Mid-Semester Break: Day 10/10

You guys. This. Is. CRAZY. My break is over! Gone! E` finito!

Which means I should have gone all-out today and done really crazy and exciting things and YOLO-d it up, right? Wellllll....I didn't.

First, I finished reading Damaged. I was so drained afterward! My head was a bit of a scrambled-egg-like mess.

Then, I spent some time studying. I know. Crazy. I also spent a large amount of time looking up things about graduate school. Which was scary. I think I freaked myself out a bit. Mostly, all of the interesting career paths for a psych major like me require a Ph.D.

THAT IS SO MUCH SCHOOL! 

I want to go out into the world and be done already! It would be about 7ish more years. I would be almost 30! I would be SO OLD AND WRINKLY!

Anyway. I'm done freaking out about that. You know, until tomorrow.

So yeah, today was a pretty chill day. Most of the people in my hall got back from their breaks. I made macaroni and cheese with broccoli in a mug for dinner. The sauce was a bit soupy, but not nearly as messy as last time! I just need to get the milk to cheese proportions correct.

That's all for now, folks. Tomorrow night some of us are going on a ghost walk of Stirling...I'm really excited. We're also all dressing up like witches, I think.

Mid-Semester Break: Day 9/10

I can't believe the break is almost over. It went by so fast! I also slept incredibly well last night, especially in comparison to the past few nights. Which makes me really wish I hadn't set my alarm so I could have slept longer!

Anyway, today was kind of.... A lumpish day. I sent off a few email that were long overdue. And I did laundry. But mostly I read. Right now I'm reading Damaged by Cathy Glass. It's non-fiction, written by this woman who cares for foster children in England about an especially challenging case of an extremely disturbed and hurt eight yearold girl. It's incredibly hard to put down, but also extremely emotionally draining, so although I have not done a lot today my brain is pretty much scrambled and I feel exhausted.

I also cleaned my room and did dishes! The drawers in my desk are not too functional, and I was tired of the drawer popping out of its place every time I opened it, so I moved everything out of it and under my bed. Which is fine, but means I forever have to be super careful about leaving my window open. I don't know if I mentioned this earlier, but squirrels here like to jump into rooms here and eat your food if you leave your window open while you're out. They don't even have the courtesy to clean up after themselves. I made this mistake once, and although he or she could not break through the plastic tupperware full of oats, I have certainly learned my lesson!

Also guys, I am missing out on the Giants in the World Series. Again. So unfair! It's like they WAIT for me to go far away to do this. HELLOOO!? Where were they the first EIGHTEEN YEARS OF MY LIFE??? Why couldn't they just win in 2002??? I can't even watch the watered down play-by-play on the MLB site because of the time difference. UGH!

But let's be real, missing out on watching my man Tim Lincecum play is one of the reasons I am so upset.

I really just like him so much. So much. Even with his er, affinity for herbs, as it were. And even though this season was pretty rough for him.

Anyway, cleaning, laundry, and reading was basically my day. It was kind of housewife-y, so I will try to remedy that tomorrow.

Mid-Semester Break: Day 8/10

Lions, and tigers, and bears! Oh my!

If you couldn't tell, I went to the Edinburgh Zoo today. Oh my gosh! It was so cool! I saw giant pandas! And penguins! And lions, tigers, and bears! Oh my!

Me pretending I am a penguin
outside the zoo, do
you think I will blend in? =]

Pelican! They're huge! At one
point a line of 4 of them was
following a little boy as he
 ran back and forth.
Cute! They were bigger
than him, too!

We spent so long there! Pretty much from 11:30 until 3. We got to see the giant pandas at 1pm. Their names are Tian Tian (Female) and Yang Guang (Male). They're visiting the Edinburgh zoo for ten years on loan from China. They're hoping to try to get the two to mate. Female pandas have only TWO DAYS OUT OF THE YEAR when they can mate. That is crazy! Pssh, human causing habitat destruction what? This is the REAL cause of their endangerment.

