Stephanie and I first went to the train station to buy tickets to Edinburgh, where we need to meet the Arcadia staff before we head off to the Borderlands this weekend. The lady at the counter told us that the price will be the same if we buy them the day of the trip (though train tickets are usually cheaper in the UK if you buy them way ahead of time), so she said we should wait until then. That was the entire point of heading into town, so after that we decided to check out the Thistles Shopping Centre for fun.
It's a magical place, I guess.
At the Thistles, I managed to find a sports equipment store, which I think might have been an outlet because everything had marked-down price stickers. I bought a pair of rugby shorts, spandex shorts, black and green socks (Stirling's colors), a mouthguard that you don't need to mold (awesome), a super cheap but huge water bottle, and some new cleats that were on sale for like 25 pounds. I really love how in this country you can just walk into a sports store and find rugby stuff. I saw an entire bin of rugby balls, and it reminded me that the last time I tried to buy a ball in the U.S., they had to drag their only one out of the storage room.
This is the local Stirling club, not the University's, unless those are combined somehow. I'm excited to play anyway, I'm glad to hear that they changed their practice times, so I won't have to miss one for my class film screenings. The team practices at a local rugby club field, which will be nice because I won't have to take a bus to campus for practice (although I still might need a bus to get there, not sure).
We wandered around the mall trying to find a place that served soup (because I just really wanted soup), and ultimately ate lunch at the mall's equivalent of a food court, which is basically a little cafeteria line with a lot of comfort foods like meat and potatoes. I had a cup of lentil soup and a Coronation Chicken Sandwich, which I thought was a mix between chicken and egg salad. I found out later that it's just a certain kind of chicken salad with a special blend of [seven] herbs and spices and mayo, but it looks yellow like egg salad, probably because of the secret spices.
Coronation Chicken Sandwich: Sounds Fancy, Needs Capitalization.
We also stopped at Primark, which is kind of a mix between Forever 21 and H&M and sells juniors clothing in the style of those stores for really cheap. They also have a little section with some sheets and curtains sorts of things, and I bought a memory foam pillow for only 8 pounds because the pillow that the university provided has been used a hundred times and, as a result, is flat as a pancake.
Speaking of which, it's National Pancake Day in the UK, and I have not yet been able to eat a pancake. Stirling needs a Bob Evans.
Anyway, I also bought some cool black and white spotted sunglasses at Primark, and then we went to the candy store that sells American candy at outrageous prices. It was oddly exciting to see all the candy from home that I suddenly realized they don't sell here. It was also amazing to me how much they charge for some pretty crappy varieties of candy, like Mr. Goodbars and those awful Dippin' Dot candies. Who is honestly paying two pounds and over for these things? I was complaining about it rather loudly, so the cashier was probably annoyed, but whatever. Also, she got mad if you tried to take pictures in the store.
I was surprised to see that they had Brach's candy corn, which I can't even find in the U.S. in February, though I wish I could. I also asked if they had my other favorite candy that nobody else likes: Necco wafers, and of course that was the one thing they didn't stock.
I saw some pretty weird, but interesting candy like a chocolate GPS and Blackberry and this chocolate bar made with that Irn-Bru soft drink (pronounced "iron brew") that everyone here likes. People tell me it tastes like bubblegum, but I think it's more like orange/mango-flavored gum.
I really want to call it "irn-BARRR-bru." Emphasis on the BARR.
I also had my first Cadbury cream egg today, which was way too sugary and gave me a slight headache. That is saying something because I normally love overly sugary things. Although I did like it, I would have been better able to handle a smaller one.
I ended up buying Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey... FUDGE. It's really interesting because it's kind of like if you diluted whiskey with sugar and butter, which is surprisingly pleasant if you like whiskey (which I've found I apparently do?). Some of my flatmates tried it, and one hated it because, well, it tastes like whiskey. I kind of want to learn how to make the fudge so I can perfect the recipe and make it more widely appealing.
Also, the tin it came in makes a cool pencil cup, which was about half of my reason for buying it.
I feel the need to mention that at Marks & Spencer (where they don't sell marshmallow fluff, by the way, though I have seen it at Sainsbury's), we saw some product related to Where's Waldo?, but they call it Where's Wally? here. I'm not sure why they felt the need to change that, but apparently, the books were made by a British guy, so Where's Wally? is the original name. I guess Waldo is a more common name in the U.S. than Wally? I don't here either of them very often, but I'm sure they did some extensive marketing tests that justify it.
A calendar of torture.
Once we were done at the mall, we went back to campus, and I got the spinach and milk that I'd left in the fridge before I moved. The same students I met on my first day at the University were in the kitchen making pancakes for National Pancake Day. They're really fun people, and I'm going to miss living with them.
Stephanie and I also went to the student bookstore to buy our books for class. The lady at the cash register was very helpful with telling us which ones we actually needed as opposed to which ones were more supplementary. My bill came in at about 104 pounds, which was frustrating largely because I couldn't buy anything used, although they do buy your books back from you at the end of the semester. Maybe they were just out of used copies of literally everything I needed. Normally I'd shop for used books online, but I didn't have the time to wait for them to come in because I didn't find out what books I needed until yesterday. Unfortunately, one class required me to get about seven books. They were mostly paperback novels, and there are also a bunch of other readings that I have to dig up throughout the semester. I hope they put them on Succeed (which is basically Blackboard), but I don't know if that will happen. There are also long lists of suggested readings that worry me because you're not actually supposed to read them all, and I don't know which parts of which ones to look at. But I'm going to figure out which subjects interest me the most and then just read the books on those so I can start outlining my essays.
Speaking of which, the good news about finals is that I only have to write papers for all my classes except one. The bad news is that that one is has an essay-based exam to be completed in three hours. Ugh, my least favorite kind of assessment. I'm also a little worried by the fact that each class only has two assessments, each worth 50% of the final grade, but at least they are papers for the most part, so I don't have to relearn everything at the end. I really need to start reading soon, and I really don't want to at all.
By the by, I feel like every time I say "little" or "small" I should say "wee" because people here use that word A LOT. You'd think it's just a stereotype, but everyone does it.
Um, what else? My wristlet strap broke, so now it's just a regular wallet. My bookbag strap broke too, but since it's an over the shoulder bag, I hooked the broken side to the top handles, and that's been working well enough. And I managed to get some internationally-approved stamps on campus, so I didn't have to trek out to the post office in order to mail my postcards.
So that's basically all. It's been both a fun and fruitful day, and tomorrow I'm planning to walk through my classrooms so I know where everything is. I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about having much larger classes, where we're even not supposed to talk, but the smaller group tutorials should help.
Song of the Day (which you should've already guessed):
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