Make new friends...

I had the very great pleasure of turning 21 while here in Edinburgh. On the one hand, it wasn't really a big deal - no dramatic changes to my life, considering that it has been legal for me to drink (here) for the last several months. And 21 isn't that huge for the British, so the bar tenders aren't that likely to shower you with free drinks, alas. On the other hand, it was massive. I am now a full adult, on either side of the pond, and I got to celebrate that change in a place that I truly love, with people whom I have grown to care about very much. Because my birthday fell on a particularly busy friday we decided to go out to dinner a night early, so Thursday evening we all trooped off to a fantastic Indian restaurant around the corner, called Red Fort. The curries are pretty cheap, and the food is positively mouthwatering. Most of all, though, it was just wonderful to spend time with my friends. Since I haven't talked about them that much, here are some brief sketches of some of the people with whom I am living and laughing. So here are the flatmates...

• Grace is one of my British flatmates, a first year student from Manchester, studying for a degree in physical education. She is about 5'10", has legs a mile long and big blue eyes, and a lovely quiet smile. She is also unabashedly silly, and has a remarkable talent at mimicking the voice and attitude of a large black man who sings soul, probably from New Orleans; she also makes the most ridiculous faces when telling stories, eyes wide and lips drawn tight, and she never fails to make me laugh. Everything suits her, and she manages to look lovely in tiny clubbing dresses and grimy sweats alike. She sings perpetually, dances quite often, and occasionally shouts loudly and somewhat ineffectually for no apparent reason, then grins infectiously when I jump. Grace is the one who always remembers to take care of the recycling, and periodically the two of us go on kitchen rampages, scrubbing and tidying in a frenzy, yelling along to some ridiculous music all the while then collapsing and giving each other shoulder rubs when we are done. It's hard not to enjoy life while Grace is around. 
• Molly is my other British flatmate, a humanities student from Leeds with a lovely broad Northern accent. Where Grace is tall and somewhat relaxed, Molly is petite, intense, and firey, and gives the impression of immense energy and incredible intelligence compressed into her tiny frame. Molly is always impeccably dressed, clad in classy leggings and silky, chiffon-esque shirts that float about her, and she seems to be perpetually busy, always running somewhere with her earbuds trailing and her steps quick and determined. We joke that she really lives at Bedlam, the student run theater around the corner, but it's a bit too true for comfort - I definitely don't seen nearly enough of Molly. She has been in four productions this semester alone, and is quite talented, more than she thinks she is. The most recent one, a monologue from the perspective of a woman whose fiancé is undergoing open heart surgery, brought me to tears. It was somehow shattering to watch her break down on stage. Molly is straightforward, honest almost to bluntness, and simply doesn't mess about; her compliments, therefore, make me positively glow with pleasure, because I know she really means them. She is completely genuine in a way of which I am truly envious.
• Emma is one of my American flatmates, from North Carolina, with just a hint of an adorable southern drawl. She has long wavy brown hair, a beautiful, open smile and is a born dancer: lithe and strong and graceful. Most of the clubs in Edinburgh have been privileged with Emma's presence on the dance-floor as she sensually and deliberately whips her hurr back n forth. She laughingly told us that her friends back home say her head is full of rainbows and butterflies, and her sweetness and half-distracted exuberance about life would tend to support that statement were she not able to compute multi-variable calculous problems with incredible ease. When she gets really excited about something, Emma begins to stammer, just a little bit, and then laughs when we tease her about it, blushing a tad. When she has had a few to drink, however, she develops quite an attitude ~ hip cocked to one side, with drawls of "Gurrrrrrrrlllllll" and "Oh no you di-n't!" complete with appropriately sassy snaps. When said attitude coincides with the impression that someone is treating her friends poorly, Emma becomes fiercely protective. When Grace and Emma spend time together, the combination is incredible: empty insults flying, music belted at the top of their lungs, impressive dance moves whipped out in the middle of the kitchen floor... consequently, going out with Emma is one of the rare pleasures in life. 
• Carly is my other American flatmate, a New Yorker and Barnard student, who is nearly as intense as Molly and even tinier. With porcelain skin and wide chocolate eyes, Carly always looks striking, and her silky brown hair is always elegantly arranged, swept away from her heart-shaped face. Carly is a neuro-science and psych major, and she always manages to look the part of the professional soon-to-be-research-assistant, with discrete, tasteful jewelry and classy outfits. Normally tending somewhat consevative in dress and demeanor (though NOT, she would be quick to tell you, in politics) it is particularly exciting when she decides to let loose and go dancing with us; Carly is a truly talented little dancer, and the two of us have a fantastic time together. She and her boyfriend Andrew spend a fair bit of time cooking mouthwatering meals in the kitchen, leaving the aroma of chicken marsala, or (slightly overdone, due to the fact that the over temperature is given in Celcius) meatloaf. Carly protests that it is all Andrew, but I have personally observed her put together a delicious looking meal or two, invalidating her claims of being a disaster in the kitchen.
• Yingue, or Ying is the most recent addition to our little band of 11/9 companions, and she moved in rather late in the semester, in the first week of march. Unfortunately I have not have the chance to spend much time with her yet, but she is a very gifted student (17 and a Junior) who has lived all over the world. More to come Ying when I have have the opportunity to get to know her better!

