since we last spoke...

casualties suffered:
1. exploded, smoking blowdryer in a norwich plug. still uk plug/power, mystifying
2. one silver earring (christmas gift from ma, frown) escaped me either at work or on the way home or at home. they were perfect for wearing at work, too
3. one nice fleece pair of ski gloves lost in a pub in norwich. i lost my other pair of gloves in john's company too. maybe he is secretly a thief? karma embodied?
4. a thumb pad burned this morning at work on inordinately hot breakfast plates. i was getting tired of my fingerprint anyway..?
5. one day of class skipped (but it's totally fine, so far)
6. a/many belly ache/s. this is not new. but was a part nonetheless.

ground covered/gains:
1. an indescribable evening with the mediterranean society and my saudi/greek friends of dancing and abounding culture - other, very other than mine own. the first time i thought to myself "there is no way i could have an experience like this in the u.s. having now had it, i may find myself full of holes when i return."
2. a usually contemplative train ride to norwich in tandem with the changeable sky illustrations to calm my high from the previous evening. this time the extraordinary continued as i viewed no less than five rainbows form and dissolve (there may have been even more, not all of my hours were waking), and, as much of this occurred off of the shores of the north sea, i even saw a rainbow's end.
3. more amblings in norwich with john, in which i acquired some long-desired thick black tights and long day's journey into night (because my teacher figured probably we should add in some american tragedy to the syllabus in the end, just to see what they were up to) and john acquired the oxford complete works of shakespeare, and a stylish new hat and scarf. this seems very appropriate and gendered and a little british.
4. went with john to a matinee showing of munich, the new and somewhat controversial spielberg movie.
5. had some culinary revelations regarding orange juice, black licorice and dried fruits. and coffee.
6. made an exciting amount in tips and worked some needed hours this weekend at the trusty mp's bistro. now i can maintain my glamorous lifestyle. aka buy my mother and best friend birthday presents and send them across the stormy sea.
7. as is customary, got my paws on some new music from john's library, including my current accompaniment of etta james' at last, uncle tupelo (which, father, if you are reading this, you would probably greatly enjoy) and the new cat power album (which, mother and sister katie, you would greatly enjoy. maybe even dad too.)

let's take the long cut (elaborations on the good/interesting things):

cs6. seriously, what has happened to my digestive system? my stomach's wayward ways forces me really to behave as though i am really a grandma. let's tie this in to...
gc/g5. i realized that if i just buy expensive orange juice, it will actually taste like oranges as i am used to in the homegrown u.s. fancy that. and because i am apparently a grandma, like mine own dear pat, i have realized how much i like black licorice, something she always had around in my childhood and that i always spurned. i am especially fortunate with the european masters haribo selling their products everywhere. also, i have taken to eating dried fruits all the time. like..figs. weird. and i am addicted to coffee i think, mainly because i love going to coffeehouses so much and so have formed a habit, but my poppa says it is evil so i am going to try to cut it off this week. and replace it with orange juice?
gc/g2&3. click for pictorial elaboration
-good times with john in coffeeshops and bookstores and pubs as usual, catching up on many things, eating good meals, meeting some new people - including my firsts from wales - and seeing more of his american friends in norwich also studying there from his college back home, who seem like good people, along with the aforementioned material gains and losses. being in norwich makes me newly appreciate my lifestyle in edinburgh, for john's university is 25 minutes outside of the city and so requires a dependence on the flaky norwich bus system, whereas i can rely on my punctuality and own two feet to go everywhere and anywhere.
-if you were wondering, a rainbow at its end simply dissolves, disappears into thin air. apologies to the golddiggers for their now dashed hopes.
gc/g4. this movie was very gripping and interesting and difficult to watch. it is mostly about killing and its psychology, but also it considers how fundamentalism and terrorism can come to naturally fill an individual's life, one with a family and with feelings and hopes and dreams. it makes me again realize, as much as it just plain completely frightens me in how extreme and unnatural it all is, that these kinds of beliefs are rooted in immense historical meaning and tradition and a way of life that encourages their logic to such an extent that it is within human nature to engage with the ideas; or, it at least indicates that this is beyond the small middle class perspective i have (and will pretty much always be limited to), the one that stands witness to something seeming very unnatural and horrifying. and of course it is only a film and there are mountains and lakes full of the things that i do not know, but it is something to be thinking about in this time, anyway. and it makes me wonder about a half-palestinian friend from uva named reema who is in palestine right now and hope that, in the wake of the hamas victory, things are not too difficult for her, though i'm sure they always are and have been over there.
-on a lighter note, eric bana is totally a good actor and i am always going to roll my eyes at spielberg at least a little.
gc/g1. click for a few more images (including one extra of burns night last saturday)
-i had the most beautiful evening at this event hosted by the mediterranean society last tuesday. the music was entirely mediterranean dance music, the kind they would play in their local clubs, and my friend ahmed was the dj for the evening. though my love for the music was immediate, i at first pretty much refused to dance, feeling entirely too aware of my whiteness, or perhaps said more properly that i was surrounded by people who were revelling in their temporary haven for the evening, in playing out their most native grooves - which i imagine is truly wonderful and satisfying for someone with such a distinctive culture that is so far away and different from the scotland ways - while i myself was only wide-eyed and curious and foreign and for awhile the only, lonely such outsider. but throughout the evening i loosened up and embraced it all - with some coaching from my saudi friends (says noora "just flap your hand like this and you will be an arab" and so i did) and because i have somehow ended up having a decent amount of intuitive rhythm in me. i must say, the whole evening was sort of transcendental - they took me up in their energies and traditions and movements, as if snake charmers, and i found myself enchanted. it is very difficult to describe, and perhaps it is only in orientalism or exoticism that i found myself having a crush on this culture, these people as a jangling collective, but the most wonderful part was that i participated and felt both new and at home. it was certainly singular.

but it is back to life. i used my train time to stay on top of my schoolwork, so hopefully i can use my time now to think a little harder about what i've read, write some emails, see some films and maybe even start a novel for fun (john recreationally reads so much more than i do and it reminds me of my terrible anxiety over my literature ghosts). things should be getting into their regular pattern, so will hopefully lend for more regular blog-posting in turn. provided things stay interesting.
but come on sarah, of course they will.
hasta pronto, xo-