French Club (but really, more book covers)

Edit: this post has been shoved back in my schedule several times, and as such is now from absolutely ages ago. Sorry about that. 

Last Sunday I headed to school in the morning in the hopes that I would be able to spend some time designing covers in InDesign for our anthology. Unfortunately, they do not seem to heat the computer room on the weekends, so, when, after an hour and a half, I could no longer feel my fingers, I elected to leave and find somewhere else to hang out until french club convened at two. Rather than hop from coffee shop to coffee shop, I decided to just head to Waterstones, where I drank tea and read Good Omens for several hours. 

Which is really just a lovely way to spend any day. I don't know if it was just the copy of Good Omens that I got from that rather large (and no altogether legal) book download, but it was typographically frustrating. Which is so nerdy. However, I finished Good Omens a couple of days later, and I have to say, it lives up to its reputation - fantastically absurd, funny, and incredibly British. So English it hurts. I recently read a review which summed up Good Omens, which went something like this (SPOILERS) "Six billion people almost die, and it is FUNNY" - I think thats a fairly succinct analysis.

In more nerdy-ness, after French Club, Alix and Rachel and I participated in our weekly tradition of wandering around Waterstones, critiquing book covers.

This cover for 'The Returned', while I really liked the idea behind it, I really did not like the spacing of the type - I thought that both the boy should be lowered slightly, as well as the tagline. I don't like the layout, basically, though I do like the fundamental design elements that they are working with.

It was a rather gloomy and rainy day, but as I left Waterstones, I was again struck by how incredible it is to live here, and to exit a bookshop to be struck by the view of a castle atop a hill, dominating the modern cityscape I was a part of, a strange mix of new and old.

Spring?!

While conditions in Canada have been generally improving lately, conditions in the south of Britain and down into Europe have been getting completely lovely (19 degrees in London, 22 degrees in Paris)... but Scotland, or at least Edinburgh, has simply been maintaining the exact same temperature range it has the entire winter - namely, 4-9 degrees, lots of wind, some rain. 

Yesterday, however, was an unexpectedly lovely day. While I don't think the temperature itself went much about 12, it was absolutely lovely and sunny, and while I walked to Alix's, I couldn't help but admire everyones gardens and reflect, again, on the fact that though the main road I live on is not terribly posh, I really do live in an incredibly expensive area. 

Sunshine selfie :)

Nice casual gate for someones home, *really* fit in with the surrounding architecture (not).

Gotta watch out for the elderly people.

I was definitely peering into people's yards and admiring their gardens - absolutely beautiful!

Also, when I finally left Alix's around ten, I managed to successfully navigate the shortcut through the NHS parking lot with a minimum amount of terror! Progress!

Kyra And The Super Awesome Fun Time Thursday

#truestory

Yesterday I had my second interactive media class, which was really fun and interesting. I finally picked my project (more on that tomorrow). After class, it was absolutely gorgeous, so Laura and Kate and I decided to hang out and grab lunch. We walked down to a cafe that none of us had been to previously, The Treehouse, which was absolutely wonderful. So cute inside, and absolutely delicious. They had a really good menu, a student discount, and all day breakfast (which is basically the best thing ever - also, I had literally just been talking about how awesome breakfast is and how there should really be so many more places serving all day breakfast, so that was pretty funny). 

I got a really great panini that was olive, tomato, and cheese (I was really torn because they had so many awesome veggie sandwiches, including a goats cheese, pine nut, and spinach sandwich). They came with two side salads, one pasta, one mixed green (or you could get a soup, which is what Laura did). Seriously tasty. 

After lunch we went up to the Cameo cinema to sign up for the slackers club, which is a free student film every couple of months. I also decided to get the student membership, which also gives you two free movies a year and a discount every time. 

Following that, we stopped into a couple of charity shops. There are a lot more charity shops in the UK, so you can pick and chose which charities to support, which was nice since the couple of thrift shops back home were run by organizations with some very problematic elements. 

Had an awesome (and cheap) shopping spree, grabbing a couple of shirts, a muffin tin (which I was planning to buy new this week so that was perfect! And it was only a pound!), and what is probably the best thing I've ever found in a thrift shop, a Wonder Woman mug and socks.

Really awesome day with the girls :)

Really Putting the "Super Freaking Slow" in "Snail Mail"

On November 16th, Lorraine let me know that she had mailed my Hanukah present. By the time I moved out of my old flat on December 1st, I had yet to receive it, so I let my former roommates know to keep an eye out for it. Through December I sent them a couple more messages, and even went to the post office to see what was taking such a long time. I had sent my mother a package, but she had received it in just over a week, so I was quite concerned for my Hanukah present. By the time I got back from Christmas break, I was fairly resigned to the idea that the postal system had lost it, to my great sadness. However, on the 14th I got a message from my former roommates - something had arrived in the mail for me. Excited, I went over to find two issues of a Canadian publishing magazine that I had also thought lost in the mail. With hope renewed that  the package was on its way, I went back home... and two hours later received another message - there was something else now at the flat for me! 

Two days shy of two whole months, my Hanukah package had arrived. 

It was so nicely wrapped I almost didn't want to open it...

