Christmas Is In The Air...

My favourite month out of the year is December, hands down. Everything looks so pretty with lights and festive decorations. Due to its commercialness, I think Christmas has become more than just about the religious meaning and is a time that everyone can enjoy. In fact, I think there should be two separate names. One for the religious holiday and one for the time associated with Santa, elves, reindeer, lights, and snowmen.

I love to give. It's always hard to find things for the people you love, especially when you're being sneaky about it and don't want to ask them what they want. For my new friends in Scotland this year, I decided to make something with my hands. I don't remember how I came up with the idea since I decided about two months ago, but I decided to make Christmas stockings from scratch. This was a big undertaking for me since I've never (and I mean NEVER) sewn anything in my life aside from a crappy stitching job on some hole in a shirt or blanket that I always beg my mom to help me with. This was a big risk but with the help of an Etsy tutorial I found on Youtube, I think I did a darn good job. You can watch the tutorial I used here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

First I chose a stocking pattern online. I cut it out and taped it together. You can use the one I used here.

Then I used my pattern to cut out the inside and outside of my stocking fabric. At the fabric store I bought a lovely Christmas pattern. In the end result, you will see that you can use anything! When you cut them out, bring out main pattern down a few inches. By making the inside pattern longer, it will allow it to create the cuff.

Put the main stocking pattern using the outside (or pretty side) of the fabric together. Sew around it and turn it right-side out. Put the inside stocking fabric together (pretty side together) and sew around it, leaving a four inch hole on one side of the stocking.

Put the main stocking inside the lining stocking (so they're both facing the right way) and sew the edges together. When I first watched the tutorial I misunderstood and just sewed a line all across so there was no longer an opening. Sew it in a circle. Pull the main stocking out of the lining stocking through that little hole you left before and make it so it looks like the picture below. Sew up the little hole. Make sure you leave the little hole far enough down so that when you fold it, you won't see the messy stitch line.

Tuck the lining stocking inside the main stocking and pull it up some so the cuff shows.

The one thing I wasn't happy about was creating a loop. I saved it for last and am not very happy with how mine look (I just used extra fabric) but overall, I think they look great! Here is a picture of three that I made. The one on the left is for my flatmate Sophie, who loves cupcakes. The one in the middle is mine. The one on the right is for my flatmate Caoimh who loves music. I also made another stocking for our friend Mags in the same fabric I made mine out of because I couldn't find a fabric that I thought would be perfect for her. The stockings are now hung on our mantel with care. Hopefully St. Nick soon will be here!

Not knowing anything about fabric, I bought way too much of it all so now I'm making mini-stocking that I'll give to family/friends with their gifts inside so they can use them as Christmas ornaments on their tree. It's harder and easier at the same time to make tiny ones. They're harder to make the round part rounded but I still enjoy making them. The big ones I could make in an afternoon (much faster if I used a machine) and the little ones I can make 2 or 3 while I'm sitting watching an hour of tv.

Thanksful for Thanksgiving

In America, the fourth Thursday in November is always Thanksgiving. It's a national holiday so you always have work off that day, as well as the following Friday (Black Friday! dundundun). In Britain, thanks to American television, most people know what it is and what it entails. When I studied abroad in Ireland in 2006, I didn't have a Thanksgiving dinner and went to Italy with my friend instead so we wouldn't be homesick. This year, I'm lucky to have family on the same landmass. My cousin, Julie, and her husband, Andreas, just moved from Aachen, Germany to Whitley Bay, England which is just outside of Newcastle Upon Tyne.

I went down last Wednesday after a workshop I had and was only on the train for twenty minutes or so before I realised it was snowing in whatever little town we were passing through. It snowed the entire time I was there in Newcastle. It was so pretty! On Thursday we went down to the bay (freezing!) and cooked lots of delicious food.

The main theme with Thanksgiving (besides being thankful) is FOOD!