Huzzah for flatmates. ...Then,... 

• ...Then there is Alice. Lovely, lyrical, linguist Alice, with her Mona-Lisa-laughing smile and her sparkling eyes. I am grateful beyond words that I have had the extraordinary luck to become friends with Miss Alice Jenny Crossfield Ware (not sure I got that right) and the prospect of next semester back at Mac is made infinitely brighter by the knowledge that I will have the pleasure of living with her (I anticipate many Edinburgh-ian reminiscences when we both go through Scotland withdrawal, possibly accompanied by bad dance music and DEFINITELY by whiskey). Alice has an acute appreciation for the beautiful, the quaint, the old, the unusual, and for large drapey sweaters and delicate, almost-masculine oxford shoes. She possesses the innate stillness and inner calm that so many of my closest friends have, a trait that I often lack, and this means that between the two of us we can enjoy both quiet relaxation and the frenzied activity that accompanies going out in Edinburgh. The silence that descends when we wander together, in between bouts of personal discovery and juicy gossip, is comfortable and familiar. She is a staunch companion, to be completely relied upon, and we are at once different and similar in ways that seem to compliment each other. I feel like Alice’s life should be illustrated in sepia and ink, with subtle and elegant and eclectic images like the photos and prints that line her walls, speaking of more years than either of us possess. Lovely, laughing Alice; what would I do without her.

I have been lucky – through this core group of friends I have met several other wonderful people, who have made my time in Edinburgh so much more enjoyable, simply by virtue of their presence.

