postcards, the St. Giles church. In there I saw an exhibit of how there are still slaves imported in to Britain, that is, in the form of prostitution from other, poor European and Asian naitions.
  
• Walked up to the famous Edinburgh Castle which is one of the highest parts of the city (this city is on rolling hills, and cobble stone roads... not very comfortable to a guy wearing leather sandals that even have leather soles.... tomorrow I will wear tennies), just two blocks from my dorm. There were army guys in full camouflage outfits parking really facing cars into the castle… didn’t quite go together with a castle.
• Visited a Scottish kilt/tattoo/wine/whiskey/tea gift store next to the castle. No, didn’t try on any kilts.
• Ventured down the road I will walk/bike every day to get to the university. Passed the city’s central library, a Christian book store, and tons of restaurants. Stopped and had a Falafel for dinner.
• So now it is 6:30pm and say, hey, I should find that Chinese church’s cathedral, as I know it is somewhere south of the university and near my bed & breakfast (sorry, still didn’t click that it was maybe the cathedral I saw from my window)… so after walking all the way back on cobble stone, and really having to use a “toilet” (of course the British term for restroom everywhere, and the fact that almost every block had a big sign that says “TO LET” [which we would put “For Rent” or “Rental Agency” or “For Sale”] which lacked on "I" short of "TOILET" didn’t help me stop thinking how I hadn’t found a restroom all day!), so I get down to Mayfield West, and sure enough there is a church.
• Now it’s about 7pm. While just walking past the church to look at the service time for Mandarin, Cantonese and English services, I all the sudden see two Chinese girls and one boy enter into the church’s courtyard which I thought was locked, and run by me. So on the outside, not knowing how to get in, I follow them around the church’s courtyard to the back, which also has an opening, in which I see tens of Chinese people going into the back room of the church. So I walk up to the door they are going in to that has a Chinese guy greeting everyone, and I just flat-out start speaking to him in Chinese which he didn’t expect, asking what activity was going on. It was the Chinese bible study for U of Edinburgh Chinese students. He of course invited me in, knowing I speak Chinese and was a student there. So to make a story short, on my first day in Edinburgh I got to meet Chinese brothers and sisters, some who remember my name from FaceBook.com (how I got in touch with some of them)
• I return to my room, not even two blocks away from the church, and crash.

So, what a day, and what a city. Until next time…

Labels: sight-seeing

I sit now in a restaurant called Sambuca, the sign having an Irish flag and what I am guessing is the Scottish flag (blue with crossed white stripes, believe I saw it flying over the Edinburgh castle as well). I'm having a 2 course meal for 5.5 pounds, about $11 US. You would think that the language wouldn't be a problem, especially for a guy who has lived in China and speaks the language, but embarrassingly, I don't even know what I ordered here! The soup has some sort of pasta, and I got something with Chicken that sounded French, not Irish or Scottish, with "Pizza" in part of its long name I can't remember. And just ordering water caused a language barrier with this young waitress with a very heavy accent. I just asked for ice water, not knowing if that was the way of doing it in the UK even though a Brit I knew in China always had to have ice water. She right away rambled off 3 kinds of water, 2 which I didn't understand, and the other "sparkly" or something, which I knew where I come we say "sparkling"... so I asked for the "sparkly" not knowing what the other 2 were.... probably will cost me $5.

So I arrived in Edinburgh today, first realizing that I was wrong about the time difference here, as it 7 hours ahead of Mountain Time(not 6), and 7 hours before Beijing Time, right smack in the middle of the two time zones I've lived in the last 33 years. I guess I am messed up with the daylight savings time, but that means in the winter it will be 8 hours different, so that doesn't make sense unless Edinburgh isn't GMT? (China was +8GMT but

+7 from here)

My luggage to Scotland weights a total of 80 kilos (170 lbs) including carry-on. No problem getting on the plane and off (even though I was last one off the plane in both Atlanta and here, due to having to SQUEEEEEZE everything I took out of my carry-ons back in), but when I claimed my luggage, the zipper on one was totally undone (split apart) and the same on my other check-in....had my coat and stuff hanging out, but so far don't think I lost anything due to the wonderful air-tight plastic bags I put everything in...definitely recommended for travel, not just o save space, but to make it easy to pack and unpack.

Back at the restaurant I'm in: people are speaking words I have no idea what they are saying, especially the waiters here.... must be Gaelic. I'm lost.

Back to before: Anyway, at the airport, I had a hell of a time finding the U of Edinburgh help desk at the airport, and it was about as much help as two days ago when I called HP tech support and got someone in India (you know how wonderful experience that is)... just a kid that couldn't tell me what I should do, where I should go and when I can go to the university and find out things either today or tomorrow (tomorrow the university opens the dorms and starts helping new students, not today). All he said was what the website said take the bus into the city centre and then I can get a taxi. Weeeelll.... once I got my bags off the SmartCart, I was really in trouble... I had actually 6 bags (two carry-ons, a backpack that is part of one of the carry-ons that broke off due to more zipper problems, camera bag, computer bag, and my carry-on backpack) and had so much trouble just getting on the bus. But once in the city centre, that was another story....hello cobble stone roads!!! So now I have to wear 3 bags and pull three bags (2 50 lbs, 1 35 lbs)... it took me almost 30 minutes to cross a crowded street... people watching me but no one helped. :(

I arrived at the Ivy Guest House where I'm staying tonight. Not bad... a small, cozy place with 4 bedrooms each floor. I took a shower in the small shared bathroom, but very nice and clean, and once I searched through my stuff for washroom stuff and cloths (which I'm going to just love having to repack tomorrow), I headed out with my valuable and map in hand... not even knowing exactly where I was in Edinburgh! No one was manning the front of the bed & breakfast (front door locks and guest have a key) so I went out not even knowing what street I as on! Yet I knew which way was possibly north, and walked that way until I finally figured out where I was on the map, at Minto St and Salisbury (thanks to the map I got at the U of Edinburgh airport help desk, so maybe it was worth finding them after all). And so then I ducked into this restaurant to write this and eat my Chicken Pizzaoria or something like that.... which just arrived at my table, and is a chicken leg with tomato sauce on top and with potatoes and small green salad. So I should eat my first meal in Scotland... I'm starvin'! Until next time...