Last week, most of my American buddies were celebrating Thanksgiving with family and loved ones, enjoying a nice turkey, maybe some mashed potatoes and yummy pie. Well. I have to say, I was a little jealous. Last Thursday was nothing more to me than almost-the-last day of the week—Thanksgiving isn’t really a big hit over here with the Scots. Still, I had dinner with Thanksgiving napkins and got to see my gathered family via Skype, so it was almost like being there.

To be honest, I thought I would miss Thanksgiving more than I actually did. Back home, we get almost a week off of school to spend time with loved ones and reflect on the things that we should be grateful for in our lives. In Edinburgh, life doesn’t stop like it does in the States. No one takes off work, school doesn’t get a break—the holiday just disappeared from my life. But since everyone else was carrying on as usual, it didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything at all. I actually was excited to not have to feel that familiar Thanksgiving paradox like I usually go through back home—you get a week off school, but it’s also right before finals, so it’s a false break. That feeling of ‘rushed vacation’ is NOT something I missed this year.

But still, some turkey would have been nice.

I did, however, celebrate a national holiday this weekend, just not the one I’m used to. St. Andrew’s Day is the national day of Scotland and is celebrated every year on November 30 all over the world. According to scotland.org, it was “after Robert the Bruce's famous victory at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 that St Andrew was officially named patron saint of Scotland and the Saltire became the national flag of Scotland in 1385: a manly saint for a rugged, victorious nation.” Exciting, no?

To celebrate this exciting, blue-flag filled day, my best friend Courtney (another displaced Texan) and I finally visited the famous Edinburgh Castle, since entrance was free on St. Andrew’s Day. Let me tell you, I’ve been to a lot of castles around Europe, and the one in Edinburgh is by far my favorite. Most castles are impressive, but Edinburgh Castle is…formidable. It stands on Castle Rock, an ancient volcano some 340 million years old, which overlooks the entire city. The Rock has been used from even before the Romans came to what is now the United Kingdom, and was used as both a medieval fortress and a tool in the Scottish Wars of Independence. What’s so amazing about this particular castle is that it doesn’t just rest on this ancient volcanic site, but is integrated into the Rock itself. As you explore the castle, you look at the walls around you and see stone AND volcanic cliff. It makes the dungeons pretty bleak.

I love European castles. Or just castles in general, really, as we seem to have a short supply of them in Texas. Edinburgh Castle had one exhibit that held relics of prisoners, including graffiti drawn by prisoners held within the castle on their cell doors. Get this—there was an etching of a ship…flying the early American stars and stripes. It gave me some serious chills. It also holds the oldest building in Edinburgh--St. Margaret’s Chapel—and a seriously large cannon known as Mons Meg, some 6 tons in weight.
But here was the best surprise of the castle—it holds a cemetery for dogs of the soldiers, just like the cemetery for the Reveilles at Kyle Field at my home school of Texas A&M. We have a collie dog named Reveille as a mascot, and every time a Rev dies, she gets buried in a cemetery next to our football field. Strange connections all around!

So although I didn’t get to have my usual national holiday celebration this year of cranberry sauce and Chinese checkers with the family, I got the opportunity to pick up another national holiday in my new home, and after all was said and done, there were far more similarities than I was expecting.
Good luck with the rest of the semester, folks! I know this time of the year is tough, but almost done!

Peace,

Erika, ‘09