Well, I've almost completed my first full week of classes and am still alive. I'm also feeling much better, which is nice. I'm much more happy being social when I don't feel like I've got the plague. So far this week things have taken on an easy pattern: library and classes during the day, errands and time to myself in the afternoon, gym classes, out with my flatmates/friends in the evenings. This is in general really nice, but sometimes it feels like I'm not meeting very many people. This is, I think, my first taste of what a big university is like. I don't run into people I've met at events very often when I'm around on campus, because with 28,000 undergraduates the school is just too big for those coincidences to happen very often. So I'm making a big effort to go out, get involved, and meet people. I've made friends (lest this sounds too morose!), and we're adventuring together which is also nice.
Tuesday was my big night out, where my friend Emily and I went to the first EU Psychology Society event to register and meet some of the other members. It felt very classy; we all stood around drinking wine and discussing our classes and interests, etc...until I paused for a minute and realized that yes, that was the Hannah Montanna theme song playing in the background. The society president had put together a playlist for the social that consisted of Grease, Glee, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, 90s techno, and Shakira. It was a really entertaining playlist, so I went to tell him at the end of the night. I'm excited about being part of the Psych Society, because it will be nice to get to know some of the people in my program. Also, as the president said, "we've organized a ball with the engineering society, since we have a lot of girls and they have a lot of guys...should be fun?" I'm looking forward to it, and to all the events. After that we went to the Skydiving Society's weekly social at a pub a couple of blocks from my flat. I don't have any plans to sign up to jump out of an airplane, but a couple of my flatmates do so I went along. I met some fun people, and found out where this club I want to go to, the Hive, is, so it was a good night.
For the record, I'm going to class and am actually ahead with my homework. I just don't have much to say yet, since most of my classes are in the introductory phases, and they're lectures, so it's not like I'm having great discussions to recount. But I am really enjoying Gaelic (pronounced "gal-lic" with an "a" sound not a long a). It's mostly call-and-response right now, which is good because it's not phonetic at all. We're also learning songs! It's a lot of fun. So far I can say:
Good morning/afternoon/night! My name is Lauren, I am from the states. Who are you? Where are you from? How are you? I'm well/tired/cold/hot. I am not married. Are you married?
It's an AWESOME class.
I didn't have class until 3pm today, so I got up this morning and went to the library to do some reading for my tutorial next week (a smaller-group discussion on readings related to the lecture topics). After far more notes on the economic changes in Scotland during the mid-late eighteenth century than I thought I could handle, I met my flatmates for lunch at a bar in between home and campus. We had a great time and sat chatting for a couple of hours before I headed to class.
Now I'm home again, and tonight is my first week of classes with the Scottish Country Dance Society. It's a little different than it will be the rest of the year-this week will follow the format of last week's taster class. I'm excited to practice the dances I learned last week, and try the Highland Fling again!
Now if it would only stop raining...
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