Sometimes I get a little overwhelmed by how much goes on in my head. Right now, I'm thinking about storytelling as a mode of cultural presentation and preservation (for my essay), Julia Alvarez's memoir (which I just finished, and which ties in really nicely to the storytelling theme... I might end up using it as a source), how much I need to clean the kitchen (after Thanksgiving dinner, which was so fabulous... I will get to that later!), how nice it was to talk to my family, and how I wish I were with them, how much my grandpa would have loved to hear about my Thanksgiving enterprises, my looming exams and archaeology portfolio, and all of the things I need to do before I leave here (including: booking a hostel in Paris, figuring out when I'll leave Edinburgh for London before I go home, visiting a ton of Historic Scotland sites, going to more ceilidhs, spending as much time as possible with my friends, and probably most dauntingly: cleaning and packing up my room, the mere thought of which sends a shiver down my spine)in less than one month. There is so much that I have planned to do that I probably won't get done, but on the other hand, I have done so many more things that I had never even thought of doing!
I'm so glad to be going home in time for Christmas, okay... well, on Christmas, but I wish that I were going home with the knowledge that I'd be coming back here soon. It took me so long to settle myself and make friends and get involved with anything in Minnesota, but here, I began to feel like I belonged in a circle within four or five weeks of being at the uni. Edinburgh feels like home, except for that one little missing element of family. I know that I will come back sometime, but in my head, something says that it won't be enough to return once or twice on short vacations. Is this the beginning of a dream to move to Scotland? Perhaps it may just be... the whole darkness at 3 pm thing is a little off-putting, though. I think there are enough things to make up for that problem! There is so much to see here, and I feel like I have barely even covered a fourth of the city. I need to get out more often.
When I left home, I was already a little worried about what my first Thanksgiving away from home would be like. Would I have friends with whom I could celebrate? Would I be able to eat a Thanksgiving dinner, or would I be eating a bowl of soup? Well, let me just say that I smashed those fears: last night was the best Thanksgiving that I could possibly have had under the circumstances of the events of last week and being away from my family throughout all of this. I invited a bunch of my friends, both American and non-American, to a Thanksgiving potluck at my flat. I thought about cooking a turkey, but I decided just to go for the turkey breast, because I was pretty sure a turkey would not fit in our tiny oven, plus I have no idea how to cook a turkey. When I talked with them on Skype, Jeff and Matt wouldn't stop making fun of the Vinegar Sauce Incident™, but I assure you all that I made a dry rub for my turkey breast that turned even a non-turkey eater into an eager devourer of poultry (and it contained no vinegar)!
Naturally, I had to skip my afternoon class in order to cook the turkey if we were going to eat at a reasonable hour, so I went to my morning lecture and my morning tutorial- sidenote: this was so sad, because I LOVE the tutorial for Scotland and Orality... our tutor is so much fun, and since there were only four girls in my class, we got the business out of the way and had a generally good time the rest of the tutorial!- and then came home, did a little reading for my essay, and then cleaned and cooked.
Everybody came over, and we somehow managed to all fit around a table. I was sad because a couple of my friends had to bail at the last minute due to essays and sickness, but I felt really good about the whole dinner. I was so happy and so thankful to have so many good friends who could come to celebrate. I even invited a CouchSurfer who was from North Carolina, so I felt especially good that I provided a place for somebody who was traveling alone to come and eat Thanksgiving Dinner! I absolutely love hosting dinner parties, and this was the ultimate in uni halls dinner parties! A few of us had been planning to go to Itchy Feet, which is a once a month club night that features swing, jazz, rockabilly, and ska, and it would have been really fun but nobody was up to it after we stuffed our faces in true Thanksgiving fashion. The meal was wonderful: we had turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, two kinds of rolls, macaroni and cheese, deviled eggs, stuffing, four pumpkin pies, two apple pies, and one apple crumble... and countless bottles of wine amongst us all. We missed the yams, but it ended up being okay, because there was just SO MUCH FOOD!! I was happy to see friends from different circles getting along (though we noticed the table was almost entirely segregated with one side American and non-American) and everybody having a really good time. We made hand turkeys and wrote things for which we were thankful on the feathers, and then we hung up a bunch of them on the fridge. It was such a good night.
