Another day, another country.

So here I am in Edinburgh, thinking myself clever for finding a cafe with free Wi-Fi, forgetting that the tea I'm drinking probably costs more than would a few hours at an Internet cafe. The sun's shining brightly outside, despite the fact that there was rain blowing in my face the entire way here (my umbrella, of course, was promptly forgotten on the bus from Glasgow to here, but it was broken anyway).
It's only my first day here, so I don't have many impressions, other than that the city is one of the most gorgeous places I've ever seen. Everywhere you look there's a monument or a cathedral or, oh yeah, an ENORMOUS FREAKING CASTLE. I haven't done any sightseeing yet--I got in last night and just crashed, and most of this morning and afternoon were taken up by my work visa program orientation (where, by some staggering cosmic coincidence, the only other person present was from Amherst. He's not actually living in Edinburgh, but hopefully we'll meet up occasionally.) I'm planning on starting the heavy-duty job and apartment hunting tomorrow, which is when I'm set to meet with a guy who runs a recording studio/rehearsal space. The sooner I find a job the better, really--I've been keeping my spending to the bare minimum, but I still find myself...dare I say it?...dropping pounds like I'm on Weight Watchers. What?! (Hmm. I'm beginning to understand why there aren't more British rappers.)

Here's some stuff I wrote yesterday morning in Paris...

Jack Bauer ain't got shit on me. I woke up in Amherst at around 8 on Sunday morning, flew out of Boston at 7 that evening, arrived in Shannon at 6 yesterday morning, flew out of Shannon at 11, arrived in Paris at 2, got to my hotel by 5, and did a lot of exploring before crashing at 10 last night. All in all, about 33 straight hours awake. Ugh.
The traveling wasn’t a whole lot of fun, but Paris is tres bien. I wandered around the Notre Dame/Latin Quarter area, as well as the Arc de Triomphe/Champs-Elysees part (I didn’t, however, make it to the Eiffel Tower. But…eh. I’ve seen pictures). I love the architecture, the streets lined with cute cafes, and the understanding that bread, cheese and chocolate are essential to one’s diet. I hope I come back soon, preferably with someone who knows French. Traveling alone was nice in that I could do sightseeing my way (which resembles nothing so much as a rat with ADD running around a maze in which the walls are entirely made of cheese), but it was aggravating not being able to talk to anyone. For example: I was buying a metro ticket at a machine, and a good-looking guy at the machine next to mine said something to me in French. I said one of my stock French phrases--“I don’t understand”--hoping he knew English and would get the hint, but he just repeated whatever he’d said, adding something on the end. I still didn’t understand, of course, and he walked away. So I’ll never know whether he was saying “You’re putting that money in the machine the wrong way” or if it was “You’re gorgeous. Would you like to come to a party on my uncle’s yacht? I promised all of my hot friends that there would be girls, but I've only managed to find a few so far...”
Damn.