IT'S SNOWING!

Camille called me frantically to report that it was snowing! I looked out the window, saw balls of white stuff, and literally sprinted upstairs to put on my snow boots, two jackets, scarf, hat and gloves. But by the time I was dressed for a blizzard, nothing was falling anymore. And apparently it had just been hail. All that excitement for nothing! It may snow by the end of this week, though; we're experiencing a cold front. It's very, very cold.

Dressed for the snow that never was...

Last night was a blast: a Pomona reunion at Tom and Jim's house with Pomona College's President Oxtoby and his wife! Oxtoby is on sabbatical and is working at Cambridge, but he and his wife have been doing lots of traveling and decided to pay us all a visit. It was great to catch up with my Pomona friends and Tom. Sadly I didn't get a real chance to talk to Oxtoby... but I did get to try a mincemeat pie. (I may or may not have split a second one with Lindsey...) It's apparently meatless, though. Just fruit. Who knew?

Lindsey and I are fans of the pies

All of the art you see belongs to Jim's prized collection. It's priceless stuff, and he'd love to tell you ALL about it!

This is a very strange Halloween. Everyone is getting excited and planning costumes, but I'm too preoccupied with the fact that I won't get to have any candy corn this year! They don't sell it here, at least that I've seen so far. People have already started wearing costumes, even during the day. Even the Tesco employees.

They're really into bobbing for apples here. And apparently they used to hollow out turnips instead of pumpkins and carve jack-o-lantern faces in those, put them on strings, and then carry them around and scare the neighbors for money. So says Tom.

School has also picked up a lot, so I don't really have the time to wander aimlessly through stores searching for that perfect Halloween outfit. Oh well! Baking Society will be a Halloween theme this week, so I'll get my fill. My flatmates and I are planning on carving a pumpkin, too.

Baking Society this week was Hidden Ingredient. Alex's garbanzo bean chocolate chip cookies were great, but Camille and I tried to make courgette (AKA zucchini) muffins that turned out pretty sadly due to it being a French recipe. Lots of problems with measurement conversions and lack of ingredients! They're too ugly to post them here. But everyone else's recipes were delicious and interesting, especially the lime donuts, butternut squash chocolate cake, and potato chip cookies.

Today, Alex, Lindsey and I went to see our other Pomona friend Chris's play called Charade. It was held in this really indie theatre called the Bedlam, which holds about 50. The play was really fabulous- amazing for a school production. The acting was great, the costumes were great, and it was really funny and well-done. After the play, we wandered a bit around Edinburgh. Saturday's a great day to be out because all the tourists, performers, and kids are around. The city is so alive on the weekends! These street musicians are only 14. Why didn't my parents make me take violin lessons?! I could have been so cool. (Just kidding. I never would have been that good. And I'm cool anyway!)

Alex and I had our weekly dinner together- she made this delicious Thai curry on chicken and veggies. So good!

It's 1 am on a Saturday and I'm in the library taking a break from work to write this. But hey, the more I do now, the more time I'll have to travel later! We're thinking Prague and Barcelona. And we'll be in London in two weeks. Things here are good. Busy, but good.