Bristol.

So many things have happened in the past three weeks that I honestly have no idea where to begin. I left the Albanach (sad times), Tyyne, Wes and Jamie visited Edinburgh (fun times) and I turned 21. I left Edinburgh with Jamie and moved down to Bristol, where I am now. I had the fortune of finding a flat on my first day and I've been slowly but surely settling in. I have a great location here, albeit in an older house that has a bit of a damp smell (it is England, after all) but with a bit of loving I think it will turn out nicely. I have some lovely flatmates (a Polish couple, a Welsh guy and a Chinese girl) whom I haven't spent much time around, but they are friendly nonetheless. There are still some things left to unpack, but I will get to them.
I've had a wonderful first week in Bristol. I've done some walking (I live at the top of a hill much steeper than the Royal Mile, so I'm expecting to firm up the glutes) and I have a lot more exploring to do. Tomorrow marks the start of the job hunt.
Jamie and I went down to London yesterday on a very exciting Canada day adventure! We arose at a very sleepy 5:45am to catch our bus to London. Once we arrived (and attended to a frantic dash of grabbing some travel sickness meds) we made our way past Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar Square. Mostly families milled about the place in the early part of the day. We walked around, grabbed a poor excuse for poutine (cheese sauce instead of real cheese?! Abomination.) which I assured Jamie was not the real thing, and made our way to the Maple Leaf bar just down the street. At half 12, it was already PACKED with Canadians! Sleemans on draught, Moosehead and Caesars were had, as well as so many chicken wings! I met up with Brooke, a fellow SCI graduate a few years below me and we waxed poetic about living life in the UK. We spent time talking and laughing with other Canadians, travelers and expats alike. Jamie got a few thumbs-up for his Jets t-shirt (which is really my oversized Jets t-shirt that I lent him) and a few laughs when he told people he was actually from Ireland and didn't know anything about the Winnipeg Jets. After talking hockey with an Edmontonian named Jacob, to which Jamie could not contribute much to the conversation, laughed and said, "Well that's the first conversation I've ever had in which a girl knows more about sport than I do."
We headed back to Trafalgar Square in the early evening, milled around and then went on a short walk to 10 Downing Street, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Thames and back to catch the musical headliners. Canadian rapper Shad put on a good show (I'd never heard of him), Hedley put on a decent performance but of course, the real gem was seeing Our Lady Peace, who had the crowd singing along to all of their tunes. The night ended with a final, "Oh, Canada" and we made our way back to the bus station for a sleepy ride home.