captain underpants

FACT: In Scotland, the word "pants" refers to "underpants," NOT "trousers."

FACT: My friend Autumn had been wearing the same pair of jeans for a few days and hollered to her flatmate in the middle of busy clothing store, "I haven't changed my pants in like a week!" To which the entire store fell very quiet. Awkward...

ghosts & gouls

Tonight Jillian and I accompanied our friend Jon on a "Ghost Tour" through Old Town Edinburgh, something we had been wanting to do for awhile. Though it wasn't in the least bit scary, it was quite entertaining. An old Scotsman coincidentally named Scott took us down closes (narrow alleys) of in an area known as Old Town, off the famous Royal Mile. He told us tall tales of "real people who lived and died in Edinburgh." His stories were somewhat gruesome and dripping with irony and Scottish humor. His acting out of the stories definitely added to the suspense. We ended the night in an old graveyard where we stood around in an empty tomb as he elaborated on grave robbers, murderers, adulterers, witches, and the mentally insane. Unfortunately, our bodies were using every last ounce of energy to keep from slipping into hypothermia for us to be fazed by his grand tales. It seemed like an eternity making it back to our flat, my fingers and toes have truly never been that cold in my life! It took a good 10 minutes of standing in front of my heater to get the feeling back. So here I am drinking hot coffee to finish thawing out the rest of my body.

blow out the candles

Happy Birthday Anna!!
Love you Big Papa :)

that's all today.
sorry to everyone except Anna.

a new do

i miss you lists...

1. Met Autumn at her flat to go to this volunteer thing Eikon did with another church in Edinburgh. We were supposed to meet at the other church to catch a ride with the leader of the entire shindig, Roger, but got lost and ended up at the wrong church. Problem was resolved, he picked us up at the wrong church and we went on our merry way to the town of Dalkeith to fix up a lady's flat who was suffering from depression after her second child was born.

2. Upon arriving, the house was rubbish (that's the Scot coming out in me). It was the former home of drug addicts, and not much was done before the new owner, Sarah, and her two small children moved in. Apparently Roger's last visit to the flat proved to be quite different than the one today. The living room was previously piled to the ceiling with trash and we were to help Sarah sort through the junk and tidy up the room so we could begin painting, etc. in the weeks to come. Oddly enough, Sarah stayed up all night last night doing some tidying of her own -- she moved all the trash from the living room into her bedroom and would not allow any of us into the new "rubbish room." It was sad because she was clearly embarrassed, but frustrating because our leader was slightly frazzled with this new arrangement.

3. So Autumn and I, as well as a girl from the other church, Natalie, did Sarah's dishes and cleaned her kitchen all morning. Her kitchen was an absolute mess as well. She had bottles from the children left with spoiled milk all over the counter, pans with rotting food left on the stove, and other dishes piled high on every inch of the tiny counter. We held back out gagging and washed, dried, and put away every last dish in that room.

4. It's strange doing volunteer work in another country. You expect people to struggle with different things on the other side of the world, but they really don't. We're not all that different from each other. I've been in homes in Springfield that looked identical to Sarah's flat today. It was cool to be able to forget about my obstacles of fitting in in a foreign land to help a local do her dishes. Not easy, but definitely worth it.

5. Then I ate some Chinese, watched Project Runway, and took a nap.

the tellie

Tonight I went to one of Eikon's small groups at these two girls' flat down the road. When I got there, they had their television on. Their tellie. I could have sat on that big suede couch all day long. I haven't watched REAL television on a REAL tellie in a month! It was playing some 7th-Heaven-grade-acting British soap opera, but I didn't care - it was TV! I knew it was bad when I got excited about the commercials. Up next was the very American My Name Is Earl. The Europeans didn't find it as funny as the Americans in the room. They complained about not being able to understand Earl's accent. "Welcome to our world!"

mighty duck

Waiting for the bus to pull out on my way home from class this morning.

I've been quite productive this week in the travel department. Here are the trips I've booked so far:

Nov. 7-9 to Oslo, Norway with some flatmates
Dec. 4-6 to Shannon, Ireland with Dad when he comes to visit
Jan. 2-5 to Paris with Taylor when he comes for New Year's

Hoping to book soon...

sometime in January to Stockholm, Sweden with Mom when she comes across the pond, and to the LARGEST Ikea store on planet earth! Literally!