We had:
-turkey
-stuffing
-mashed potatoes and gravy
-brussel sprouts with bacon and chestnuts
-sweet potatoes with marshmallow and brown sugar topping (half and half)
-home made cranberry sauce
-pumpkin pie with home made whipped cream

It was so great to be with family on such a family-oriented day. My parents had everyone over for Thanksgiving and we all had a skype chat with each other. It was great to see all their faces! I left for Edinburgh Friday evening after a lazy day of reading and snarfing leftovers. I decided to bring the snow back to Edinburgh with me and it's been snowing ever since! This is what it was like when I got back to my flat on Friday:

And this is what it's like now, a week and 12 inches later:

The people here don't really shovel or do anything. This is the one lucky stretch on my street where a nice man shovelled the place outside his flat and his neighbours. No one else is that nice. The streets are either super icy or super slushy. I love snow but not when people don't clean it up so I can walk! It's supposed to stay like this for quite a while. I'm okay with it as long as it doesn't interrupt my travel plans home in two weeks! Next Thursday I'm making a belated Thanksgiving dinner for my friends so they can taste the deliciousness. I'll be making a turkey for the first time in my life. Wish me luck!!

The purpose of Thanksgiving is to be thankful. This year, I am thankful for the opportunity to be studying in Edinburgh, Scotland. I am thankful for my parents, who have been so loving and supportive (both emotionally and financially!) and without them, I wouldn't have been able to come (aka thanks for the loan mom and pops!). What are you thankful for?

Weekends Away

Last weekend was Halloween but instead of having a spooky night in Edinburgh, I decided to take a last minute trip with my flatmate Caoimh and her law friends Anke, Alex, and Meghan to the Highlands! Their programme had reading week and I'm not a huge fan of Halloween anyway. It was just an overnight trip with a group called MacBackpackers. We left early Saturday morning and headed north.

Our first stop was a town outside Birnam Woods, as made famous by Shakespeare's MacBeth, where Beatrix Potter used to holiday.

"Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill Shall come against him."
- William Shakespeare, Macbeth, 4.1

We got our lunches in town and walked around. There was an awesome cathedral which was half functioning, half in ruins. The cathedral is situated by the lovely River Tay.

Our next stop was the Hermitage, which is pretty much a nice park. There were lovely paths and a waterfall.

After that we travelled to Ruthven Barracks. Scotland was having a typical ten minute pouring session as we approached the barracks so we all got soaked walking up but it left us with a beautiful rainbow!

Following that we went to Clava Cairns which are 4000 year old ruins believed to have been used when humans worshipped nature and the sun and the moon. Now they're just piles of rocks.

We then stopped at the Culloden Battlefield for tea. This is where a lot of Highlanders died fighting the British. It was really sad to see all the markers for the mass graves for individual clans.

We ended the day at the shores of Loch Ness by the little town of Dores. Sorry, no monster spotted! Everyone was invited to swim in the waters, which were freezing. The only people brave enough to do it were Alex and Anke who changed into their swim suits and rain in. Caoimh and Meghan took their shoes off and waded in. I was happy enough to dip my finger in - it was ice cold! *Applause* to them.

We spent the night at a hostel in Inverness and had a lovely dinner at a place called The Castle Tavern(?). On Sunday morning we stopped at Loch Ness again. We drove along the Loch for a bit and took pictures of Urquhart Castle, a lovely ruin along the shores.

We took a few photo stops along the way back south including Falls of Foyer and Glen Coe, the site of a mass murder of a clan. We also stopped in Stirling to see the William Wallace Monument.

Hamish, the Hairy Coo

It really was a wonderful time! The girls I went with were really nice and made me feel welcome.

Yesterday, we made a trip out to Glasgow. It was me, Mags, Sophie, and Caoimh. We took the train out and spent three hours shopping at a wonderful, cheap, store called Primark. Then we took a tea break and met Sophie's friend Tasha. Then we did a little more shopping and met up with Matt, who came in later, for a drink. We had dinner at Wagamomma (joined by Danny) and then met up with Sophie's uni friends for drinks. A lovely, lovely time to be had and lots of bargains to be found!

A Tip on Tipping

As I mentioned in my last Dianna's Dash of Different Diction post, I wanted to let you all know about tipping in the United Kingdom. It's quite different here than in the United States where, in my opinion, tipping is a large part of society and is expected. Here are some examples:

-In America, if you're given a tour, you would tip the tour guide if they're good. Here no one tipped the tour guide (see the upcoming post on the trip I took to Loch Ness).

