Almost done

So I am about 3 hours away from being totally done with classes in Scotland. I figured blogging about it in Black Medicine would only be fitting. I suppose this is the part of the trip when I am supposed to come up with some concluding comments. Some broad reaching summary of my time at the University of Edinburgh, or something like. Unfortunately I do not have anything like that in my head. Maybe after my exams, when I am "truly" done. I'll be able to better get a hold on my time here. In the mean time, interesting story.

This morning I visited St. Giles Cathedral. It is the "Mother Church" of the church of Scotland. I don't have any pictures of the inside, because your not supposed to take pictures unless you have a permit. And I still don't know how I feel about coming in and snapping shots all over a functioning church. Just seems out of place to me. I thoroughly enjoyed my time inside though. It is a little bit more modern, as it was heavily reconstructed during the late 1800s, but it still had that ancient feeling about it. Spent a little bit of time in the the little chapel they have set aside for John Knox. He preached there for a while, and I can see how it is the type of church he would have liked. If you don't know who John Knox is, find a book about him somewhere and read it. For better or for worse, how you think about God and governments were probably in some way shaped by his ideas. You just don't know it.

This is St. Giles. Pretty cool. If anyone ever gets a chance to visit a cathedral or an old church, do it. I don't believe that Church has anything to do with churches, but I think everyone needs a change of perspective now and then. Big churches do that.

In my head right now I have the topics from my last lecture this morning still rambling around. It was my Napoleonic History class, and the topic was "Britons?". Cultural identity has always fascinated me, especially how those play out on an international stage. I don't totally know exactly what to say about it know, but its something to mull over, and something that will probably end up on this blog sometime soon. So homework readers: can you name your cultural identity in 5 seconds? Can you explain what it means? I think most of us can't. And I think that means something. What it is I don't know. Like I said, something to think about.