Two weeks today

It's a gorgeous morning - at least temporarily; this is Edinburgh, after all - and it marks the fifteenth day I've been in the country. Wow.

The last two weeks have been more than just a bit of a blur, filled with activities like meeting people; finding classes and advisors; hearing tales of 10 AM sunrises; book shopping; learning the library (Dewey Decimal and LC classifications - about as strange as Yale's setup, but with fewer buildings and one-fifth of the books); trying to open a bank account; beginning the job hunt; and experimenting with the basics of rudimentary cooking (a can of peas makes any dish more colorful - don't worry, Mom, I'm getting past the Spaghetti-Os stage...slowly).

Then there are the smaller things: having my acccent/lexicon/spelling mocked (not by people from New England, but from the original one, oddly enough); having my accent compared to television; explaining "y'all"; playing with Leigh's amazing photo software (one nice thing about a Mac...look, Jen, I said it!); taking an impromptu Highland dance class; price shopping in pubs for a half-pint of Strongbow and a nice cup of tea; staying out past 1 AM; discovering lumpy milk in my fridge two days before its expiry; discovering Diet Cherry Coke that tastes like cherry, amazingly enough; discovering a distinct lack of marinades, muffins, and microwave popcorn; running in a t-shirt and workout pants and seeing my breath on a September morning; seeing two rainbows in as many days; topping-up my mobile; queuing for things; having beer, ice cream, and sweet popcorn available at the movies (and leaving trash behind); learning the many uses of "Cheers"; adjusting to six hours of class per week; being tempted to go outside; four television channels and "minority language" programming night; cooking things on a "hob"; tourist shopping and tour busses with plaid seats; drunk boys in kilts; and a dedicated haggis shelf at Tesco, complete with vegetarian option.

Sometimes it's reassuring to see idiot freshman girls in short shirts and Uggs on a cold, windy day, or hear someone quoting Family Guy, and realize that we're not so different after all.