"Deep Sea World? More Like 'Deep Sea Island' or Maybe a Peninsula"

So a few days ago I was really excited to go on the International Student Centre's trip to Deep Sea World and Queensferry, which is a little village on the Firth of Forth, a little inlet that connects to the North Sea. So it was this Saturday (yesterday) and cost £13, which was pretty good considering we were driven there and the aquarium cost something like £10.50 to get in anyway. Lara (my new Dutch friend) and I decided we were going to meet Katie and her friends at City, which is a club alllll the way by the train station. Ok that's really not that far, but it was a 20 minute walk, and it was really confusing to get there before we realized there were stairs to connect 2 streets. Anyway, this was an interesting experience.

Imagine this jam-packed with people

The major thing I noticed that was different than DC clubbing was that girls all dress wear next to nothing and 5 pounds of make up on their face, and the guys were all kind of wearing the same thing- jeans, button up shirt, and a cardigan. It was so bizarre. Lara said that in the Netherlands, girls don't dress like this either, so maybe it's a distinctly British phenomenon. I'm not sure. Anyway, we were both heavily overdressed, seeing as our shoulders were covered and we were wearing tights, as opposed to the many girls in mini skirts and NOTHING underneath. Oh, and we weren't wearing heels. So yeah, it was bizarre. We stayed until about 1:30 am, but I had started getting annoyed by all the people pushing me and making out next to me, and the same techno beat going on way before we left. They also LOVED the smoke machine here which I hadn't encountered before. That was kind of cool though. I think if they had played more variety in the music, I would have had a better time. We'll just have to find a better club.
So since we both were going to the Deep Sea World trip, we met up at 8:45 am to get to campus by 9. We were both quite sleepy. We met up with our friend Monica, who is also from AU, and who didn't go out. She was surprised we made it. Ha! Yeah we're not that crazy. So we got on the bus and the trip itinerary was as follows:
-Leave for DSW at 9
-Have creature encounter at 10, 10:30, or 11
-Leave DSW for Queensferry at 1
-Spend time in Queensferry and leave for Edinburgh at 4:30

This is what actually happened. We left for the aquarium and were late, so the 10 am group for the creature encounter was late, so the rest of them were late too. Deep Sea World was also so small that we saw everything we needed to see by 11, maybe even 10:45. It was that tiny. As Lara's flatmate said later, "Deep Sea World? More like a Deep Sea Island or maybe Deep Sea Peninsula". Yeah, it was that small. But the problem was, after our creature encounter at 11, we still had an hour and a half to kill. Don't get me wrong, the creature encounter was cool. I got to hold a bearded dragon, which was named Marcel. He was very nice and I now want one as a pet.

The director of the trip decided after meeting Marcel we needed to stay until 1:30 to watch the sharks being fed. We decided eating our own lunch was a good idea, so we did that until 1 and walked over to the underwater tunnel thing that they had. The problem was that there is a conveyor belt that they were asking everyone to step on so that everyone could see the sharks being fed. Most of the people stood to the side that wasn't moving, so I saw basically nothing. It was a waste of 5 minutes.
We left the aquarium at 1:30 and headed over to Queensferry despite the rain and cold weather (ok it was probably about 55 degrees F/12 degrees C. Not that cold). There was nothing too exciting that we could see about the place. It was quaint and I could see why it'd be nice to spend maybe an hour there. We spent 2.5 hours there. It was a little ridiculous. Apparently there's a really pretty church and an old house there, but I heard they were both closed. Immediately after getting off the bus, Lara and I made the executive decision to spend the whole time in a nice, warm, dry pub. We had a pint each and stayed there for the duration of our stay at Queensferry. The houses were rather adorable though.

So yeah, the trip wasn't really worth it. I think we could have gone at 10, and stayed at each place for an hour and a half tops. We would have been back by 3, not 5, and I wouldn't have had to wake up as early. It would also have been nicer if it wasn't raining. Lara and I did make crepes with Nutella and hot chocolate for dinner, though. That was the highlight of my day. Today, I'm going to the library. I don't think there's anything exciting even happening until Wednesday, when I'm going to the Yule Ball that the Harry Potter Society is having. SO EXCITEDDD.
Stay dry and warm everyone!