Day 17 - Edinburgh Castle, National Museum, and Parliament.

We started our day with Edinburgh Castle. This was by far my favorite castle of the trip. It was enormous and could have been a city on it's own! I loved reading all the information they had about the castle and exploring the rich history it had to offer. I especially liked visiting the Crown Jewels and the Honours of Scotland. We followed a maze of information about them before actually entering the dark room that they were kept in. Not only were they kept behind glass cases, they're were two security guards as well as doors that were a good foot thick and a variety of locks to keep them safe. I liked seeing them in person after hearing and reading about them in our coursework. It was hard to imagine what something like that would look like, but when I saw them I was fascinated. Maybe that's the reason why I hate that America had no monarchy. ;]

Next we moved to the National Museum (yet another one of my most favorite places!). I loved it. I loved seeing all of the variety that they had put into the museum - from neolithic objects to modern day objects (including Dolly - the first ever cloned sheep). All of Scotland was encompassed in one big building. It was almost too much to handle, but I feel that it really solidified our study of Scottish identity. It was a great capstone to our study and really begged us to ask questions about the things we had learned earlier in the trip. It actually made us students think for a change. :]

We were off to Parliament next to sit in on a session and then meet the leader of the Scottish National Party, John Swinney. It was so interesting to sit in on a body of government much different from ours. It was quite ironic that their discussion topic was about involving American students in Scottish government and identity studies. It was exactly what we were there for, not to mention we also came from a school in a town that was deemed Scotland U.S.A.! Nevertheless, our meeting with John Swinney was the highlight of the day. He sat in with us and discussed the challenges the party faces with those who are opposed to Scottish independence. He really brought home the issue to us - which made me question the inconsistencies between the government and independence and the people and independence. However, I am still starstruck that I even got to meet such a government official. WOW.

We had another group dinner at Canongate, complete with Ken and his wife. We joked around together and discussed the things we had heard in Parliament and the things that John Swinney had discussed with us. It was nice to hear some of the students' input about the perception they were getting as our trip was coming to an end. For most of us, our perception about Scotland was nothing like what the real Scotland was. Thank god for that! :]

Tomorrow: St. Andrews - the home of golf!