What to do, what to do

It's official...i've completed my first week of vet school!  Yay.  I think it is going to be fairly easy to get into the swing of things and develop a consistent schedule.  We met last night at the Southsider Pub (this is a vet student hangout) to celebrate.  The GEP's (that's the Graduate Entry Program - it's 4 years instead of 5) showed up to celebrate the completion of their Animal Body 1 course and a 3 day anatomy exam.  They all seemed happy and as if they did really well, so congratulations to them!  I got home rather early, but then skyped for a few hours and ended up going to bed pretty darn late.

Today, I relax.  I very much need to go downtown to the mall and do some clothes shopping.  I am sorely short on proper fall/winter clothing.  The thought of shopping makes me want to pull my eyelashes out one by one, but there is no way around it.  I am enjoying my lounging today so much, that I can see myself procrastinating until tomorrow to go shopping.  But, that would mean I should do some studying today and I'm not really up for that either...so, maybe I will shop.  If I procrastinate long enough, perhaps I could have a most unproductive day.  Then, I would not be so happy tomorrow.  If I knew all of my UK sizes, I could do some online shopping.

Tonight is already planned.  A few of us are going to a Spanish restaurant to get our spanish food fix.  I'm looking forward to eating some tasty food...yummo.

Ciao

Liar,liar

ok, so I lied, but not intentionally.  I really did not want to get back on that bus and do another all day trip on such a beautiful day, so I walked to City Centre and did some other much needed shopping. This is my flat when I left (trust me, the garden in front is a huge improvement).  I have the bay window (which I could see my dogs standing on the couch looking for me) and the window to the left is the front guest room. The red door is the main door to the tenement. There are 4 floors, 2 flats on each floor.  I actually cut a rose from the garden today.

The next pic is of me walking down my street towards the park.

Then, I missed my flat and looked back up the street...

My hood is pretty spectacular, but 1.5 blocks down the street, is this to the left, which is called Bruntsfield Links, because it actually has a 'golf course' in the middle of the park.

Then, straight ahead is The Meadows which stretches on forever and ever...

Notice the buildings in the background here. This is the new, mixed with the old, ritzy development called the Quarter Mile.  It is is adjacent to part of the main campus of the University of Edinburgh.

and the 'hill' in the background is an inactive volcano. This is basically in the middle of town. It also has a lovely crag to climb, of which my lazy butt has not done yet.

This is one of the many paths crisscrossing through the ginormous Meadows.  As you can see, there is a dedicated bike path on one side and a pedestrian path on the other.  Whilst a very bike-friendly town, it is a closely, slightly watered down experience to biking in Manhattan, most likely.  Plus, everything is totally backwards with respect to which way you need to look for cars, buses, pedestrians, mothers pushing their babies across the street, other bikes, etc....

And all of the peeps you see in this picure are either 1. sitting on the grass drinking, 2. playing 'football or 3. wishing they were sitting on the grass drinking.'  This picture represents one twentieth of the Meadows.

And, the Quarter Mile closer up.  The Starbucks is on the left of the blue construction fence and the QM on the right.

I hope you have enjoyed the pictures from my day today.  I ended  up finding a great bargain store for some hardware items and then went grocery shopping here, next to the Starbucks at a typical tiny European 'grocery store' called Sainsbury's.

CHEERS!

shopping, shopping, shopping

This better be my last day of serious shopping.  I wanted to go last night to get my linens, but the mall closes at 630pm on Saturday's.....what??  So, it changed all of my plans because I was also going to eat out.  I ended up going a block away, grabbing some boneless, skinless, chicken breasts and coming back to make a delicious chicken stir fry with veggies I had left over.  AND, I am in love with this little gem of a spice: 

It is so unbelievably good.  It's got a hot, smoky, chili, salt and pepper taste to it that works with a lot of things.  So far, I've used it on my chicken and also to make a very yummy bloody mary!  I also think it will be tasty on vegetables. 

Today's main shopping outing is to get some of the things from yesterday that I simply had no room left to carry.  For instance, I want to go back to the sporting goods store that has incredible deals on sweats - the really good, thick, warm ones.  I have a feeling I will be living in these in my flat.  I also still need a laundry hamper since the laundry basket is actually being used for what it was designed - taking wet clothes out of the washer/dryer (it's a combined unit, more on this later) and hanging them out to dry on the clothes line.Yes, the clothes line.  Why would I do that, you ask, when I have a dryer?  Good question.  Well, the dryer is not quite what we are used to in the US.  Unless you want to dry your clothes for about 2-3 hours, they are not going to get fully dried.  So after a short 'drying' period, they come out as very hot steamed items and are ready to be hung on the clothesline.  If you do dry them for hours in the dryer, they then look like you had them balled up for a week's time and need serious ironing.  It is just easier to dry them outside.  Plus, they really do smell spring fresh.  It has humored me that a place known for it's rain, cold and dampness refuses to use dryers for the most part and relies on the 'drying greens'.  One of the many mysteries here.

For now, I am off to get cleaned up and tackle the buses, people and shopping once again.  Wish me luck. 

But first, with all that talk of food, time to make a Dagwood sangwich.

Over-N-Out