Tian Tian

Yang Guang

My other favorite part was, as you may be able to guess, the penguins. Unfortunately, they are remodeling the main penguin habitat, so only two of their three colonies were on display. I saw Gentoo and Rockhopper Penguins (but missed out on King Penguins =[ ). They were so cute! I even saw the rockhoppers being fed! Acgh! I was going to take one home with me, but then the zookeeper was there....

Gentoo Penguin, also my soulmate

Rockhopper Penguin

Some other cool animals I saw:

Swamp wallaby

Zebra

I think the wallaby is especially funny because I have heard that in Australia (where wallabies hail from) in one of their zoos they have sheep and hairy coos!

A really cute baby monkey!

Barbary Macaque

The zoo itself was absolutely gorgeous! I could wander around it all day!

The entire time we were at the zoo we were FREEZING though! This is partly because we had to walk a long way to get there. We thought the bus would drop us right in front of the zoo, as it normally does, but then it didn't! So we walked. And were freezing. Although the day warmed up a bit, we were pretty much left over cold from the morning the entire time.

Then, on the bus on the way back, it snowed. IT SNOWED IN OCTOBER! Which reminded me of last October and Halloween weekend when there was the ridiculous snowstorm. But I was refusing to put on my winter jacket because it was October and I did not like the principle of it. So I walked around in the snowstorm with a normal jacket on, going to work and delivering cupcakes and all that fun stuff! Some people thought I was crazy, I think. 

I then finished the really good rice I made last night, which as I mentioned in the last post, was not as good the second time around, but still yummy. 

Mid-Semester Break: Day 7/10

Er.......I just completely blanked on posting this yesterday. Oops. Anyway, I will post for yesterday, then today. Promise! I am just going to sit here and crank them out!

Mostly, I just did work yesterday. I woke up and made some oatmeal. I am a little sick of oatmeal now, but oh well! I will just find new ways to make it interesting.

I joined a society called People and Planet-basically an environmental group on campus. The people are really sweet, and I like it a lot! Students can buy "veg bags" (bags of vegetables from a local and organic farm) from them and yesterday was the delivery. I went to help carry the bags from the car to the office, but I wasn't really sure where to go. I went to an office that I thought was correct and talked to the people there. They knew about the veg bags, but were reluctant to let us leave them there for students to pick up. They also seemed confused about what I was doing there-they kept thinking I was there to buy one, when really I just wanted to find the person who delivers them and help them carry things! As you can probably guess, I went back to Geddes with nothing accomplished.

After this I posted the day before's blog post on Glasgow. Then I made either very flat pancakes, or thick crepes (I had no baking soda/powder). Then I skyped my favourite tall blond friend.

FINALLY I sat down and did work! Real work! It was grand!

For dinner I made pretty much the best fried rice/stir fry I have ever made. It was so good. I couldn't stop eating it! Right now I am eating the leftovers, and it's not quite as good, but still delicious!

Mid-Semester Break: Day 6/10

Hey ya'll =] I know I said I would post every day, but it was out of my control! They were doing maintenance on the internet last night and it was down! Not my fault! So I will post about yesterday AND today (once today is over) today.

Moving on. Yesterday my friend and I took the bus into Glasgow. As you may or may not know, Stirling is smack in between Scotland's two biggest cities; Edinburgh (The capital), and Glasgow (The one with the largest population). Edinburgh is very pretty, and there are lots of tourist spots and places of historical significance. Glasgow, on the other hand, is said to be good pretty much just for shopping and nightlife. Although they have a really cool science center I would like to go to. Most people are either "Edinburgh" or "Glasgow" people-they like one or the other. Now, I really liked what I saw of Edinburgh, so I didn't really know what to expect going into Glasgow (especially as I am not a shopping and nightlife kind of gal).