Greece fell through unfortunately...prices were rising, we were taking too long to make decisions, and were having trouble finding a couchsurfing host. Considering Madrid instead, but who knows.

This afternoon, Jennifer and I decided we were going to check out Portobello Beach, which is apparently a REAL LIVE beach just outside Edinburgh. We headed out to the bus stop to catch the 15 or 15A Bus. We realized neither would stop by for about 20 more minutes, so we ran in to ScotMid and bought some Jaffa cakes and Diet Coke, then back to the bus stop. A couple minutes later, Bus 15A comes around the corner, so we step out towards the street. The bus driver looks us straight in the eye and keeps driving! We were so mad! So we decided to wait for Bus 15, which was supposed to be there in a couple minutes too. 30 minutes later we're still standing there and it's starting to rain. Although Bus 16 passed by about 4 times, Bus 15 never appeared. We went home Portobello-less.

Then tonight was my dinner night (my flatmates and I are on an unofficial rotation), and I made some asian-style chicken with rice and huge loaf of bread, which we devoured. Yum.

Then we went to a real Scottish hockey game with some other international students. I was unaware that hockey was a popular sport 'round these parts, but apparently. It was quite entertaining. I told my flatmates that I had never been to a hockey game, to which they looked astonished. I think they took that as, "I had never heard of hockey before." They proceeded to tell me that the players skate around on ice skates and try and get the puck in the other team's net, and sometimes there's fighting, and that's a Zamboni, that cleans the ice. "Thanks guys, I've seen hockey on TV, and I've even seen some hockey movies." I'm not one of the Germans!"

justin timber-loch

The Glen called Rest and Be Thankful.

Today was the long awaited Highland Tour and don't worry, I took notes. I wish so bad I could just throw it all up right here on my blog in about 10 seconds, but that's not gonna happen. I'll probably reveal random stories for the next few weeks, so for now, just follow this link for some photos of the day and a quick summary of the stops. Please enjoy this visual diary and I'll continue with more antidotes in the near future. For now settle on these fascinating factoids:

there are 5.5 million people in Scotland.
there are 11 million sheep in Scotland.
that's 2 sheep per person.
there's 440,000 people in Edinburgh.
there's 1 million people in Glasgow.
there's 200,000 people living in the Highland areas.
Scotland only makes up 10% of the UK population, but it takes up over 40% of it's land.

thats all for now, go look at pictures...like right now.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022738&l=a9e93&id=177501993

moshpits & topshop

Goodbye Lenin playing at Henry's Cellar Bar.

Today was much more productive and exciting (although Project Runway marathons do have their moments):

1. Tried Costa Coffee - caramel latte - delicious. Like a European Starbucks-type chain.
2. Mailed some stuff at the post office...hmm...
3. Picked up a lovely package of random food items and manicure sets sent by my lovely family :)
4. Went shopping with Kristin and Alayna on Princes Street. Thankfully I bought NOTHING. But my new favorite stores are TopShop, Next, and H&M. So wish these were in America (with the exception of H&M).
5. Then wandered down to the Royal Mile and visited a VERY cool bookstore called Blackwell. I bought a cute little sketch book for a class and another book that will remain nameless as I am still deciding who to give it to. Also considering keeping it for myself.
6. Made pasta (again) and had a lovely conversation with my flatmates about everything from slavery to baby names.
7. Felt very American as me and Jillian and Jennifer went to see Jon (from Eikon) play a show with his band Goodbye Lenin (look them up on MySpace). Reminded me so much of going to concerts with Marcus and friends :) Those were the days. I sat on the floor in the front and took some sweet pics.
8. Then we all moved on to Shakespeare's, I cute little bar down the street for some more laughter. We nearly convinced our friend Nick from Canada that I was bit by a bat and now I have rabies. This stemmed from a conversation about how to spell the word 'rabies.' Wow.
9. Came home to each an Ultimate European Grilled Cheese Sandwich (Mom, that's slightly different than the Regular Ultimate Grilled Cheese Sandwich).
10. Now I'm tucking in to leave early in the morning with Jillian for our 10-hour Highland Tour. Don't worry, pictures will most definately follow.

