Fun at the zoo

Yesterday, I ventured out from under the mound of books I have littered around me for a fun day at the Edinburgh Zoo. This zoo is by far the largest one I've been to, but strangely it didn't have any elephants, bears, or giraffes...oh my! However, this zoo makes up for it because it has the largest penguin enclosure in the world! Better yet, everyday they have a penguin parade, where they open the gates and the penguins are voluntarily allowed to waddle around a paved sidewalk lined with visitors. There were only 4 penguins that wanted to come out when we were there, but it made the experience more personal to see them walk by. Below is video footage of the parade. They also have a penguin web cam set up so you can go on their website and check them out.

They also had this amazing exhibit where you could go into an aviary filled with rainbow-colored and extremely friendly birds (I didn't catch the name of the birds). It was temperature controlled for them, so it was tropical and very humid, reminding me of Texas. For a small fee, you could also feed them nectar, which is what I was doing in one of the pictures. They would sit right on my hand and two began to fight over the nectar. One bird in particular liked to climb my arm and sit on my shoulders, going through my hair. An employee said they like long hair because they are nesting. It was quite an amazing experience.

My favorite animal is the tiger and they had two gorgeous Sumatran tigers. I am amazed how they have the same mannerisms as my cat, Pharaoh. I also enjoyed gazing at the lions, whose discarded lunch carcasses all over were reminiscent of a horror movie. They are so majestic and I can see why they are dubbed, 'king of the jungle'.

As an anthropology major, I had to take a couple of courses in physical anthropology, so I have a soft spot for apes and monkeys. My favorites are the chimps because they are so human like; in fact I think they are smarter than some people. The gibbon monkeys were probably the most entertaining, because they are very fast and active, employing their longer arms to their advantage.

The sun came out for the day too, so it was a perfect break away from the books, but alas, these essays won't write themselves, so I'm off to work on them. Until next time...

I conquered Arthurs Seat!!

A funny thing happened in Edinburgh last week...for two straight days it was completely sunny, not a cloud in the sky! Like a vampire, the sun burned my eyes at first and I realized how much I miss the sun and (also like a vampire) how incredibly white and tanless I am. That being said, Bryan and I decided to get some much needed sun and climb Arthur's Seat, which is literally a stone's throw away from our flat.

The view is spectacular!! My pictures above don't really do it justice. Not only were we higher up than Edinburgh Castle, but we could see a 360 degree view of the city from the Firth of Forth to the south mountains near Penicuik. This large nature park is an oasis in the middle of the city. It was breath taking! I noticed several young artists sitting on various rocks painting all they saw before them. What a great place to find that artistic expression that's in all of us.

Final essay papers are looming on my horizon, so I'm sure it will be hard to write a new entry with all the stress and craziness that will be my life. I will try though...For now enjoy the beautiful pictures of our rare sunny day!