One Year Ago Today...(A Summary of Time Past)

Oh my, how time flies!!! To think that one year ago today I was a on a plane ride getting ready to stir up the saddles forever. Not sure what exactly I mean by that, but just know that Im trying to convey something exciting and life changing. Rereading my many experiences from studying abroad is just intense. It's like a dream where I did all these amazing things, but now I'm stuck back in reality (which is still quite fun, but it's different from Glasgow-fun). I miss all my crazy, random, fun friends and the people I met. Just looking back at my blog, I remember all these memories that I don't even have written down any where, but I can still replay them in my head because of how great they were. And pictures help bring back those good times too. The pub culture changed my life! I now strive not to take my work/education TOO awful seriously! Because as my good friend paul once explained to me--years down the road I wont remember that one paper or that exam I had to do, but I sure as heck will remember: the time we all sat out in Birkbeck court and jayden threw all his bedroom belongings (desk chair, melon, trash can, beer bottles, phone, desk lamp, guitar, new shoes....to name a few)out his window on the fourth story, or the time where we visited a sex-toy history store in prague, or the time that aimee, jen, myself, and ian, jayden, and brian all took many many shots of absynth and could breathe like dragons, or when aimee jen and I took turns licking the salt cave walls in krakow, or the much needed beauty treatment time we spent at the spa in budapest, or the pictures of the old men playing chess, or buying the most gorgeous hand crafted meaningful painting (again in prague), or getting off on the wrong stop in the czech republic after eight hours on a train and the mean train station lady refusing to help you because you speak english also being naive and continuing to talk to the mean lady and instead of thinking she hated us kept pointing to a picture we drew of a metro with a number three and a question mark to no avail, or the most DELICIOUS food eaten in slovakia and stealing a menu only to find it written in bratislavan language, or the gluwein (warm cinnamonie wine)we drank in prague YUM, or all the beautiful amber and garnets a girl could ask for, or that old man in krakow who so ardently tried to give me orange juice for "gratis!", or going to that really classy club "the common" haha, or wagga-mammas, or on the day carrie was leaving she gave me her favorite book Ishmael and a special letter and I had no control over the tears, or when lyric and I strolled the streets of paris and drank cheap wine and ate fancy cheeze and met julia from germany and the members of the band fleet foxes randomly at a cafe and not knowing who they were but talking to them for a while, or going out on a date with a very special and attractive french man who at the end of the night announced 2 things: he liked me and we should see each other again, and even more memorable, that he had a girlfriend!, or all the times carrie and I spent training for our marathon and then finally completing in the Edinburgh Marathon on may 25th, 2008 with all of our flatmates there to watch and cheer us on (and they made shirts), or the time when someone was stabbed and subsequently died fifty feet (or less) away from my dorm step and when we walked to the pub the afternoon after it happened having to step over and around the massively large puddles of blood and splotches, or the time where all of birkbeck had an outdoor party, or not having a cell phones at all for basically six months, or the time linz taught us that there is no such thing as "bullet proof" vests in Scotland...just "stab proof", or the time when we went out to eat as a flat at the union and they had the best spicy bean burgers, or the time where I attempted to make fudge and instead produced a kind of syrup that we still ate and then stored in the freezer for a while, or the moment where I realized that I actually like tea so I must be grown up, or the time where I got my children's literature essay back and the professor questioned my ancestry asking me if I was sure I wasnt from france...not understanding what his interrogation was about until I got home and read his comments on my paper that said things like "this sounds very, almost too scholastic for a non-native english speaker" etc, or for doing the best in british politics and scottish history and the worst in american politics, or the two months that I was "surra kina" a vegetarian to help support the healthy habits of my flatmate, or all the times where I learned to cook real food, or the Scottish food tent on george square where you could try large amounts of every scottish food and be drunk in one hour, or all the times (way too many to count) jayden went streaking, or the most amazing country side bike rides that carrie paul me rhea johan and jayden took in isle of bute, or the most mouth watering savory fresh taste of fish chips and malt vinegar, or the first sip of cider black, or the very very last moments when the girls started to leave, the boys started to leave, when linz walked lyric and I to the bus station as we were on our way to the airport leaving for home on that last day...waving goodbye to her from the back of the bus as we were driving away, or all the other memories that will randomly pop back into my head because it reminds me of something I experienced in my home away from home, Scotland. Clearly these priceless moments happened because at one time or another, I was willing to ditch sitting in a class I need not attend or because I allocated my free time to not extensively studying and writing papers but to having fun hanging out with friends and making this whole thing called life worth it ...so, until I travel again, cheers.

