Remember, remember the fifth of November

Yesterday - as you may actually know, given the strangely large number of American Facebook statuses about it, but I definitely would not have had I not actually been here - was Guy Fawkes Day.  Also known as Bonfire Night, it commemorates the day in 1605 when a group of Catholics led by a dude named (surprisingly) Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the British Parliament, killing the king, in order to put a Catholic on the throne instead.  The plot was foiled, Guy Fawkes was tortured and killed, and now once a year all good British children burn effigies of Guy and/or the Pope (I kid you not) on top of giant bonfires.  And they set off fireworks.  So in honor of this blatantly anti-Catholic bit of British tradition, our flat climbed Calton hill to watch these fireworks.  To be honest, I didn't expect much of them, because, you know, we're American, we're like the master of fireworks with the Fourth and everything...um, wrong.  They were pretty fabulous.  And then once the main show was done there were dozens of fireworks popping up from all over the city.  It was a really beautiful view of Edinburgh as well, especially because it was at night.  And then we went to Starbucks and sat and talked.

This morning I went to St. Andrews with the American guy from my small group, Andrew, and an older man he met at church who had volunteered to take him sightseeing around Scotland.  So we spent the morning driving at leisure up the coast, stopping to see Edinburgh from across the Firth of Forth as the mist rose.  He treated us to lunch at the Anstruther Fish Bar, home to 'Scotland's Best Fish and Chips'.  They were, in fact, really, really good.  Following that we continued up to St. Andrews, where he gave us a quick overview of the town and then sat down with his book, leaving Andrew and me to explore.  It was incredibly historical, so we spent several hours going into free museums, gaping at incredibly old St. Andrews University buildings, and wandering through cathedral ruins.  We also checked out the beach where they filmed the Chariots of Fire scene and I picked up some seashells from the North Sea.  It was really quite a fun day.

Also this week: I tried Marmite for the first time!  It's the British version of Vegemite, that weird Australian thing that no one understands.  It. is. NASTY.  Ugggghhhh.  I took one bite and gagged.  Apparently it's 'yeast extract'...oh my gosh.  So disgusting.  It's just incredibly salty and...ew.  Nope.

ALSO this week: I finally baked a pumpkin!  I didn't get to do it with the jack-o-lanterns; it was too warm in our kitchen and by November 1st they had completely molded over on the inside.  So I got another one, baked half of it, and made the other half into pumpkin soup.  The soup turned out really incredibly well, actually.  I thought it was delicious.  Tina even said it was better than her mum's.  I was so proud.  :)

Paris next weekend!!  OHMYGOODNESS!!!

Love,
Melody