Fanny packs.

Yesterday was the EDGE Highland Games. A bus drove all 144 of us to Balloch, a really beautiful scene of Scottish highlands: rolling hills, ponds of water, open green fields, big trees, and lots of sheep poop.



A few of us took the opportunity to sneak up the tower of the castle and climb onto the roof; it was definitely worth playing hooky for! Ravi and I even had a small bhangra dance class after the games ended; it's really funny to see what their conception of "Indian dance" is (think yoga poses).

Some of it was really fun -- I learned how to shoot a bow and arrow, I chased a pack of ducks around an obstacle course, I laser-shot at flying discs, and I tossed a huge log ("caber"). Some of it was not so fun, like when the "toss the haggis" game turned bad when one of the haggis burst open upon landing. I also learned a new meaning of an American term. Here's a conversation that ensued with two Scottish kids:

Me: I wonder how distinctive we sound with our American accents.
Other Columbia Kid: All we need now are fanny packs, and we'd look like tourists.
*Scottish kids burst out laughing*
Me: What's so funny?
Scottish kid: You said what?
Other Columbia Kid: We'd look like tourists with fanny packs...
*Scottish kids burst out laughing again*
Scottish Kid 1: Do you know what a fanny is?
Me: Your butt?
Scottish Kid 2: No.

And I'll leave the rest for you to deduce. A fanny pack is a bit of a misnomer since American's don't actually wear them at their fannys (by the American definition); they wear them in the front. We learned that they call it "bum bags" over here, which is also a misnomer. Our name would be more appropriate by their definition...

The dryers here don't really dry. It's an international problem among universities, I guess.

What's odd over here is that the major supermarkets -- Tesco, ASDA (a part of Wal-Mart), Sainsbury's, etc. -- are all also financial firms. That's right, the same place where you get your apple juice and cereal is also the place where you get your car insurance and home mortgage. Hungry? Why not protect your assets while you're at it?

This week at work, we were assigned our homespaces (offices) and we visited our clients. Of our cohort, we were the unluckiest group in terms of homespace. Our homespace is about the size of my dorm room here, with one table and six computers crammed in, which offer restricted access to most websites (no gmail!). That's okay though, because our projects are still pretty cool, and our team works well together.

There's a decent Indian food presence in the fast food and the frozen food sectors here. I've tried the frozen chicken makhani and chicken korma here, and it's pretty good. Still, it doesn't really compare to my mom's food. (Hi Mama!)

Okay children, good night.