Dublin & More

Well. I took a bus to Glasgow airport at 4:30am on Saturday morning and left on my flight around 6:30. It only took 35 minutes to fly to Dublin, so I had a very early start and long day ahead. Some how going through airport customs was a breeze. One of the boys got their deodorant, hair gel, and shampoo taken away, while I passed through fine with a huge bottle of my eye makeup remover, shampoo and conditioner, a water bottle, and lots of other liquids. I definitely dont trust airport security any more. haha. Our first day was a ton of fun, we visited the Guinness Storehouse for four and a half hours! There were about 7 levels to see, so that's why it took us a while. We got to pour our own pint of guinness and we also received a certificate saying that we passed! Of course I gave my pint away to one of the boys because I think it looks like chocolate but tastes like poop. Saturday was definitely the worse day for weather! It was more than rainy, it was pouring for hours at a time! It took my jeans and shoes two days to dry and I had them on a heater and I even tried blow drying them at one point. Saturday night we just hopped on a tram back home to the hotel and hung out and watched tommy boy until bedtime. Sunday I was the first one up, like usual on vacation, and so I got ready and had three cups of tea and then I explored a little bit around the hotel and ate breakfast, and then finally almost everyone was up. We spent the morning at the Jameson Whiskey distillery, where I was one out of six people chosen to be a taste tester at the end of our tour. I tried 3 irish whiskeys, some scotch, and jack daniels and had to pick my favorites. Of course it was an irish whiskey, just to be fair. And then we had a complementary shot of Jameson. So suffice to say I was pretty darn happy at 12 in the afternoon walking out of Jameson! After that we went to subway to get some good eats and the toured some historical part of Dublin. We went to Dublin Castle, St. Patricks Cathedral, and Trinity College. That night we went pubbing in the Temple Bar Area and had a really good time just hanging out being in downtown Dublin. Monday we got up early and checked out of the hotel and walked downtown to see the St. Patty's Day parade. which to me seemed like any old parade Ive ever seen before, but with bigger floats! So it was interesting to be a part of that. Basically monday we toured the city again to see the sights we might have missed and then spent the rest of the night pubbing before our last bus to the airport. We left for the airport at 10:30pm and spent a long 8 hours waiting for our flight. I got kicked out of sleeping on the starbucks chairs, then I was told to move from a restaurant chair I was sleeping in, so finally I resort to sleeping on a pair of my pj pants on the cold airport floor. Some of my friends decided to pull a prank on one of the guys we were travelling with and I swear I almost peed my pants at the success they had with it. While this guy was sleeping they took off his shoes and hid them and took his backpack and moved to a different sitting spot. Well a couple hours later this guy wakes up. One person that was sitting by him saw everything that happened and found our group to tell us that he had woken up and was looking really confused!!! haha. Well finally he comes around and finds us and we all act like we dont know what's going on (this is at about 4:30 in the morning) and we give him his backpack, well we convince him that someone must have stolen his shoes. So he walks around the airport with us for the next hour without shoes on. There was a point when he wandered off when we were sitting down again and so the boys who had his shoes take them and wear them, so when the guy comes back he just freaked out at them. It was one of the funniest pranks I had ever witnessed. Any way, on the flight back I slept the whole time and it seriously felt like when I woke up we hadnt even left yet. But the plane ride was really fast because we were flying with the wind so it only took 25 minutes. Well after another long train ride and a long walk home, I finally made it to my bed and took a much needed nap! So Im all caught up on sleep. I turned in two essays today and those are finally out of the way. My British Politics class (well lecture at least) is done as of today. That's two classes out of the way. Right now Im trying to figure out what Im going to do for spring break because I have a one way ticket from london to krakow with no plans, so that will need to change. This weekend I have to start two other essays that are due in 12 days!! whoopy! But when those are done spring break will be here. Alright well Im off for a lunch break with laura and her boyfriend! Cheers

