Haggis and homemaking

Oh my goodness.  So.  Many.  Things.

I have officially survived my first twenty-four (plus some) hours as an international student!  Woot woot!  It has been ca-razy.  I'm currently sitting in my room with the window open, laughing at the "wee freshers" as they pass by on their way to the myriad pubs along our street.  They'll be going back and forth for probably the next three hours, singing and yelling and chanting things that, between the accent and the alcohol, will be completely incomprehensible.  They're pretty funny.  I'm sure they, and everyone else who passes on this street, won't be quite so funny a month or two from now, but for now it doesn't bother me enough to make me close the window and shut out the lovely breeze that I have to take advantage of now when it's here.

My room is basically furnished now!  Favorite room purchase: flowers for my window.  (Laugh all you want, Niko.)  I potted them in a little white coffee mug and they are perfect.  I spent a total of waaaay too many hours searching for a duvet and cover.  Finally got one that will suffice and that fits in with the plan for my room that I have in my head.  My stuff is still dumped all over the floor, and there still isn't anything on my walls.  But I promise it's going to be grand when it's done.  Hopefully it comes out as nicely as it's supposed to.  That usually doesn't work.  But whatever. 

All my flatmates are here!  It's very exciting.  Besides me we have one German, one Canadian, and one Scot.  Such diversity.  It's pretty funny, though - the other two internationals and I are all third-years, while the Scot is a fresher.  So it's kind of nostalgic for all of us to sit around and watch her go through the whole I-can't-believe-I'm-not-going-home-in-a-week thing.  Poor babe.  But anyway, I'm really excited about our suite.  The German, Tina, is incredibly chill and we've hung out a lot already.  I like her a lot.  We were the first two here and we bonded pretty immediately, so we're slowly bringing the other two into our little group of awesome.  The Canadian, Margaret, is also very nice.  She's been here about 6 hours and she's already expressed lots of interest in doing things as a flat - decorating, mass-cooking, etc.  We're going to get along.  :)  And Rebecca is sweet.  I feel like she might not quite know what to do with the fact that none of her flatmates are either A) her age or B) her nationality, but we'll convert her, I'm sure.

I had my first haggis!!  It was not bad.  It's not my new favorite dish and I probably wouldn't order it in a restaurant, but it is not bad.  It was very much just like a mashed up, rather salty sausage.  They had a Scottish food tasting as one of the Freshers' Week events tonight, so we got haggis, beef stew (I think/hope), and "neeps and tatties", aka mashed turnips and potatoes.  It was all very filling and generally pretty good.  I am a fan of Scottish food.  Especially, although they didn't serve this, the shortbread.  OH MY GOSH.  I die for shortbread.  (Possibly literally.  The stuff is, I kid you not, minimum 30% butter.  Oh hey, heart failure.  ...Eh, oh well.)

I also went to my very first ceilidh tonight!  [That word, despite all instincts, is pronounced KAY-lee.]  It was very exciting.  Basically the name of the game is they give you a crash course in a Scottish folk dance and start playing the music, and the madness ensues.  I actually picked up on the dance relatively quickly, but everyone in my little group very much did not, so we had a blast just kind of swinging each other randomly around the floor.  The single Scot in our group was, I think, kind of annoyed at us after trying to explain it to us about 27 times.  Oh, well.  I very much plan to go to a lot more of those in future.

Current song of choice of the club down the road?  "Don't Stop Believing".  Um...all right.

Random other things I love about the UK:
- Nutella as a fully acceptable alternative to peanut butter
- the cobblestone streets
- the fabulous secondhand shops everywhere
- the fashion-forwardness
- the weird things available in grocery stores.  Examples: watercress and hazelnut-flavored yogurt.]
- THE ACCENTS.  I predict this NOT getting old.

Things I will be happy to see again in the US:
- a single water faucet that puts out hot and cold AND anywhere-in-the-middle water
- um, measuring cups??  literally cannot find a single set anywhere...
- normal blankets for beds, rather than just a fitted sheet and duvet
- you  :)