and how

well, hello strangers. i'm back to confront my blogging spectre after a busy spell. but i won't pretend it wasn't a lovely spell and so for that i'm happy i forgot to have time to write in here.

rachel's visit was of course the most occupying thing, and it was really delightful. we spent time doing touristy things and also just fun things that are a part of my life here: walking all over the place because edinburgh is a place that very much cannot be captured in pictures, you just need to move through its streets and soak in the hoary yet lively gray charm. going back to the portrait gallery because i thought rachel would like to look at those faces, as a person with a very developed beauty radar. climbing dormant volcano arthur's seat with mandy joining the merry band during a wonderfully mild day with almost no wind! rachel is quite the outdoorsy girl, but also there really is no better view of the city and its contours, complexities and ever-surprising expanse (for it deceptively feels quite cozy and manageable in size) than from that king of the world spot on top of the resident topographical pimple. i'm really glad i climbed it again, it was a much more pleasant experience than my previous sunrise escapade; now i could actually pick out landmarks and get a sense of my life as a little ant-size atom moving through the streets and paths and edifices in this place. such distance made me feel even more at home somehow, even more aware of my purpose. and of course i took her to the important spots, like each of my favorite coffeehouses, this shop called chocolate soup that sells everything chocolate, including soup, at her request, to my university, to the scottish parliament, to the funny humungous starbucks on the second floor of the building it occupies, staring eye-to-eye with edinburgh castle. we ate italian, thai and spanish (meals are very important for experiencing a city, trust you me). we went to the cinema and saw brokeback mountain with its beautiful men and sad story. and i'm happy to say, i took rachel to her first club and she had a great time dancing to some drum and bass, and i took her to a pub where, with my encouragement she braved ordering her first drink at a bar. the things you can't do when you travel to europe with your parents, i suppose. and of course, there was the ever-present conversation. almost shockingly, we caught up on everything, and then we actually got to keep going and just talk about whatever came into our heads. i've lost the luxury of having time for extemporaneous conversation with my across-the-ocean correspondents - i even feel a little out of practice - but it is a glorious thing. both of us i think are left feeling refreshed and incredibly excited about living together next year when i am back at uva, just being able to actually share life regularly, which even in years past is something for which we never quite had enough time and the right circumstances. boy will there be dinner parties. i am going to learn to cook things too, so i am not embarassed of myself.

in the end i ushered her on her way to paris, where i'm sure she is having a fabulous time visiting with other friends and immersing herself in other types of glamour. then, it was time to confront the fact of my classes starting! it was all, i admit, a rather scattered effort, for there are many other distractions. i did some shopping (i recently received a very fat paycheck from all of my working hours over christmastime, but now i am saving it for a trip to london at the end of the month. no more clothes, i swear), and went to another of the 5 main art galleries in the city. this was a more traditional collection, sporting big names from most of the important time periods and various cultural hubs, and there i decided to myself what i had been suspecting, which is that i think impressionism is one of my favorite styles. sometimes it really does nothing for me, and a painting can just hit me as a complete dud, but generally there is something really mystical and romantic to me about it all and i am enchanted rather consistently. i think i might be related to my recent falling in love with miyazaki's films spirited away and howl's moving castle, which sounds like perhaps a strange thing to say but i think i really mean it. all of that fantasy-like painting casts an ineffable spell on me. that day in the museum, degas in particular was appealing to me.
and there is much social buzz! (i promise it is not all art and books and me in my head with full but solitary thoughts, oh no sirree) while rachel was here, my new flatmate for this semester arrived. she seems like a really nice girl and someone i might really get along with - her name is meredith, she is from colby college in maine, and she studies english as well. she is not quite so mainstream about being american as some others, in that she is just sort of chilled out about it at all, which is nice. i've been trying to make a concerted effort to tell her things i've learned and make her feel welcome and just being chummy in general; she came out to the club with us and she and i have been chatting a lot around the flat as well. also meanwhile everyone else has been returning from their homes to the flat building for the start-up of classes, so i've been catching up with some of them.
i volunteered to give tours of the central campus area (called george square) to the new international students who have arrived for the semester - there are some 500-odd of them. i think they are mostly americans, but i'm not entirely sure. i gave one today and will have another tomorrow, and today only 4 people showed up, and i think three of them were both american and already friends with one another. for whatever reason they didn't really seem to care at all about what i was saying! after all of my time spent learning factoids and perfecting anecdotes. hopefully tomorrow will bring a better crowd - my luxembourgian friend pit (who has spent almost the entirety of my time here off in luxembourg doing dissertation research) who gave the tour that i went on when i first arrived has threatened to hide in my crowd, pretending to be a curious new international student. considering that he is probably about 6'3" and has a head of huge curly hair, i'm pretty sure there will be little chance of disguise, but it will all be quite fun anyway. it's good to put yourself on the spot sometimes. and i am happy for the chance to share the information that i seem to naturally collect in my head if it will help people feel happier and more comfortable here.

today also i had two of my three classes (the last, my literature class, not until thursday). one of them was in the divinity school (the course is "the masters of suspicion"), which is its own separate college located over right next to edinburgh castle in an absolutely gorgeous building. i will soon take some good pictures to illustrate. i'm really excited about it - new college, what the building is called, is its own whole community, and even has an oxbridge-style dining hall called rainy hall that i had some tea in before class. everyone really does convene there for meals and tea and chats throughout the day and they all know one another - it's exciting to feel like i am entering a home and might be able to be a part of it. my professor was very old, professorial, has been retired for 4 years but they asked him to come back and teach the class. i am going to be thinking so many important things in it, i just know it, and i immediately picked up some of the readings from the library because i am already intrigued. and my classmates were also interesting, in that of the 12 people close to half were over 35 and there were only two other girls - as opposed to the almost complete female monopolization of literature classes here. it is pretty refreshing to know there are other sorts of people out there aside from posh british girls who i must say are not the friendliest classmates.
my architectural history class (from revivalism to modernism) was really promising as well. immediately the professor jumped in with no administrative amblings on the first day, talking about the constructions and city plannings of london vs. edinburgh in ways addressing things that i have completely become fascinated in just living here, and now i will have some things to think about when i go to london at the end of the month. we will be talking about the uk and america in this modernizing period, and i think i will learn things that i will remember forever and that will help me to notice things forever. so, good news on the class front so far and i am right in my expectation that i will like this semester better academically, so far.

well, that's pretty much the scoop. i have millions of emails to write and would actually like to tackle my reading, which all may mean a willing early start tomorrow. soon i will update with some pictures, but i'll keep in touch about that. hope everyone is well and not finding any drudgery in getting back to the swing of things in the new year.

yours-