Our first stop after the bus pulled in was a mall across the street. Now, we didn't know it was a mall when we went in, we just saw a store and decided to check it out. The store, John Lewis, was very much like Macy's, I would say. In addition to having things out for Halloween, there was also a "Christmas Shoppe" floor! Uhm....And I thought places in The U.S. jumped the gun! Wow! Once we realized it was a mall, we did lots of exploring around the place. We went into Hollister to see if it was different than the ones in the States, but it wasn't.

Well, it apparently wasn't. I had never been into a Hollister before this, so I have to trust my friend's judgement. All I know is that in the States the employees have to wear flip-flops, even if it is the winter in New England. Which to me is a little ridiculous. The employees here were all wearing flip-flops as well.

After wandering around the mall in search of a leather jacket and/or bag for my friend, we decided to venture outside. Sidenote: There was a film crew in one of the cafes filming something, but we had no idea what. There were tons of people gathered around though!

Glasgow!

Anyway. Outside. First we stopped for lunch/snack at a place called Pret a Manger. I got some yogurt and granola, and bread with butter. I realize this is a weird combo, but don't judge! It was delicious.

After this we started wandering up the street-stopping in at the stores that seemed interesting. We went into this HUGE bookstore-Waterstones. Which I think is very similar to our Barnes and Noble. There were so many books I wanted to read! But I already have two in my room that I should finish....

Do the Monster Mash/It's a Graveyard Smash
(Monster books on display)

After this we decided we wanted to go to Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art. Despite all the maps, we got a little turned around and it took about half of forever to get there. A little embarrassing, since it is only a five or so minute walk from the mall we were originally in. On our way, we ended up at the City Chambers, which was really pretty!

A little early for this, I think!

City Chambers!

Tree!

FINALLY we made it to the Gallery of Modern Art.

You know the kind of cliche things in Modern Art galleries that people make fun of?

This one had it all. Including a framed post-it. A framed post-it. Granted, it did have some writing on it "Just popped out/ back in two hours". The museum curator or attendant was kind enough to explain to me the significance of the post it. The man who, uhm, "created" it put on a play (type-thing) where he sat on a stool with the post-it taped to his forehead the entire time.  The curator said it was about how we all need to pop out for two hours. He also said it was related to mental health issues.

I am sorry, and I mean no disrespect. But it is a post-it. And it is framed. In an art gallery. The curator said that people often get angry when they see a framed post it in the art gallery-and boy-oh-boy to I empathize with them! Although I was not angry, I am still of the belief that it is a post-it and that there is no need to frame it or fuss about it. No matter what it says about mental health.

Anyway. It wasn't all terrible. There were some things that I liked (if you are interested):

Fischli, Peter; Weiss, David. Masturbine. 1984.
Feldmann, Hans-Peter. Handprint Posters. (There were several of these that made up the display).
Churm,  Rob. Dank Anvill. 2009.  (Though I possibly wrote down the title wrong).
Sherry, David. Painted Hair Performance, Basel. 2010. (This is the post-it guy).
Frost, Alex. Adult (Ryvita/Crackerbread). 2007.
Hockney, David. Photography is Dead, Long Live Painting. 1995.
Starling, Simon. Tabernas Desert Run. 2004. (A bike running on electricity from a fuel cell that the artist used to travel across the Tabernas Desert).
Petrol Bomb. c 1979-81.
Hujar, Peter. West Side Parking Lots. 1976.
Hujar, Peter. Hallway, Canal Street Pier. 1976.
Horn, Roni. This is Me, this is You. 1998-2000. (Not this exact installation).

There was also a really creepy room filled with ventriloquist dummies. I mean REALLY CREEPY. I have heard rumours from a semi-sometimes-reliable source (AKA my father who gets a kick out of telling me things that aren't true and seeing how long I will believe them) that ventriloquists are the weirdest of the street performers. And boy, do I believe it! There were all these portraits of the dummies, sometimes with the ventriloquist, sometimes not. And then the dummies were right there! The lighting also added to the creepiness, and we got out of there quickly.

