Foodstuffs: cont'd

A quick Scottish culinary update - I've checked Smoky Bacon off of my crisps flavors to try. They actually tasted just like bacon, which is both delicious and a little alarming all at the same time. Theoretically I should adore these chips since they combine two of my loves: bacon and potatoes. Still, meat-flavored potato chips are just such a new frontier, it might take some getting used to. When purchasing these, I chose to forgo the Prawn Cocktail flavor. No thank you...The one I want to try next is Worcestershire Sauce, I anticipate great things.

I also had my first sausages and mash this evening. John, they were in fact listed as sausages and mash, not bangers. Whatever you want to call them, they were delicious. Four little links of tender, flavorful sausage atop lots of creamy mashed potatoes with plenty of dark gravy. Yum yum yum. We ate a pub just down the road from our flat tonight. Judging by my meal and the looks of the dishes of my compatriots, we will definitely be returning.

p.s. The beer pictured is Tenets, what seems to be a pretty common Scottish ale. Quite tasty though. One of those glasses was the pint I drank in honor of Dad and John's birthdays. Cheers!

Foodstuffs

The other day while talking to John and Hannah they asked me if I had tried any of the bizarre flavors of crisps here or the digestive biscuits. I had not - until today. Due to the curiosity of those back home and my penchant for snacking/eating in general, I've decided to devote occasional posts to my exploits involving food here.

Number 1: The crisps. I was aware of the many different flavors of crisps (many of them meat-based) but had not yet sampled them. The grocery store was really crazy today, so I didn't have time to closely examine the offerings and weigh my options. I quickly grabbed two bags that were on sale, Mature Cheddar and Red Onion and Salt and Vinegar. Neither terribly exciting, in fact I'm pretty sure they sell this brand in America. But hey, I've got to start somewhere, right? I've seen quite a few cheddar and onion varieties about, so it seems they're quite popular, and for good reason. I found them to be quite tasty. The flavors subtle, but still interesting. Neither too cheesy nor too onion-y.


Number 2: Nutella. Now obviously we have Nutella at home, but the jar it comes in here struck me as much more aesthetically pleasing. It's also glass, which means it will probably be recycled as a drinking glass once it's delicious contents are emptied. Also, one of the American's who lived here last term left a recipe for Nutella hot chocolate. mmmm...



Number 3: The infamous digestive biscuits. To be honest, I was a bit perplexed by this concept. They always looked tasty enough, but I've never really associated digestion aids with dessert. John and Hannah told me to try this kind specifically. They were very good and, as you can see, full of "wheat & wholemeal goodness". They pretty much tasted like what they are, some kind of oat or wheat cookie with chocolate on top. For those of you interested in texture, they were softer, not mushy but certainly not crunchy.



This last picture is of nothing remarkable food-wise, but I was playing with my new-ish camera while eating a grilled cheese for lunch and thought this one came out quite nice looking. Take it for what you will.

One week and counting

I have survived my first week! Not only that, but I managed to have some fun as well. I must admit, amid all the stress and preparations of getting here and settled, I had sort of forgotten about homework. Alas, that part of my life has begun again, and how. We started translating a speech by Lysias in Greek and have been reading some medieval texts in Literature, parts of which may as well be in Greek since they're written in Old Scots. oof.

To the right is a picture I caught tonight of the moon outside my window. It was a gorgeous sunny day today and rather felt like springtime. Though I fear I've been lulled into a false sense of security weather-wise, it's certainly nicer than being in Minnesota right now. Really anything would be nicer than Minnesota this time of year. It really hasn't rained very much here, and when it has it's been very light. After the shocking cold snap at the beginning of last week, the weather has returned to what seems like normal for Scotland in January. It's been right under 40F the last couple days, which feels quite warm, but then there's the wind. Oh my goodness the wind. I've never experienced anything like it. It just cuts right through to your very bones. And I've given up on my hair looking presentable once I've ventured outside. Luckily the untamed look seems to be in style here.

Here are a couple of other pictures. The first is the Bedlam Theater, where many student productions are put on, and the second is the courtyard in George's Square, the area of campus where my classes are.

The grass is so green here! You can see what I mean about it looking like springtime.

