Juliacentralicious

Halloween: not just a single day anymore!

Last week, after recovering from the Cadbury outing, was started with a lunch out with a girl from my poetry class on Tuesday-- if this doesn't seem like anything exciting, I will explain that I typically don't make friends in any of my classes. I'm not sure why-- but in general, I don't hang out with people I have classes with. So it's rather nice to have finally made a connection in a class. We've made it a weekly thing, so yesterday we went to a cafe called Chocolate Soup. It has perhaps the best hot chocolate in existence, not to mention massive cups of it.
On Wednesday, New Scotland had a Halloween ceilidh. It was the usual loads of fun, dancing to live music and even sandwiches! Lots of dancing and silly conversations ensued. After, us hardcore late-stayers helped the band carry the equipment to their car because-- big surprise-- it was raining. And I mean a proper rain. It was actually rather lovely-- after about ten feet into my walk home, I realized there was no way I would be even close to dry, so I managed to amuse myself singing and jumping in all the puddles, which netted me the admiration of some random guy, the only other person walking out that late. Very cool.
Thursday I had ceilidh class-- two nights in a row may be fun, but it is definitely too much. Oh well. I'd do it all again.
It was a pretty stressful weekend, actually-- the application for the advanced English class I need to take was due on Friday, after short notice, so I had to put that together, and then I had an essay for Scottish History due on Monday (now, all my classes are pass/fail, and this is technically a Fresher's level class, but that didn't make me stress out and less).
Fortunately, I was also busy with Halloween preparations! Now, mom had the brilliant idea, before I left, that I could go as Kaylee (from Firefly). This seemed like a great idea, especially when I met one of the gamers who had been planning on going as Jayne anyway-- I already had part of my crew! But the costume itself was an adventure: first I had many many attempts to find a jumpsuit at any of the thrift stores in the area. (A side story: In the States, we have Goodwill. Red, White, and Blue. And so on. Here, they name the stores after the charity they support-- so it's normal to say things like "I'm going to go check out cancer research today," or "Let's stop by pets without vets and see what they have." But no one really refers to them by name, since there's a couple blocks on South Clerk that have, between them, maybe seven of these stores. So people tend to just go down the line, walking into every single one. On my expeditions, I would keep running into the same people at every store. The line then ends at Armstrong's, a proper vintage store, which is rather amazing. It was here, of all places, I finally found my ugly-as-sin jumpsuit.)
Anyway-- I had a jumpsuit, and dyed my hair (temporarily!) darker. Then it also seemed like a good idea to try to alter the ugly-as-sin jumpsuit. Unfortunately, I have neither seam ripper nor sewing machine. So, when I post pictures, keep in mind that everything I did (sleeves off, legs widened, waist and hips and torso and some legs taken in, and a bit of an attached belt), I did with a pocketknife and a needle and thread. So be duly impressed. So last night, I was finally able to enjoy the fruits of my labors-- we all got ready (Dorothy, an evil angel, and a devil) and hung out and ran around the city a bit (but not too much, surprisingly) and had loads of fun. Truly, a great holiday.
And now, it's workworkwork to try to get ahead in school things, and later on I get to sign up for USC classes! (So far, it looks like Poetry, Fiction, Contemporary Poetry, and Classical Arabian Literature in Translation-- guess which is the one I'm taking to fill a requirement?)

posted by Julia @ 6:09 AM