After this, we went to dinner at Horton's. Pretty much the one of the coolest places to eat I have ever been to. It is a "Bar and Kitchen" with all sorts of wooden tables and couches and cushy chairs and really high ceilings. I got a "Mediterranean vegetarian" panino with chips (fries). Though chips weren't really necessary, because the sandwich was so filling! And delicious. Oh my goodness. So good. There were peppers, pesto, taleggio (cheese),  and cucumber on it. And some leafy green stuff. So. Good. SO GOOD.

Anyway. The meal was really great! But I think the staff switched shifts and we were forgotten about, so it took us an hour to get out of there after we finished, since they forgot to give us the check. After this we wandered around a little bit. The pedestrian street we'd been on earlier in the day was all lit up, and we took lots of pictures before heading to the bus station.

Then the adventure of getting home really began! First, we stopped at Sainsbury's for something sweet. We got Fiendish Fancies. Which are this mini cake things that are deLICious! However, they are very Halloween-like so now we are wondering if they only come out around Halloween- like Scotland's version of candy corn. 

Our bus was supposed to leave at 7:15PM. We get to the bus station at 6:45, and check which stand to wait in. The board says that the 7:15 bus to Stirling leaves from stand 33, so we wait there. At 7:15 a bus pulls in going to Stirling. However, it's a different bus service. Normally this would be a red flag, but here sometimes buses operate through each other-so although you may purchase tickets through Megabus, you will be on a CityLink bus. Much like how you can purchase tickets through United, but your flight will be through American or Continental.

When we handed the bus driver our tickets, she told us that they're for a different service. Great. We ran over to the information desk and ask where we are supposed to get our bus and she tells us a different stand. Apparently, there are TWO buses from Glasgow to Stirling that leave at 7:15. The stand she tells us to wait at is eerily empty, and we ask a CityLink representative if the bus left yet, and she said it did!

Great, right? 

Luckily she was able to change our tickets to the next bus (an hour later than our original one, and with a rescheduling fee), which was nice, but so stressful! We were both beat and just wanted to get home!

Finally, around 10pm I stumbled back into Geddes Court, up the stairs, and into my room. Whew! I was happy to be back in one piece. This is when I found out that the University was doing maintenance on the internet, and that it would be down until morning. I really love how they warn us about these things. -_- I'm just glad I didn't have actual work to do. 

Anyway! That was Glasgow! From what I have seen of Edinburgh, and what I have seen of Glasgow, I think I like Glasgow more. Just a teensy bit more though. Although I concede that Edinburgh is prettier, Glasgow just....is more comfortable. And it reminds me of Boston. Which is nice.

Now to do some REAL work today....

Mid-Semester Break: Day 5/10

Today I finally saw The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Agh! It was so good. I cannot say enough about it! But I just need to put this out there: Emma Watson is so gorgeous I don't think I can look at her for that long ever again. No more movies with her in it for me! Also, her American accent was interesting. You could hear her foreignness/Englishness in her vowel pronunciation.

Anyway, to backtrack a little before this my friend and I went to Frankie and Benny's and had pizza. Once again, it was so good I can't say enough about it. I have not had pizza in so long! And it was so so delicious! And it was thin crust, which was even better. Ugh. So good it breaks my heart!

I guess I will just keep rewinding through my day. Before pizza and the movie, I was planning on getting work done. Ahaha! Good joke, right? Instead of researching, or filling in psychology notes, I made about five possible schedules for next semester. Clark just published the course list yesterday, and there are so many things I want to take! But not nearly enough room =[ I also finished filling in my ballot and mailed it! Woo-hoo! Finally! It should get there by November 6th, I should think.

