Posted on

What? Is it November already?

It has been a long long time since I last wrote a post. It’s not that I don’t have anything to write about, it’s just that I have very little time to do so now. So, let me try to sum up what I’ve been up to during the last month.

I have been consumed by course work. The courses I am taking are really intense, and it takes a lot of effort to keep up with everything.
My favorite course is definitely Robotics: I am building a robot with LEGO parts and electronic components at our disposition. I’ll be sure to post some videos and pictures when it is finished, if I ever finish it.
I am enjoying Bioinformatics and Extreme Computing - it is handy to know Hadoop and MapReduce.
The course I am liking the least is Social and Technological Networks. It’s not that I dislike it, I just don’t feel as excited about the lectures as I do for the other courses.

Anyway, let’s skip that and talk about the fun stuff I did.

I went to one of those live escape games with Becky, Olivia, and Georges! It was great. We are going back to solve other rooms, for sure.
This is their website.

image
We took 55 minutes to solve all the puzzles and escape the Da Vinci room!

Food !

I tried Indian food for the first time! I had Chicken Thali. It was so good… and spicy!
The restaurant I went to is called Namaste Kathmandu. All the people are very nice there. I have been back there for a few times now.

I also found a nice soup place called Union of Genius. They had me as soon as they said they had Caldo Verde! Also, their bread is great! I especially like the olive bread, and the onion bread - yummy!
Special thanks to Irina for taking me there.

Cold, cold, cold

The temperature has been going down and doesn’t seem to want to stop. It hasn’t been raining, though. And surprisingly the sky has been mostly clear for the majority of the days.

One thing that helps is that I have started to like tea - yes! But it has to have a bit of milk to top it off. I don’t like tea on its own. Drinking a hot cup of tea with milk all day long is my new addiction, and it keeps me warm.

Hiking

Some very good friends of mine came to visit me from the 3rd to the 7th of November. We had a lovely time. I wish they were here with me for the entire semester.

image
Arthur's Seat is the largest of the three parts of the Arthur's Seat Volcano.
It was formed by an extinct volcano system of Carboniferous age.
(approximately 350 million years old)

I still don’t know how I found the time to do it, but we climbed Arthur’s Seat! And it has been my favorite experience since I’ve been here! It is a must! If you ever come to Edinburgh, go climb Arthur’s Seat.

image
Salisbury Crags are a series of 46m cliffs which rise on the west of Holyrood Park.
This was taken from my phone, but I find it gorgeous for a desktop wallpaper.

Make sure to wear warm clothes because it is windy up there!

Arthur’s Seat checklist:

  • Scarf
  • Gloves
  • Beanie
  • Jacket
  • Camera
image
Just take a look at the view... And this was only half way up!
The summit is 251m high.

Today my father, mother, and sister have arrived. Hopefully we will have a great time together - mixed with lots of course work…

And that’s it. This will have to do for a brief update.
I will try to write more often now!