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

The Weekend

Thank goodness for the weekends! I get to stay up at night and wake up whenever (which is still early cause I hate sleeping too late!) Friday I stayed in and did lots of homework, but then got too bored of that and so to procrastinate I went to the movies with Jo and Aimee. We saw Juno and it was actually pretty funny. The storyline isnt spectacular, but so many lines in that movie are quotable! Any way. A couple of people went out Friday night but I think I was starting to develop a cold (and indeed I was). I stayed in after the movie and started to just look at my homework hoping it would complete itself. I have 4 papers due in less than a month, so that's a paper a week. Which isnt too bad, but Im not a do-it-ahead of time type of student. I dont know how many times Ive said this but I just dont understand the weather here. It'll be sunny for like 15 minutes and then next you look out the window and it's pouring down rain, but then you can still see sunshine! Ahh. Good ol' Scotland. On Saturday afternoon some friends came over which was a ton of fun because we made crepes. Surprisingly I found the receipe and it turned out pretty dang tasty. And I even cooked a few myself! We had most of the ingredients to make the crepes here, but our very very nice friend paul went out and bought raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, bananas, tiramisu and vanilla ice cream, whip cream, and chocolate syrup. So we had everything under the sun to stuff our crepes with. It was one of the best lunches I've ever had. After our brunch-lunch I sat down and started writing one of my papers (big step, whoa!)and by nighttime I had written an ENTIRE paragraph. I calculated how far I am, and im 4.73% done. I have to write 3000 words, you do the math. Saturday night Carrie and Aimee and myself went next door to another flat and we attended an Abc party (anything but clothes). We sported trash bags. Carrie had vocab cards all over her trash bag, Aimee made hers into a halter dress, and I twisted the front of mine into a little ball and put a belt on. It was nice because I didnt have to worry about getting spilled on because I was repellent. And at the end of the night I came home and just threw my outfit away! How wonderful that I dont have to clean it! Today I was going to go to the library, the one that's kind of far away, but it's not open. So I'll save that for Tuesday. I think I will try and progress my paper past the two-pager stage today. Cross my fingers! haha. Okay. Well that's all of my weekend and fun times thus far. Got to get going on my hw. Ta-ta

I Almost Forgot!

Along with my long blog below from today (see it) I forgot to tell everyone about my great happenings/luck this weekend. I was skimming tickets online to go to Dublin during St. Patty's Day on Sunday. I wasn't finding anything special and I was just about ready to buy a round trip ticket for 41 pounds, not so bad....but not the best. For some reason I decided to wait and look at tickets later on. Well I came back to searching online at night and what did I find and purchase?!?! Round trip ticket to Dublin on Sat. March 15th-Tuesday March 18th for .02 pence. With taxes it ended up being around 16 pounds. What a life saver. So that made my day! And I really can't wait to go!! Saturday and Sunday night we're planning on staying in a hostel and then Monday night Im sleeping in the airport because I have a really early flight! Seriously it's going to be the coolest. Im pumped. Lyric and I are trying to figure out where we want to go when she comes to visit. We're definitely hopefully going to the following: Sweden, Holland, Germany, France. But I'd like to add in a little bit of London and Venice on the side. Maybe another weekend trip or something. Any way. I almost forgot to tell that little bit of happiness. Next time I promise to talk about my first day here. (maybe on the 25th since that's officially one month). Cheers

