The February Blog

It's been so long since I've written an entry, I've almost missed a whole month!  This is what a stint without internet at my flat and a busy schedule will do to my time here...it's going by so fast.  Never fear, I've decided to put together a little review of what I've been up to over the past few weeks:

Life as an intern at Scottish Parliament has been great.  Every day offers a new challenge, and it's fascinating to see all the issues and topics that come up for discussion from week to week.  With my daily briefings on "everything Scotland" in the news, I often find myself missing a lot of the big headlines back in the states!  Oh well, who reads the news nowadays anyway? :)  Above is a picture of the signs right outside of my office for my two MSPs, their offices being right next to each other on each side.  It's funny sometimes, because I sit to the right in Nigel's front office at a desk that makes me look to some like I am his Parliamentary Assistant.  I try to play along with this on occasion like I know what I'm doing, but ultimately I have to concede that I am in fact a lowly American intern with no real influence over Nigel's schedule or extensive knowledge of Scottish politics...maybe in time, though!

The first weekend of February, Emily and I decided to go on a nice tourist-y adventure in Edinburgh for the fun of it.  We ended up not far from Parliament (go figure) to visit the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the official residence of the royal family in Scotland.  It was really neat to see, sometimes it's just nice to soak in a little pomp and circumstance.

Next to the palace was the hauntingly beautiful Holyrood Abbey, as seen in the picture above.  It's mostly been destroyed over the years, but it's still got a strong sense of simple grandeur about it.  Overall, the palace was a great visit, even though we didn't nab the "God Save the Queen" decorative pillows in the gift shop :)

We also tried our first afternoon tea at a cute little tea shop in New Town.  It was very fun and very delicious!  I've found I drink a lot more tea over here than I do back at home, it's just so much a part of the culture here.  Afternoon tea consists of sandwiches, scones, and sweets...too good.  We're hoping to try a high tea sometime, which is more formal and dinner-like, but if not we'll just have to come back here!

Cheers!