This weekend, my friends and I closed out a chapter of our lives together. After hours of packing suitcases and scrubbing our dorm rooms, we moved out of University accommodations on Slateford Road and into new homes. The Flat 17 community, made up of wonderful women who have been quarantining together for months, has been scattered all across the world: India, the Caribbean, the United States, England - only a few of us are still in Edinburgh.
I am a satellite member of Flat 17 - technically I lived in Flat 2, but the group of women in Flat 17 welcomed me into their midst. They let me quarantine with them so I wouldn't be alone, since my flatmate moved back to Greece in March. I am so thankful to have been friends with them. I know I will see them all again someday, even (especially) if it means traveling all over the world to find them.
As I mentioned in my last post, my friends Sienna and Pim and I closed on a flat in Stockbridge (just north of city centre) recently. This weekend we moved in, and we've all agreed on one thing:
This is the nicest flat we will ever live in.
We've peaked. This is it. There is no way we will ever find a home like this again. The landlord sent us a video of the property when we applied, and it looked very nice, but it just doesn't do the place justice. The high ceilings make every room look enormous; the decor would be perfect in a movie adaptation of a Jane Austen novel; every room has tall windows that let in plenty of natural light; the kitchen has a rustic feel to it that makes us excited to cook. There are old paintings and portraits on every wall, painted vases and plates in china cabinets, and we even have a big bathtub (that was a huge selling point for me).
All of the photos in this post are of my bedroom; we're still settling in, so I'll photograph the rest of the place soon and post a virtual tour. I took the smallest bedroom, which means I get one of our two bathrooms all to myself! The room is small and cozy and I really love it.
The location of our flat is also ideal. We are a fifteen minute walk from:
- Princes Street (City Centre)
- Calton Hill
- my church, Ps & Gs
- Dean Village
Within 30 minutes:
- Edinburgh Castle
- Grassmarket
- The Royal Mile
- Holyrood Palace
Stockbridge itself has a small town feel to it. We are 250 feet from the nearest grocery store, and just down the road from that are tons of shops. Charity shops, cafes, restaurants, boutiques, cheese shops, bookstores, etc. It is a thriving community, and I'm so excited to explore it more! We've also been told this is a 'posh' area, which in itself is very fun to be able to say.
The only drawback was that for the first few days, we didn't have hot water. I even read through the instruction manual for the boiler and couldn't get it to work. Showering was abysmal. But two engineers came by today and fixed it in just a few minutes! So now there are zero drawbacks once again (even though the place it a bit chilly - but that's a small price to pay).
We're pretty sure we were able to snag this flat at such a good rate because of coronavirus. Normally August in Edinburgh is all about The Fringe, a giant festival that brings in as many tourists as there are residents in the city. That's right - the population of Edinburgh doubles for a month. It's one of the biggest festivals in the world. Like many things in the world, it was cancelled due to COVID-19. Pim and Sienna and I think this flat is usually let out for visitors who come for the Fringe - but for the next five months, it's just for us. And it really does feel like the kind of place you stay in on vacation.
A few days ago we had the Flat 17 women over for cheese and wine, and we had one last hurrah together before everyone went their separate ways. Our friend Melis is staying with us for two weeks before she goes home, so we feel a little like we're on holiday together. After living alone for about five months, it's really nice to live with my friends - this morning we sat in the kitchen and chatted over tea for a while. Everything we do here feels so idyllic.
On Friday, I'll get the results of my thesis back and have a brief video call with my lecturers to talk over my final grades. In the meantime, I'm applying to jobs every day, settling in to the most incredible flat in the world, and booking an appointment for my first haircut since COVID (things like this feel like such a big deal right now, don't they?). Right now I'm on a break from writing my novel, but once I get feedback on Friday, I'll buckle down and try to finish the first draft by the time I have to move out of this flat. Another good thing about living with friends from my writing program - we're going to keep each other accountable for meeting our goals. These next fives months will probably go by fast, but I have a feeling they'll be wonderful all the same.
Book recommendation: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. The tone of this book is more middle-grade than YA, and Gaiman does a great job of making it fun and engaging. It's the story of a young boy who lives in a graveyard - literally in a graveyard. He was adopted by ghosts as a baby, and is raised by the dead. As he grows up, he starts to learn more about his world and his place in it, and makes friends with some unexpected people. It's a quick read and has some cool mythology to it - give it a whirl!