10 Things You Learn While Traveling Abroad in the UK (Edition 1)

It's the beginning of the second week and everyone is settling into class schedules. Here are some observations:

1. Things get informal quickly, even with the profs. Hey, you're traveling together for 15 weeks. Go ahead and shove the philosophy prof while we're playing a vicious game of "Never Have I Ever." 
2. Accept the fact that you will wash your clothes in the sink many, many times. (Auxiliary law to number 2: communal washing at the laundromat is the way to go.)
3. Accept the fact that by the end of the month no one will care how cute or gross you look. 
4. You can never skip class because your professors are rooming next door. 
5. Chips are fries. Crisps are chips. 
6. People will always ask you where you are from. 
7. Some small English towns don't accept Scottish currency (EVEN THOUGH IT IS THE EXACT SAME, JUST WITH DIFFERENT ARTWORK)
8. It's "queue", not "line". 
9. It's not "sunny-side-up," it's "flat egg". 
10. The tea stereotype is true. It's teatime all day every day. 

Note: Yesterday I wrote "Paraplegic" when I meant "Paralympics". Auto-correct changes everything. 

Last Day in Edinburgh

Scotland is much different than I expected.

As some of you know, Scotland is technically its own country even though it's part of the United Kingdom. One thing I never realized is that Scotland has its own currency. The system is the same, but the money looks different (the coins are heavier, the bills have different artwork). Sometimes the accent is so thick that I can't understand, but then I have to wonder how much they have to pay attention to understand me. 

Monday, August 27 was the last day of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, so we watched a couple of shows. Chris and Cheri took us to this play called "Hangman", and my reaction: bewilderment. It's one of those experimental "physical theatre" shows with non-linear (and at times nonsensical) vignettes that aren't suppose to mean anything. Again, there was an attempt to interact with the audience (during an auction during one of the scenes, the only time the actors spoke).
Last night we watched a 4-hour Theatre du Solei production. IT WAS ALL IN FRENCH. They projected English "supertitles" for us to read. I must admit that I nodded off once or twice because it was so freaking long. The play was about people on a boat filming a movie, and we got to see how world-events (WWI) changed the way they filmed their movie. I'm not certain if they were critiquing communism or advocating it. Hm.
Today is our last day in Edinburgh, then we're moving to the Lake District. After class today I'm going to find the Elephant House, one of the places where J.K Rowling wrote Harry Potter. Then perhaps take a tour of the Edinburgh castle, depending on how much homework I have after class today. 

Hello From Scotland

After a long flight to Edinburgh (with an adventure at customs, which an agent held Brittany back at the border for... silly reasons??). Eventually, it got to the point where the agent called Chris and we ended up almost missing our connection. The British Asian connection guy was really nice and called the airplane for us, and despite the fact that the flight was held back a bit we made it to Edinburgh on time.
We didn't sleep much, but went right into things once we checked in with Chris and Cheri. We walked around Edinburgh and got handed a million flyers. The street performers are NUTS. A man in a thong juggled machetes. There also seems to be a trend for street performers to heckle people as part of their skits.
We watched a very strange play about the author of Alice in Wonderland last night, where the actors were two feet away from us. They involved us in the adventures of "Outland," and the actress brought to whole group to tears of laughter when she involved Evan (who had a pretty big role!). Today I have to get some mundane things done, but later we'll be watching One Man Star Wars in a giant plastic cow!