Experiential Learning

This has been a week of many important lessons.

1. Edinburgh has the best playground I've ever seen! They have a Simon Says wheel, a few climbing walls, musical toys, a few types of tire swings, and then this Zipline-ish contraption.

2. I am not as brave as Alex is. I was terrified to take the jump from the platform onto the disk to slide across the line, so I ended up sitting on it instead of standing...

... And consequently running into the ground. It was still fun though! And the sun was just setting after a long day of classes and studying. It was a nice break from academics.

The proper way to ride the Zipline!

Going round in circles on the bicycle carousel

 3. Edinburgh used to have a big body-snatching problem to supply the needs of the University's anatomy department. Two men named Burke and Hare started murdering bodies instead of stealing already dead ones (very proactive!). Eventually people got suspicious, especially when recognizable people went missing and then showed up on the dissection table... Hare testified against Burke and went free basically, while Burke was publicly hanged and dissected. His skeleton is still proudly displayed in Surgeon's Hall, about a block from my flat. Alex and I learned all this at a free Wine and Cheese lecture! With free wine and cheese. It was great. We also learned a ton of weird useless facts about the body, like when you're doing intense exercise, your blood is pumping about as fast as water pouring out of a hose. And blondes have more hair on their heads than red-heads. And hair grows for about 6 years maximum before it falls out. You get the gist.

4. Instant coffee is dirt cheap, fast, and bearable.

5. It is much more interesting to learn about the Jacobite Rebellions by visiting the National Museum and exploring the exhibit than by reading a 30 page article. So that's what I did. There were tons of field trips there because it was during the school day, and I saw a group of preschoolers waddling up the stairs in their matching reflective vests, all holding hands. One little boy got to the top and just fell over because his backpack was too heavy for him; he was stranded on his back like a turtle, trying to roll over! But his hand-holding partner luckily helped him up. I miss working with preschoolers...

6. It is possible to reach the age of 22 and never check a book out of a library, or even have a concept of how to do it. I met a person yesterday who fits that description. Needless to say, we can't really be friends. He's on my list with the Alex Trebek hater.

7. Free bagels are sometimes not worth it. And not free! I was promised free bagels by the Jewish Society, but by the time I got there, they were out of tomatoes and lox. And all the bagels were plain and from the grocery store- not even a real bakery! It was still nice to be reminded of my "roots" though- cream cheese always brings me back to Saturday mornings at Temple. And to my brother's breakfast routine. I stood there awkwardly for awhile while people carried on with their conversations. As I was about to leave, they announced that the free bagel lunch was actually 2 pounds. I snuck out without paying; don't tell the Rabbi.

8. A disproportionate number of people here, young and old, are on crutches. Not the broken-leg kind, but the full forearm cuff kind. Was there some kind of disease around Scotland that left a lot of people unable to walk properly? (This is not so much something I learned as something I'm trying to figure out...)

9. Time flies when you're busy all the time, running from class to lectures to events to the library to bed, and then literally running in the mornings. I can't believe I'm going to Dublin in about a week and a half! And London not long after that. I welcome any suggestions on things to do in either place.

10. Never end any list on 9.