The night before had been the Butler Thanksgiving event, which was at a REALLY swanky restaurant, Ghillie Dhu, which is in New Town, and their banquet hall is pretty much a basilica. It was not Thanksgiving-y food, but there was roasted vegetables, and I had salmon with potato dumplings, and it was fantastic. The dessert was this raspberry shortcake kind of thing. So good. Butler is SO GOOD to us! Next week, we get to go have cupcakes and tea at their offices. mmmmmmm.
Going even further back in time, last weekend, Chelsea and I went to see the Scotland v. South Africa rugby match, on the suggestion of both my friend Emily (who ended up not being able to come, sadly!) and Deirdra and Katherine, two of the Butler program people. I am SO GLAD that we went. It was a really good way to take my mind off of things for a while, plus rugby is way better than American football. They don't really stop playing ever, plus, rugby players are (for the most part) fit beyond belief. We didn't really know what was going on, but we got totally into it and started shouting and stuff. At the beginning, when the team was coming out, they had some serious pyrotechnics, which was fab fab fabbity fab fab! Chelsea and I are pretty sure that we ended up on the stadium cam but we're not entirely sure. The Scots actually, won, which was a totally unexpected outcome, but it was a very good match and so exciting, too! Also, when the Scots got a field goal, they played "Chelsea Dagger," which 1)reminded me of home because of the Blackhawks (woooo) and 2) is Chelsea's theme song, so it was swell. They also played "I'm Gonna Be" so we had to sing along with that as well, and I do love that song!
Anyway, it was really, REALLY cold that day, plus it poured the entire time, so by the time the match was over, we were very ready to go home. I had lost one of my mittens on the bus, which made me really sad for the rest of the day because I love my mittens. I'll have to ask for new ones for Christmas, because the bus company lost and found didn't have my mitten when I asked on Monday. On the way back, we had a little confusion with finding the bus, but eventually we got on, and realized that the fuss with traffic was that a motorcade in which Princess Anne was riding was going past, and guess what? WE TOTALLY SAW HER! Pretty cool!
Moving right back along, two weeks ago, I stayed with my Dad's friend Mark's family for the weekend in Fife. They took me up to Saint Andrews, which was really beautiful (though it made me so glad that I chose Edinburgh... St. Andrews is a pretty small town), and then we went to see Due Date. I hadn't been to the cinema for a while (that's actually a lie; Emily and I had seen The Illusionist, which is a French animated film that takes place in Edinburgh, and was devastatingly gorgeously done) the previous week, but that was an arty film and didn't feel sooo much like going to the cinema, so it was really good to see a funny film. That was the night that I spoke with my grandpa for what turned out to be the last time, and filled him in on the adventures of the day, in addition to speaking to the rest of the family, which was all gathered out there.
The next day, we had breakfast and then went to Dunkeld, which is a very beautiful little town, which I think is in Perthshire. The autumn colors were in full force, and we had lovely food (mmm haggis) and went to see the Dunkeld Cathedral, which has a big ruined nave, which was pretty cool, though it was chilly. I feel privileged to have been able to see so much of Scotland! When we got home, Mark introduced me to the band Status Quo, which is huge in GB, but virtually unheard of in the USA. They were showing a concert on TV, so we watched that, and it was pretty cool. Straight up rock and roll. Dinner was lovely and wonderful (oh how I love when people cook for me!), and after dinner we watched the adorable Ava (their granddaughter) demonstrate her adorableness, until Mark drove me home in his LOTUS ESPRIT! That is one sleek car... and it goes faaaaaaaast. Katherine heard the engine roaring when Mark dropped me off outside. Pretty sweet!!
I haven't written about our adventures on Arran, but that is really the only terribly exciting thing that hasn't been involved in the catch-up. I'll get around to it later, but now I have to get back to my paper, I just needed a bit of a pleasure-writing break. There will be links to pictures and video as soon as I get them all uploaded.
PS it says I published this at 4:30 in the morning... very untrue: it is currently 1:47 pm
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