Greetings from a Fluorescent-Lighted Room

All right, time for my first official post from Edinburgh proper. I arrived... lets see... five days ago? That sounds about right. I arrived not-so-promptly around 6pm on Sunday, with most of the city already shutting down, and had a temporary lapse of ennui when I couldn't for the life of me find a flatmate and nobody answered the various collect calls I patched through from an extremely sketchy phone booth. However, things took a turn for the better when I returned to my flat and met one of my flatmates, Carrie-from-Boston, who I promptly (remembering Jessie's advice) asked if she'd eaten.

Since then things have passed in a bit of a how-much-can-I-cram-in-one-day blur, though I've been trying to slow things down a bit I remind myself that I have an entire schoolyear here and don't have to fit everything into the first week. Sunday we went drinking; Monday Carrie and I got lost several times, figured out the lay of the city a bit better, found cheap grocery & household supply stores, and she got her very-bad-news. Tuesday, more getting lost, the purchasing of a cellphone, and of course international students' night at Bannmerans (on the way there we - you guessed it! - got lost). Wednesday... oh lord, when was Wednesday again?... Oh yes, Carrie left for Bath and Geeta was spending the day with her aunt and uncle, so I registered with the doctor, sorted out some more of the nasty details of opening a bank account, found my first vegan store, an adorable little market-type thing called Jordan Valley that had vegan pasties and fair trade chocolate bars.

Yesterday, being Thursday, was very full. In the morning I went to the societies fair where I put my name down on the mailing list of anything that sounded even remotely interesting: Indie Music, independent journalism, classics, english literature, film, chococolate, canoeing, yoga, traditional scottish country dance... you name it, I've signed up for it. We'll wait and see, of course, how many I actually sign up for. After that I had my appointment with my director of studies (everyone calls them a dos), which is basically an academic advisor. He was more than an hour behind on his appointments, but while waiting outside I met a lovely Danish girl name Stina who had the most amazing dreadlocks. Despite the lateness, still managed to make it to the free tour of the Museum of Scotland, which was delivered by this adorably doddering old Scotsman who told hilariously rambling anecdotes that all seemed to sort of flow organically into one another. Also, the museum has a viking exhibit. (Also, non-chronological sidenote, today I passed by the museum of surgery or something, which has a terrifying exhibit on the history of surgery, which I clearly have to check out.) Anyway, the tour was specially for international students so I met a whole lot of eastern european girls who I cannot for the life of me remember today. (Another side note, this one on weather: Sunday through Wednesday were beautiful and sunny and warm. Thursday was miserable. Is was cold and pissing rain all day. I was soaked to the knees and completely horrified. I kept asking people if this was what it was normally like, and they just kept giving me these pitying looks... need more antifrizz...) Anyway, Thursday evening I'd been planning to go to various possible events, but the rain scared me a lot. Eventually, however, it did let up, and Geeta and I went to a party in this building called Teviot. Very cool venue, it's got about six bars and generally each one has a different theme. Last night that basement-bar was having this thing called Revolucion! which was basically a salsa party with a token poster of Che Guevera and some bowls of salsa set out. It started with a relatively lame salsa lesson, but after that turned into an awesome open dance, with salsa/mambo/etc music mixed with regular club music. Sort of like Calentias with a much younger crowd. The boys here are at once much more forward and much more polite. I mean, they ask if you want to dance before just grabbing you, but they certainly don't hesitate to ask. Danced for quite a while with a short postgraduate named Paul, who despite having the beeriest breath in the world thoroughly charmed me with his thick Scottish accent. Geeta, as it turns out, is an excellent salsa dancer, and in the manner of beautiful petite girls who clearly know how to dance, was continually swept up by beautiful latino men who spun her around the dance floor. So hot. Met a stunning Nigerian girl named Issie who danced with us all night and gave me her cell number. Yay friends! We headed out when I was just so hot I though I would die or melt, and then walked home through the cold (though thankfully no longer wet) night trying to drip-dry. As we returned to our flats, we saw that a whole bunch of kids from the other blocks (Fraser Court is divided into three blocks - we're in block 3) had gathered outside and were drinking and smoking. Geeta (whose sociably makes her an excellent person to hang out with) insisted we go over and introduce ourselves, so we sat out with them for about half an hour, just chatting. Met various drunk-out-of-their-minds first years, and picked up my first bit of hilarious scottish slang. Apparently "gay" here is used in the actually context of terrifically happy or good, like as a qualifier. So if something is great you call it "gay-good." I died. Also met some lovely girls from the same block as us, though i can't remember their names. There was a party starting at 2am in block 1, but I was too sweaty and tired and had no interest in drinking (three days of drinking in a row killed me, I felt SO sick on Wednesday, and have vowed that I have nothing to prove and will return to my days of teetotalling) so Geeta and I retired. Excellent night, though. Everybody loves salsa.

Today I had this vague notion of going to the canoe society's beach bbq to ask if they did exclusively white-water canoeing or if they supported something a touch milder, but I missed the bus (no salt n peppa reference intended). I actually hadn't realized there would BE a bus - I though beach bbq was, like, metaphorical or something. Once I realized that, I was kind of glad I hadn't gone, because I didn't want to be trapped outside the city all day with a whole lot of grilling meat. Instead I finished up the necessary preparations for opening a bank account, then went to the Classics Society Symposium. There's this lovely open meadow (called, creatively, The Meadows) out behind George Square, which is the central-most part of the otherwise-very-scattered uni. Basically they all met out there, with wine and cheese and the organizers wearing bedsheet togas, hung out on blankets and chatted. I met three very friendly 2nd-years - Julia, Heather and Lauren - upon whom I imposed myself shamelessly, and just sort of sat around chatting for the afternoon. Very nice, very relaxing. We parted ways around 5ish (though I got Lauren's cell and an invite out on Sunday - yay more friends!)then I bought something to read and some school supplies, phoned my grandfather, who has been leaving me befuddling messages all day, and headed back to my flat. There are a whole lot of events going on tonight, in which I could quite easily participate, but I'm feeling a little off crowds tonight so I figured instead I would read and chill, and finally post something on my much-neglected blog. As soon as I have internet in my actual room, I will also post some pictures of the city and my flat.

So, that's it for my update. I'm still feeling happy I've come and excited. So much so, in fact, that I'm reconsidering the idea of getting a job here (though don't tell my Dad, he'd have a fit) just because I don't want it to interfere with all the other stuff I want to do (yes Jessie, you were right, you're always right, whatever). Having little spurts of loneliness for my girls, because meeting new people is always exhausting for me, and I miss being around people who know me so completely, but all in all I'm happy and healthy, and exciting about the start of classes next week.