Long Time, No Blog

I have been a busy busy bee this last week and haven't kept up on my blogging very well!! So that can be a good thing though, because it means this one will be extra extra long and juicy to make up for time lost. Hum. I have to think all the way back to last weekend and my adventures. I'm sure all I did over the weekend was homework and hang out, nothing so spectacular. Monday I had a busy day of class, then aerobics and some running, showered, and then I went out to eat with 15 of our friends at the Sports Cafe. It was so much fun, but really weird because there were American sports like football and olympic swimming (usa team) and just really out of place things for decoration. Tuesday I had basically the same beginning of the day routine with class, then combat/tae-bo exercise class to loosen my aggression (haha just kidding. but it was fun!), actually I have more to say about that and then I'll continue. This was the first time I went to Combat and it's basically a class where you punch and kick at air to some music. But the instructor is seriously the coolest guy in the world. Not only is he super super fit, and yes he is one of "those guys" who wears a super super tight shirt to show it off, but I didnt mind. Any way, he has this whole class action packed down to a musical routine. He sings along, he dances a bit, and he gets right up in your face and acts like you punched him. Im always on board for a little bit of entertainment while I workout and that was right up my alley. So Tuesday night then a couple of my friends (Carrie, Rhea, Me, Paul, and Jayden) went to this pub called "The Box" because it was open mic night and we had a friend who told us he was going to sing and play the guitar. Well it turns out that he was off at a different pub that night, and so we decided to stay and listen to a band and then all of the different people who went up for open mic. For next Tuesday we're going again because Jayden said he'd do a little gig or something. We'd all sing along too. Might be terrible, but fun, right?! So along with just hanging out Tuesday night, we decided to plan a trip for Wednesday to Loch Lomund in the town of Arrochar or Cambelltown, I dont know which one really. Then come's along my Wednesday and I found myself waking up at 7:30 packing a lunch and going over to Paul's and he made us all breakfast and then we got on a bus at 9:00 and we were off on our way. It took and hour to get to the town and we spent another 5 hours hiking and mountain climbing. It was definitely one of the most physically challenging/exciting things I have ever done in my life. When I went to Mexico in high school and we climbed pyramids, it just didn't compare to this. Because on pyramids you have nice and neat little steps that if you just keep climbing you'll eventually reach a leveled top. But with mountain-hills there are about one million ways to climb up, nothing is level, there's ice and snow or rain and water trails all over. It's unpredictable! So we ended up making it to about the kinda top as far as we could tell with clouds in the way. Weather started to get pretty bad the more we kept climbing higher. It was all the sudden cold and my hands were freezing and soaking from grabbing onto rocks and snow and whatever else I found in nature to keep my grip. Plus it got pretty darn windy and it was foggy so when we took pictures at the top you couldn't see that we were even as high up as we were. Still just being outside and doing something productive with my friends felt amazing. When we reached the bottom, (we took a much easier path down instead of cutting through the forest and waterfally area like on the way up...detailed more in some pictures on fb) we all just took a little break and sat down for a bit. I packed two pb&j's and some granola and peanut butter puffs. Also, we kept taking random picture breaks and pulled out some malteasers to eat, which are like chocolate whoppers. It was a really funny image to be out in the wilderness and hiking and doing all this nature stuff and to just stop and whip out some chocolate. haha. Any way, so after the hiking-climbing portion of our day was over we hung out at a pub and I drank a really expensive 4oz hot chocolate, but it was definitely needed. Then we hung out in the pub for a couple of hours still and just rested and drank some tea/beer/and ate fries with malt vinegar and granola bars. The bus came to pick us up around 8pm and we headed back. I was too tired out to go for pub night, plus I had just been at the pub for a few hours so I tuckered home and cleaned my room and ate a lot of warm food and then went to bed early for once! Today I woke up refreshed and am now bound and determined to start my end of term essays for History of Scottish Society and Children's literature. Girls night tonight, which means we stay in and watch movies. It's interesting to say "girls night out" when I really mean "in". I need to go through the pain of doing laundry again today. Plus I need to wash my dirt covered and soggy new balence shoes. I've got a lot of "to do's" and chores/errands on my list today! It's almost been one month since I've arrived in Glasgow and time is moving too too too fast!!

Valentine's and TGIF

Today is finally the weekend and I am celebrating being free from school! Valentine's Day was a blast. I ended up doing nothing glamorous, romantic, or with the opposite sex, but I did manage to have a spectacular time with my girlfriends. We pretty much hung out in our pj's, ate chocolate cake and had some wine with our gossip. When I woke up that morning I knew it was going to be a fantastic day or at least I just really hoped it would be, cause it's Valentine's! I got a package the size of a printer box delivered to my door at 8:50am from my mamma. And it was filled with goodies gallor like some goldfish, granola bars, cream of wheat, jambalaya, potatoe packets, water mixes, chocolate, and socks, etc etc!!!!! Simply the best. Oh! I cooked yesterday afternoon too! My mom and gma gave me a stew receipe and said it was easy enough for me and so I decided to go shopping and cook some. I ended up having to go to the butchers to get my meat. I went in and there were a couple of old guys who acted like they had never seen a young girl in a butchers before. And they asked me if I had a Valentine yet. I said no and they laughed. They asked me where I was from. I said Im from Iowa in the U.S. of A and they laughed again. Then I told the guy behind the counter what I was cooking and he recommended shoulder steak so I went ahead and took that recommendation. He asked how many people I was cooking for, and originally I was just going to make a really tiny batch for a tester, but I didnt want to say "just one" because then I would sound sad and lonely on Valentine's and I just couldnt imagine what theyd say to that. SO, then I said two. I went to pay with my debit card and the guy's like, "oh sorry we dont have a card swiper, but dont worry just take your meat and stop back in whenever youre around this neighborhood." I was shocked and a little taken aback by this kind offer!!! But I declined and said I needed to go grocery shopping any way and I would be back in a little bit to pay. When I left the butchers the second time the guys said, "Cheers, we'll see you when you come back again!" And I thought to myself "Why yes you will because this place is great and you are very kind". Everything turned out really really well. It was quite the task searching for all the ingredients I needed though. I couldnt find tomatoe juice at all, so I ended up using tomatoe soup and it made my delicious stew a little bit sugary instead of spicy. But no harm done. And I cant find White Caro Syrup any where so I cant make some yummy fudge! Im thinking about ordering it online or something as a last resort! Any who, tonight Im going on a group date for my friend Katie. She has a possible love interest who would like to hang as a group before he asks her on a one-on-one date. I know this much information because Ive been talking with them separately and would like to give myself credit for arranging this meeting tonight. It wasnt an entirely selfless motive though, I think karma will have it's way and introduce me to a nice lad in return for my mad match making skillz. We'll just have to see!! Well I need to get ready. For next time, I will remember to talk about my first day here! It's an important and just chaotic story. Cheers!

