Darn you, Katia! And, Yay Shortbread!

Ok so I haven't really been doing that much the past couple of days.  Partially because of the weather (Hurricane Katia has arrived in Britain!), and partially because I haven't felt like doing anything.  Its also partially because this week is Fresher's Week, and in order to do any of the events, you needed to buy a Fresher's Pass (which I did not do because it was 40 pounds, about $65).  And as it was a bunnnnch of parties and crazy stuff and drinking, and I didn't think I would do anything to make it worth the $65, I did not buy a Fresher's Pass.  Which means I can basically only do the boring informational stuff.... which is totally worth getting out of bed during a hurricane for.  Totally.

So yeah, I've basically been hanging around my room and Cairncross House in general.  I have been hanging out with people, so all hope is not lost. 

We had this meeting for Cairncross House last night, basically like a "Welcome to University, this is how not to kill yourself while you are here" talk.  A lot of common sense stuff, but I also learned some things I did not know about the UK (disclaimer: I'm not 100% sure if these things are true, or if they were told to us by the Police Officer and Fire guy to scare us?)

1.  Pepper Spray/Mace is illegal here.  Apparently it is illegal back home as well, but I never really felt the need to have it back home so I never knew that.  But apparently it is soooo illegal here, that if you are walking through the park and some guy starts attacking you, and you pepper spray him, you are now in [more?] trouble for assaulting that guy.  Even if its self defense (!)  Crazy!

2.  DO NOT CHARGE YOUR CELLPHONE OVERNIGHT!!!!! IT WILL MAKE IT EXPLODE AND FIRES WILL START IN THE WALLS!!!!! (yes capslock is necessary for this).  What the HECK?!  I've allllllways charged my phone overnight.  But apparently here, cellphones charge fully from dead in 1 hour??  Thats what we were told by the fire guy.  So yeah, charging your cellphone overnight in the UK makes it explode.  I can't decide if I should just keep doing it because I've survived the past week, or if I should consider myself lucky and stop.
    2a.  Same thing apparently goes for laptops as well.  You aren't even supposed to have it plugged in while you're using it, unless its absolutely dead.  I am just so confused.

Well thats basically all I learned from that meeting.  And it took an hour to learn it, so yay.

And today I finally ventured out of Cairncross House for the first time since arriving home from Pitlochry on Saturday.  (I do not count my brief adventure outside to investigate the parade/bagpiping noises).  Went down to Tesco Express for some much needed food.  Although technically, the only thing that I was out of was soda, chips and chocolate.  I had everything else.  But, it was necessary.

ALSO, on the way back from Tesco, we stopped at this cute little fruits/veggies/organics shop that I've been in before and I was asking the guy if they had gluten-free bread (because they have GF pasta and cereal), and he's like "No, we don't have gluten-free bread................ but we have these gluten free shortbreads and cookies".  OMG!!  Forget about the bread!!!  So yes, I bought cookies and snacks.   Picture below:

The one on the left is chocolate chip shortbread (I'm assuming its similar to a chocolate chip cookie) and the one on the right is called Millionaire's Shortbread... from the package it is :  "Golden caramel spread thickly on a shortbread base and topped with a crisp layer of Belgian dark chocolate"  

Yes, please!!

Tomorrow possibly more venturing out... need to buy a rainjacket... and school supplies and all sorts of boring stuff.  :) :)