Megan's Adventures in Scotland: Busy Bee: Business as Usual

Hello, all! Sorry this post is lacking in punctuality--it should not lack in fun!

Actually, that's not true, as I haven't done anything incredibly exciting...at least by normal people's standards. I've had a blast.

I'll work backwards, since that's easier for whatever reason:

Monday 28th (today): I had my first class today! And only one! And it starts at 3! And it's the Arthur in Medieval Welsh and Gaelic Literature class! From the description the teacher gave, it's everything I hoped it would be: texts in translation (there was a small fear that I might have had to have Gaelic Language experience...yikes!), my old pal Geoffrey of Monmouth will show up, and I get to choose my essay topic--I think something about the Orkney Gang is in order (though only 2,000 words is kinda scary for someone of my gregarious ilk).

Sunday: Went to a different church this time, this one called the COC or Christian Outreach Center. Another very beautiful service, very different from what I'm used to back home, but nice. Almost had an emergency leaving my hair straightener on in my locked room, but it turned out I was just being paranoid. It was good, however, I left right after the service because this enabled me to get back in time for...

Roleplaying Society!! I joined a Sunday afternoon game of Serenity and might also hop on a Sunday evening game of Mutants and Masterminds if I can find someone to walk back with me in the dark. But, then, considering it's dark at 4 in the middle of winter and I'd be walking home in the dark then anyway, I don't see why I'm worried. May have issues with weekend trips cutting into gaming time, but it's a large group so I think it'll be okay if I miss a few times. But only a few (how sad is this? I want to game more than I want to explore Scotland!).

And a quick note on sexual dimorphism--I guess that's what I'll call it--anyway there's more of it here. There was, first, a hugely disproportionate number of men to women at the Roleplaying Society--which was fine by me, but a little startling. In a group of easily 40 gamers only about seven were girls. Weird. Again, fine by me: more smelly socially awkward males all to myself...oh, wait.

Also, one of the guys in the Christian Union was startled by my saying "dude" the way all of you who know me have heard me say it--think the Bud Light commercials. He had never heard a girl say "dude" before. I found that odd. I could be taking a few instances and blowing them way out of proportion, but that's my perception so far. Nothing bad or anything, just different, the gender division thing.

Saturday: The trip to Castle Fraser was cancelled :( so I spent the morning kicking around my dorm before going out with Julia (German room mate) to look for books. No luck with mine, but she was able to grab a few. I need to get on amazon.com. Then we parted ways and I totally got lost trying to look for the local Staples, but a nice old lady directed me back to the right path. (Curse the lack of grid structure!!!) Anyway, after this I didn't want to go out again, but the CU (Christian Union) folks dragged me out to a very wonderful exciting service with music and a very good guest speaker whose name I forget. It was a nice service, however, and great fellowship. The CU folks are a good group.

Thursday and Friday were just wrapping up Fresher's Week with Scottish Culture day (free whisky, tatties and Irn Bru? I'm so down!) and more international student meeting stuff. Friday night was the official CU meeting--they meet on Fridays regularly for worship, fellowship, and meeting stuff. Like I said, great group of people.

The weather: so the spell broke on Sunday, where the sunshine that made me disbelieve the rumors I had heard about Scotland being cold were confirmed. Although it hasn't even been truly cold yet--just overcast so far. Luck holding...

Followed are some pictures around the campus and of me christening the kitchen with green chile stew! Mm! Mm! (Julia tried some and performed admirably despite the heat!)

Oh, also, some exciting news: Eddie Izzard is coming to Aberdeen November 4th! This should make my year.

Hope this finds you well and happy!

Love,

Megan