The rules for our Hanukah presents is that they have to be handmade (this year, my dad helped me make a cutting board for Lorraine). The chocolates were obviously just a bonus (perhaps because we usually play for chocolate when we play with the dreidel on Hanukah?)

A gorgeous modified books, containing the covers and first pages from a number of different literary works.

There was also some of the original book left in at the end.

A gorgeous present from a wonderful godmother :)

Hopefully this means my christmas package from my dad has been similarly delayed - and for those wishing to send me gifts in the future, it might be a better idea to just order them off a UK site and have them sent to me from inside the country, as the snail mail between the UK and Canada seems to be much faster in one direction than the other.

Le jour où tout a été fermé

Fun fact: there is not much open on New Years Day. We had gotten back to the flat around two or three am, so I had a late start. However, my only real plan of the day was to go to the only place that I could find open - the Musée d'Orsay. 

The Musée d'Orsay is a museum in Paris, France, on the left bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography. It houses the largest collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces in the world, by painters including Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Seurat, Sisley, Gauguin and Van Gogh. Many of these works were held at the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume prior to the museum's opening in 1986.

On the bridge, crossing the Seine. As you can tell, the weather wasn't particularly nice while I was in Paris - other than my last day there, it was largely overcast and on/off again raining.

The Louvre on the opposite bank from the Musée d'Orsay.

There are a lot of bridges crossing the river, some just pedestrian, some both.

Again, looking at the Louvre from the bridge.

This is probably one of my favourite/sketchiest things I saw in Paris - they had quite a few vendors selling what I think were roast chestnuts, which they were roasting over barrels of fire. In a shopping cart. And they were almost as common as the guys hawking little statues of the Eiffel tower!

From inside the museum - photographs were not allowed (I think I was one of the only people observing that rule), but this room did not contain any artwork so I figured it was okay to take a picture from the inside of the clockface, looking out over Paris. I got to see quite a few interesting pieces, but the line to get in took about an hour and a half, so by the time I got in, I was already pretty tired. Got to see quite a few Van Goghs though.

And from the outside, where the above photographs were taken...

After leaving the museum, I headed back to David's, where we grabbed some dinner and then watched Breaking Bad - a fairly chill evening, which was nice.

Look, I Did Stuff

I realized I really didn't post much last month (to be fair, I was really stressed about finding a new flat) so I'm gonna try and post more this month. Though I still haven't decided if I'm going to take my computer with me while I travel over Christmas or not, so there may be a large chunk of time where I'm away from the blog. We shall see. 

Anyways, today part of my school decided to go on strike (to my everlasting annoyance), so I finally had time to do what I've been meaning to for a couple of weeks now - dye my hair! I also went to my one class that was still on, and then spent a couple of hours in the computer lab working on my book formatting, but thats not that interesting. 

So I am once again a redhead! 

And my bathroom looks like I murdered someone!

This is not a good photograph!

Credit where credit's due - my shower may have terrible pressure, but man, is it hot. It goes up to nine, and I can only stand it up to 6.5 (and I'm the kind of person who likes my shower so hot my skin turns red). 

Started reading An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. Fell asleep on the couch for a little bit - I was in a cozy little nest of warmth and it was icky outside, so I was pretty happy. Someone finally told me why all of the windows here are stupidly single glaze - its because the buildings are by and large historical, and there is a law that doesn't allow the owners to install double windows, because they want to preserve the historical looks of the windows. To which I say PAH. Give me warmth fools! But I've figured out how the thermostat works, you can set it on all the time, on once a day, or on twice a day (on a timer), so I've set the heat to start at 6:30 so the flats nice and cozy when I get out of bed :)

PHOTO DUMP

So this post is just gonna be a random collection of a bunch of little things I've been up to the last couple of weeks. 

I want that teapot so much.

Went to Eteaket again the other Wednesday - it was just as awesome as it was the first time! If it wasn't so expensive, I would so be there every week.

Becky and I shared this particular tower of yumminess. We also both just sat there for a minuet taking pictures of it.

Brie and cranberry man.

 This wednesday was Robert Louis Stevenson day - a Big Deal in Edinburgh. As a class, the day before, we got a group picture taken with us all 'stached up.

Alix and Michele looking hella dapper

Suits me, no?

That same day/night, I was volunteering at a book launch, which was quite fun. Also we got to eat all the leftovers AND take home the leftover bottles of wine (speaking of, I still have my bottle of white in the fridge...). However, Sergio was the only who liked red, so he got to take all the red home...

#class

 Then, after that was over, because I am a social butterfly, I went out to the bar to meet up with Group C who were hanging out at The Fountain.

My main takeaway from this entire thing is that I cannot spell moustache. And everyone pronounces it differently.

Alix's only friend.

Becky pretending to be a dinosaur. 

 While out looking at flats yesterday, I ended up with some time to spare, and spent it wandering around this cemetery and taking pictures. If you remember from my last graveyard-heavy post, the council is fixing the gravestones, so the ones deemed unsafe or unstable have been laid on the ground. This graveyard in particular really looked like it had been hit by some sort of heavy storm.

Also walked past the Caledonian Brewery on my way home. 

And this is just a really lovely look down the canal near my flat.