I also got to experience some of the nightlife here during my first weekend and went out to a pub or two with some new friends. Nothing too wild though (don't worry mom). I also got to taste my first fish and chips on the way home Friday night. Scrumptious. This weekend (if I can get a ticket) I'm hoping to go on a day trip with the International Student Centre to St. Andrews. If I do get go, I'll be sure to take lots of pictures to share. Also, if the weather's nice, one of my flatmates and I made tentative plans to climb Arthur's Seat. We'll see if that actually happens...

Well I'm off to bed now. I've got my first Greek quiz tomorrow. The first quiz with a new professor is always a little nerve wracking, let alone one in Greek, so wish me luck!

A Castle and Some Chickens

Yesterday evening a couple friends and I walked up the Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle. I got a few pictures of it lit up at night. We're planning to go back Friday afternoon and explore inside, so hopefully I'll have some picture to put up afterward. It certainly was beautiful and I can't wait to see more of it.

I've been able to settle into my room a little bit more the past few days. It's starting to feel a bit homier. It also helps that I finally did a big grocery shopping trip and now have happy, full cabinets. I made a very exciting discovery the other day when I was looking out onto the courtyard behind my building. There are CHICKENS living there! I made more sense once I looked at the map and realized the buildings behind me are Veterinary Science buildings. There were three of them (all very lovely) trekking about in the snow this afternoon. It was a very grand looking chicken expedition.

Well I'm going to try and get some reading done and scrounge up some supper. A little bit later a friend of mine from Macalester and I are going to check out The Water of Life Society, a student club devoted to learning about and sampling different kinds of whisky (they spell it without the 'e' here) from all over Scotland. After all, when in Rome...

p.s.

The fire alarm went off again tonight. awesome.

Finally! Some pictures

I had a long break today between my first class and a meeting with my Director of Studies, so after eating a quick lunch I decided to walk around the city and try and take some picture without looking too much like a tourist. Some of them, like the one at left are just of pretty buildings and churches around town. I have no clue what they actually are


This is one of the building toward the center of campus, I don't know much about it because our tour guide the first day was kind of a dud and a mumbler. In addition to housing some of the graduate programs (maybe) it's also where they host large campus events like reunions and such.



Walking on toward city center and the Royal Mile, I stumbled across the Central Library and the National Library of Scotland, which judging from the lobby is also something of a very impressive museum with lots of free exhibits. Definitely something I'll be investigating in the future. I poked around the Central Library a little bit and there was this interesting installation of tiles in the stairwell and also the engraving at the top of the front door says, "Let there be light"

Speaking of libraries...this is Teviot Row
It's kind of like the campus center and houses at least five campus bars including The Library Bar. I haven't been yet, but I'll try to provide a full report when I do make it.

While on the Royal Mile I went into one of the many, many tacky Scotland/Edinburgh gift stores. They had these beautiful lambswool scarves on sale for just a couple of pounds each. I went ahead and bought two because somehow in packing, I forgot to bring any of my warm, heavy scarves. Here's one of the scarves I acquired today:
It still kind of smells like sheep...hopefully I can fix that somehow. The other one I bought isn't as thick and is a very pretty sage green color. Other highlights of this store include: countless shirts and coffee mugs and shot glasses with cartoons of Nessie on them, miniature playable bagpipes (Daddy, I'm looking at you. Mom, how much will you pay me to not bring these home with me?), and when I was at the cash register I thought it was odd that they had Red Hot Chili Peppers CD's on display until I noticed they were in fact by the Red Hot Chili Pipers. Which is of course another matter entirely.

On the left

Prior to arriving, I had been think a lot about the differences between the UK and the US, trying to prepare myself as best I could. However, there are tons of little things that never even occurred to me. Everything in the grocery store is just different enough to made shopping a bit tricky. When cooking some rice, I borrowed a measuring cup from my flatmate thinking "one cup rice, two cups water" and then looked down to find metric markings. I'm going to have to do some serious conversions if I want to do any baking here, otherwise it could be quite disastrous.

One of the things that really caught me off guard was that people tend to walk on the left as well as drive on the left. It totally makes sense, but I never would have thought about it before. However, a lot of time there seems to be no rhyme or reason to how people walk on the sidewalk and the streets. I think that system is called "people are oblivious". It's one I've noticed the world over.