Kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk!

I love it here in Edinburgh, but I will never deny that it can be really wonderful to get random, little reminders of home.
Last Thursday turned out to be a hectic day, and I ran back to Pollock Halls between my first and second lectures, hoping to stop at the gym for an hour or so before my two o'clock tutorial for Linguistics. For each tutorial, we have to do some sort of homework based on the week's lectures. That week we had started talking about spoken discourse and why old or new information will often be placed at the beginning or end of a sentence. Well, the "speech" they used to mimic speaking was an adaption of a children's book: Blueberries for Sal. As soon as I sat down to rush through the work, I stopped and laughed to myself. I sat there reading the excerpt over for a few minutes hearing the words "kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk" echo in my ears from the hundreds of times my mother read me that story. My mind wandered to Maine, and Acadia, and how I long to return, how I'm so jealous that my brother is going there Memorial day weekend.
While going over the exercise in the tutorial, I couldn't stop thinking about Maine, and when my tutor got to explaining that "New England", when mentioned by the speaker, would be old news to the hearer, since it's a commonly known place, she also figured that "Blueberry Hill" was probably some made-up name for the book. My smile burst out and I told her, "No, it's a real place and this is a great book. Blueberry Hill is in Maine. I've been there." It didn't matter that no one else had even heard of the book. I was swept up in memories.
And just the day before a friend had told me that I could probably find a New York Times at the International News Agent on the Royal Mile. One little piece of home is just a short walk away from George Square. I know I can read 20 articles a month online without being charged, but there's something nice about being able to sit on my bed and peruse the editorials and articles on real newsprint. Maybe next weekend I'll try to get a weekend paper so I can read the travel section and save all the pictures. Or maybe not. It's just nice to know it's there.