Tomorrow we are going into Glasgow...We are going to be there all day! I haven't been in yet, and I'm not sure what we'll do to fill all the hours, but we'll see! I will definitely take lots of pictures and write a better post than this one tomorrow =]

Mid-Semester Break: Day 4/10

Today was not quite as beautiful as yesterday-but still just as enjoyable. But first things first, there were two things I forgot to mention about yesterday!

1. I saw the CUTEST little Ginger baby. She smiled at me. And it pretty much made my day. She was so cute, oh my goodness. I can't even think about it or I get giddy.

2. I saw something very... Strange. So here I was walking back from the library and there is a group of five or so men of varying ages walking towards me. They were all wearing either army print jackets or pants, but not both. And.... they were all carrying various birds of prey on their arms-with protective gloves of course. They were walking like it was no big deal that they were just chillin' with some falcons! Erm, what???

Anyway, on to today.

I walked around Bridge of Allan with a friend in the afternoon-she hadn't been in yet so it seemed like a good idea. Bridge of Allan is quite small, but really cute! And pretty. We made plans for the rest of the week, mostly pertaining to how we are going to use up 11 eggs! Yes, I have 11 eggs at the moment that will go off soon.
We are thinking:

Brownies
Lemon cake
Pancakes
Other yummy things that will make us the size of marshmallows!

Our first course of action was to make brownies tonight. And although they were from a mix, and just a tad burned, they were delicious! Oh my goodness! We then watched 500 Days of Summer. A really good movie, if you haven't seen it.

Also. Umbarrassin Confession #1,192: We ate all the brownies. Yes. You are reading that correctly. We ate a whole box of brownies. Do not judge! (Too much)

And that was pretty much my day! I also did some school work, which made me feel like a good productive human being. And I finished up the last of my Bakersam strawberry jam....I have a jar of Tesco brand strawberry jam in my drawer....I'm a little bit nervous, so I will let you know how that goes.

On a side note  When I got back to campus tonight, I realized that the shirt I was wearing under my dress smelled like caramel apples and bacon. It was really weird. Because I have had none of those things recently! I wish there was someone I could have asked for a second opinion on it (Preferably my favourite Blond friend who hopefully would not have judged me for it). It really did smell like caramel apples and bacon! Weird!

Mid-Semester Break: Day 3/10

Today was the most gorgeous day I have experienced in Forever. It was warm, but not hot. And it smelled alternately like summer and autumn. At least one of those is appropriate. I think I kept walking by places having a barbecue or doing something with charcoal, because I kept smelling it which is what reminded me of summer.

Anyway. I stayed up far too late last night reading Perks of Being a Wallflower, and this morning I got up and finished it. At this point I realized I should probably change out of my pajamas and you know, do silly things like eat breakfast and start my day.

I could see out the window that it was sunny. But I mean, this is Scotland (saying that never gets old!), and that really means nothing in terms of translating to temperature. So I put on my jacket and went outside, ready for the cold.

To my surprise, I really didn't need the jacket! I was probably going to be the only dork wearing one on my walk into town! I just kept it on, since I did not feel like climbing the stairs to the fifth floor of Geddes and putting it back.

Lately, I have been worried about autumn. You see, in San Francisco it doesn't really happen. The leaves don't change that much, and everything is pretty much the same. Then I moved to New England, and wow! It is beautiful! So when it got to be October here, and everything looked the same, I got worried. After being spoiled with two beautiful falls, I was not about to give it up that easily. I mean, a few trees changed colours.  And some leaves fell. And there were pumpkin flavoured things at the Starbucks in Edinburgh. But it just didn't feel like fall yet!

Which is why, when I went outside today, I was very happy to see that the trees had finally caught on to the change in seasons. I mean, fo' realz! It's about time!

Now all I need is a pumpkin latte, muffin, pie, and some bread and my fall will be complete =]

Speaking of fall things, apples! I bought some apples the other day, and even though they are not green apples (the best kind), they're so good! And I eat one every day, in order to keep the doctor away and all that. I also found this thing online, called "Apples in a bag" that is basically a quick 2 minute way to make an apple pie-like filling to eat. I've made it twice now and put it in my oatmeal-it is deLIIICious, oh my goodness!

