First Encounters

Hello Friends!

Or perhaps I should say "Hi'ya!"  This is the way almost every Scottish person has greeted me since I arrived in Edinburgh, to which I of course awkwardly do a "uh, hi" and ask some question that leaves them staring at me blankly like I'm from outer space.  For example, my new Indian roommate and I were searching for the postgraduate office building and the map was fairly unhelpful.  So we tried the door of the building where it appeared to be located - locked.  So we proceeded to the next door which had a placard stating it is the Career Office, but we figured we would just ask someone in there for directions.  First, the entryway was dilapidated and, judging by the state of the walls, it was either in the process of being renovated or had just been cleared of an infestation of rabid raccoons.  So we said a tentative hello, nobody answered, but in peering into the first room, there sat three very unpleasant-looking men who most certainly could not have helped anyone with their career.  I asked politely where the postgraduate office was, one sneered, "I think it's in the library...that 12 story tall building just down the way."  Okay, aside from the not-so-subtle dig at us for not being able to find this apparently looming tower that nobody with half a brain can miss, his advice was total crap since that wasn't even the right building.  Fail.  I'm going to blame that unfortunate interaction on the Scottish propensity for drinking any night of the week.  They all looked really hungover, particularly the one guy who did not even lift his head off the table when I asked my question.  Add in the fact that there is even more incentive for them to drink mid-week right now with the international rugby cup going on (don't worry if you didn't realize this monumental event was happening - I had no clue until I arrived here and every sidewalk blackboard outside a pub is advertising their showing of the next rugby match) and therein lies the most logical explanation.

Everyone else has been really nice.  Tonight the same roommate and I went to a free dinner for international students, and I tried my first haggis (lamb liver in the form of like a pate mixed with a grain of some sort).  It sounds so disgusting, but I LOVED IT!  I don't know what that says about my tastebuds, seeing as I don't like normal stuff like onions, but I thought it has a good flavor and not a gross texture.  Little did I know this meal was to be followed by a ceilidh (those traditional Scottish/Irish partner dances they do at weddings - pronounced "kaylee"), so thankfully the haggis portion was small.  Talk about a workout!  Not to mention I felt like I was going to catch an elbow in the teeth at any second since there were a thousand people stuffed into a small space swinging and twirling.  My dance partner from Northern Ireland was not very adept at his role, so we just sort of stomped back and forth with his hands on my shoulders as the overly anxious undergrad in a kilt was shouting into the microphone to do.  Then, he would twirl me on the shouting man's command...let's just say the song seemed interminable and they made us do it twice.  I got so dizzy I was certain I was going to get disoriented and think backward was forward, thereby crushing the pocket person of a girl behind me.  However, it was really fun in the end.  Especially when we got to do the one where you prance around in a circle with 6 people, and then do the skip toward each other, stomp stomp.  Yeah, I was sweating profusely...of course.

Flight went well.  Apparently, other countries don't trust each other's security checks.  I had to go through security with my carry-on in Iceland, then again in Manchester after I had already been checked in Minneapolis.  Upon landing at Edinburgh, an ill-fated stop in the bathroom on my way to customs led to me being ABSOLUTE LAST IN LINE behind one thousand asian students who had landed at the same time I did and over an hour wait in the "queue."  So, thirteen and a half hours after leaving the States, I met my friend in the arrivals gate and had a lovely short evening chatting with her and her husband before I crashed for twelve hours straight!  My jet lag is pretty much over, although I couldn't tell whether that's what prompted my nap today or the gale force winds that almost knocked me off my feet all day as I was walking around campus.  High winds projected for tomorrow and then back to normal (rain and chilliness with brief glimpses of blue sky) apparently.

Will write again soon!  Cheers everyone, Dooley :)