Almost settled.

With the exception of a few small things and, you know, a group of friends, I basically have everything that I need here taken care of. So I can get into actual impressions of the city and whatnot, now that all of the boring stuff is off of my mind.
I honestly and truly love it here. It might actually be my ideal environment. Once I have people to go out and do stuff with on a regular basis and I can take advantage of the pubs and nightlife, this will probably be the perfect city. It's hard to really say why. I love the people, always hurrying somewhere, but not like we do in the US. Hurrying because if you're outside too long, your nose will freeze. They're all remarkably cheerful, despite the weather. The city is beautiful, old and impressive but still thriving. It's really sobering and cool to look up and see a castle from certain places. There's a sense that the city is nothing so much as solid, and it makes the rest of life seem a lot more stable. Everything around me has been in existence for hundreds of years, and it's hard to imagine that it won't be here for hundreds of years more. It's nice to be able to make dumb mistakes (which I do) and not have people look at you like you're a complete idiot, also.
And then there's the university itself, with its mix of old and new buildings, the type of place where the past and the future collide. Again, totally dumb, but it's what I imagined a university to be when I was young. A place where thousands and thousands of people have learned all sorts of things so they could go out and make the world a better place. Or not, but I was an idealistic kid
Overall, I think this semester is going to go by really quickly. Too quickly, I'm sure. I still have a lot of things to get used to, little things that don't matter much, but it's nice to be settled. I haven't been able to feel this calm since last summer, because calm and band season don't really go hand in hand. Now all I have to do is force myself to join a club or something so I can go out drinking every night like you guys do (p.s. holy shit, people).
Then maybe I can take pictures of boys and pubs and whatever else you guys want. And have some scandalous behavior to write about, which, as we all know, totally my style. As you may have noticed, I have a single bed. I'm tempted to scientifically determine whether that or an air mattress is more awkward for certain activities. I have no hypothesis, any opinions would be welcome.
And Lena, my flatmate being Russian (actually from Russia) is amusing because I have a friend from back home with whom I vowed to live in Edinburgh one day. She is also Russian. So I am, in fact, living with a Russian in Edinburgh, it's just the wrong one.
And I should probably go to bed now, since I have class at 9am. Sweet.

- C