Wet is the New Dry

Let's see. The last time I updated you I had had that crazy encounter with the girl from College Heights. Now it is Saturday and I must say that not a whole lot of exciting stuff has happened. I officially registered for classes which was really easy because I don't even DO anything except tell my Director of Studies (the equivalent of an adviser in the UK) what I want to take and then he does all the work! Awesome! Why don't they do it like this in the States? So, I've registered for 3 classes, which is the typical semester load in the UK, and they are: American History 2 (should be interesting), Identity War and Revolution in Europe 1789-1918, and Foundations of Criminology (I'm really excited about this one!).

I also signed up for a few clubs and societies. The first was the Music Society. I joined the choir part of that and the rehearsal was okay but definitely not up to Atteberry or Kamm standards. I'm not sure I'll stick with it (though I did make a friend by joining in the first place - yay!). I also joined the Women of the World group which is kind of self-explanatory in that it is a group of feminists at Edinburgh who are of the world. Their first meeting is this Monday but it conflicts with my class time so I'll have to figure out when the next one is. Finally, I joined the Film Society which doesn't seem very sociable in that most of their activities are just screenings of different movies. The girl at the Film Society kiosk said they were going to try to arrange more events to make it more "group-y" rather than just a bunch of people who come out to watch film screenings.

I think tonight is the official end of this crazy freshers week. Really, this whole week has been very bizarre. I feel so OLD! Seriously, most of the freshers are 18 but I've met a lot who are still 17! I feel like an old fogey. Being 18 here is like being 21 in the States; everyone can finally drink, smoke, get into clubs/pubs/bars, and all the other privileges that come with being a legal adult in the US (obviously excluding drinking). So, being 20 is a little bit weird because now you have nothing exciting to look forward to on your birthday aside from receiving presents. In addition to feeling old, I also feel a bit like a pedophile when I think a guy is cute and then I discover he's 17. Slightly disturbing on my part.

I have to say, one of the things I love about this country is the dancing - the vast majority of people here aren't exactly what one would classify, in the US, as "good" dancers . Actually, I'm pretty sure even the worst dancers I know (mostly family members - I think you know who you are) would look like rock stars on the dance floor. You think I'm kidding but I'm not. I think they're below the American standard of "good" dancing because they mostly use only the shoulders, arms, and occasionally the hands (they're fond of pointing their index fingers then swaying side to side from the waist); therefore, they neglect to use nearly half the body! I don't mean to offend anyone who possibly uses these methods as regular dancing technique but I was just amazed that I, for once, felt like a decent dancer. Now, don't get me wrong, there are people here who can dance but I'm happy to say I feel on par with them. WHOO-HOO!

Okay. I guess since I complained about it so much on my facebook status I should probably inform everyone of my "laundry situation." Let me start by saying that my dorm does not have laundry facilities; therefore, I have to take my stuff to the next closest dorm. I was unaware that instead of using 1 pound coins we had to use tokens that cost 1 pound a piece to do laundry. However, they have placed the token machine up in the Reception Center (which is only close to one dorm really and that dorm doesn't even NEED tokens to do laundry - WHAT??). Anyway, I must have trekked back and forth to the Reception Center at least 4 times for various laundry related reasons. And to top it all off, my stuff wasn't even dry when I took it out of the dryer and I didn't have enough money to do another dry cycle. So now my room is draped with semi-wet clothing which is refusing to dry because my heater never comes on and my room has about 85% humidity. Sorry to go and vent all of my laundry woes and sound like a whiny baby but I had to get it all out at some point. Needless to say, I have to rethink this whole laundry thing. Boo.

University of Edin-buuuurrrraaah

So I've officially moved in and become a student at the University of Edinburgh (which they say Edinburah. Apparently they get really offended if you say it wrong). We don't start classes for another week so this entire week is all the new students - international and incoming (which they call "freshers" not freshman) - and is basically dedicated to partying. Seriously, I'm not kidding. Not only are there about 1,000 activities for freshers to do - about half of which involve drinking - but these people do not get tired of going out and doing stuff! It was so funny because I went to my hall meeting tonight and our only options for refreshments were orange juice, red wine, or white wine. I will say I opted for the red wine though it wasn't very good.

We must pause from the debriefing of freshers week thus far to talk about the outrageous amount of walking we have to do on a daily basis. Firstly, no matter where a student lives, that accommodation is ridiculously far away from any of the events/academic buildings/student-union areas. I have one of the shorter walks and I'm still a good 30 minutes from the "center" of campus. Campus, by the way, is not one general space or even in one general area of the city. No, "campus" is basically the entire city of Edinburgh. What this all sums up to is that I am walking well over 2 miles a day which will be really nice (because that will be my exercise while I'm here) once my feet stop hurting and my blisters have calloused.

I still have yet to make a non-American friend. But I have only lived here for about 2 and a half days and I have met some British people but I just haven't really made a friend... does that even make sense? Oh, and this is random but it is essential that I address this: Britain may have the worst weather of any place in the world aside from Antarctica (and no one lives there - Britain's actually populated!). It rains a lot and is quite cold; I think my room temperature is just above freezing. I asked a British guy who was behind me in the queue (they don't say "line"): doesn't having little/no sun mean everyone's really depressed? He replied, "Why do you think we drink so much?" Clearly, I'm going to have to "get my drink on" quite a lot if I a) want to stay warm and b) want to survive. That's all for now and I'll leave you with a few pictures from the past few days.

Map of "campus." Notice that the place I live isn't even on the map; there's just an arrow pointing off into the corner where the map ends.

Pretty view of New Town Edinburgh at sunset.

The hall where they had the welcome for the international students (that includes me -weird I know). Its actually really huge.