Jet lag and Robert Burns

Monday started off at 5:30 a.m. when I woke up. I was amazed. I felt so tired Sunday night I was sure I would sleep for a long time, but my body decided against that. I tried falling back asleep, but it was literally impossible. Even the calm, soothing music of Norah Jones couldn't relax me back to sleep. This jet lag thing is getting old... So I got out of bed around 7 and jumped in the shower. I ate some clementines, a banana, some trail mix, and a few dried cherries and waited for a meeting at 9:15. The meeting was good; they informed us about what we should be doing for the first week, which sounds like a lot of running around and getting signed up for classes. It will be nice to have something productive to do! This was the meeting for all non-European exchange students, so there were a lot of Americans there, which was cool, but I like meeting international students more :P I met a guy named Bo from South Carolina and sat next to Antoni from New Zealand.

After the meeting I tried finding the professors to have my classes approved but had no luck, so I went and bought some food at a local market. It was cool; I bought pasta, rice, chicken, ham, turkey, bread, a cereal called "Shreddies" that is like Chex, milk, juice, and a few other things. It's cool cooking for ourselves. I like it already. I mean, Burge is great and all, but... well, yeah. Some other things like plates and silverware will have to wait until tomorrow because Scott said one of his friends would drive us out to a Wal-mart-esque place, which should be interesting.

The highlight of Monday was that night when the international office put on a huge party to celebrate Robert Burns Day. I hadn't heard of him, but Robert Burns is the most famous Scottish poet. He's considered the Shakespeare of Scotland, so we went to the student union for a meal at 7. When I walked in the door I found an American girl and an Australian girl that I met at the bookstore in the morning, so I sat at their table. There were a few guys from Louisiana, a girl from North Carolina, and two guys from Scotland. One Scottish guy was wearing the entire traditional outfit with the kilt, belt, pouch, and nothing underneath, of course. There were more kilts in the room than I had ever seen before. It was beautiful. The meal started with traditional Scottish broth and bread, followed by haggis, 'neeps (carrots), and 'tatties (potatoes). I knew what haggis was made from, but I really didn't care :) It was still really good! We ended with coffee and then headed upstairs for the dance. It was madness. The band was awesome. They played fast-paced Scottish music and taught us about 10 different dances. Each dance had the common theme of throwing, spinning, and confusing your partner. It was a ton of fun. At the dance we met eight girls from Canada who were pretty cool and loved the dancing. After two hours the band called it a night and our ever-growing group called it a night. We walked back to Birkbeck Court (where we're all staying) and said goodnight. Tuesday is Australia Day, I guess. So we'll be celebrating that with Sarah (the girl from Australia). Should be a grand time! What a day... Robert Burns knows how to throw a party. But now, sleep.