Edinburgh and the new flat

Just a few photos of our new flat/apartment (well, new as of 6 weeks ago). And our neighborhood.
(see previous post for a picture of my room)

Eileen's room.

View from Eileen's room.

Nita's room, during exam time.

View from my room.


Our doorbell. Seriously.

The meadows (just down the street).

More meadows.

On Princes Street.

Germany (again...)

Dear Friends and Family,
It's been quite a long time since I bothered you all with one of my little updates, but I thought since I now have a new address, and have just returned form a trip, I'd send one out. First and foremost, my new address is as follows:
(write me for the full one)
Edinburgh
UK*

Our flat is really cute, if rather quirky. And by my New York standards it's HUGE! Plus it's £100 (approx $200) cheaper a month than was my tiny dorm room. Can't beat that.
In travel news, my two roomies Nita and Eileen, plus Justin and I, recently returned form a week in Germany. For those of you who haven't heard all about these three, we are all in the same program here in Edinburgh. We started off our jaunt to Germany in Leipzig. Eileen went to college/uni there, so she showed us the sites, including the two Max Planck Institute branches, one for the kiddies, and one for the apes. I'd never seen the kid part before and it was quite something. Facilities to make anyone drool over. Great lab space, open space to relax a bit, plus a sauna, roof terrace, a climbing wall, and foosball table. Life is tough at the Max Planck…
The apes live at the zoo, where I had been once a few years back, but this time we spent a very long time looking at the chimps, orangutans, bonobos and gorillas. As it was spring time there were lots of babies. Bonobo babies, in particular, are sure to soften up even the hardest scientist. We also saw chimp tool use, treats raining from the sky (enrichment, for those monkey lab people reading this) and an orangutan named Bimbo that loved rolling around in a giant ripped paper sack.
We spent Easter at Eileen's house in Erfurt (an hour or so by train from Leipzig) which was a wonderful visit to childhood. We spent hours Easter day painting eggs with indestructible-made-in-the-GDR watercolors, one representing each of our countries: Kosovo, South Africa, the US, and Germany, at Eileen's insistence. And we had quite an Easter egg hunt in her back yard. We all ended up with far more chocolate than we needed, and a few slugs to boot. We also ate WAY to much all the time. Eileen's mom made sure of that. And, Nita got her nose pierced! And Eileen won't stop referring to it as a nose job.
Our next stop was one that Lonely Planet did not even see fit to include in my guidebook: The Neander Valley. We went there entirely for the archaeology. How could we miss the location where they found the first Neandie??!! The museum there was quite good. They did however tell use that H. erectus met all the biological prerequisites for speech, and that Neanderthals with little doubt spoke the way we do. News to us. And to most anyone who studies language I think. Aside for the language inaccuracies though, lots of dioramas, recorded guides, a cave you could stick your head into (though it looked from inside as if you'd been decapitated) kept us quite entertained.
Our final stop in Deutschland was Cologne. Even if it was West Germany (egad!) and even if our hostel was a bit smelly, we all quite enjoyed ourselves in Cologne. We made the requisite trip to the Dom, ascended the tower were we were nearly deafened by the chiming of the hour, visited the chocolate museum, and had some very nice Ethiopian food for dinner. And most importantly, Justin got two new pairs of pumas. Ohhh, ahhh. It really does seem to me though, that all of Germany is perpetually under construction….
I hope all is well with you all!