appropo

last night i broke from my purging and packing project to check out a ceilidh (scottish dance) in the gardens beneath edinburgh's famous castle. (the scene at left, i am pleased because finally i was able to accurately portray what the castle looks like in photo form - it has stopped resisting, and i am grateful). it ended up being an entirely geriatric sort of affair, and i mean great for them that they still get out and wiggle around sometimes, i can only hope to be so vibrant with age. nonetheless, aside from the setting there was little to entice me, so i took pictures and moved on. after some tea and chats with andrew, pit and mari (infamous isc couple), we headed to bannerman's, the official pub home of the isc as located literally across the street from my year-long flat, for what will presumably be my last hurrah there. afterwards i returned home to spend the final night in this little room on robertsons close, and what could be more quintessential then to have sleep interrupted at 4am by a blaring fire alarm that took aaages to be turned off. so it seems we go out with a bang.
i have a huge day ahead of me; never have my to-do lists seemed to contain so many stakes. by this evening i will be officially a nomad, probably based at andrew's flat, with time again my own to see the last of friends and the city. i won't lie - it is a bit heartbreaking.

i will get back to my documentation of the pyreneean adventure after i've handled my worldy transportability. i have decided to write about my time in michel de montaigne style essays, wherein i choose a topic and discuss my thoughts and experiences as relevant (ex: on blistered feet; on french friendliness, et al). i'm excited about it, so hopefully i will have some time to start soon.
but i can't pretend that i want to spend all of my remaining five days writing blog entries on a computer. after i return to the u.s. i plan to wrap up this journalling enterprise for good, as the people who presumably constitute my reading audience will no longer be far away and difficult to reach if i'd like to share the events of my life with them. i do promise to compose these little essays though until i feel exhausted, because i think they will be quite fun.
wish me luck meanwhile in the drudgery of packing up and cleaning up. it's time for it all to hit home.