Bryce says I use the word “bit” too much; I guess it is more commonly used here, but I’m all for the word. It’s generally used in the expression, bits and baubs (short for bits and baubles–i.e., odds and ends). Anyway, this entry is just “a bit” of everything. We are planning on putting up on our blog page some of the books we’re reading, so you can see what we’re studying and read some yourself or ask questions of the books if you’re interested. This week I read Boswell and Johnson’s respective accounts of their journey to the Scottish Highlands and Islands in the 1770s–really interesting. I’m also reading a book called The Americas: A History of a Hemisphere by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto for the STAR-Transatlantic Reading Group next Tuesday. I’m looking over Postmodernism and the Contemporary Novel for class on Friday and for my Anglo Scots class next week, we’re reading poems by Fergusson and Burns.
As the term winds up, it’s all I can do to finish well. I’m looking forward to the few weeks I have off between the end of term (mid-March) and when my papers are due. It would be so much better if my classes weren’t early morning classes. I feel constantly tired. Thursdays are great–I get to stay at home, sleep in, usually answer the door in my pjs for some package or another being delivered, do laundry, be on the internet far too long, and do some reading. I’m a fan of Thursdays. Tonight we are going over to the Hamilton’s (a couple from church about our parents’ age) for dinner and the Hays are invited too. It should be really fun and it’s so encouraging to meet more people and have them invite you over and be invited more fully into their lives.
We are participating in a Bible study on Philippians at church. It’s interesting. The study is good and it appears I’m in “the wives club” group as there are four of us whose husbands are also in the Bible study and spread among the groups, but the four of us are all together. It’s different from any other Bible study I’ve done. First of all, it isn’t a “home group” (that isn’t really catching on over here in the UK) and so we meet in our four small groups in the church hall and have little cubicle partitions set up. In our group, there usually seems to be something controversial, some disagreement or miscommunication over the text, that gets brought in, which sometimes makes for a somewhat strained atmosphere at times but is interesting as well. Anyway, I’m glad we’re doing it and meeting more people.
Bryce is pretty stoked to go with Jonathan and Pete (an Aussie from church) to the Whisky Society on Friday. So Sarah and I will be going out for a coffee or drink ourselves I suppose. 
Work this week was nuts. Monday there were tons of people in; we did about twice the amount of business normally done and there were just two of us on the floor, making drinks, cutting cakes, etc. I think I managed to eat a small bowlful of soup in the course of an hour. Tuesday there was a power outage across most of the Royal Mile. Many shops closed but we stayed open. Serving by candlelight, asking the chef to keep boiling water for teas and coffees while he tries to make everything else, washing spoons and water glasses in freezing cold water, were just some of the fun things we did that day. At least both days we made decent tips. Ideally I’d love to get some wonderful grant or something so that my PhD work is paid for and then I wouldn’t have to work. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just tiring and I feel that I’m not thinking for my graduate work at my best, since so much of my time and energy are devoted to my 19 hours a week at work.
But really, I can’t complain too much. Things are going really well. I heard by email from the postgraduate director that she’s recommended me for the PhD programme and I should receive an acceptance letter soon. I also found out that my ORS application (puts the overseas tuition rate to the UK rate for international students) made it through the first round of selection at the University level. I don’t know how many more rounds there are; the University supports about 50 total applications and then there is a national committee that decides from all UK university applications who receives the ORS award. I’m looking for lots more funding opportunities. So if any of you are bored at your workplace, have a look around the internet for scholarships for me. Of course we’ll still apply for US loans. Right now the exchange rate is so awful, it’s really depressing, it’s about 1.9 dollars to 1 pound. Ick.
Oh, we finally got our gas and electricity bill. I know you all are so excited about that. They come quarterly, and as we hadn’t received a bill since October I was getting a bit antsy. It’s not all that bad, just ?169 for gas and electricity for four months. It could surely be much worse, especially in winter. We will (eventually) be switching companies and won’t have to pay a per-day fee which should save us about ?25 per bill.
Well, I’m sure I could ramble on and on and on, but I do need to do some reading today. Thanks for coming to our blog and reading about our lives, seeing our pictures, looking at our papers, etc. You’re all fab!