School and Pre-Dublin

It's been a very busy and school-occupied week. I can't believe tomorrow is Friday already! Geez. Any way, as all of America suffered through the worse day of the year this last Sunday (time change day) I had to celebrate a little bit because I do not have to change my clock until March 30th. However, on Sunday I had no clue that the UK and for that matter...other parts of the world, didnt have a time change on the same day? Which is so weird to me. Well Sunday morning I woke up pretty early and looked at my computer and the time was automatically changed so I proceeded to change everything in my room that tells the time: two watches, a camera, and my ipod. After that I went around the flat and changed the all of those clocks ahead one hour. At about five o'clock at night I come back into the kitchen and the clock in there says 4:00pm, so without thinking I changed it back again and my flatmate's like what are you doing? I said "time change" and theyre like "no". So I learned something that day and set all of my clocks back. Im a bit relieved though because I dont want to wake up an hour early for another couple weeks. Oh and the time change in the US end in November and here it end in October. Well any way, Monday I had my last Children's literature class, but we still have to turn in an essay and then we have an exam in late May...but class is done. So for our last class we read the book "doing it" by melvin burgess. I...am virtually speechless about this. Because what the heck were we doing reading a book that as you may have guessed was about "doing it" and it was terribly explicit and blah! I think my professor went seriously nutzo because there is NO WAY that book could (or should!) be considered children's literature. So during class discussion our professor just randomly points to me and says in front of the whole class "I want to know what you think" I was almost speechless. Why on earth choose me to ask that question to? I just randomly rambled on about the most innocent thing I could possibly talk about, because otherwise I would have been discussing porno in front of 15 people. Not funny. Well the rest of my week has been pretty peachy. On Tuesday I went to The Mars Volta concert with my friend Matt. It was such a fun time. I normally have never liked this band and dont even listen to this type of music, but a lot of people I know do, so I said what the hey! And decided that I should give them a fair chance. The concert was great and a lot of fun, and such a good study/essay writing break. Yesterday I booked a one-way ticket for Spring Break (booking the return ticket tomorrow, dont worry). A few of my flatmates and I are going to London and flying to Krakow. We're going to hit up Hungary, Poland, Germany I think, which should be a lot of fun. Today I have been working my butt off trying to finishing writing my 2nd essay. Almost done, as of right now at this moment Im 66% done. Good. I leave for Dublin on Saturday morning around 4am and I'll be back on Tuesday around 7:30am. We dont really have any outstanding plans yet, but we're definitely visiting the Guinness brewery and partaking in St. Patty's Day festivities which will be a lot of fun. I think we're staying in a hostel? Or hotel? Either way we have to sneek in 5 people and Im one of those 5, so Im a little nervous about that! Ah, should work out fine though. No big deal. Well that's the update of my whole week practically! Got to get back to school! Boo!

Oh how the week rolls by

Two history essays are dominating my time and social life this week, hence why I havent updated my blog! In between procrastinating, staring blankly at my computer, and typing two really bullcrap-filled essays I have been pretty much in seclusion the past couple of days! I am being a loser for just this week and probably also will be monday tuesday wednesday of next week so I can finish my work and then I will be guilt free from school when I head to Dublin next weekend for a little bit of St. Patty's Celebration! Yippee! Thursday I had been working on my essays all night right up until two of my flatmates said to me "bayle we're leaving in five minutes to go out, come with us just do it." and so I did. I was impressed that I even got dressed that fast, but I was out the door and heading for a night on the town. We went to the student union and listened to one of our friends sing at open mic night, which was really chill. Hung out there for a bit and then we were going to go out clubbing, but my shoe was a thread away from breaking and the buckle was rubbing on my ankle every time I moved so I decided to call it a night and retired early. Yesterday it was only my flatmate from sweden jo and myself here. Linzi (scotland) went to visit her bf in isle of skye, aimee (netherlands) went home, Joyce (canada) was at rowing, and carrie (georgia) is in paris! how random to say that she's in paris. but any way so jo and I spent the night watching notting hill and eating food and doing homework. Carrie has my tweezers and Im in desparate need of them, but her room is locked because she's...in paris...so I'll just have to wait until she's back. She had to borrow mine because she lost hers in her room somewhere I think, but it makes me laugh because of how prepared I am sometimes. Like I was thinking about all the stuff i brought over from home that looking back seems absolutely ridiculous, but that's just how I am. For instance, I brought a kleenex box. I brought 6 pillow cases, 7 wash clothes, decorations for my walls, every toiletry on the face of the earth, and many more! When will I learn. But the good thing about that is, even though I had one hell of a time lugging my stupid suitcases around, once I was unpacked I was glad to have everything. I didnt need to go buying anything except food, which put my mind to ease. And the even better part of this story is that by the time I go home I will have an empty suitcase almost because all the stuff I brought will be used up! So maybe I am a good planner after all.....I dont think so. Any way, Im off to bed soon so I can rise and shine in the morning for my essays. cheerio!

