Just call me Mo MBA

YAY we did it - we both now officially have our MBA's through Edinburgh Business School / Herriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. It's such a quick flight up to Edinburgh (about an hour) that I felt like I barely had time to get into my book before the pilot announced we were about to land. We stayed in a little hotel near by Edinburgh University and went out that night for a steak dinner which was nice.

Murray's store which we came across on the way to dinner

Tuesday morning we got up early and got ready to head over to the auditorium to pick up our gowns. We were also given our 'hoods' which we were to hold onto all nicely folded up until the ceremony.

We did get a professional photo together as well which I really like actually -

but we won't get it for 3 weeks!

The ceremony itself was really nice - very formal & traditional which was great! We were called onto stage one by one, then we had to kneel as the President of the University tapped each of us on the head with a little square black board - hmmmm I'm still not sure why. 'Tap, I now bestow you with an MBA' I guess. Very strange. Then another guy put the hood onto over our heads - it was sort of like a cape - with a big hole that fit over your head.

This is Murray being tapped on the head while the hood guy gets ready to put it on him

I'm not entirely sure why we got hoods as we never actually wore them, they just draped down our backs - so I thought I better actually get ONE picture of me wearing my hood!

I was SO nervous about tripping up on the stage, but thankfully I made it across to receive my certificate. I'm so glad we waited and attended the ceremony together, it was a great experience. I really did feel like I learned a lot with this degree as well, and best of almost all most of the subjects were relevant and interesting. Oh - also, an 'honorary degree' was given to Ian Anderson who is the lead singer and flutist of Jethro Tull for his contribution to music. He was born in Edinburgh I guess and they moved to England when he was a few years old. It was interesting to hear a short speech about his life, and he also said a few words. He was very well spoken, and seemed genuinely chuffed to be getting this honour.

We walked around the city for a bit after the ceremony to kill time until our flight and see a bit of the city.

We were exhausted after trekking up and down hills though so we ended up buying tickets for the touristy bus rides around the city. It was really interesting actually, we learned a lot about the history of the city and got to see a lot of the sites (from the bus window at least!) It's a really grey city & very windy!!!! All the building are either grey stone or grey stone that is now black from lack of cleaning. It was refreshing though to see a city with so few modern buildings. I was interested to learn that Edinburgh Castle is 3000 years old - WOW!

After a few hours of riding around the city we ended up having a quick dinner at The Frankenstein Pub which was recommended by my aunties Joni & Jani. The food was really awful, but my 'Frankenstein' cocktail was lovely, and it was interesting to watch the Frankenstein movie while eating (kinda grossed me out actually)! Alas though the whole reason we had gone there was to see the big show - they have this Frankenstein that comes out of the wall & sits up & does something (I guess) but he didn't appear while we were there - bummer!

Oh well, after that it was a quick ride back to the airport, and a quick plane ride home.
We got back by 11:30 pm and just collapsed.

But I'm pleased that I finally have my MBA - and congrats to my husband on his MBA as well!
I'm just a bit disappointed I didn't find any crappy souvenirs with our family clan name Gunn on them - oh well - next time!

And finally, a good view of London & the river thames as we flew over last night