Man day

Yesterday I had a couchsurfer come in the late afternoon--a Canadian guy who is studying at Edinburgh for the year and is on his own spring break and traveling around Scotland. At the same time, my flatmates' little brother (sixteen) and two friends were over (one of whom is a cousin). It was a very full flat, and testosterone was at silly levels. Played rugby in the park opposite us for about 2 hours that night and another 2 early the next morning. Most of me hurts. It's been quite cool, met some people out in the park and got them to join us (one girl became a regular fixture of our group), had a good mix of my friends and my flatmate's friends and just generally felt sociable and not like there was no one about because it was break. After rugby this morning watched '300' (we watched 'The Longest Yard', an American-football-in-jail story, last night) and went and jumped off the pier into the North Sea for funsies. It was really sunny and warm in the morning, but by the time we made it out for the pier jump it started to rain and actually hailed briefly before clearing up again for us to jump in. I jumped twice, and after we all dried off we went for hot chocolate and nachos. I split briefly and had coffee with an old friend and ex, which was really nice. She is a cool person. We went back to mine for the afternoon, which was spent in the group playing ancient video games on my flatmates' old Sega. Various of us went to get pizza and beer for dinner (spicy beef, onion, jalapeno), during which we watched 'Dodgeball', and a few more of my flatmates' friends came over and we spent the night playing poker and bullshit and various cardgames, to end the night with a few episodes of 'Family Guy' and trying to gross each other out.

So, entirely out of character.

And I really, absolutely enjoyed it. Not as a state to live in, but something to visit on holiday. To see the sights and enjoy myself and feel immersed in culture and be thoughtful because of that but not because of anything in particular that I was doing--but at the same time, to enjoy it authentically as a brilliant way to live life. Right, that makes me sound really detached. I wasn't, I'm not. I'm sore and exhausted and I've thought so little since showing up and having a rugby ball tossed into my hands last night. And that's been nice, that's been wonderful, that's been exactly what I needed. To meet new people and do new things. But it is a different type of 'meeting'. Not 'tell me about yourself' but 'wouldn't it be funny if?' and 'let's go do that!' And that is refreshing. It's so fucking refreshing. And all of these people are immensely clever, doctors and vets and etc, but they are in relaxation mode, and it puts me in the same place. Thinking about the stress and near-panic of last week, it seems like a world away, a wasteland. It makes me wish I'd been less of a pussy as a kid, had learned to appreciate activity and exercise and groups in the way that I am doing now. I've been going wall-climbing in Dundee with my old roomate and chatted with some of the climbing society from St Andrews when we were last there, and I think that could be quite a fun thing to do next year--there's also the 'adventure society' or something like that that does camping and trekking in the highlands that I think I might check out next year, because, hey, what a shame to leave Scotland and not have experienced the incredible nature (insert diatribe about nature being a social construct/Britain having no 'wild' nature after centuries of cultivation) of the country. So that's where my mind is now. Hah.

Starting to look seriously at tobacco crop substitution, as that review essay is due in the week after I have 2 shows so I should strive to get most of it done during this break. It looks like the World Bank has done all sorts of health reviews of countries in terms of feasibility of crop replacement, which is a great resource. Let's be honest, though, by "started to look seriously" I mean "done a few google searches and read some abstracts". More on that to follow...it had better.