At this point i really started to write my blog posts, and it was kinda disturbing too to be not only switching languages but also forcing back in my mind quite a lot of different experiences that had been my life these past few days ; i could barely believe that only 3 days ago i was in my Ormoy house with absolutely no idea of what i'd be up against here... It seemed that such a long time had passed, and i had trouble remembering the details of what had happened. But with great effort i finally managed to write about the two firsts days quite accurately. Time consumingly though.
I went to the medical center to sign up with a doctor, which went well. One of the questions in the form was about how many alcohol units we had per week -- one unit being a half-pint of beer. I'm not a drinking person. I drank quite a bit during the Ormoy jazz workshop, but these were special circumstances. At school, these past 2 years, the ratio would have been 1, maybe 2 half-pints per week, beerwise, i dunno ; but considering how the nights had been going so far, i figured i'd be putting 10, and that'd probably turn out to be an understatement. 1 beer yesterday, 3 beers the day before, one to go and that'd exceed the quota for the whole week... Maybe with the courses starting our consumption would drop a little bit ... Or maybe that's just the scottish way of life.
After that, i made it to the library where i met Margaux again, and then spent ages publishing my messages on this blog and chatting with people on msn, therefore getting back these confusing french habits. When i got back to the flat I played some PS2 with the guys, but then i had to leave to attend to the international students get together in the macroberts center.
Apart from my missing the starting time of the meeting, it was a fun experience. "fun"... actually i dunno how to qualify that really. There were very different people in here. Some of them seemed lost and unfitting, others gathered ; but it felt like the internationals tended to have stayed among their kind so far...
After these boring speeches, we were given a challenge to do, one sheet of paper with a bunch of phrases on it, like "has visited your homeland" or "studies accountancy" or "was born 1 year before you", and we had to find the name and nationality of someone who fulfilled that criteria, among the other foreign students. There were prices to win, if we completed that in 10 minutes ; but thinking that asking people around as quickly as possible for some stupid and random detail was helping us meet eachother was definitely missing the point. The wine was good though. I dropped the paper and spoke to a bunch of people, one chinese girl 28 y.o, one american girl who actually wanted to win the game, a couple boys, a finn girl who was doing all the talking, and finally a german one, with a close-to-perfect french accent, a beautiful blonde, and so nice. I finished the night with Margaux, and i was feeling much better than the first time ; we discussed politics and harry potter, and found out we had a lot in common.
When i got back, i saw the 7th roommate very briefly, he was with a friend of his so i actually don't know which one of the two he was -- according to Andrew he's german. The others weren't there.
I went back to my room to watch a couple FRIENDS, before they arrived. The night ended in the kitchen chairs, them talking and me listening mainly -- after all this french and german my english was back to starting point. I drank a couple Baileys glasses (here, the claimed weekly dose of alcohol was indeed a wishful thinking). I was a bit drunk when the night ended. Nice feeling.
- - -
To this cosmopolitan day followed a very scottish one. I spent the whole next day with my newly-found friends. Although I'd better just call them "roommates" for now. I'm not sure.
Craig and Jackie wanted to buy bikes, and I figured I'd do good with one too ; I was seriously considering that ever since the nurse had mentioned it the previous day. Unfortunately, they were a bit too expensive (although second handed bikes donated for a cause). Then we went to town, Jackie, Andy, Craig and I. Jackie had business with friends so it was just me and the boys. They had some shopping to do ; Craig bought this really handsome ensemble that you'll probably see in some pics i'll post later on ; then we met Rich on our way to the supermarket, he joined. Andy works at Sainsbury's, I had to buy some beauty products, and the three of us needed Haggis for our special scottish dinner this evening. We went back to the uni by foot, the four of us. I had a long very nice talk with Craig during most of the way home, which didn't help me hold back something potentially problematic that i was sensing to grow in me. Still, it was a very nice afternoon we had there.
When dinner came, I joined the roommies (except Jackie who wasn't there) : the boys had, most unusually, cooked the Haggis and fried the... can't remember the word that surprised me : "poivrons", red, green, yellow. To this quite jamaican outline we added Reggae-Reggae sauce (yeah...), and rolled the "bread" (old el paso) around it. That was delicious. That was the first dinner we were all having together.
Andrew's parents visited for a while, and i was given to hear the worst scottish accent ever. Then Karen drove us to the apartment that Neil, Chris, Greg (the "?????" guy from the first post) and two other boys i'm yet again unable to name (but it's not like the reader of this would care anyway) share in town ; we were expected there to watch the game.
Only girl, only French among 5 males Scots, 1 Northern-Irish and 1 English, and two dozens of beers, that was quite surrealistic. Quite as surrealistic was the final score -- France lost.
The guys were jubilating, screaming, jumping about. No-one from France called me on my phone, so instead I got drunk, and ended up baptized by Andrew who made me scottish. I liked that, now I could go out and celebrate with them, which i did. That was such a liberating feeling to be drunk and therefore so joyous, willing to speak to everyone ; it seemed that my english / scottish abilities had suddenly improved. The night was awesome, I danced my head out ; then we had to leave, the journey home with the boys was so funny, it just felt right. I was part of it and it was perfect. We played with an old tin can, which Andrew advised me to keep as a token of my new scottishness. We got home and after some chatting with the girls we went to bed.