-In America, if you take a taxi, the driver waits for you to give them a tip. Here they run/drive off before you can give them one. For taxis, I usually just round up my fare and tell them to keep the change. If I don't have exact change and they give me money back, it's their loss because they usually drive away right after I had them my change. But I especially try to give them a tip if they helped me with any luggage.

-In America, waiters and waitresses rely on tips. They get paid a really low salary and make all of their income on what you leave behind for them based on their service. In general, you can give someone around 15%. I usually give that on average but more likely I'll give 20%. If they were extremely horrible and rude, I will leave 10%. In the UK, 10% is more like what you leave behind. As a former waitress, t's really hard sometimes for me to leave only 10% but my friends always give me my money back when I try to leave more.

-You don't tip the grocery delivery man who carries your groceries all the way to your flat for you.

Those are all of the examples I can think of now. If you have any questions about other situations, leave a comment and I'll ask my flatmates!

There's Been A Murder...And It Be A Mystery

On Saturday my flatmates and I attended a murder mystery party our friend Danny had written. Since he didn't know us when he wrote it, we didn't get parts so we played as actors. I went as Dina Mite, Caoimh went as June Facepunch, Sophie went as Silver McStabsqwik, and Mags, who had a role, was Scarlet Monroe.

It was a lot of fun! It was great because everyone actually dressed up. Usually you get a lot of slackers but everyone put a lot of effort into their costumes which was awesome! We didn't stay too long after the mystery was solved (until about 12:30/1) because we were all really tired and we were meeting Sophie's aunt for lunch the next day.

Her aunt lives in the town of Penicuik which is about 10 miles outside of Edinburgh. We had a lovely three course meal of melon and cherries, a sausage casserole with rice, peppers, apricots, carrots, and mushrooms, and for dessert we had strawberry and blackberry crumble and strawberry trifle. It was all so yummy! It was wonderful to have a home cooked meal and it felt so homey in her house with its little gas fireplace (there was heat! it was so warm!). We then went on a walk around Penicuik House. I took some pictures with my phone for the first time. I'm really pleased with the quality but the colouring is a little off and I couldn't get it to zoom. I'll have to play around with it more.

Dianna's Weekly Dash of Different Diction

Welcome to this week's Dash of Different Diction. Sorry we're a bit late this week. It wasn't on my calendar to write it so I forgot! Today's word is take away. When you're in a restaurant here, instead of being asked "Here or to-go" you'll be asked "sit in or take away". So, essentially, take away is synonymous with to-go. There is also a difference in pricing between sit in and take away. Sitting in is always a bit more expensive even for something as simple as coffee from Starbucks. When you sit in there they usually give you a non-disposable cup.

Speaking of eating, tipping is different in the UK compared to the US. Stay tuned for next week. Instead of a word, we'll go over tipping!

Happy Birthday To Me!

On Friday, the 15th, I celebrated my 24th birthday. It wasn't anything too special. My flatmate, Sophie, made me cupcakes.

I opened my presents from my mom and dad, which I'd been holding on to for a few weeks and they consisted of the sequel to Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber (VERY good series! Hopefully the second book will continue that way. No idea when I'll have time to read it since I still haven't gotten to Mockingjay, the last book in the Hunger Games Trilogy), and the DVD Letters to Juliet. They also gave me some pounds to spend as I please. Isn't that nice?! I plan on buying some nice boots with it. My flatmates were really nice and got me cards as well. Caoimh got me a pretty necklace and Sophie got me a PostSecret book since I had been spying on hers.

I had a fairly laid back day. I didn't do anything different than usual (which means lying around watching tv and reading for school). We had people over to our flat and I wore my lovely birthday dress that I'd bought. Unfortunately, I had way too much wine to drink (probably over a bottle and a half in under 3 hours) and by the time we went out to Espionage to go dancing, I was done in. I left early, went home, and made good friends with my bed. This picture is me and my flatmate. I was struggling to be awake and alive at this point. I look wrecked (my mother kindly phrased it "toasted" when she saw them!) in almost every photo.

