firbush weekend part 4
The third day at Firbush was as fun as the previous. It started out with kayaking in the morning, which left my arms pretty shot. Still, the scenery on the loch was great, and I never pass up a chance to kayak. In the afternoon, I went mountain biking. It started to rain, and foolishly, I had worn my only pair of sneakers, and a pair of dickies. Between the rain and the puddles, both my shoes and trousers were thoroughly soaked, and caked in mud. The mud, snow, and rain, made what would have been a pretty tame ride seem almost epic. The climbs seemed grueling and the downhills wicked. All in all, it was a blast. Unfortunately, it also made me realize that I’m not in the best of shape, as I was feeling pretty winded after some of the longer climbs. Too much begging off of skating and running in Edinburgh on account of the weather, I guess.
I had just enough time to shower and hang my clothes out to dry before dinner. Dinner was hilarious, though probably only to me. It started out with what seemed like a little game of “20 questions with the vegan”. Some of the questions were the standard fare, but the girl sitting next to me responded as I suspect an eight year old would. “Can you eat this?”, “How about this?”, “What about that?”, “Why can’t you eat that?”, and the kicker, “Could you ever marry someone who wasn’t a vegan?” Sheesh. If that wasn’t enough the sorority girl from Denison, who was sitting across from me, couldn’t seem to understand how my parents, having attended the University of Michigan (apparently her favorite college football team), could bear the fact that I was attending OSU. If it wasn’t so ridiculous, I would have been annoyed, but it was just comical. The comedy of the night was made complete on the van ride home when there was a short BBC radio piece just ripping into George W’s eloquence (or lack thereof). I love the British media!
When I got back to the flat, I had missed the film society’s screening of “Dancer in the Dark”, but Iain, Marco, and some girls from nearby flats were about to go out to the cinema to see “Vanilla Sky”. They invited me along, though I suspect it was only so that Iain wouldn’t have to sit next to a stranger (a bit of a phobia that he has, apparently). One of the girls from the flat across the hall stopped by and hilarity ensured. I think both Iain and Marco fancy her a bit, and the common room immediately turned into the Iain and Marco show, with both of them trying to vie for her affections. That wasn’t all the hijinks for the night, though. On the way to the film, Marco’s girlfriend Agatha (pronounced Aga-tuh, I guess it’s Polish) walked into a pole. It was one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time. We got to the film late, and it was sold out, so I decided to go out to a pub with Rob and some of the girls. I’ve been to a bar in Columbus, maybe twice, but here I didn’t have anything better to do and I didn’t want to come off as the anti-social flatmate. Hey, it’s a cultural experience. The pub was nice enough, even with the cheesy acoustic guitar act. It was definitely a lot more chill than places in Columbus, and I felt more comfortable with the absence of insecure frat boys looking for a fight. Still, it was a little weird since I didn’t know anyone very well except for Rob. Luckily, Agatha struck up a conversation and that pretty much occupied me for a while. Agatha is a talker, and though the conversation wasn’t uninteresting, I just couldn’t keep up with her ability to talk and talk and talk. All in all, I had a good time at the pub, though I doubt I’ll spend too much more time in the pubs in the future. We went home, and I was pretty tired, but not so tired as to miss the opportunity to talk shit about Iain’s mom. My past two living situations have utterly ruined me. It will take me a long while before I am able to go long periods of time without talking shit. Oh well, it’s good recreation, and as Iain said, it keeps the wit sharp.