Student Bloggers

By Anna C., Scottish Heritage Management Internship Program, Scotland

There are nine students here on Arcadia’s Edinburgh summer program, and we have already done an impressive amount of traveling. Our classes regularly meet in the city’s biggest museums and monuments, but we have not let the weekends go to waste. Our first weekend here, some of us went to Skye, a few to an island abbey in England, and one to Dunnottar, a stunning castle on a sea cliff. On the second weekend, we collectively walked Hadrian’s Wall and cycled the Scottish Highlands.

For me personally, on Saturday I am the ideal traveler. I wake up at 5:00 in the morning and catch the first train into the countryside. I rent a bicycle and explore Loch Ness, despite the fact I don’t actually know how to ride a bike. But on Sunday, I hit snooze eleven times, miss the first five trains, and then cancel whatever tentative exploration I had planned.

So for two Sundays in a row, I have scrolled through Edinburgh’s Facebook pages and events calendars looking for something spontaneous to do. And both times, Edinburgh has delivered.

First Sunday: Haunting the Red Carpet

Although my own cinematic education does not extend past whatever is streaming on Netflix, even I understand that the Edinburgh Film Festival is a big deal. Obviously, a band of American college kids were not invited to any world premieres or cocktail parties. But we did the next best thing: joining the paparazzi.

On the first night of the Film Festival, a few of my friends were lucky enough to get pictures with “Outlander” stars Sam Heughan and Catriona Balfe. On that first Sunday of the program, I saw that Scottish actor Ewan McGregor (probably best known for “Star Wars” and “Trainspotting”) was doing an on-stage interview. The tickets sold out a few weeks ago, but I imagined I could at least see him from a distance. My plan was to join the hordes of fans at the red carpet. But since I am perpetually early, I somehow arrived two hours ahead of schedule. And so did Ewan.

In the flesh, Obi Wan Kenobi is a very charming man. He signed a few autographs for fans and paparazzi photographers alike. I easily could have stepped forward and posed for a picture with him, but I was too polite to bother the man (or maybe I was starstruck and found it difficult to walk. Maybe that too). I did manage to score a few iPhone pictures though.

Second Sunday: Extreme Gardening

You may have heard of Amorphophallus titanum, popularly known as “the giant corpse flower.” It’s a huge Indonesian plant that produces the smell of a rotten corpse to attract beetles. They grow for a decade (this particular flower has been cultivated by Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Garden for 12 years) before flowering for one or two days. And as luck would have it, one had bloomed in Edinburgh only the day before.

I estimate that half of Edinburgh showed up to see “New Reekie” (after “Auld Reekie,” the affectionate nickname for Edinburgh). Much to the crowd’s relief/consternation, the plant had only produced its distinctive corpse stink for a few hours late Friday night. And though I found myself strangely disappointed to not smell rotting flesh, “New Reekie” was a fun photo opportunity. The flower itself was interesting, but I was more struck by how lucky we all were to even see it. A day after I visited, the brief bloom was already beginning to wilt.

So twice in a row, Edinburgh has produced something fun for the spontaneous traveler. I’m eager to explore the city further in future weekends. Next Saturday, I plan to travel down to Stratford-upon-Avon and see “Othello” at the Globe Theater. But I have nothing planned on Sunday. I know the Queen is currently in the city, for her annual week of engagements in Edinburgh. Perhaps the Scottish interns can upgrade our level of celebrity stalking!

Anna Cain is a student at Colorado College and is blogging from her summer abroad with the Scottish Heritage Management Internship Program in Scotland.