Monday, June 28, 2004 (Summer Program starts)

A little bit sleepy I started with breakfast. After 4 a.m. the suns rouse me out. The breakfast was very quiet, apart from JoeJoe who likes to play. Now school will begin at 9 o’clock – just a little bit earlier than the last two weeks. I had enough time to walk the Royal Mile to school and read the newspaper. Today we are a motley group with Zoë and it took some time until we could start the lesson.

The content of the lessons was of high interest and very actual – gun control. We heard a song from Johnny Cash, “don’t take your guns to town”. We used the text for listening, reading and writing some irregular verbs. The discussion about gun control in the different countries was informative. Zoë had a lot of questions on this theme for us and also the remarked “I’ll give up my gun when you take it from my cold dead hands - United States National Rifle Association”. It reminded me of the film from Michael Moore, Bowling for Columbine.

After that we played a game in pairs, we had a writer and a runner. A script was in another room and the runner had to memorize the text and go back to the writer and dictate the story with every comma and point. Sometimes we forgot the text when we were back in the room with our colleague. It was hard work but we had a lot of fun.

We had a little bit confusion about the breaks but I think that was just the first day with the new timetable. During lunch I met a lot of new students and went to the computer room to check my emails. Time went too quickly and so after a snack I sprinted to the bus.

This week an expanded cultural and social programme from the school started. On this afternoon it was a bus tour through Edinburgh – “one of the most beautiful cities in Europe”. We started on the East Market Street, went through the elegance of the New Town to the rugged timelessness of the Old Town. For me, it was nice to see places which I hadn't seen before, and it gave me a different view from out of the bus. We made some short stops at key places to see something and take photographs and Philip gave us some information on the tour. So I stood for the third time on Calton Hill and enjoyed the beautiful view again. I meet a lot of Swiss people but normally we spoke English together. :-)

With Sonia and David I walked back to New Town, David needed a gift for the birthday of his “new” host mother. I wanted to visit the Georgian House, Philip gave us some information on the trip, but it closed at 3 p.m. so I will visit it with the other students on Thursday. In my German Scotland guide (vis à vis, Dorling Kindersley, ISBN 3-928044-10-9) I had the idea to go on a walking tour through the New Town. The weather was cold and rainy but on the walk I read a lot of information and saw some very nice places.



New Town

I started in Charlotte Square it was designed by Robert Adam shortly before his death in 1791. The northern side of the square is Adam’s masterpiece and one of the finest examples of Georgian architecture anywhere. Bute House is the official residence of Scotland’s first minister. I think I must tell you this story – the original plans for the New Town envisaged a matching church of St. Andrew on the eastern side of St. Andrew Square on George St. But the rich and ambitious Sir Lawrence Dundas had other plans – he bought up the land, and had his own elaborate mansion (now the Royal Bank of Scotland) built on the site. Westwards along George St. is the dome of West Register House, formerly St George’s Church (1811). I saw the statue of George IV which commemorates his royal visit in 1822. Thistle St. and Rose St. were built to house the servants, tradesmen and stables that catered to the needs of the New Town gentry. In Heriot Row (a typical Georgian terrace) I saw the house where Robert Louis Stevenson lived from 1857 to 1880.



La p'tite folie - New Town

Ainslie Place is a elegant oval space, with its octagonal neighbour Moray Place on one side and semicircular Randolph Crescent on the other, together they constitute the Moray Estate (built between 1822 and 1850), the most beautiful part of New Town. Then after I walked towards Dean Bridge and went onto the middle of the bridge for a view of Dean Village. I liked the view, but I needed to tip-toe otherwise I wouldn't see anything over the balustrade.



Dirty Dicks, Pub - New Town

On the walk I did some window shopping and visited some book stores to get warm, then inside there was also a coffee shop. That’s all that I needed … ;-)

Back with the family the man from Spain (sorry, but I have forgotten his name) was jogging and Martha told us a lot about the school, then it was their first day. They are elementary teachers in Spain and here they have a special program to learn English, about the way of life and a lot of cultural themes.

Is her Majesty the Queen now in Edinburgh or when will she arrive for her garden party? On our bus tour we saw the preparation by the Palace of Holyroodhouse. At home normally I don’t read the stories in the news about the royal family, but when you are so close to this information …