Anyway, after taking this fall-walk, I went to the library (lie-berry) on campus. First, I printed my ballot so that I can mail it tomorrow and be a good participating citizen. Then I checked out the DVD selections they have, and it is pretty....all over the place. Pretty much any film adaptation of a Jane Austen novel can be found there, as well as Braveheart, Pirates of the Caribbean  some Daffy Duck et al. cartoon, and a handful of American tv-shows, though never the full series. For instance, they have two copies of the first season of 24, and a couple of discs of True Blood. I checked out two movies, but it was later pointed out that they might not play on my computer, so we will see.

Also, it has come to my attention that my friend, who claimed I would not be able to blog all break, now thinks that they have successfully used reverse psychology on me, and they are so pleased with themselves for having used my own area of study against me. Well, the joke is on them because I have actually used psychology to make them THINK they had that effect on me, when in reality I am just living my own life and enjoy the occasional Princess Bride reference.

For dinner tonight I tried to make Mac n' cheese in a mug. I was expecting this.

The reality was a lot messier than this. I also burned my finger and tongue, so that was lovely. The mixture was very soupy, and I kept sticking it back in the microwave hoping to evaporate the heck out of it and make it better. This proved exceptionally silly because I know that milk expands when heated up, yet I tried this method anyway and got cheesy milk all over the microwave dish.

Anyway, the flavour was good! What I could taste, at least. I think next time I will use less milk, and let it sit longer to cool and thicken.

Mid-Semester Break: Day 2/10

Someone told me that I would not succeed in blogging every day of the break. I am setting out to prove them wrong and WILL blog every day. But they must have known I would do this--in which case I should prove them wrong about my predictability and NOT blog every day. But then, they must know that I would assume this about them, and therefore I SHOULD blog every day.

Well. Anyway. I will just live my life! Humph!

Today was a pretty good day. I was fairly social, which I was not expecting. First, I woke up earlier than I wanted to, but couldn't get back to sleep. So I skyped a friend. Then, I decided I should do some schoolwork, but also thought it was too early to be starting such a thing, so I skyped ANOTHER friend.

I know. I'm cray.


I took a bus into town and recorded part of the journey from the *Top* deck. It's a little shaky, but also sitting in the front on the top is a bumpy ride...

Similar to this, but in black of course.
I would not get far in these things....

A friend and I wandered around Stirling in the afternoon. We went into some shops and tried on shoes. I would appreciate it if you kept your comments about girl stereotypes to yourself, thank-you-very-much! But also, there were these really nice ones. But I would not have been able to walk in them.







Then we wandered over a bridge to the other side of the tracks.

It was not as dramatic as it seems. There was an New York Italian restaurant, a movie theatre, and some sort of.... area and building closed off by barbed wire. Don't worry, I will break in later and report back. There was a pathway that follows the river but there were so many gnats that we turned back!

At this point I would like to make a confession. A week ago, for reasons out of my control, I went into a McDonald's. I saw that they have Raspberry and Flake McFlurries, and decided that I would want to go back and try one. Well....today I did. I didn't go in with any expectations-to be honest I didn't really know what a McFlurry was other than ice cream.

Well. It was pretty delicious. I'm not gonna lie.

I also have another confession to make. At this point in the day, I had only had sugar to eat. I had leftover cinnamon cake and banana bread for breakfast, then this.

Breakfast! Minus the cookies.

HOWEVER!

I proceeded to have a real dinner! So I still reserve the right to forever complain about the time Little Iggy had chocolate cake for dinner.

Anyway, my friend lent me The Perks of Being a Wallflower so that I can read it then we can see it. So I'm going to go shower, make some tea, and do that =]

Mid-Semester Break: Day 1/10

Today was my first day of the mid-semester break! Yipee! Well, technically it starts tomorrow but I have no classes on Fridays, so I count today as the start.