Thanks for reading.

im a bum

i was quite unproductive the past few days. Sometimes I felt bad because I've been blessed with a short time in this beautiful city and I literally spent all day in bed watched Project Runway on YouTube. I'm a bum.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll get up earlier than noon, run some errands, get stuff done, do something exciting OUTSIDE of my flat. Tomorrow I will be productive. Maybe.

highlands, here we come

I booked my first adventure today!! Jennifer and Kristin returned tonight from their 3-day tour through Scotland's infamous and breathtakingly gorgeous Highlands. They spoke of misty valleys and greener-than-you-can-imagine mountains, crystal lochs and jagged-rock beaches, majestic castles and mysterious abbeys. Jillian and I were hooked and had our's booked within the hour. Our intimate bus of 16 passengers will head out at 9:30am this Saturday morning for a day-long trip through the western Highlands, stopping at significant castles, including the popular castle used in the film Monty Python, as well as another one used in the film Made of Honor. We will return the same day around 8:00pm, after which picture will most definitely be posted. Until then, read about what the day will bring at this website, and be very, very jealous:

http://www.rabbies.com/scottish_tour_pages/west_highland_lochs_castles_1day_tour.asp?lng=en

My good friend Osama (not the terrorist) posted some pictures today from our hike up Arthur's Seat last weekend. I thought I would include some more evidence, since I unfortunately forgot my camera that day...

in the heat of the night

Dear Americans,

Please do me one favor as you snuggle into your cozy beds with your fluffy feather pillows. Don't every take for granted the warmth you'll feel in the shower in the morning. All you'll have to do is turn the knob to the red and wet warmth with spill forth like blessings from heaven. You will bathe in a steamy sauna and emerge clean and refreshed, ready to start your American day. Enjoy this moment. Relish in knowing that you don't have to push a "boost" button 30 minutes to an hour before said shower. Take pride in the fact that your shower head does not slowly swing from side to side as you try and follow the traveling sprays below. Smile as you think about how your shower curtain stays put in it's place instead of creeping onto your leg and sticking to the backside of your entire body allowing buckets of water to spill out onto the bathroom floor forming a small wading pool under the vanity. Be content that you can shave not one, but two legs, before the water turns arctic and causes your entire body to slowly go numb and let out an occasional gasp for air. Be thankful that your shower is not like my shower. I am going to sleep tonight with clean hair and one shaved leg; that's all I could manage before the icicles began to form in my hair. So be thankful, my fellow Americans, for your fancy water heaters and spacious tubs. I envy you on this cold night in Edinburgh.

Sincerely,
Kelsey

the weekend top five

1. Splurged today at H&M and bought a jacket, a scarf, some new black flats, and a purple bag. Will now need an additional suitcase for the flight home...

2. Discovered my new favorite sandwich: raspberry jam with cream cheese on toast. Nothing too ground breaking but so satisfying for any meal of the day.

3. Went out for drinks tonight with people from church, had so much fun. They treat my like family :)

4. Had lunch with a girl from church yesterday at an adorable deli called "Always Sunday." Had a wonderful conversation about boys and the mayhem they stir up.

5. Planning a trip with my new friend Whitney to Greece in November. Couchsurfing in Athens perhaps...?

oops again

I forgot to write again last night! I was watching Project Runway online, so that may have been a factor. Anyway, here's another chewable:

Bread in Scotland is HUGE. Not that the bread is large in size, it's just popular. It's everywhere. Half of all groceries are "The Bread Section." And every kind of bread you could think of: baguettes, rolls, buns, pastries, french, toasted, untoasted, crispy, soft, chunks, no-chunks, muffins, sliced, loaves, etc. I've never seen so many carbs in my life. Also, the bread is VERY dense. A regular loaf of sandwich bread weighs a couple pounds (NOT currency, REAL pounds). It is very heavy, very rich, very dense. And VERY tastey. I think I'm going to have a hard time going back to American bread, which is about 79% air.

oops

I forgot to write something last night, so here's an interesting European factoid for your brain to ponder:

Instead of signs reading "For Rent," they read "To Let" or "For Hire."

Hmm....

study hard, do your best...

And to prove to all of you who don't believe I am actually in Scotland (ahem, Grant), here is a picture taken by my friend Jillian yesterday at the start of our hike up Arthur's Seat. Notice my wildly appropriate hiking gear.
That's Luke in the background searching for Nessie. No actually he was my "unofficial" safety coordinator, since my usual safety coordinator could not be here :)

My mom sent me a text message this morning before my first day of classes in Edinburgh:

Study hard, do your best, and don't forget I love you.

