Halfsies

Hey kilt fans

So let's see. Thursday and Friday. Ah yes. So Thursday is when we actually started classes. We went to ENV5t5, which is an environmental science field and lab technique class. It was packed with anxious students, mostly 3rd years. The professor was going on about the syllabus (which they call class handouts-officially, not just casually) and emphasizing how this is an honors class and how you have to buckle down. Charlene and I started to worry, but later found out that honors just refers to 3rd and 4th year of "uni" when your grades actually count towards your degree. We have a group project in that class, so we met Sara and Stuart, who are also in one of our later classes, and joined a group with them. We are going to be working on a research project on managing woodland biodiversity throughout the semester.

So between classes, char and I shared a egg and cress sandwich (which was actually just egg salad don't be fooled) and a bagel with pastrami and cheese on it (repeat performance) and walked around until our next class, which we had with calla and the two new friends from env5t5. The afternoon class was ENV5A5 which is a environmental policy and management class. It was just a lecture, but the professor was really good. She was really clear and well organized and it made for a really pleasant hour. It had been stuff I had mostly already learned, but had never been taught in such a clear and logical way. I was looking forward to the next lecture until someone said that the class has rotating lecturers so we wont have her again for another few weeks.

After class we went to Unicorn Travel, which is a travel agency in the atrium. Super convenient. The guy who helped us out, Mike (which is what is nametag says, but he spells it Maik) is an adorable middleaged german man who speaks with a typical higher pitched german accent. He was super knowledgeable and really really nice, and helped us out a lot. He gave us information on historic stirling and helped us decide to go to Edinburgh this weekend and Oktoberfest next weekend(yes, it is odd that half of oktoberfest is in september)! We came back the next day and did all the booking, and we are all signed up! we just need a hostel for munich! I will repeat that, EDINBURGH THIS WEEKEND AND OKTOBERFEST IN MUNICH NEXT WEEKEND. I was so pumped after the meeting, really itchin with the travel bug. Can't wait to update you on that!

After a snack we went into town to fix char and calla's phones. I poked around a second hand store and then we went to the mall to check out some cheap pirate gear for a theme night at a bar that my flatmate invited us to later. Luckily, they got their phones all sorted out so now we can communicate by something other than gchat. should make coordinating a lot easier. We came back to campus and had dinner and then headed out to hit up a radio station meeting and an open mic night that char/calla's roommate tom was performing at. We walked into the radio station to some dude performing in the front, which was very confusing because we thought it was an information session. But it turned out ok, and everyone seemed pretty nice. Similar to WMUC at umd but a lot less up their own arses. On the way out we met a guy named Austin and invited us to come to the open mic night. Turns out he's a first year from Oregon who actually is here as a full time student indefinitely. So weird that we are his freshman year, ya know? As in he has nothing to compare his experience to, and when he looks back at his freshman year we will be what he did in those first few vulnerable weeks. weird. Anyway, the open mic night was at the union chaplaincy, so everyone was really nice and interested to know which church i go to and if we wanted to join their group. I just said I was jewish and they left me alone, haha. But everyone was really nice and friendly. We scrounged up some weird snackage and listened through a few really terrible performers all in anticipation of Tom playing his BAGPIPES! When he finally went on it was so magical. He was keeping the beat by stomping his foot and marching around, it was awesome. People were stopping by the room to pop their heads in because it was so good. I had no idea how hard that instrument is! He looked like he was about to pass out by the end from all the blowing into it, and he played each note with his fingers. I thought all the skipping around notes was something the bagpipe just magically did on its own.

Afterwords we hung out and went to the pirate themed party. We weren't really excited about going out, but we didn't have friday classes (because we got our classes successfully switched) and really like dressing up for themes so we did it. It was at a bar in town called Fubar. It is basically that sort of skeezy dance bar that most college towns have. Everyone goes crazy over it but its actually terrible. It was crowded, the flow was terrible, it was expensive, and everyone was rude. We ended up just finding an empty dancefloor downstairs where it was slightly more low key and dancing to more rock-ish music. When we had our fill we took a cab back and crashed around 2.

Right now we are getting ready to leave for edinburgh so I will leave you with that halfsies post for now and make this blogpost less lame later. I have some more pictures to put up and I will tell you about friday and the weekend in Edinburgh when i return. Happy weekend, everyone! and g'mar chatimah tovah.

Love and travel bugs,
Amanda