This past week we had our first guest speaker in the American Studies program. I will quickly try and describe my program without being too confusing, hopefully. Each week we meet on Monday evenings for an hour. This meeting is our lecture for the week. The lecturers come from across the University specializing in numerous and varying fields. For example, this past week we had a professor from the history department discuss Jamestown and this week a professor from the music department discussing Elvis. Following the lecture we meet on Wednesday afternoons. These afternoon sessions are for discussion of Monday's lecture and the assigned readings for the week. Here comes the slightly confusing part, every other week on Wednesdays we have a short break after discussion then regroup for a guest speaker. The guest speakers come from different universities across the UK (sometimes the US!) and speak on their particular areas of expertise and interest dealing with America. Now, I would tell you what this week's guest speaker spoke about but to be fair I'm not entirely sure. Before you jump to conclusions and believe that I paid no attention or his lecture was far above my academic understanding, let me tell you this; not one of the American Studies students has any idea what this man was talking about! His lecture had no title, no clean cut thesis detailing what was to be discussed. He started the lecture by saying "let me begin with a story" I really have no idea if that story ever ended. The presentation was not a presentation, simply a reading of a thesis he wrote when he was a master's student himself. And, to top off the performance over half of his lecture was done using air quotes. Before I completely strip this man of his dignity I will say this, he really knew what he was talking about. Which was made clear during the question and answer session. In fact, I think the question and answer session should have come first because then I would have understood that the entire presentation was over a piece of literature satirically published in the United States. He did a wonderful job of answering questions and was able to speak very well off-the-script, he should have done this the entire lecture and lost the air quotes. After the presentation we gathered for wine and appetizers. I study at the "Andrew Hook Center for American Studies" during the wine and appetizer party Andrew Hook himself tried to force feed me olives. I really can't stand olives, although I have heard from a somewhat reliable source that if you eat 27 you magically enjoy them. I don't think I can force feed myself 27. (This "somewhat reliable source" brought olives to the party later discussed. I didn't eat any of those either. You will not win Mr. 27 olives).
As usual this weekend was bursting with all sorts of things to do and places to see. Flat 3.1 hosted our first party this weekend. After an apparently thrilling lecture on economic development my flatmate came rushing home with a party plan mapped out in his spiral notebook rather than notes. And on this "plan" I received the honorary title of "Party Planner." Apparently, if you create a party you can dole out the job of inviting people and planning onto someone else! The party was to have a world theme in which the party goers would create a dish or bring a drink associated with their home country or if they wanted to try something new a country still remaining in the Rugby world cup.
The day of the party it was decided that dividing and conquering would be the best way to prepare for the evening's activities. I was on shopping, baking duty and invitee control (basically answering any of their questions). While party creator extraordinare flatmate was responsible for finding ASDA (the walmart equivalent) and purchasing drinks, party goods and sherbert. And, therein sherbert lies the problem. My poor flatmate came staggering up our three flights of stairs hauling massive bags having drug them through many a subway stop and over many of Glasgow's uneven roads and heaves the bags upon the counter. Immediately, I started digging through them and find little sugar packs. In all my graciousness and the cloud of party planning stress I was in (most of you know how I operate on party days!) I blurted out. "What exaclty is this?!" and of course the response is "the sherbert you wanted." But, it wasn't sherbert, sherbert is icecream not powdery sugar, powdery sugar is FUN DIP! The perfectionist in me was having a slight heartattack as I described exactly what sherbert is while we tried to make some semblance of a punch from this sherbert imposter. While we poured little packets of sugar into cups and desperately tried to create a decent tasting drink Mr. Party Creator said "Oh hey, I got you this" and presented a Zebra pinata... sherbert forgotten.
Finally broken! So what was in this pinata? Well, after the sherbert fiasco we shoved all the powdery stuff into the zebra. Which then exploded all over the floor. It took a lot of vacuuming but no sherbert is remaining in flat 3/1!
To recover from the party madness of Friday it only made sense to go see a movie on Saturday. I won the card pull and got to choose which movie to see and the winner was "Midnight in Paris." Which is absolutely excellent! For someone who is a complete travel/literature fanatic like myself this movie couldn't get much better. And, it made me want to go to Paris more than ever... fortunately, I am fairly close! The UK gets all the movies that the US gets but a few weeks (or months) later. Many of the previews we saw for upcoming movies are already playing or have played in the US (the Help for example). But, in a strange way I kind of like getting it a bit later. Well, I like it now at least. I can go see movies that I may have already seen in the US again before they come out on DVD (the Help, for example). Below is the UK trailer for "Midnight in Paris." If you haven't seen it you should. You should also go with someone who is a good conversationalist and can talk about the movie for hours afterward, it's really the best way to go. Since this movie my flat has been filled with the sounds of Cole Porter because both movie goers can not get the songs out of our heads.
Scotslish Lesson: Blether- Talk (foolishly).
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