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!

Dianna's Weekly Dash of Different Diction

Welcome to the first of Dianna's Weekly Dash of Different Diction! Every week I will be posting some British word, phrase, or cultural reference that I do not find in American culture (in general). I suppose I should have made it Dianna's Daily Dash of Different Diction for a complete alliteration but I decided against it...and I don't want to be committed to posting every day.

We'll start it off simple.

Flat (n.): an apartment or suite of rooms on one floor forming a residence.

This term is chiefly British (as quoted by www.dictionary.com). It is as it is defined. In Britain, you sit in your flat and chat with your flatmates, not your apartment. Before I came to Scotland, I made an extreme effort to say this (and now I'm already having a hard time saying apartment when speaking to Americans) and everyone would go "Oh, flat! That sounds so fancy and European!". When I got here I was speaking to a woman who manages flats and accidentally said apartment. She loved it and thought it sounded very posh (see next week's Dash of Different Diction!) and wished they said apartment instead of flat. Everyone loves the different (another example of this will come in next next week's dash)!

End of Festival and Mom's Visit

Hmmm...I'm trying to remember what we spent the last week doing! It's all gone by so fast.

I believe on Friday (27th) and Saturday (28th) we just sat around and were lazy. We were finally getting a good night sleep since the stress of looking for a flat was over! On Sunday the 29th, we went walking around the neighbourhood (notice my British spelling of neighborhood - I'm trying!) of Marchmont where I will be living. It's so quiet and cozy there! I can't wait to move in!


Last Monday we went shopping, hoping to find some deals from the bank holiday. We didn't find any but got decent prices. I picked up towels and linens for my bed at my new flat! Then I spent the next three days washing them because the 2-in-1 washer/dryer was so tiny I could barely fit anything in it! Wouldn't it be more energy efficient to have bigger ones so you only have to run two loads instead of eight?

All the days are blurring together but I believe I got my mobile phone at the Virgin Media Store on Tuesday. One day last week I also paid all my monies for my flat (and then yesterday I paid my fees and tuition for the university). Goodbye life savings! It's so hard to see it all go!!

On Thursday we packed up everything and headed over to Newington to finish our stay at a Bed and Breakfast called Gifford House. It's very nice and the owners are wonderful but my room is right on a busy road and despite it's double glazing, it's very noisy. And VERY tiny.

On Friday I went to the Registry's Office and turned in my forms for matriculation (which means being officially admitted to the university). We also went over to Morningside and headed to a place called Loopy Loorna's! It was a cute little tea house (a bit pricey I think probably because it had a good reputation). I finally got my scones with jam and cream!! Delicious! The cream by itself isn't that great but when it's with the jam and on the scone - so refreshing! Yummy!!

We've pretty much just been walking everywhere and looking around at things. Yesterday (Sunday) we had a little picnic lunch in Holyrood Park and watched the bikers do their duathalon (well a competitor told us it was a duathalon but all the signs said triathlon) and went to the Royal Botanic Gardens. We got there near closing so we pretty much picked one path and walked across. We only got to see a few trees but it was still very pretty. It's free so I'll have to go back one day.

The whole point of going to the gardens on Sunday was because they were right next to Inverleith Park. The owners of our B&B told us it was a great place to watch the annual fireworks that mark the end of the Edinburgh International Festival. They are world famous and HUGE (this ain't your county fair fireworks ya'll) and synchronized with an orchestra. It was lovely and really was a great spot! It was a clear view of the castle. But it was windy so Mom and I watched about 3/4 of it and left before the crowds (there were supposed to be 15,000 people in the park with us!)

Unfortunately, Mom left today to go back home. I will miss her so much! So I'm just going to lay around today and mope. The countdown to Christmas and going home for a short visit begins!

Things to do this week:
-buy a printer
-start programme readings!
-make sure everything is okay with my flat and go pick up my keys and move in on Friday!

Still know nothing about my programme and my classes. Hopefully I'll learn stuff this week!!!