I’m not going to talk much about work on this thing, because I love my job, and blogging about work is recipe for disaster, but leading a study abroad group makes work very personal too—I feel so fortunate to watch 11 people experience Edinburgh and Scottish culture for the first time. Nine of those 11 are traveling internationally for the first time as well. They love the accent. The miss the free refills. They talk WAAAYYYY to loudly but just like Americans do. They ask me if men’s knees get cold in kilts. They complain about the reading. They marvel at fish and chips, and ask me what “mushy peas” are. They are delighted with brown sauce. They are sure that I should know the bus route automatically for every bus in Edinburgh and withhold this information to torture them. They have already made big declarations about moving here as soon as possible. They complain about the walking, (which, phew, me too) and they remind me of me eleven years ago. It’s humbling.

Ben is loving his gig as sidekick, kept man, fellow traveler…he takes a lot of photos and tells dirty jokes that my position prevents me from telling (but I can’t help laughing). I run a lot of my lecture material by him and he’s a thorough critic. They are pretty engaged in class but that might just be the cheese platter I brought from cheese scored at the Farmer’s Market.

We’ve been back to The Elephant House, sent the students on a scavenger hunt, and visited St. Giles and Stirling, but the best bit has been catching up with friends and just being HERE, shopping in Stockbridge, finding this killer organic ice cream in Peckham’s, hitting the Farmer’s Market at Castle Terrace, having a snakebite at The Bailie, walking the Water of Leith…this gig is heavy with memory. We’ve introduced the students to pub food (a yummy pub in Stirling called The Portcullis), Irn Bru and our old gig, The Rose St. Brewery, which had FRESH FLOWERS and new carpet and wasn’t nearly the dive I loved and remember.

It’s fun to teach what is basically a directed readings course—they are doing a blog (http://www.esuinscotland.blogspot.com/) which is fun to read (I don’t edit the content, so you are getting it straight from their mouths)—especially about something I love so much, and their travel skills are really improving already. It is difficult not to mother-hen them to pieces, but so far, this is a great group of students, independent and curious and fun.

Our accommodation is great—a real score, and about a fifteen-minute walk to the city center, which puts the students in a real neighborhood, not some hostel on the Royal Mile. That view of the castle above is the view from our window.

We were at Stirling on the day of the Scottish Fashion Awards. Ben was impressed. See models above. I think that one in the middle is THIS CLOSE to picking a bat out of the cave, if you know what I am saying.

Picture us eating the best grilled cheese sandwich I’ve ever had, or walking through the Royal Botanical Gardens, and have a look at a heap of photos taken over the last couple of days.

Off to read, then to sleep…

Love,
Robyn and Ben