Me Time

Written 8/23/09 about 8/21/09:

Within the last year or so I have begun to appreciate the value of alone time. Somehow when you regularly live with 5 other girls, or are traveling with 60+ other friends (insert shout out to Bethel Choir members here), you find time away to be priceless. Oddly enough, I felt a need for this already and it was only Friday. Nevertheless, I spent most of the day by myself, and it was heavenly – probably my favorite day so far.

We had class in the late morning, but after that I ate a snacky lunch and hopped on the bus by myself down to the city center. The first thing on my list was to buy myself a hairdryer, which I successfully found in the basement of a European drug store called “Boots”. Score! Then I wandered down the Royal Mile, taking mental notes of various details which will probably end up in a future travel writing piece I’ll post here.

About half way down the street I stopped at the John Knox House and decided that I wanted to take a tour. I found the house-turned-museum to be absolutely fascinating! There was so much written information about the religious conflict surrounding the house in the city of Edinburgh, the history of John Knox’s ministry there and abroad, as well as background on the owner of the house who was in support of Catholic Mary Queen of Scots, and therefore not John Knox, a vocal and revolutionary Protestant.

Further down the Royal Mile I walked into the graveyard of Cannongate Kirk in order to find the gravestone of Robert Ferguson, a friend and inspiration to the infamous poet Robert Burns. I successfully found the gravestone and also wandered inside the church, was welcomed by hospitable greeters, and found it to be very quaint.

Reaching the end of the Royal Mile, the street dead ends at the Palace of Holyrood – ironically facing the modern structure of the Scottish Parliament across the street. I took a fact-filled audio tour through the magnificent rooms at the Palace of Holyrood, as well as the adjacent abbey ruins and the royal gardens.

Having to now walk back up the Royal Mile (it’s more or less a hill, if you didn’t know), I entertained myself by wandering into various shops. My favorite one I walked into by chance was about as small as my bedroom and filled with every knitted wool clothing piece you could imagine. I was hot just looking at it all. I ended up deciding to buy a warm and cute-looking pair of mittens that are slightly too long for my fingers, but I like them anyways. When purchasing them however, the lady told me that they had been knitted by a 90+ year old Shetland woman who brought her knitting to sell at the shop so that she could earn money to buy herself a radio because she was moving into a home. Upon hearing that story, I was convinced these mittens were for me no matter if they were too long or slightly too narrow; they were made with love by a 90+ year old Scottish woman, which just in itself made the purchase entirely worth it.

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I think it’s important to take time just for you, to listen to yourself (that’s a skill many of us have to learn), and find out what makes you most happy. Don’t think needing time for you is a bad thing, (this advice was wisely given to me by three friends who had studied abroad before); in fact, it’s so healthy and gives consistency among so much change. (I’m finding my rooted-ness, Kerice. Thank you!)