Saturday I was pretty much dead to the world with a hangover like no other and sat in my bed feeling sorry for myself, swearing off alcohol, and watching Project Runway. I managed to get up around 5pm, eat something, and walk to a bar where my friend Danny was having his belated birthday celebration.

In other news, fall has officially begun! Okay, the weather has been cold here for weeks and even colder lately and nearly all the leaves have changed and started falling but I bought canned pumpkin online and made my first batch of pumpkin goodies on Thursday. I make pumpkin chocolate chip muffins with a cream cheese center. Yum, yum, yum they were so good!

Not up to much this week except more classes and readings! However I have begun to piece together my costume for a certain pirate party I am attending on Saturday. Will possibly be awesome. Arrrrrrrrrrr.

Dianna's Weekly Dash of Different Diction

Welcome to this week's Dash of Different Diction. Today's word is bagsy. This is just a cute little phrase equivalent to "dibs" in the US. If you want something and have to pick it before everyone else, you bagsy it. Example:

1. If you're having a potluck with your friends, and you'd want to bring dessert, you'd say "Bagsy pudding".

Dianna's Weekly Dash of Different Diction

Welcome to this week's Dash of Different Diction. Today's word is pudding. Now, I know you know what pudding here but they sometimes use it different here. Here is a really good description from Wikipedia.

"In the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth countries, pudding refers to rich, fairly homogeneous starch (or dairy) based desserts such as rice pudding and Christmas pudding, or, informally, any dessert. The word is also used for savoury dishes such as Yorkshire pudding, black pudding, and steak and kidney pudding.

In the United States, pudding characteristically denotes a sweet milk-based dessert similar in consistency to egg-based custards, though it may also refer to other types such as bread and rice pudding."


I decided to choose this as my word of the week in honour of all the dinner parties I've been going to! My flatmates and I have started a tradition. About three weeks ago we invited our new friends Mags, Danny, and Matt over for dinner. Then last weekend we went over to dinner at Mag's flat and this weekend we've been invited for dinner at Danny's. It's a nice Sunday dinner tradition! I hope we keep it up. But that's how my new word was learned. Sophie offered to bring cupcakes for pudding. The phrase threw me off completely when I first heard it! I said cupcakes FOR pudding? How does that happen? And then she kindly explained to me that pudding just meant dessert. Yum!

These are the cupcakes Sophie made! Don't they look delicious? (Trust me, they were!) They were almost too pretty to eat! The one on the right is chocolate with Baileys flavoured butter cream icing. YUM!

The Difficulties of Living Abroad

Living away from home can be difficult but usually you can go home if needed. You don't have that luxury when living abroad. I've been gone for a month already and so much is happening back home with my friends and family that it makes me sad. I (surprisingly) still haven't gotten very homesick yet but I have a feeling it could hit me soon. It seems like every day that another friend has made an announcement on Facebook that they're getting engaged/married/pregnant. My lifelong friend and neighbour Katie is getting married on 10-10-10. Her boyfriend is on leave from the army and they're taking advantage of it and she's moving to Hawaii. So who knows when I'll see her next!

In sadder news, I found out today that my Aunt Ann's husband, Roland, passed away the other day. He got ill when he, my aunt, and my cousin, Christine, were on a Caribbean cruise and died before the helicopter could reach the hospital. They don't know what happened yet. Roland did have heart problems but I'm not sure if it was related. It is just such a shock. He will be greatly missed! Roland had a great sense of humour and had just received his doctorate. I'm not sure how old he was exactly but I'm guessing somewhere in his late sixties.

Here is one of the last photos I have with Roland in it. This is from last years Thanksgiving so it's nearly a year old. Roland is standing in the back, the second from the left.

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Dianna's Weekly Dash of Different Diction

Welcome to this week's Dash of Different Diction.Today's word is queue. This can be defined in two (similar) ways.

• (n.): a file or line, esp. of people waiting their turn.
• (v.): to form in a line while waiting (often fol. by up).

In Scotland, and most likely all of Britain (I heard this in Ireland as well), you would use this instead of line. No one here will say, "Are you in line?" Instead you would say, "Are you in the queue?" Other ways to say this are...

