Things going on...

...that you don't know. Bonus poitns if you have any idea what im talking about there.

In about half an hour I will go to my last class of my week, officially ending my first full, actual week of classes here. I would have logged a total of 6 hours worth of class time. That is a beautiful thing. Now, granted I spent some more time outside of class doing the prep readings, but it is still beautiful knowing that I am pretty much just expected to know things. No hand holding, no babying. Just read and learn, and be able to talk about it. Liberal Arts rules. So, what have I been doing with the remainder of my time? Discovering the following:

1. Irn Bru

Irn-Bru  is the "other national drink of Scotland", according to themselves. What it is is soda. Very mysterious soda. Very delicious mysterious soda. To be honest, I could not tell you at all what it tastes like. It is sorta like bubble gum. Sorta. The formula is supposed to be a secret, known only by two Scottish guys. Supposedly, these guys can't even travel on the same airplane together, in case the monsters over at Pepsi try to shoot down their plane in hopes of annililating their Scottish soft drink rivals. If there is still a Cola-War going on, Irn-Bru is sorta like the IRA. Except Scottish. Anyway, every Scot over here is absolute bonkers about this stuff, and I have grown to like the elixir myself, its having all sorts of promised properties and effects, of the alchemical ("made with girders!") and mystical (will turn you Iron!") nature. To be honest, I just want to be like this guy:

2. Manure

Now, to be honest, I knew about this particular natural plant-life accelerator prior to coming to Edinburgh, its just my knowledge of it has been fortified. "Why, Wade, have you decided to abandon a life of scholarship at the University in favor for a more pastoral agrestic profession?" you might ask. The answer is a resounding "Nae", which is Scottish for "No, get away from from me before I beat you into haggis stuffing." The reason for my newfound appreciation for manure is that the groundskeepers at the residence halls where I am living decided that it would be a brilliant idea to tear up all the grass pretty much everywhere in the whole complex, and then cover the exposed earth with about a foot of manure. Maybe they are trying to recreate the ancient accademic experience of Highland youth coming down into the lowlands to study at the university, all of them smell like they spend all their time running around heather fields in skirts stepping in cow and sheep droppings all the time (they did). Or maybe they just really don't like us. Either way, our entire building now smells, pretty much everytime you go outside, like Old MacDonalds farm. Ironic Scottish name there...

3. Rain

Not much to say here, other than in Edinburgh it doesn't rain really. Clouds just descend to about waist level. Everyother molecule in the air transforms into H2O, and no matter what your wearing, or if you have a jacket or umbrella or anything else, you just get soaked. Its really fun. Makes me appreciate soup.