Anyway. I have been feeling a bit melancholy lately. Mostly due to some home/Clark/hippie/-sickness, as well as anxiety about the future-working, to grad school or not to grad school, living situation, etc. So I have just been puttering about in a very glum state. Today, however, was probably one of the best days I have had lately.

Unfortunately, it did not start off fantastically. Some idiot purposefully set off the fire alarm at half three this morning. I was not a happy camper, nor was anybody else! I couldn't get back to sleep until 5 or so, and by then I could hear birds chirping. I was going to sleep in, but then the fire alarm went off again at half nine or so-though only for a few seconds. In my tired stupor I was very confused-we test fire alarms on Wednesday, and this made me think it was Wednesday and that I had missed class. Anyway, I finally came to and realized that no, it was Friday, and who knows what that false alarm was about. I didn't get back to sleep though.

I went to a potluck tonight, which meant that this afternoon I baked some nutella cookies. I took lots of pictures to document the easy and delicious process =]

First! I got all my ingredients together. All four of them, that is.

That's right! Just four things: 1 cup flour, 1 cup nutella (or other chocolate-hazelnut spread), a half cup of sugar, and one egg! You just mix all that in one bowl!

Once I had everything stirred together to form a dough I rolled 1" balls, then squished them on the baking sheet. 

Sidenote: The sugar granules in granulated sugar here are bigger than in the States. They're not huge or anything, but you can feel them crunch when you eat the cookie (dough). 

I don't know why this is rotated weird. -_-

Then I baked them at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, or 180ish degrees Celsius, for 7ish minutes. And TA-DA!

This one is rotated normal!

The overall verdict: Delicious, but not the most aesthetically pleasing. I also would like the change the texture a bit to make them less sticky/chewy and more soft. But they really are just like sticking a spoonful of nutella in your mouth!

Anyway. I took the bus into town to go to the girls' flat where we were having the potluck. Only....I missed the bus on the way there and the next wasn't coming for about 10 or 15 minutes. Which was fine. It wasn't even cold out! I was standing outside the bus shelter when it started to drizzle, so I stepped inside with the other people. Everything was so quiet except for the soft rushing of the rain. It was really weird. I also kept expecting to look up and see Totoro right there. Mostly because of the lighting, rain, and waiting for the bus situation. 

Finally, I got there, after getting turned around a bit when walking there from the bus stop. Despite being late, I was still the first one. Once everyone got there (just four of us), it became apparent that we had all brought something sweet. Nothing wrong with that, right? Well, one girl made these savoury pancakes with sweetcorn and peppers that were really good. But otherwise we had my cookies, cinnamon cake bars, chocolate chip banana bread, and blueberry muffins.

So....I guess I can no longer complain about the time my dad let Iggy eat chocolate cake for dinner. Because that is pretty much what I did. Though I think this is more like the time when Iggy had a couple of carrots before the cake, rather than just straight-up cake. So I probably will still, and always, complain about the one time ALL HE ATE WAS CHOCOLATE CAKE FOR DINNER!!!

Ahem. Anyway. These people know how to cook! Everything was so delicious-I have not dined so well in ages! Fo' realz though! The blueberry muffins were even better than those at the Noe Valley Bakery! They were like....madeline cookies with blueberries in muffin form. Basically. And the cinnamon cake was so yummy and buttery. And the pancakes were so good, and now I think I will have to try making them! Mmm. And the banana bread was so perfect. Oh my goodness. Ugh.

We also played some really intense French card games-Dobble and Jungle Speed. Seriously, I was so anxious and my heart was beating so fast even though we were just sitting there. And I couldn't stop laughing, which did not make things easier.

