Speedupdate!

(By Chris) Ah man, I'm just a happy guy. Lauren and I are official and totally adorable, PLUS Scotland is such fun! Went to a Burns' Night Dinner the other night, with the full haggis, neeps, tatties, and scotch. There was singing, bagpiping, and amazing poetry; this one fellow recited the entire Jolly Beggars poem/song, which runs forty minutes, and then sang a whole bundle of hilarious original tunes.

After that, though, we had to be sure to catch the State of the Union speech; unfortunately for us, that would be airing at 2AM. Because my interns are fellow college students and political dorks, though, about 16 of us got together in our office with a bunch of beer of a SOTU drinking game. If he says "jobs," anything post-partisan, gets an across-the-aisle ovation, etc, take a swig of beer and wait for the next one. Seriously, it's a limited group of people that would all be excited about getting together in the middle of the night for a presidential address + beer.

Besides that, it's been rather laid back. We're attending our 3 classes per week, going on various tours, and talking to officials in the Edinburgh Council, a retiring Westminster MP, etc. Slowly but surely I'm getting a grasp on the system, the parties, the history between them, and how it's all come together in the modern parliament.

Ooh and other good news: apparently the US authorities are going to chill out on the import of haggis (a relic from 1989 with the UK mad cow scare) so I think I'll be eating a lot of that. It's seriously one of my favorite things ever.

Wishing all of you the best!

Chris