Post 3- First Week

Wednesday January 27, 2009

 

It’s been almost a week.

 

Great so far.

 

I’ve gone out every night so far. (Except for tonight.. Unless I decide to in the next 20 mins.) The busses stop running at 11, so it’s pretty nice that I’ve been home early every night.

 

Last night, was Robert Burns night at this restaurant. Robert Burns in a super famous poet in Scotland. So they served Scottish food, a guy dressed in a kilt played the Scotland theme song on his bagpipes and Burns’ poetry was read by a guy with a really strong accent. Honestly, I have no idea what he was saying, I think that was just me because others knew what he said. After their little ceremony, they cut open a Haggis. Haggis is a traditional Scottish food. It is made of liver and other weird animal parts. So of course I tried some. It was ok.. edible, but I wouldn’t eat it again.. Now I can say,” Haggis? .. Been there, done that.”

 

Next, I thought I’d share some things I have found interesting about this house. Not all of these things are universal here, but some other students have said that their houses do the same things, so I think they are pretty standard for a lot of homes:

-      - To lock the door, I have to pull my handle up then back to normal, and then lock it. Just putting the key in and turning it will not do anything.

-      - My door has to be locked from outside as well as inside with a key. It does not have a knob to lock it.

-      - The toilet is similar in the handle thing; the handle has to be pulled up, then down.

-      - There is also only one bathroom in the house. I am not at all complaining about this, but to an American, this is just so strange! It is a 3-bedroom house, with 2 stories, and 1 bathroom. Not even a ½ bath downstairs. So guests have to go upstairs to the only bathroom. Another girl on my trip said her house is the same.. but they have 4 bedrooms!!

-      - The light switch in the bathroom in not a switch, but instead a rope from the ceiling that you pull down to turn the light on and off.

-      - Instead of a shower curtain, it is a thing that only covers half the tub, just the half with the showerhead. I keep getting water all over the floor!

-      - There is not a single plug in the bathroom! The first time I wanted to use my hair straighter I was so confused; I looked everywhere! Not a single one! Finally I walked out of the bathroom and there was one on the wall right next to the bathroom. Excellent place.

 

That’s all I can think of so far.  I’m sure there are plenty more I forgot about..

 

Since I liked that list thing, Interesting things from today:

-      - I looked left today and almost got hit by a car.

-      - A dog gave me a near-heart attack when he went at me barking and growling. Good thing there were no cars on the street because I jumped onto the road.

-      - I ran today. I thought this would be amazing. I like running. But it was terrible. When I started running, I got a huge cramp in the first 2 minutes. That’s when I realized.. wow, I haven’t ran in 7 weeks. In my PE class, I ran 3 miles twice a week.. easy. But man.. it’s been forever!

-      - I ran to their local gymnastics place. I am going to try to make to a gym class tomorrow. Too bad they don’t have just tumbling, but oh well, bars might be fun, and I used to love vault.. but I’m a big chicken now, so we’ll see.

-      - I bought a tiny little notepad today so I can write down reminders of all the things I want to remember to write about in the blog. (I am going to feel like Andrew Ritter every time I pull it out.)(You like that Andrew?.. You got a shout-out in my blog.)

 

Well, our Thursday excursions start tomorrow. I can’t wait. Ill try to remember to write a blog tomorrow, specifically about tomorrow. I’ll go to bed now to read some homework and crash at a decent hour. I’ll leave you with some latest photos.

The Abbey at night

Our classroom

Hanging out at "The smallest pub in Bath"

The Scottish nationals anthem

Haggis. I totally ate Haggis. It the dark one in the center. Its not that dark though.. the pic is a little deceiving.

Yea you're so jealous.