The weather certainly is a lot colder here today! It still is 46 degrees out, but the sun for the first time in two weeks is hidden behind clouds. The piercing wind that I have not missed is back with a vengeance. However blah the weather is, it is a great day! I’m back at Starbucks after finishing my last lab of the semester. I now have six more hours a week to study, sleep, explore, and travel. The really nice thing about not having is lab is the opportunities it gives me. Lab only allowed me to travel Saturday through Mondays on the weekend. Now, I am not required to be anywhere from Friday at 4 till the following Friday. I can basically take week long trips if I want too. Every other Monday I do have things to go to, but I doubt I would travel every week. The pound is killing me, and I really need to find some ways to conserve money. The perfect combination would be the United States Economy takes off, the federal reserve enacts a very strict monetary policy, the treasury starts buying back the dollar like it is supposed to, and the central bank in London decides to print an absurd about of pounds. This is not going to happen, but an economics major can always hope not to get screwed by exchange rates!

Last night I went out to cinema with my roommates. Movies are the only things that are cheaper than the states. I can get a movie ticket for 2.75 pounds. The quick math is (2.75*1.63)1.03=$4.62 to get how much that actually cost me. Needless to say, I like going to movies here. The girls that we go to movies with have gone to three straight “dude” movies as they call them. To settle the score, we let them pick the movie last night. The choices came down to No Strings Attached and Rango. Although Natalie Portman is incredibly attractive, I was rooting for Rango! Luckily, I got my way! Rango was a pretty good flick. Not one that I would buy on DVD, but Rango kept me entertained for the two hours I was in the theater. Next week, we’re going to two movies because there are a couple good ones getting released this week. After the movies, our group went out to the pub and had a pint. Me being cheap elected for a 85 pence vodka and coke, but hey that is still like a buck fifty! It was quiz note at the pub. Quiz night is basically three rounds of ten questions. We only scored one point in the first round! I did learn however that venti is not the biggest coffee size at Starbucks. Fun fact of the day right there!

Finally, I will move on to the important stuff. Yesterday was the first time I felt like a true American here in Scotland. I have constantly asked questions of people about different things, but I lived up to my fraternity nickname yesterday. I was the question master?! We talked about everything from abortions, politics, how many kids people have, binge drinking, socialism, the rules of cricket, is cricket popular, religious views, do girls ask guys out here, are there the same stereotypes, do I talk funny…… the list goes on and on. I learned a lot from these conversations. The most interesting fact came after making my roommate Dan and I an American style cheeseburger! Did I make it American for him. It had hamburger (known as mince here), bacon, cheese, slightly toasted the bun, and more cheese. It was by far one of the best burgers I had tasted myself! While consuming these delicious creations, we started talking about marriages in the United Kingdom. The conversation went everywhere, but it made me realize that our cultures experience the exact same changes. Although I learned that there are a lot of differences that I had never inquired about before yesterday, but these differences are what keep the United States and the United Kingdom from being the exact same culture. Without these slight differences I really believe I would be back in America. Hell I can go feel at home at the ASDA (Wal-Mart owned store which is a Wal-Mart). That is all for today.

I hope everyone is having a simply great day!

Nick

Quote- The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.

Ernest Hemingway

Song- The Life by Kenny Chesney