I can't remember the first time I heard that, it's been said for so long. Both my parents have said this to me and my brothers as we rushed out the door to the bus each morning before school. And even though I was halfway around the globe, today was no different.

Scottish school systems are quite different than the ones in the US, and it didn't help that Napier (my Scottish university) restructured their entire academics just this year. We are the guinea pigs, if you will, as if I wasn't already confused enough. Unlike the MSU, Napier students with the same "major" (they call it programme) take ALL the same classes, at ALL the same times with ALL the same students, for ALL four years. I felt like I was back in elementary school. They all ate lunch together, took breaks together, discussed the other classes that they are ALL in together. Like an academic cult, or something. I felt much like an outsider, but I can tell that the course materials will be interesting, challenging, and hopefully useful for my career, which is more than I can say for any MSU class I've taken so far.

And then I rode the bus home at the end of the day... like a Scottish school girl, except more posh.

roughin it

Today was full of surprises. I was looking forward to a lazy Sunday afternoon; maybe a nap, some Ramen for lunch, a Skype chat or two, hit the sack early, you know.

Instead I climbed a mountain. Literally.

After church, everyone (literally the entire church) went to Kyle's house for some homemade chili, relaxation, and good conversation. After a few hours of fellowship, Jillian (my flatmate) and I left to go grocery shopping before the stores closed. We wandered to a bus stop and attempted to wait for what we thought was the bus to Asda (the European Wal-Mart). While we were waiting, some friends from the chili lunch came walking around the corner: Luke, Sarah, Steph, Frasier, and Osama. They said they were headed to Arthur's Seat and invited us to join. We agreed and began the long walk to the base of this famous landmark. (See pictures below.)

On the way to the Seat, I acknowledged that I was wearing flip flops, but they assured me the trek to the top was an easy one. They lied to me. The entire hike took about an hour and a half, and it was FAR from easy. Most of it was climbing, literal rock climbing, up ridiculously steep slopes of jagged rocks and boulders. Every few minutes, we'd make it to an area of flat ground and take a break. Everytime I'd tell the others that I was done and couldn't go any further, but everytime they picked me up and helped me go one more leg, until finally, I looked up and we were standing on the top of Arthur's Seat looking out over all of Edinburgh, miles in every direction. The sun was setting over the steeples of ancient abbeys and castles, boats were coming into the harbor, the Highlands were visible off to the north, and the air was crisp and clear. Too bad I left my camera at home :( These photos will have to do from Google:

Arthur's Seat from the southeast. If you look closely, you can see climbers along the top, which shows how tall the cliffs are. We hiked up the larger mound on the right, then through the "valley" and over to Arthur's actual Seat, the smaller mound on the right. About 823 feet above the city!
The view to the west, city of Edinburgh. See those jagged rocks going down the steep cliff at the bottom of the photo? Yeah, that's what I conquered in flip flops and church clothes.

When we finally reached the top of the seat, I almost broke into tears I was so happy to have made it so far. From the base, I really didn't think I was going to go all the way to the top, especially in my inappropriate climbing gear. I felt so overwhelmed with accomplishment and acheiving, what I felt, was the impossible at the moment. Cheesy, but so true.

The climb back down was another story. I pretty much held Luke and Osama's hands the whole way back down, it was so steep and rocky. But so much fun. There were moments on the way back down that I literally had to put all my weight on either Luke or Osama in order to make it down a steep bank safely. I couldn't make it on my own in certain parts. It felt strange, but at the same time very cool, to put all my trust in someone I hardly even knew. And it worked. I made it down alive and in one piece.

After the hike, we went to Osama's flat where he fixed us a delicious meal of spaghetti noodles with ginormous chicken wings swimming in his "special sauce." Sunday is my new favorite day of the week :)

ladies and gentlemen

Today was relaxing. I woke up at noon, took a shower (surprise!), did some design work for my fat brother, ate some toast and extraordinarily amazing raspberry jam, watched an episode of Project Runway, etc. The fun came in the evening...

