The Tempest at the Firth of Forth & Solo Adventures

Before class this morning Sam and I went to the Blind Poet, a venue off of Nicholson Street for a Free Festival murder mystery show called The Hawke Papers.  Though we were there pretty early, unfortunately the venue was filled to capacity and we were turned away. Since we were already up and out, we stopped at Sainsbury to grab some groceries before heading to the flat for class. It's interesting how popular self-checkout is here; at home there are a few kiosks but the majority of people still lean towards a traditional cashier. Here it's the complete opposite--there was a line to use the self-checkout machine and no wait for the traditional register. 

Structures class was geared towards other international fringe festivals. I had no idea there were multiple fringe festivals each month around the world! We talked about what it takes to start a fringe, the rules and regulations that each country has in place, and the CAFF touring lottery. 

Xela cut class a little short so that those of us who wanted to go to The Tempest could make it to Summerhall by 2:15.  It was a bit nerve wracking to wait by the bus for all of the ticket-holders to board before finding out if we could use our passes, but everything worked perfectly and the five of us were able to use our lovely yellow lanyards to board the bus to the Firth of Forth without having to purchase £16.00 tickets. About thirty minutes later we arrived at an area near the Firth of Forth and were directed to the outside of a palace where the show began. 

There were ushers in red capes that led us from scene to scene, and though it was absolutely freezing down by the water the show was absolutely fabulous.

Brought me back to that time Ariel, Lauren and I attempted to 'perform' this scene in freshman English using grape juice bottles and the silver Grease costumes....

After the show I took a nice long walk by myself up to the castle, down the Royal Mile, around to Nicholson street, through the Meadows and back to the flat. I was only gone a little over an hour, but there was something really nice about wandering through an area that is still fairly new and so different from home.  It's hard to explain how nice it is to not be dependent on my phone/Google maps to find my way around, especially in a city a lot more complicated to navigate than Philly or New York.