1. "Would you look at the queue for the tickets!"
2. "Were you queuing before me?" or "Are you queuing?"
   
3. "Queue starts here."

A bonus to this week's Weekly Dash of Different Diction, to not throw you off while you're queuing, is that instead of saying "Next in line" or "Who's next?" at the register, the salesperson is more likely to say "Who's first?" or "I'll take who's first." I went shopping all day Saturday last weekend and heard it for the first time. Don't know why but it made me giggle.

"First!"

Dianna's Weekly Dash of Different Diction

Welcome to this week's Dash of Different Diction. It gets dark here fairly early and it's only the beginning. I've heard it will get dark by 3/4 soon! Even now the lights in our stairs don't come on until it's pitch black outside (you can see stars in Edinburgh!). Sometimes I wish I had a flashlight (that hand powered electrical source). But can you ask for one here? There's a fine chance people won't know what you're talking about. Therefore it's important to know you much ask for a torch. No, this isn't some medieval fire-lit brand.

Torch=flashlight.

First Day of Class

I'm slowly making new friends! On Thursday evening last week we went to a postgrad only pub quiz on campus. We did quite horribly (although not last place) and met some new friends! We met Matt, a law student from Boston doing his third year abroad, and Danny, a friend of Mags' who is a PhD student in Film Studies. Even though we didn't know hardly any of the answers we still had a lot of fun! We then went out to Grayfriar's Bobby for a drink.

On Sunday we invited Mags, Matt, and Danny over for dinner. Sophie made carrot, potato, and lentil vegetable soup and Caoimh made a yummy lasagne. I made bread and butter pudding for dessert. It was a wonderful night all around! Lots of wine, lots of laughing, etc.

Monday was my first day of classes. It's so refreshing to actually know what's going on now! From 2-2:30 I had Research Skills and Methods which is a pass/fail class that teaches you about finding sources and doing bibliographies and stuff. We're meeting 3 times this week and then we have to attend 3 workshops throughout the rest of the semester. Everything else will be online and we're not graded on content - just that we do the assignments and show up.

Following that I had my core class for my programme which was Investigating Change in the Institutions, Cultures, and Languages of Europe (ICICLE) from 4-6. This class will be every Monday from 4-6 and just consists of the people from my programme...there are a whopping 7 of us. There is me, an American boy from Ohio, a girl from Romania, a boy and a girl from Ireland, and a boy and a girl (who is pregs and due in November) from Germany. Nice and diverse! But amusing that there is a boy and a girl from almost every country represented. I was hoping it would be bigger and with more people but maybe since it's the first time the programme is being offered, they're keeping it small to test it out. It kind of makes me feel a lot better that I was able to get in! He said there were over 30 applications. Next Tuesday I'll be starting my option module on the Holocaust.

Tonight my cousin Julie and her husband Andreas are stopping in Edinburgh on their way to Newcastle to look at flats (I've mentioned this before - they're moving from Germany to England next month). I'm very excited to see them! It's been...how long? A year? Two? Yeah, probably closer to two. It's probably just going to be a quick visit since they're not getting here until 7:30/8 but I'm still happy to see them!

I've still got things to sort out with my cell phone but tomorrow we're going to go see The Other Guys with Will Farrell and Mark Whalberg. I didn't want to see it much but everyone else is going so I figured I might as well!

Dianna's Weekly Dash of Different Diction

In last week's Dianna's Weekly Dash of Different Diction we mentioned how people like the sounds of other words because they sound very posh. This word is fairly well known in the United States but it isn't used very frequently. Really, the most we come across is when Victoria Beckham was known as Posh Spice in the Spice Girls. Otherwise it doesn't really come across in our vocabulary.

Posh (v.): very classy or sophisticated.

This term is used very frequently here. I've found it can be used in two different ways (1) to explain something that is fancy or (2) to make it seem like someone or something is a bit snobby. Some examples in a sentence are:
-"People in Morningside all think they're very posh."
-"She looks really posh. I love her dress."
-"He talked really posh. He thought he was better than everyone else there."

British?

While at International Day, the director of the International Office told us what it meant to be British. This was a submission (and winner) for a contest* that was held.

