May Flowers

Wow, I realize I've gone 20 days into May without updating you all. My sincere apologies, but I have been very busy. I finished up my exams on the 8th, which was quite a bit earlier than everyone else as the official end of exams was this past Friday. Cue much celebration for the weekend! I had a really nice day yesterday: I went shopping in Stockbridge (the posh side of Edinburgh) with my friend Kiran, watched the FA Cup Final (Chelsea 1 - Man Utd 0, yay!), had dinner with Katie, Nick, and Kiran, and went to a beach party (which, in British terms, is more Hawaiian themed than anything else). A really nice end to the semester. Also, Tenants is over, which is actually fantastic -- I'm so glad not to have to always be rushing to finish the next episode and run it to the studio. If you missed its broadcast, you can download the episodes from the Fresh Air website or subscribe to the podcast.

Other than that, everything else has been winding down here -- had the leaving party for EAP and end-of-season dinner for rugby, and the Fresh Air end-of-year night out is this Friday. On top of that, Thursday is Indie Club Together, a big indie club night we're putting on. Unfortunately, I'm going to be late to that since I'm also seeing The Cribs in Glasgow the same night. I'm very excited about that. Speaking of concerts and such, I saw The Noisettes on the 6th (also in Glasgow) and they were very good. I had to miss MC Lars in Edinburgh this past Tuesday 'cause it was my first day at work and I was absolutely exhausted.

Yes, I now work! I've gotten a job as a stock room assistant at this posh High Street shop here, thanks to Tallah. It happened in fairly short order, but basically it's 7.30am-4.30pm every day, Monday to Friday. Yeah, it's a lot of hours (and very early ones), but it's a paying job and steady employment for the summer. Plus, the discount is incredible. The job itself is quite good, really. I process shipment and restock the floor, and don't have to deal with customers. Couldn't be better. The last excellent bit about it is that all my friends are going to have similar hours over the summer, so it'll be convenient to hang out together.

Something I've been dying to tell all you Americans about is Eurovision. It's one fantastic night (Saturday the 12th this year) where the a nominated pop group from 20 European countries get together and battle it out to be voted the top group on the continent! It's really really really incredibly fantastically cheesy and outrageous. Serbia won this year, Britain tied with France for 2nd to last (poor Ireland took last, with 5 points), but Ukraine was my favorite act. It's really a shame they only came in second. Some classic quotes from the evening, courtesy of some obnoxious girl in a pink dress they picked out of the audience:
"...I'm single and -- where's the camera?"
"Ten minutes ago I wasn't anybody! But now I'm everybody!"
Also, there was a great sign in the crowd that just simply said "Where's Andorra?" Anyway, here's Ukraine's performance, for your viewing pleasure. San Francisco, watch and take notes.

I honestly think they might have even outdone The Castro. Here's the music video for the same song, which is just as fabulous. Who wouldn't go clubbing with their elderly Ukrainian mother and her magic glasses?

I can tell you what's going to be pumping on my iPod all summer!