Our flat (minus our lovely yet consistently MIA Scottish constituent)(seriously, I'm starting to wonder if she even lives with us anymore) went to the Royal Botanic Garden yesterday. It was so much fun. Flower season is ending, but the trees all over the gardens were changing colors, and since it hasn't rained in days (surprising, to say the least) there were crunchy leaves everywhere. Our blooming three-way friendship means we're all becoming less concerned with keeping up appearances amongst ourselves, so we shamelessly crunched and shuffled through the leaves like little kids. It was also 'Apple Day' at the garden, so there was a little exhibition of the ridiculously large variety of apples grown in Scotland, along with samples of some of them. We tried all of the samples, and unanimously agreed on two points: that we hadn't thought about apples so much since elementary school/possibly ever, and that our favorite was...okay, I actually forgot the name of it. It was some kind of Pippin, and it was crisp and mostly sweet but also a little bit tart and really delicious. I'd never seen it in stores anyway, so it's not like I'll probably ever have the chance to buy it. But it was good. And the whole thing was just fun.
I really am incredibly pleased with the way our flat has worked out. We all have our separate activities that we take part in and have friends through and run off to every once in awhile (me Christian Union, Germany archery, and Canada rugby), but then we come home and sit in the kitchen, where someone is always cooking something or other, and listen to music and chill. Come an evening when all you want to do is make hot chocolate and watch a film, someone probably wants to do the same thing; come a night when you want to go out, generally the entire group is rallied to go with. We're all really different, but we've meshed really well. God's really blessed me with that. And now we're all especially united under the common goal of going out and doing stuff in Edinburgh. Next up is the Palace of Holyroodhouse, one of the Queen's many houses as well as the home of a lovely art gallery as well as the location of the next clue in my ongoing Edinburgh scavenger hunt. (Did I tell you about that? A friend from WashU set it up for me when she was in Edinburgh a week before I arrived. I'm having ridiculous fun with it.) The only way it could possibly get better is if we actually saw the Queen. But somehow I don't see that happening. I guess I'll live.
Tonight our small group is doing an outreach thing...it's called 'Text a Toastie'. It's okay, I was confused at first too. So the idea is that during a pre-set and pre-advertised time, we set ourselves up in a central location (i.e. my flat) with a toastie maker (aka panini grill). People then text a given number with three things: a question they would theoretically like to ask God, their choice of toastie flavor (cheese, ham and cheese, or Nutella), and their location. We then make their toastie and deliver it to their door within fifteen minutes. As far as I can tell, the question is superfluous other than possibly sparking conversation at the door. The point is to let people know about Christian Union and just generally do something nice for people. I'm kind of excited. I love my small group and I see this producing a lot of laughing and bonding. Plus it's kind of a randomly neat idea. Sweet.
All right, I'm off to the library to sit at eye level with the tops of the gorgeous trees and do some lab work/Philosophy reading. Wish me luck.
Love,
Melody
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