• Emma’s classmate and friend Lillie joins us on our outings with relative frequency, and she is wonderful to have a around. Lillie is tall, with naturally blonde hair, an excellent sense of humor and a Carolina twang, and boys flock to her like moths to an illuminated lamp. My friends and I joke about her skill – she manages to find the tallest, most attractive man in the building within an hour or two, and manages to “pull” him within the next. It is truly remarkable, and not wholly a joke. Lillie is good natured, easy going, and liable to tease Emma for her silliness (and the rest of us as well) on a regular basis. Lillie has mastered the art of getting the most out of a study abroad trip, going out on a regular basis and also keeping on top of things academically, and seems to enjoy every minute of it.
• Through Alice I have been lucky enough to have become friends with several of her flatmates, starting with Jess, the lone Scot of the group. Jess is, overall, just lovely. You know how there are some people you meet who seem to be genuinely kind and nice to everyone, without it ever coming across as superficial? Jess is one of those people, and when she is in a group everything goes a little smoother, and is a little more fun, just by her very presence. She is from a farm near the borders, and her friends tease her for "trying to be English" or for being "posh" and while I can't vouch for how true that is (she does have a Scottish accent, though not a thick one at all) it is true that she always looks very put together, in outfits not the least pretentious but with which her oft-seen pearls do not look amiss. Jess studies Classics, and we enthused together about Roman architecture at a certain point, in between chatting about boys and the like. When Jess walks into their flat one of the first things she says is, "Hello girls, what's the gos?" enquiring about the day's gossip, which confused me completely the first time I heard it, thinking this was another of the those Scottish things that I was mis-hearing. Jess spent several months working in Australia in the last year, and experience which I think gave her a little more time to grow up and mature than some of the other first-year British students have been lucky enough to have, and consequently it is extraordinarily easy to talk to her. Jess kindly invited me to come and stay with her for a day or so on their farm, a truly exciting prospect which I definitely plan on accepting; turns out Alice and two other girls are also going down at some point soon, but that is just Jess: kindhearted to a fault, open and welcoming to everyone, though still direct and clear about everything at the same time. 
• Next comes Linda, one of the American girls. Formerly Linda Marie Eckley, now Linda Tuesday Babylon Eckley (she changed her name, which impresses me no end and is just so Linda), Linda is a character in the best of ways. She tells stories that have me crying with laughter, about hilarious college mishaps and fathers who intimate their daughter's boyfriends with very large, very functional firearms, and her quirky dead-pan way of telling makes them utterly unforgettable. Sitting around in Alice's kitchen while Linda is there is always pleasant, somewhere along the range of comfortable to lough-out-loud funny. Linda went dancing with us on my birthday, and she spent the whole time grabbing random people by the arm and yelling over the music, It's her birthday! making me laugh, and blush. She would then grin, completely unashamed, and buy me another shot. She has a boyfriend who is affectionately known to everyone (but him) as Braveheart, due to the costume he was wearing when they met, and his overall Scottishness: a red-headed, thick-accented, rugby-playing, ever-so-slightly-balding, terse fellow who nevertheless adores his Virginian girlfriend. Linda is friendly and outgoing, easy to be around and a joy to laugh with. 
• Kate comes next, another American, this time from good ol' California, and a student at Berkeley. Kate is another character, and well and truly hilarious. On-and-off vegan, free spirit (2011, NO JUDGEMENT!), firm believer in going out often and spending money never, and an arms-akimbo hands-circling-broadly head-shaking storyteller, Kate is an intensely honest personality and someone who proudly professes the fact that she has no feelings. This occasionally confuses the rest of us mortals, caught in the thrall of boy-related angst, and while I am leery of the truth of that statement sometimes, I do admire her ability to have fun with guys in what is actually a truly stress-free way. The poor boys tend to be the emotional ones, in those situations, pitiable creatures. It's hard to miss Kate when you walk into a room - she has a palpable presence, a ringing voice, and a tall commanding figure, with unruly curls, bright eyes and a strong, beautiful face. Kate enjoys life, and laughing at it - whether it be Jersey Shore (oh my) or silly Edinburghian situations.
• Kate's professed future-husband is another Macalester student, tall Dan Allen. Kate and Dan's relationship is one of the great mysteries of life, in that they swear it's all platonic joking and a real friendship in which they share a lot of interests, but all the rest of us are convinced that amidst all the laughter and joking talk of marriage (based on the fact of their shared love of movies, Jersey Shore and I forget what else) there is something more. We shall see, I suppose. Dan is quiet and reserved, especially until you get to know him, but he is also incredibly sweet and quite funny. We have developed a weekly tradition of cooking dinners on thursdays or fridays, and Alice and I make the food and Dan brings the wine. Then, generally, we end up watching youtube videos or sporcling while slightly tipsy, then Alice and I beg Dan to come out with us, while he adamant refuses if dancing is involved. It is going to happen at some point this semester. Dan has been having adventures, taking off to Amsterdam, Dublin, or the countryside on a whim and coming back with tales of St. Paddy's day and pints, houseboats and hookers. I haven't spent enough time with Dan this semester, but he is one of the most genuinely nice guys I have met in a while, and Alice and I are already plotting about how we are going to force him to hang out with us next year, hermit-tendencies or no. 

More to come later. :)