Weekend Trip To A Haunted Castle!

As I said last time, I took the weekend off and went for a trip on sat-monday. We traveled up to the highlands and stayed in Carbisdale Castle, which used to be the Duchess of Sutherland's castle and is now a youth hostel. And it's supposed to be haunted which made it all the more fun/creepy! On Saturday we left around 10am and traveled for a bit before we stopped in a town called Pitlochry and shopped around for an hour. It was a really small, but cute town. I went to buy a Nessie Key Holder so I could tack it up on my wall and I tried paying with my debit but the lady told me I couldnt, So I said that's okay I'll come back later because I could go get cash. And she gave me the bitchest look and told me that she had already rang it up, and I said that's too bad because there's nothing I can do about it, I'll be back later. Well when I came back I half did it because I wanted to see if she would even sell me anything, and she acted like the nicest lady and was like...have a good day! So that was interesting. We arrived in the castle at 5pm and got our rooms and stuff then took a castle tour before lunch. I thought dinner was going to be scampy, but we were fed mountains of the most delicious food in the world. After dinner we went on a night hike outside to see the castle from far away. I just remember not being able to see anything and I had my eyes open really really wide and then someone would flash their camera and I was blinded for a bit. We tried to hunt some sheep that night, but we couldnt see any. Also the friends that I went with formed team names: lamb, mutton, peep, sheep, haggis, wool, fleece, ewe. I was ewe. Sunday we had another fantastic breakfast, lunch, and dinner...makes me hungry just thinking about it. The we went to Dunrobin Castle which was by far the most amazing castle I have ever seen. And the weather was great for the first part of the day, so it was even better. We explored the Dunrobin gardens and then went out by the sea. I collected a few rocks and some shells!! Of course. Monday was basically the same, but we stopped at a lot of historic/touristy places on the way home. We took photos with Nessie, saw some castles, and shopped around. This week Im completely secluding myself from anything that could possibly let me procrastinate because I have two 10 page papers to finish before I leave for Dublin in two weeks!!!!!!! okay I have to start that. Lata

How To Spend Wisely

Last night we went for a night on the town and for some dinner. I came back one of the fullest persons on the face of this earth and managed to only spend 3.19 pounds, pretty darn impressive. We went to wing night at the Sports Cafe and the deal was you could buy 20 wings for 2 pounds. That's obviously a large amount of food, so I split 10bbq/10hot wings with one of my roomies and we all split a side order of chips (fries). Yum. And that was where only 2.20 pounds disappeared to yesterday. It was a really fun hang out especially for so cheap. It's started a new tradition for us to go. The most embarrasing thing happened to me though. I was getting up out of the booth to let my friend out and I tripped over the leg of a chair and head planted myself into this guy sitting at a different table. Luckily I didnt fall flat out on the floor because someone I fell into caught me. Basically the whole restaurant was looking at me so I waved, smiled and sat my behind back down. Of course my friends just thought it was the funniest thing on the face of the earth, but man oh man I will try to be more careful next time. haha. So after the Sports Cafe the girls and I went to McDonalds for a Mcflurry. This was of course after half of us had eaten at least 10 wings and a plate of fries. We thought we werent going to get any healthier that night so may as well go all out. The guys stayed to play pool and then we parted. Turns out the Mcflurry was the most delicious part of my meal and I havent had ice cream now for what feels like months! So that is where .99 p of my money went and how youre able to have a great night and only spend 3.19 pds. So we were sitting in Mcdonalds, which by the way was one of the fanciest and nicest Mcdonalds I have ever seen in my life..., well then the boys walk by outside and see us and asked "did you not just eat wings?" so we felt like eating champions. We also decided to have a food crawl some night instead of a bar crawl. Sounds like fun. Hum. Oh ya also on our way home we stopped in a Fish & Chips place and asked them if they would fry a Mars Bars candy bar for us. They said no. But I have a book about Scotland that tells of the top 10 ways to increase your chances of a heart attack in Scotland and it says that if you go into any place and ask them to fry something, even something small like a skittle, they'll do it. I guess we'll just have to keep trying. Any way, Ive got some class to attend today then Im going shopping. Tonight after homework and a good exercise Im going to my friend Rhea's flat to have some of her homemade potatoe soup, which Ive heard is wonderful so Im pumped! Tomorrow Im going on a weekend trip through Monday!!!! Im so stoked and cannot wait!! Im going on a bus with my flatmates to Carbisdale Castle. It's suppose to be haunted and we're going to be spending the night! It's a trip sponsored by the University International Office and we're going for only 85 pds and that includes transportation, meals, entry fees, accomodation, etc. It's an amazing price and an opportunity that I just couldnt pass on. We're going to be taking pictures with Nessie, so hopefully I'll get a good picture of the Lochness monster to show everyone :) The castle is apparently four miles from any surrounding destination, kind of sets the scary/mysterious/haunted mood! We have forest and Castle floodlit walks planned and plenty of picture moments, so Ill have much to talk about when I return. You'll hear from me next either Monday night or sometime on Tuesday. Until then, cheerio!

