Homie 1: Seána
I want to tell you about my three homies in Edinburgh, Seána, Dominique and Vida. Let's start with Seána.
Seána was the first friend I had in Edinburgh other than my flatmates (came with the package, luckily the quality was rad). Seána and I connected through an online program. After getting to know each other through messaging, we planned to meet each other in person and get to know each other. A native Edinburgher, Seána suggested to grab tea at the Elephant House (where J.K. Rowling started writing her Harry Potter series) and we could meet up in front of the National Museum of Scotland and walk over together. My first impression of her when I caught sight of her sitting on the stairs of the museum was that she looked clean, and neat (干净的大女孩, as we say in Chinese). Due to shyness, she tends to act in a rather polite and nervous manner. She later commented that she thought I had a confident demeanor, which I hope was not a better way to phrase intimidating. I was actually quite nervous to meet my her in person too.
We spent the afternoon drinking tea and chatting at the famous cafe and had a fun time. We met up two other times to tour around the Princes Street Garden and had both of our first English afternoon tea at 'Antique' (funnily enough, the Scottish girl had never tried proper English afternoon tea), and had gradually gotten to know each other better (the process surely took time). One day, out of boredom, I came up with an adventurous idea. Seána had always been enthusiastic about Krav Maga (Israeli martial art), so she often went on rants about her practices. I had recently become a Latin dance maniac, so I often went on rants about my practices. "Why don't we swap practices so that we actually know what the other is talking about?" I suggested. Seána made a strong point that she had no coordination skills and was hesitant of this idea - but after spurts of motivational speeches and well-disguised peer pressure, she caved in and the deal was sealed. She put full efforts into learning at the Salsa class, which made me quite moved; and I went to her Krav Maga class later that week and almost hurt my muscles - but I finished the class without being too exhausted thereby accomplishing my goal. Fun cultural exchange and bonding time!
We met up for Thai once more, but some things happened after that, so we only met once more right before I left for goodbyes and thanks - which strangly turned out to be the best conversation we have ever had.
We still keep in touch.
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