Audience Participation Required!

I cannot believe that it's October! I've been here since August... Sometimes it feels like I just here, but most days I feel like I've been here for a year. We always talk about how the second we get off the plane in California, we're going to get some good Mexican food and eat it at the sunny beach! But at the same time, it'll still be weird to be home.

My goal is to explore all of the National Scottish Museum, which is quite a task. There are about 8 jam-packed floors! But I covered a bit of the Scottish History section on Sunday morning and learned about what I was supposed to be learning in class: the Union of 1707 with England, the mass exodus of people from the Highlands (to be replaced by sheep), and the spread of Scots across the world.

I love seeing curious little kids exploring the exhibits with their parents, with their baby British accents. I always hear the two little girls from the movie "The Holiday"! Mom and Dad will know what I'm talking about. The girls really do sound like that: "Do Mr. Napkinhead, Daddy!"

Alex and I then went to the mall, which surprisingly we really haven't been to before yesterday. The shops carry pretty much the same clothing as they do in the US, but they have weird names like Quiz and Bank. We also went into Amerikandy, the one-stop shop for all things wonderfully American- Lucky Charms, Poptarts, Cheetos, Jelly Bellys. The funny thing is, a lot of these products are available at the regular grocery store at a fraction of the price. Needless to say, we didn't buy anything. Although I would have been tempted to get some graham crackers! My flatmate visited the US this summer and stocked up on Honeymaids and Teddy Grahams.


We couldn't leave the mall without first trying on a few things, though.

I don't think the look works for either of us, sadly

Happy Halloween?

We then got the most delicious milkshake I've ever had at a place called ShakeAway. They have countless ingredient choices- any kind of candy and chocolate you can think of, Weetabix, honey, maple syrup, apple pie, custard creams, fruits, brownies, peanut butter, Nutella... the list goes on- and they'll put whatever you want in the blender with milk and ice cream. And voila! We got chocolate muffin. It was heavenly.

Contemplating the choices

A lovely day in Edinburgh

It rains for at least a few minutes every day here, but I never leave the house without an umbrella, so it's not a huge deal. And it means that the slugs are HUGE! I don't bring them in the house like I used to when I was little, though. I'm sure my flatmates are glad I outgrew the phase where I tried to keep all bugs alive on Cheerios and grass inside little plastic boxes.

I signed up to take a free no-credit language "taster" course in Arabic! I wanted to take French to reinforce what I've been practicing with Camille, but it didn't fit in my schedule. Arabic should be fun, though.

On a sadder note, I will be in Scotland when my two favorite musical groups/ performers are performing in LA. Mumford and Sons is doing a concert at the Hollywood Bowl! I bought their new album, but sadly couldn't buy tickets to their show in Glasgow- it sold out in about 10 minutes. And Harvey Mudd won an online contest to get Taylor Swift to perform at the Claremont Colleges! I want to be sad about missing it, but as my friends have reminded me, I'm in Scotland after all.

Sunday night has been designated our flat dinner night. This week, we decided to go as Scottish as possible: haggis, tatties (mashed potatoes), peas, Heinz baked beans, IrnBru (the official soda- tastes like bubble gum, orange soda and cough medicine all mixed up) and scones with jam for "pudding" (dessert). Haggis is actually really good! We bought it in plastic packages and smooshed it up to microwave it.

If you want to know what's actually in it, here's your chance! Besides the first thing, it's really not too bad. The oatmeal definitely adds a nice crunch.

And here's where the audience participation comes in! What should I suggest that we make other weeks? I want to make things that British and French girls probably haven't had for dinner before, or at least not often.

Possibilities so far:

-tacos/ burritos

-chili and cornbread

-stir fry

What else is American, or Jewish, or just not European? An email or comment with ideas would be much appreciated! I feel an obligation to feed them all the "weird" things from my far away homeland. They hadn't heard of eggnog before yesterday, after all.

Besides exploring the museum, my other goal is to find the ideal coffee shop to go for a drink or to study. Today's, Elephants and Bagels, had a very good decorating motif and an extensive menu of gourmet bagel sandwiches (pros), but slow Wi-fi and loud customers- it may be getting crossed off the list...

One coffee shop down, 999 to go. A girl's got to have her standards.