Celebrations and Papal Seeings.

This week has been surprisingly busy. Between registering with doctors, attending Fresher's week functions, going to school meetings, and meeting new people, we have been quite busy.  We have also been having a lot of fun. For instance last night, we met up at Viava Mexico restaurant to celebrate Mexico's Independence Day with our new friend from Mexico City, and another friend from Hong Kong who actually lived in Mexico for 2 1/2 years.  The menu and the setting of the restaurant was actually authentically Mexican.  There were a few things on the menu that neither our new friends, nor we actually recognized, but for the most part, our Mexican friend recognized many tradional dishes on the menu.  We didn't eat any of these items.  The cheapest meal was £10 and seeing as how we were all college students, we just ordered some chips and salsa and guacamole.  Now, I am sure many of you are curious as to what may be on the menu.  They had the usual: enchiladas, burritos, quesadillas, and a variety of traditional fish dishes.  Some weren't so traditional. One of the more interesting ScotMex they offered for instance was a cheese and haggis quesadilla.  Maybe one day we will go back and try this, but our first Haggis experience probably won't involve a tortilla.

As many of you know, the Pope visited Edinburgh today.  Of course we had to go see him, so we met our new Mexican friend and walked about 15 minutes to watch the St. Ninions day parade, at the end of which the Pope was going to be in his Pope mobile. We arrived at our watching spot at around 10, and arrived back at home at about 12:30. The parade was very lively.  There were 1,000 pipers who performed very well and a few nuns and religious figures as well.  Finally at about 12:15 the Pope arrived in his Pope mobile and we were able to see him for approximately 15 seconds.  Totally worth it!  He seems to be welcomed very well.  BBC is covering his visit here very thoroughly.  We even watched the Pope's plane fly in and land on the TV.  The rest of the day will continue on as normal, but come this weekend, the Archery World Finals will be in Princes St. Gardens, and so will we.