Today I had missed the bus tour of Stirling for foreigners students, but I didn't really care.
photos : Craig climbing a lampadaire / Andrew and Chris
Amazing to think that it was only the very following day that all this beautiful confidence vanished completely.
I went to the medical center to sign up with a doctor, which went well. One of the questions in the form was about how many alcohol units we had per week -- one unit being a half-pint of beer. I'm not a drinking person. I drank quite a bit during the Ormoy jazz workshop, but these were special circumstances. At school, these past 2 years, the ratio would have been 1, maybe 2 half-pints per week, beerwise, i dunno ; but considering how the nights had been going so far, i figured i'd be putting 10, and that'd probably turn out to be an understatement. 1 beer yesterday, 3 beers the day before, one to go and that'd exceed the quota for the whole week... Maybe with the courses starting our consumption would drop a little bit ... Or maybe that's just the scottish way of life.
After that, i made it to the library where i met Margaux again, and then spent ages publishing my messages on this blog and chatting with people on msn, therefore getting back these confusing french habits. When i got back to the flat I played some PS2 with the guys, but then i had to leave to attend to the international students get together in the macroberts center.
Apart from my missing the starting time of the meeting, it was a fun experience. "fun"... actually i dunno how to qualify that really. There were very different people in here. Some of them seemed lost and unfitting, others gathered ; but it felt like the internationals tended to have stayed among their kind so far...
After these boring speeches, we were given a challenge to do, one sheet of paper with a bunch of phrases on it, like "has visited your homeland" or "studies accountancy" or "was born 1 year before you", and we had to find the name and nationality of someone who fulfilled that criteria, among the other foreign students. There were prices to win, if we completed that in 10 minutes ; but thinking that asking people around as quickly as possible for some stupid and random detail was helping us meet eachother was definitely missing the point. The wine was good though. I dropped the paper and spoke to a bunch of people, one chinese girl 28 y.o, one american girl who actually wanted to win the game, a couple boys, a finn girl who was doing all the talking, and finally a german one, with a close-to-perfect french accent, a beautiful blonde, and so nice. I finished the night with Margaux, and i was feeling much better than the first time ; we discussed politics and harry potter, and found out we had a lot in common.
When i got back, i saw the 7th roommate very briefly, he was with a friend of his so i actually don't know which one of the two he was -- according to Andrew he's german. The others weren't there.
I went back to my room to watch a couple FRIENDS, before they arrived. The night ended in the kitchen chairs, them talking and me listening mainly -- after all this french and german my english was back to starting point. I drank a couple Baileys glasses (here, the claimed weekly dose of alcohol was indeed a wishful thinking). I was a bit drunk when the night ended. Nice feeling.
- - -
To this cosmopolitan day followed a very scottish one. I spent the whole next day with my newly-found friends. Although I'd better just call them "roommates" for now. I'm not sure.Craig and Jackie wanted to buy bikes, and I figured I'd do good with one too ; I was seriously considering that ever since the nurse had mentioned it the previous day. Unfortunately, they were a bit too expensive (although second handed bikes donated for a cause). Then we went to town, Jackie, Andy, Craig and I. Jackie had business with friends so it was just me and the boys. They had some shopping to do ; Craig bought this really handsome ensemble that you'll probably see in some pics i'll post later on ; then we met Rich on our way to the supermarket, he joined. Andy works at Sainsbury's, I had to buy some beauty products, and the three of us needed Haggis for our special scottish dinner this evening. We went back to the uni by foot, the four of us. I had a long very nice talk with Craig during most of the way home, which didn't help me hold back something potentially problematic that i was sensing to grow in me. Still, it was a very nice afternoon we had there.
When dinner came, I joined the roommies (except Jackie who wasn't there) : the boys had, most unusually, cooked the Haggis and fried the... can't remember the word that surprised me : "poivrons", red, green, yellow. To this quite jamaican outline we added Reggae-Reggae sauce (yeah...), and rolled the "bread" (old el paso) around it. That was delicious. That was the first dinner we were all having together.
Andrew's parents visited for a while, and i was given to hear the worst scottish accent ever. Then Karen drove us to the apartment that Neil, Chris, Greg (the "?????" guy from the first post) and two other boys i'm yet again unable to name (but it's not like the reader of this would care anyway) share in town ; we were expected there to watch the game.Only girl, only French among 5 males Scots, 1 Northern-Irish and 1 English, and two dozens of beers, that was quite surrealistic. Quite as surrealistic was the final score -- France lost.
The guys were jubilating, screaming, jumping about. No-one from France called me on my phone, so instead I got drunk, and ended up baptized by Andrew who made me scottish. I liked that, now I could go out and celebrate with them, which i did. That was such a liberating feeling to be drunk and therefore so joyous, willing to speak to everyone ; it seemed that my english / scottish abilities had suddenly improved. The night was awesome, I danced my head out ; then we had to leave, the journey home with the boys was so funny, it just felt right. I was part of it and it was perfect. We played with an old tin can, which Andrew advised me to keep as a token of my new scottishness. We got home and after some chatting with the girls we went to bed. Today I had missed the bus tour of Stirling for foreigners students, but I didn't really care.
photos : Craig climbing a lampadaire / Andrew and Chris
Amazing to think that it was only the very following day that all this beautiful confidence vanished completely.
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