Lectures and fried mars bars

Dear People.

Your beloved Mathilde is doing okay, it is a bit of ups-and-downs at the moment. Still having fun, but still ill. Some nights I hardly sleep because I have to cough so much and blow my nose and fun stuff like that. However, a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do which is, in this case, party, play football, and go to lectures. Aye.

#1 Party
Last weekend I felt terrible, but I promised my housemateys to go to a pub with them (you might have seen the pics on facebook). The crazy Catalan girl would not go home until she got her mars bar fried. For those who haven’t heard: the Scots are not only famous for whiskey and haggis, they are also said to fry chocolate bars. I asked a Scottish guy about it and he said only few Fish and Chips shops do it nowadays because it is forbidden. This did not stop the Catalan girl, who took us on a quest to find a Fish and Chips shop who would fry her mars bar. In the end we succeeded and to be fair, it does not taste as terrible as it looks or sounds. I actually thought it was quite nice, but I don’t suppose I’ll have another one, ever, because such snacks can kill you. The owner of the Fish and Chips shop made us swear not to tell our friends that they fried mars bars, so for whoever is interested: it’s the one on Park Road, with the oldish Turkish guy behind the counter.

#2 Play Football
Erm. Maybe I should’ve chosen curling instead. I mean, I was mopping the kitchen floor just now and thinking about that, that it would be cool, and indoors.. Football is fun, but the training hours suck, and so do my skills. Training is on Mondays and Tuesdays, in the evening. It means that they expect me to practice until 10pm on a faraway field (which means I won’t be home before 11.30 because the busses only go twice an hour, and I’d rather not take the shortcut through the park in the dark). What is more is that these people play even when it rains, snows, storms. Complaining about this would be very un-Scottish I suppose. Sooo I did not go on Monday for I was ill, and then I did go on yesterday because I felt guilty, and now I’m even worse. *cough* I better get used to it!

#3 My lectures have started!
This week I got to remember how much I hate getting up early. Better get used to that, too, because I have a busy schedule. The courses I take are Scottish Literature (which is Medieval stories and poems in Middle Scots, awesome!), Sociolinguistics, Medieval English Language (which is not just about Medieval Literature but more about the Middle English – I will do a lot of translating..) and ermmm The History of Scots (which I will find out about tomorrow, but I’m really excited about this one). I actually wanted to do some more modern lit, but those courses all clashed with my othersand was not allowed to take American Literature sooo I guess I’ll just have to become an expert on Medieval Literature.. The teachers/profs all seem quite nice, although it was pretty hard to understand the Scottish Literature one.. instead of ‘the poor’ she says ‘the purrr’ etcetera (pronounced as egg-setre, the last one being a schwa :p) but I think I’ll get used to that as well. Next week will be a lot more crowded because that is when the seminars start… uh-oh..!

I get a bit stressed when I think about next week, but on the whole I think I’m doing fine. Nobody is mean to me, and when I feel sad there is always something to cheer me up. I just have to stop eating so much candy and eat more vegetables – right now I’m blaming Stefan for he sent me Marsepein. Thank you ^^ The fruit here is not very edible but I’ve got loads of cucumbers and tomatoes sooo I’m hoping those will make me better. Also, my housemates won’t stop from trying to stuff me with vitamis and pills and tangerines so I should be fine by the end of the week. Thank you all who think of me, I miss you! Groetjes etc, cheers, ta,

Matzzz