"The Germans" (not sure why we call them that, they're not all German) invited the girls of Flat #7 over to their Flat #2 for a dinner. "Dress to impress," they kept saying. We had all been joking around a lot lately so we figured this was another "jk." Around 8pm, we threw on some presentable outfits and headed downstairs to #2. When the boys answered the door, we were pleasantly surprised. They were certainly dressed to impress. Decked out in button-up, collared shirts, nice slacks, and even a navy blazer that looked more like a captain's jacket on a cruise ship (we proceeded to call him Captain Robin from Belgium all night), they served us ladies a three course meal, to which we never lifted a finger. They filled our plates at each course, poured our wine, and shouted at us when we offered to do the dishes. We immersed all our cultures into an evening of comparing countries and every other phrase was followed by, "Is that how you say it?" They were true gentlemen, hard to find in America (except I found one!).

We ended the evening with a friendly game of "Who Am I?" and a trip to Frankenstein's, a dance club built inside an old church, which I think played the exact same list of 80's songs from last night. I still can't get Bon Jovi's "Livin On A Prayer" out of my head.

edinburgh night life

I experienced the Edinburgh night life tonight...quite interesting.
I'm rather sleepy now, so I don't know if I'll make it through this post.
I'll just stick to the highlights:

1. Dancing to Mexican/Jamaican music at the International Students "Welcome."
2. Wandering the streets with about 15 others from our building trying to decide on our next place of entertainment.
3. Settling on an Irish pub called Finnigans Wake.
4. There was a live band there playing ALL 80's music, and everyone loved it.
5. The neatest part was this: even though none of us have known each other for more than 10 days, we all seemed to look out for one another. If someone was missing from the group, we'd stop what we were doing to figure out where they were. No one went anywhere alone or let anyone we didn't know (specifically locals) into our "party." Very interesting to see this develop in just a few hours.

confuse-ed

5 hours running around campus to enroll in classes
4 phone calls to Napier staff regarding my "timetables"
3 "modules" to decide on and fit into a VERY complicated schedule
2 tearful breakdowns in professors' offices out of utter frustration
1 long day, a Milky Way bar, and a chat with my future mister to make it all better

falling asleep as we speak...go look at some pictures while I go to bed:

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022415&l=2e6fc&id=177501993

cheers.

don't worry america, i found osama

Ok, I'm likin' this whole "List of Today's Happenings" thing, so let's continue here on this first fine day in October...

1. Today we matriculated. They cut off our limbs. No, actually that's their word for officially enrolling at the university, but it sounds more like some kind of amputation procedure. They fished us through a very strange process of mile-long lines down random hallways, being directed through 15 different "clusters," they kept calling it, explaining over and over who I was, what program I was on, who was paying for my schooling, and how long I was going to be here. We all came out of it feeling like a pin ball in a pin ball machine...it only took about an hour, but we were worn out!!

2. We were required to register with a local doctor. There were several booths of representatives from different "surgeons," they call them. We chose our surgeon based solely on who had the best Scottish accent.

3. One of the staff I spoke to at the matriculation was clearly Scottish, and he commented on how he really liked my accent....what accent? I thought.

4. Upon finishing the ridiculous matriculation process, I went outside to meet Alayna. There were several doors that led outside, one of them being a set of automatic ones. I stood in front of it for a few seconds and when it didn't open, I naturally went to push open the door next to it. Unfortunately it wasn't until half a second after I pushed that I noticed the door was covered in signs reading, "Fire Exit," "Do Not Open," "Emergencies Only," "Will Trigger Artillery," those types of things. Next thing I know, the whole lobby is peirced with an annoying beeping alarm and everyone calling me "Number 6." Apparently I was not the first to commit this embarrassing offense. So the security gaurd came over and was half-jokingly asking me if I could read all the signs on the door, to which I assured him I was indeed able. All the while, Alayna standing on the other side of the many doors laughing at my expense, not to mention the countless other students in the lobby at the moment. Whatev.

5. On the way home from our amputation or malnutrition or constipation, whatever it was called, we stopped by the grocery for some dinner ingredients. I offered to make my mother's famous potato soup. Ah, it was so wonderful to have some real comfort food, and share that with my new friends. It tasted quite different than when me and Mom make it three times a week during the winter months, but this could be due to the fact that Scotland doesn't have half&half, so I'm not sure what it was I used. I also never found green onions. We thought we bought salt and pepper, but upon returning home we discovered we had grabbed two peppers. Plus we didn't have a can opener for the cream of chicken. We kind of live like cavemen.

