Bush basher

Last night I visited Doreen Simpson's house. She's an older single woman who let me stay at her house before I had a place to live. She's very personable and pleasant, but I couldn't stay long because I had to take the bus to institute. Anyway, I was feeling the uplifted, cheery feeling you get when you've had a pleasant visit with someone and you're on your way to institute. As I approached the bus stop this man who was also waiting for the bus asked me, "why are you so happy?" Golden missionary opportunity, right? Actually no, not at all. The man was stinkin' drunk. I tried to blow him off, but when he heard my American accent he thought I needed to be enlightened on Bush's foreign policy. He's about the tenth person who's tried to enlighten me since I got here, but the first drunk one. Oh well, when you're in a very good mood not even a drunk America basher can ruin it for you.

Dusk

Calton Hill overlooking Princes Street.

Irn Bru

This week I became a Social Security expert. Really. Ask me anything. And the locals introduced me to Irn Bru (Iron Brew), a soft drink made entirely from sugar and caffeine.

The Invisible Hand

We moved into our flat on Tuesday! And one of the interns decided to go home. Anyway, three of us are living in the flat, but there's only one set of working keys, which creates some coordinating problems. Last night Emily went out, so Amy and I couldn't leave the house until she got back. During the long wait we found out that Adam Smith's gravesite is only a few blocks away from our flat. When Emily finally got home (she was out with a bunch of drunk people- people around here really like to drink), it was dark and late, but we still wanted to go to Adam Smith's gravesite. So we went to this old cemetary; it was built in 1188. (My Mom would have loved it. She loves cemetaries.) It was very surreal. There was a full moon and though we were in the middle of the city, the cemetary was very dark, empty, and quiet. Unfortunately, it was so dark that we could hardly read the headstones and we weren't able to find Adam Smith among the hundreds of other inhabitants.