Edinburgh innit

This past week has been quite packed for me, so buckle up for a bunch of pictures. The last time I wrote, it was the day before my last day of working at the school so now I can say what actually happened.

I spent the day before preparing some gifts for my classes and teachers. I ended up making a card for all the classes besides the "kindergarden" levels. Tbh I was just really tired and had to make other cards and also I don't think kids that little really care about written sentiments. For my teachers I made rice krispie treats :) I hope they like them.... I realized after that since I wrapped them in foil the foil got all stuck onto them so hopefully it wasn't too troublesome.

[I tried real hard to keep the flower from my students intact but it got all crushed on my way back from work]

I was glad to have brought these in the end because the kids were all presenting me with the sweetest cards. I haven't really eaten lunch with the teachers since the beginning of the school year... but my last day the principal asked me to come during the lunch time. I was nervous. The main reason I avoided eating lunch with them was that I was nervous that whole time. Also my break is longer than all the teachers' so I didn't want to be waiting there so long. I feel like I can communicate what I need to in French but making casual conversation would give me anxiety so in those situations I'm pretty avoidant :/ Now that's something I wish I could have changed, but I wouldn't say it's a real regret because I probably wouldn't have changed, if you know what I mean.

Anyways, it turned out that the lunch meeting was a planning one with all the teachers. But there was a little part where they gave me these really sweet gifts (a lot of nice books!) and I felt flustered. I was honestly surprised they went to the trouble, because as I've expressed, I didn't get too close to the teachers unfortunately. They were always kind and some I had quite a friendly rapport with. But I didn't get too too close.

I will really miss those little kids. At the beginning of the year I wish that I had asked for a paper with all their names with pictures because apparently they do have that. I felt bad not knowing all of the names so quickly but now I realize that I do know a lot of them.

Thursdays are usually when I have lunch with Smaranda so it also meant I couldn't see her for the last lunch *but* it was all fine because we had a trip planned to Edinburgh the following weekend.

Overall the trip went really smoothly I have to say! No major hiccups in travel and the weather cooperated (ie no bad rain despite the ever-present gloominess). I thought we made good travel partners :) For the most part we had yummy food and walked around a lot. The city isn't too big so I feel like we got to see a lot. This year I didn't put that much effort into making new friends so I'm lucky to have nevertheless found a cool new friend! We stayed in a hostel and this was the first time I went and was in a room with strangers. This one though was actually quite nice. There were maybe 6 other people in the room but there were little curtains for each bed so I felt it was private and people were pleasantly respectful. The bathrooms were a little gross at times but for 3 nights it was perfectly fine.

Smaranda said she could see me living here hehe. When I visited London before I did really like the environment as well. France I'm still unsure about and definitely not Italy (unless it was to learn Italian). But Scotland, I wouldn't say no!)

[Edinburgh is absolutely stunning! very very green and honestly I do enjoy gloomy weather. It was a little chilly but during the day it felt really nice. There were lots of nice spots to read and relax. The Greek style building was apparently made in honor of the Scots who fought in the Napoleonic war or something. A little misleading isn't it!]

[I was very pleased with the food we had ! I tried fish and chips at this place called Weatherspoon's and Smaranda thought it was quite funny that she had brought me there. From my experience there and from what she told me, I feel like it's the equivalent to Applebee's or Chili's in the US. Like I would also think it would be funny to take her to one of those places as a visitor]

[Smaranda is a big guinea pig fan so thankfully she found the perfect piece to purchase]

[The optical illusion pics were from this one museum called the Camera Obscura. They had a ton of illusions and I was really impressed! We also found out the name is for this apparatus they have at the tip top of the building. It basically reflects a view of the city back down into a dark room. It's been there for a long long time (centuries) and so it didn't need any electricity! All just light and reflection which is amazing if you look at how clear the image is. Back in the day people thought it was witchcraft]

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Between Italy, finishing classes, and the little trip to the UK, I'm ready to curl up and do my little activities. I'm behind on my reading... so that should be a priority. But for the next few weeks there's not much planned, which is perfectly fine with me :D

[the front pieces of a cardigan I've been working on. This is my first big knit project! I'm a little uncertain of the colors but these are what I had so... Knitting is cool because there's always new techniques to learn in construction but it's also very repetitive and therapeutic.]