Around 11 I decided I should probably get back to campus-especially since the buses run less often at that point. One of the other girls (the maker of the fantastic muffins) walked with me to the bus stop. At first I thought she was taking the bus too, but when the bus came she said that she actually just lived around the corner and was just waiting with me. It was really sweet! 

Basically. Today was just a really good day, and definitely made me happier than I have been the past couple days. Also. We exchanged baked goods so now I have some banana bread for breakfast tomorrow. I'm excited =]

19 Things

Hey ya'll! So my little Iggy wrote me a letter requesting more pictures and "snarky/Scottish jokes". Unfortunately I don't have any jokes at the moment, but I have some Scottish tidbits of information! So that will have to do for now =]

#1: "Fancy dress" refers to a costume, not a dress that is fancy. It's good I had other plans during the Fancy Dress Pub Crawl, otherwise it could have been AWKward.






#2: All chips are fries, but not all fries are chips. Or maybe it's the other way around. Either way, "chips" seems to be what our "steak-cut" fries are. The skinny kind and everything else are just called fries.

#3: Some interesting stereotypes or beliefs of America(ns):

• We all of swimming pools.
• We all have Hispanic gardeners
• It's very hot
• We worry about getting sick all the time
• Everyone speaks Spanish

#4: Although this isn't Scottish, this is something I have recently learned of Canada. The War of 1812, which we have nicknamed our "Second War for Independence", is taught very differently in Canada. Whereas in the U.S. we teach it as:

England (After the Revolutionary War): LOL good joke guys. We're gonna stick some trade embargoes on you and kidnap your sailors and give them scurvy and make them wipe our decks.

The U.S.: No, really guys. We're independent, leave us alone.

And then the war took place.

However, in Canada it is taught as a war between Canada and the United States, which they proceeded to win.

#5: Braveheart (1995) is quite popular (or at least more than expected), though not for it's historical accuracy.

#6: There is this thing called "Squash". It's a juice concentrate that comes in a bottle, no refrigeration required, that you just mix with a little water to have juice. Perfect for making single servings!



#7: There are definitely more potato chip flavours here than in the U.S. There are a lot of meat flavours as well; such as "prawn cocktail" and "BB-Q Steak". There are also "Worcestershire Sauce" flavoured ones. The colors of the bags here are also different. For instance, in the U.S. where blue means Salt and Vinegar and green means Sour Cream and Onion, here it is reversed.

#8: Yorkies are NOT just for girls.

#9: Ketchup here is much sweeter than at home.

#10: The excess sweetness in the ketchup probably comes from the lack of sweetness in the candy bars. Candy companies usually have an "American" recipe for the bar, and an "International" recipe for the bar, the American one is sweeter.

#11: English grammar is hard! I was proofreading a girl's essay (she's not a native speaker, though her English is very good), and it was hard to explain all the rules and why there is a certain word order and when you use certain words in certain situations but not others. My goodness!

#12: Everyone is very interested and knows a lot about the upcoming election. I joined the politics society to learn about politics here, but we have mostly been talking about American politics.

#13: Window screens are not normal here. This is because there was never a problem with lots of insects and bugs until recent years when climate change kicked in/ starting having a more visible effect and the bugs' habitats changed/expanded (or something).

#14: Our "grilled cheese" is called a "cheese toastie". There are also little re-usable bags that you can get where you make a sandwich, put it in the bag, then stick the bag in the toaster, and then BOOM! You have a toastie.



#15: "College", "University", and "School" are not interchangeable. "School" means primary/secondary school. "College" is something else, it seems to be where you go if you don't get into Uni. "Uni(versity)" is what we refer to as University/College/etc.


#16: Again, not about Scotland, but in Norway you can start Kindergarten when you are one-years-old. Kindergarten then lasts for about three or four years (depending when you start), and you start proper school around five.

#17: "Ketchup" is just called "sauce".

#18: "Taking someone's biscuit" is equivalent to "Pulling someone's leg"

#19: The letter Z isn't used.