Being British means...
Driving German cars
Drinking a Belgian beer in an Irish pub
Eating Indian and Chinese food
Watching American TV shows on Japanese TV sets
While sitting on Swedish furniture.

Sums it up perfectly to me! :)

*This contest was won by a Czech.

The New Flat

Well, I'm all moved into my new flat! I'm really loving it so far!! On Friday I had to wait until 2 to get my keys so I went over there and met my flatmate Sophie and we signed our leases. I went back to the B&B for a bit and then got a taxi over to the flat. There I met Sophie's parents, Nick and Fiona, who were just adorable! Later that evening Caoimh arrived with her parents, Bert and JJ, and I helped her bring her stuff up and then we made a quick trip to the grocery store.

Saturday morning I took a trip to IKEA with Sophie and her parents and bought a lamp, waste bin, some organizers, and a bathroom rug. We then went to a large Sainsburys (grocery store) in Cameron Toll and did a big shop for food and there I also found an alarm clock and thing for my toothbrush in the bathroom. After we got back and unpacked, I just went walking. I had a few things in mind that I wanted to do so I headed up past George Square and down to Grassmarket where I was looking for a certain shop someone had told me about but didn't see. Then I went up to Princes Street and got my mom her birthday present before heading back down to Tollcross to the Pound Stretcher where I got the rest of my hangers, standing mirror, and a little space organizer to go under my sink. I took the bus back to the flat and unpacked everything. My room looks like this now!

My closets:

My bathroom:


The kitchen:


The living room and hall:

Sunday morning there was International Day at the university. I went at 10 to see what it was all about but it seemed to be catered to students who had just arrived and based on the people I met, most just had. So it was all about learning the city and where things were. There were a few talks I thought might be interesting but I stayed for 2 hours for the general session and then decided to head back to my flat. That night Caoimh's parents made a Sunday roast (which apparently everyone has) which was very yummy! Sophie's parents headed back to Northern Ireland that evening and Caoimh's parents went back to Ireland the next morning.

On Monday I mailed off some birthday presents and spent the afternoon at Starbucks using their wireless. That evening, Caoimh and I went to a wine and cheese for postgrads and mature students. It was VERY crowded and the cheese was all gone by the time we got there.

On Tuesday I waited around in the morning for the cleaners (because the flat was a bit dirty when we moved in) who mopped and hoovered. Then I had to wait for the Virgin Media man for our broadband who finally came around 1 (so we have internet now yay!). Caoimh and I then headed to our Freshers' Week Postgrad Taught Masters/Diploma Students Welcome Session (there are two categories of graduate work (1) Postgraduate Taught Masters and Diploma [which is pretty much taking classes but not writing a dissertation] and (2) Postgraduate Research Masters and PhD). This was a pretty boring two hours of people just saying good luck! Welcome! Make friends! Edinburgh is amazing! So many students were super rude and just walked out while people were in the middle of presenting. I stuck around in case there was anything useful but there wasn't really. We then headed to a wine reception afterwards where we sat with two very nice girls. One was named Mags and she was from Cambridge, England but spent some years in the US growing up. The other was from (Middlesburg?) England. Sophie joined us and we all went out to dinner together.

All night all the girls were trying to convince me to go to a ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee; a Scottish dance) that was being offered for postgraduate students. I wanted to go but I didn't want to dance but I ended up going. There were a lot of people there and we ended up getting there about an hour after it started so everyone had already paired up. There was, surprisingly, a large number of boys there (but of course more girls). Mags and Sophie got asked to dance but Mags didn't want to so Caoimh dance with them instead. I didn't really want to do a partner dance but all night they'd been talking about a dance called Strip the Willow. We all went down for it so we had four girls and two boys and Sophie and Mags recruited two more so we all had parents. Pretty much you stand in two lines and there are four couples. It goes like Couple 1 Spins, Boy 1 spins with Girl 2 while Girl 1 spins with Boy 2, Couple 1 Spins, Boy 1 spins with Girl 3 while Girl 1 spins with Boy 3 and while this happens Couple 2 starts spinning with each other so you keep going down the line.
You can get a better idea of it here - it's almost like line dancing but more same, same but different.

It's great! It was an amazing experience! I'm so glad I went!