A Nice and Sunny Day Outside

So of course the day that I choose to go to class and get my work done like a good student instead of going with everyone on the day trip to Arran it's brilliant and beautiful outside!! Oh Scotland and your unpredictable weather. Today I walked to the library that feels like a bazillion miles away and it took me about 30 minutes . On the way I saw the owner-guy from the youth hostel we stayed at and I nodded a hello to him. I was at the library to return a book and I looked at the online catalogue before hand just in case there was anything new I should check out. Well I wanted to check out some of the Harry Potter series for my children's literature essay, but online it said that I couldnt because they dont lend some books and the Harry Potter series was one of them. Well I brought them to the front desk and tried checking them out any way and they let me, so I dont know what that was all about. Right now Im drinking hot tea in my left hand and then cold peach tea in the other. I went to our school library today as well. And they have the most freaking ridiculous rules there and I really dont understand their logic. Okay. So for a lecture of about, oh i dont know, say 150 students the library has ONE book that you can only "check out" for 3 hours! And I have four essays to write for my four different classes not to mention reading for them too, so you'd imagine that Id have a lot of books from the library to make up for all that work. Well not exactly. Because today I went to check out a handful of books and the lady was like "sorry you already have 15 books checked out". I was like what the crap. So they really are afraid of people hoarding books. Dammit! I have to go back pretty soon and return a few books I dont need any more, I guess I dont need them any way. Fine. Then I'll be able to check out some others. Im trying to get out of class on Monday because the university has offered a weekend trip for the study abroad students from sat-mon. I emailed my prof for children's literature and said that I would write a "short paper" about what I wouldve talked about in discussion. Well see what he thinks about that. Water in Glasgow is very very good. Maybe Im just too used to icky Iowa City water, so Im grateful for a good tasting spring. Oh ya, I was sitting in class last week (british politics--on a scale of boringness it's about a 5.8 or so) and I was somehow able to take amazing notes, but I sat for 60 minutes and tallied every time our professor said the phrase "sorra kenna"). It's suppose to be the phrase "sorta kinda" but that's not how it sounds when he says it. Any way, ended up being exactly 135 times. Maybe it's similar to when people say "um or like" a lot. And that is how I entertain myself in British Politics. One of my friends told me the stop lights are really different here because yellow doesnt mean caution, it means get ready to go. It apparently turns yellow right before it turns green. Im not sure how true that is, but that's extra scary for us pedestrians is all I can say. I saw yougurt mold yesterday for the first time. I didnt really know it would do that, especially because it was only 4 days after the sell by date. Maybe it's extra fresh, no American preservatives. Dont worry though it wasnt my yougurt. I dont let food go bad because I eat it before it even has the chance. Pub night tonight? We'll see. Okay well off to the library again today! Cheers