Two Thanksgivings, Writing, and the past week

Greetings!


I know it's been a little while since I last posted, but I can say I experienced a very full and pretty awesome week. Unfortunately, I've also been fighting quite the head cold the last several days, and am hoping for a quick end to it and once it passes, a sickness-free winter!

 
Thanksgiving here was quite fun! On Wednsday night, my study abroad program drove students to Edinburgh for a meal at the Hard Rock Cafe. Edinburgh is about 1.5 hours south, and it was really nice to see the Christmas lights decorating the city as we arrived. Here, the decorations spring up when the Christmas season begins on November 1st, and seeing the decorations and lights on historic buildings, museums, hugging stone pillars and sandstone structures felt a bit like a tiny New York City at Christmastime. It was nice, too, meeting up with other Americans studying at the University of Edinburgh.

 
On Thursday, I cooked a somewhat non-traditional Thanksgiving meal for myself and my four kitchen-mates. I had planned ahead and the guys were really excited. We decided on a time we could all meet - about 8:30 pm - and it really turned out nicely. I was the only American, and the guys were all quite interested in the origins of the meal and the traditional foods served. I began baking and cooking in the morning, and ran out to attend my Virginia Woolf class from 3-5 pm. My group presented again, and it really was a great lecture. I made two baked pasta dishes consisting just of pasta, tomato sauce, ricotta, mozarella and homemade breadcrumbs, a butternut squash dish (my favorite!) that I added some honey, butter and black pepper to, plenty of green beans (definitely the most popular dish!) and two pumpkin desserts, my Mom's delicious dark chocolate chip pumpkin bread cut into quarters, and a small pumpkin cake with a cream cheese layer and cinnamon topping. I whipped some homemade whipped cream, and both pumpkin desserts were quite popular, as the guys all commented that they had never tried pumpkin desserts before. Samuel also made some baked mushrooms to add to the meal. The best part too, was that the guys took care of all of the dishes after the meal. :) A fun part of the evening was definitely bringing a tradition from home to the meal, or, to the table. The last several years, my Mom has carved out a small pumpkin and placed a vase of flowers within and used the arrangement as a center piece to the Thanksgiving table. It’s a creative, beautiful touch and I’ve enjoyed arranging the flowers the last few years. I had a small pumpkin here from when Lydia visited, and bought some flowers at the grocery store. It was fun creating it here, and carving and digging out the pumpkin with my bare hands at our kitchen table to the amazement of the guys who watched in disbelief, thinking the pumpkin intestines I was pulling out were where the pumpkin desserts were coming from. I explained the tradition of the pumpkin-vase to the guys, and they found it pretty funny and interesting, it grew to be a really cool thing to have on the table. They wanted pictures of it, and I took a few myself. It's still in a nice spot on the kitchen table, and any of our friends who have ventured in have asked about it. :) We had plenty of leftovers from the meal, and we've all been helping to eliminate them the last few days. Justin was also able to use the leftover whipped cream the next day when he made a 'Japanese cheesecake' for a birthday party he was attending.  

 

Mmmmmmm.....

So incredibly delicious.

The table as it began to be set.

 

            I’m really enjoying the kitchen and everyone I share it with. It’s certainly taken a bit of adjustment, and every day is certainly different, but it’s really a fun group and I feel happy to be a part of it. J Plus, Joseph – who’s actually a medical student – has proven to be an awesome editor/proof-reader for my English submissions.

            Speaking of which, I have two poems and a short story to turn in tomorrow for another 30% of my Creative Writing grade. There has certainly been a lot of editing involved, but I am really loving both my short story and the poems. This university and this town are nothing short of inspiring, and I’ve reached a point that I really am loving writing and am so happy when I’m doing it. I had never written a short story before this week and was surprised to finish it in 2.5-3 days and am now doing the very final edits. A short story is like a very condensed novel and as I finished my first this week, I had the urge to write fifteen more. J I’ve also realized that the humanities and English are the two subjects I love. I miss the humanities a bit – mainly just the infatuation with learning ideas and theories and deciphering why history, culture, society, and government is the way it is. The writing is a completely different experience, it’s artistic and I love that I’m creating original work and using my imagination and ideas, but I do miss absorbing all of the ideas and learning that the humanities come with. One of my friends here compared the two as watching sports versus playing sports.

My experience here definitely feels comparable to my first year of college. In both settings, I've experienced such a love of learning, an infatuation with my tutors or professors, and an inspiration from the subjects I'm learning. The same excitement and love I'm experiencing with English I had with journalism two years ago and the surroundings, events, societies, socials and fun I've found here I experienced in a similar sense at Saint Michael's two years ago. I am so pleased to be staying here for the year.

            I attended a poetry reading/open mic here Friday night with my friend Susanna. It was at a local restaurant/juicing bar called Zest, and a Scottish poet read quite a bit of his work. We had heard there would be a small free dish from the restaurant and we were approached at one point by the restaurant owner asking if we were vegetarians. My answer was vague, but I said I was fine with having meat in the free dish. Susanna answered similarly before the restaurant owner told us upfront that the two choices were a roasted haggis or a vegetable bruschetta. I’m not sure if I turned down a really great cultural and culinary opportunity or not, but we both chose the vegetable bruschetta.

        I met up with my sweet friend Miriam yesterday for a lengthy walk around St Andrews including the pier and harbor area, and a break at a coffee shop. Miriam is Scottish and we met on the retreat we both attended last week. The visit included lots of talking and laughing, and while we were at the café/coffee shop, she commented on how she loved the number of coffee shops St. Andrews had. It’s quite true, it’s really a University town with a sprinkling of fishermen and golfers, but it feels very much designed for students.

Here's a hilariously strange and uncomfortable photo of Miriam and I from last weekend...it was after the late-night techno ceilidh - if that can be used as an excuse for our disheveled-ness. :)

 

            This coming Friday is St Andrews day, which is quite the celebrated holiday here. This whole week there seems to be celebrations and there will be no classes held on Friday. My residence is hosting a formal dinner on Friday night which should be quite fun. I imagined it was only a day really celebrated here (and, truthfully, it probably is…) but I was still shocked the other day when I was checking out my lovely Ballroom Bunnies calendar (featured on this blog several times before…) and found that of the five international holidays listed for November, a few of which included Remembrance Day, Diwali, or the Hindu festival of lights, Thanksgiving Day, and shockingly, St Andrews day!