Emily in Edinburgh

...also known as a Parisian girl in Scotland. Or a Canadian werewolf in Britain? I'm not quite sure.
Anyway, Emily came and visited me this past weekend, which was excellent because 1) we had a rockin' good time and 2) it was a really good excuse to go and visit some tourist attractions from the city I'm actually living in.
I went and met her Thursday evening in Glasgow (her plane was late arriving, and she ended up getting a ride from the airport from a lovely Scottish couple, which I think set the tone for the weekend pretty well). We had 1:30am dinner (very greasy, very Scottish, included deep-fried mushrooms) and then talked into the wee hours of the morning, thus waking up just in time for checkout. Spent much of Friday in Glasgow, saw the cathedral (again) and shopped a bit, then headed back to Edinburgh in time to have dinner and a couple of drinks with a big group of international students. I got the distinct impression Emily was relieved to be speaking her native tongue again.
On Saturday we did Edinburgh castle, which actually took us about four hours. I've been before, but it was definitely worth going again; I mean, it's pretty much what you'd expect in a castle, very big and very old and very castle-y, but it's gorgeous and really fun, and there's tons to explore. Also, it was really funny watching Emily have to duck to get through every single doorway, because I'm pretty much medieval-height and she's really really not.
Saturday we went to a Halloween flat-party (like a house party but with a lot less space) where we played drinking-jenga, I've Never, bobbed for apples, and then a drunk guy stole half our bottle of Malibu and started breaking stuff and that was the end of the party. But that didn't happen until around 3:30am, so it was okay. Emily dressed as a black cat (all in black with some cat ears and a really cute tail) and I dressed as snow (all in white with a lot of glitter and a snowflake ornament around my neck), and Carrie dressed as a tomboy (a cultural reference that our French companions didn't get, as they kept asking her if she was a "dirty boy") and he french lover Arnaud dressed as a french-man. He had suspenders. It was really cute.
So. Sunday we slept in, ate a giant vegan brunch (courtesy of yours truly) and then, at my brutal insistence, climbed Arthur's Seat. It took us a couple of hours, mostly because we were taking it pretty slow, and stopping for pictures a lot, but it was really beautiful. Lot of great view of autumnal-ness, and around the back we found this little loch and the ruin of some old abbey and lots and lots of swans. Also, apparently there's this whole other half of Edinburgh BEHIND Arthur's Seat that I didn't even know was there. Huh.
Anyway, that's really it for news from me; I'm working on essays pretty much constantly and doing nothing of interest. I've posted pictures again at http://www.flickr.com/photos/91173227@N00/ so you can go check those out if you want more.