6. Other things I found at the grocery included an oddly shaped bottle of Dr. Pepper. Thankfully it tastes much like I remembered it :) Alayna also introduced us to Jaffa Cakes. A soft, cake-like wafer with orange jelly stuff on top, and chocolate on top of that. A jolly good treat!

7. Whitney (from Flat #6) and I went to the first meeting of Eikon's small group called Eikon 1.0. It's basically a 6-week introduction the the church and its values. It was at these two girls' flat about 15 minutes walk from ours. It's view of the city, the skinny winding staircase, narrow halls, and high ceilings with gorgeous crown-molding made me want to move to the city for good....someday.

8. One of the girls who lived in this beautiful flat coincidentally had lived in Springfield, Missouri for some time. She attended New Covenant and Hillcrest High School.

9. One of the guys at the small group, who actually leads a different small group but it sounds like he goes to one every night, was perhaps the most interesting person I have met thus far. He is a tall, black man from Nigeria...drum roll please...his name is Osama.

10. Osama is a gentleman, you see. He didn't want me and Whitney or Ilinda (another new friend from Finland) to walk home after dark by ourselves, so he decided to walk all of us home to our different flats. We wandered all over the city "dropping" people off, literally skipping through "The Meadows" (a large park near our flats), and discussing topics such as, "If you had to choose one song to describe you, what would it be?" I like Osama. Don't tell George.

11. Princes Street pictures will come tomorrow...I swear.

becoming a local

Some cliche red phone booths on Princes Street.

It's late again, and I still need to get in an episode of Prison Break before I go off to sleepytown, so yet again, I have compiled a Top Ten of my day, in no particular order:

1. Woke up at noon. We all seem to be sleeping really late and staying up til ungodly hours...our bodies are clearly retaliating.

2. Walked up to Princes Street to take care of some business. Passed a very cool store that, Mom, you will definately want to see when you come. I think it was called something like Feather Black, maybe. But it is like a European Crate & Barrell or Pottery Barn. Looked cool, though I didn't go inside.

3. Finally invested in a cell phone. I'm pretty sure I totally got ripped off, but at this point, I don't really care. Europe's entire system of cell phone usage and plans is COMPLETELY different than America's. Pretty much everything is Pay-As-You-Go, with weird plans named after animals (Dolphin, Camel, Raccoon, etc.). SIM cards are a big deal here. Your entire plan is built into your SIM card. Your phone number is determined by your SIM card. The name of your soul mate is probably etched in there somewhere, too.

4. I registered online with the US Embassy, so if the President needs to get ahold of me...

5. I finished opening my Scottish bank account at HSBC. I feel like Jason Bourne!

6. We had another American night and stopped by ScotMid (the grocery) for some frozen pizzas, salad, bread, and - dare I say - a bottle of Chardonnay. So I guess maybe it was actually a French night?

7. A few more items were added to the flat, including a bath mat, some lamps, ice trays, a French press with 4 matching mugs, and some operating blow dryers. Our trips to the store result in very random assortments of things we remember at the time. We haven't quite mastered the art of a list yet, even me.

8. We visited a store we heard of, which was supposed to be similar to a Target, called Argos. Perhaps the strangest thing I've encountered thus far. We enter the store, which is about the size of our entire flat, and I think maybe we've stepping into the wrong place. There's not much in there. We stand around observing the pros, and we eventually figure out the system. Get this: There's several rows of countertops, all with huge catalogs of every product available at Argos. You go through the catalog and write down the codes of the items you want. You take your little paper of special numbers to Counter A and pay for your items. Then you are given a ticket number. You wait by Counter B until your ticket number is called and all the items you "purchased" have been gathered by the employee and are ready to be picked up. How cool is that?

9. I purchased a Coke at one point (didn't have Dr. Pepper in that machine), and it has quite a different taste than back home. It's more like carbonated iced tea. Doesn't really taste like Coke at all.

10. After dinner, I was pleasantly harrassed by Grant on Skype trying to get me to start his designs again. I was told I would be paid in pounds from now on. I think that was a fat joke.

11. You know I can't resist one more...I'll keep it short. I heard a Lily Allen song playing in Woolsworth (like a Walgreens) this afternoon. Made me smile :) Later I was asked directions by an old lady...just another milestone in becoming a local.