put your hands up
i love this city.
today i went to church, because i learned they have a unitarian one here, and it seemed like fun to check out scottish unitarians.
turns out, they are rather like american unitarians, apart from the accents, and the fact that they drink instant coffee.
organic, fair trade instant coffee, mind you, but instant all the same.
i kid you not.
anyway, after church i talked with a few of the old people who came up to introduce themselves to me, and one of them has lived in indiana and still visits somewhat frequently. how random is that?
another guy talked about just getting back from a week at plum village, which is interesting because i’ve been thinking about figuring out how to wrangle the time and money to go there for a week or so while i’m here, so that was cool. he said i should come back to the church at lunchtime on tuesday because they have a meditation lunch – “we eat mindfully, and silently… but not for the whole time. at the end, we chat.”
unitarian, indeed. :)
anyway, it was a drop dead gorgeous day, so after church i wandered around town a while. i found out the movies aren’t that expensive, so i might go to one tomorrow or tuesday. i want to see james bond, and pan’s labyrinth, and hollywoodland, and there’s some kate winslet and jennifer connely movie at the arty theather that i haven’t heard of, so i’m sure something will sound good at some point. i’m also really excited to go ice skating in princes street gardens one day this week. they just set up the rink as a part of the little christmas fair that they have for december, and it costs £8.50 on the weekends but only £1.50 during the week, so score.
choices like these are quite thrilling after not even having a shop to go to for a couple of months, so i’m enjoying myself.
i wandered around past the part of town where i stayed this summer for convivio, and it’s crazy how a place can feel familiar and homey even when you only lived there for two weeks. i went into a little natural foods store that i had found back then but never visited because it was always closed when i remembered about it. i bought some chana dal (and yes, erik, it really was!) and a bag o’ spice and some rice, and from these i created 6 very filling platefuls of food. i ate one, gave one away, and put 4 in the fridges to sustain me for the week to come. £4 well spent, i’d say.
i’m keen on the whole thrifty living thing because i am about to give nearly all of my money to the chap in london from whom i am renting the flat i mentioned earlier, so this week is about hunkering down, eating cheaply, writing, and enjoying simply being in the city. i am excited about the chance to spend time in london (even though i have been through a good amount of stress about money as a result of the decision), but i am also really happy to have a bit more time in edinburgh, and a part of me wishes i was staying longer, because it just feels like a place i could really enjoy living for a while.
i think i will be here til friday, and i intend to work more on getting my website updated, and i also want to get out a draft of a short paper about our convivio work. much talk was made of writing something, and i think it could be a good short paper for CHI next year, and being back in edinburgh puts me in the mood that i need to reminisce and get the juices flowing.
or so i hope.
now i’m going to catch up on some podcasts, and figure out what else to do with my evening.