Time of My LIFE

So. I am in love. It's literally as simple as that. I think the best way for you to get a glimpse of how Im feeling is to go with me through today's events. Let me break it down for you. First I woke up in a very comfy warm slightly intoxicated ball under my cave of blankets. I got ready and made it to class on time, unlike SOMEONE I KNOW!!! Travel mate. I took my Evian water bottle with me, to start the detoxification process. Which I'm not making that up to be funny, on the bottle it literally gave me that piece of advice. It says "Detox with Evian!" and I really hope that means "to get better from the alcohol that is still rapidly making its way through your blood stream" and not just to drink water for healthy reasons. Otherwise Im picking up on a little much of the Pub culture here. I had a wonderful classtime today because it was my American Politics lecture. Not only does my professor both look and sound like Jude Law, but he is SO funny. He has an attention deficit disorder I think, which makes class all the more exciting! Today he was talking about the polling results in Houstan when he suddenly broke off and told the class this story: "When you go to the states, make sure you have comprehensive medical insurance, enough to cover major injuries. I once had a friend who was riding her motorcycle and enjoying the scenery when she rode off a cliff. She only fell six feet and lived, but she now owes 52,000 dollars." That was a very intense/graphic story for me at 10 in the morning. After class I came home and I considered working out. Did not. I considered reading for class. Did not. So I did the next best thing and went exploring. Today I got to see the Glasgow Cathedral (which is right outside my bedroom window), St. Mungo's Museum of Religious Life and Art, and the Glasgow Necropolis!! Look at my picts on fb, theyre absolutely fantastic. I felt very explorational and artistic. The Necropolis was a maze to get around. It's centered on a really big hill that just keeps winding and winding around until you reach the top and can see quite aways off through Glasgow city center. Any way, at one point I was on a path and decided to turn and go left because that hill was going up. I walked up the hill for about two minutes and I was somehow winding back down, which was really weird and mind boggling. It turns out I needed to take the other path that was leading down, to get up. New concept. At one point I just got off the path and started climbing the hill. But I know that must have been a sight. Here I am in the middle of a great and ancient cementary climbing up the side of this mountain right by people's graves. Made it to the top though. After the Necropolis I wondered into the St. Mungo's Museum of Religious Life and Art. It was a little scandelous for me! But it was interesting to see traditions and so forth of other cultures. Plus I took a really funny picture of a smiling mummy for my mummy! I came home after my walking and sight seeing adventure all prepared to take a nice long nap. However, as soon as I closed my little eyes the phone rang and Katie and I decided to go expore this thing I like to call shopping. I found and purchased a dress for one pound, thats thrifty. Got some groceries. Cooked a potatoe in the microwave. Made some hot chocolate. Ate a little honey by the tablespoon. Well! That pretty much concludes my wonderful day of exploring and good fun. I will not be making an appearance at international pub night this evening! Sad but Wise. Im restoring my energy for Valentines Day tomorrow and a group date (yea!!!) on Friday. Last night two of my flatmates, Carrie and Aimee, and myself went to a friend's birthday party and then to the Union for a little dance dance celebration. All in all, it was a good night. Im in love with a mountain man, think "men in trees" (show) like. It's all been busy busy busy, so hopefully it'll continue! Happy Valentines Day tomorrow!!!!

Monday Monday

Had two really great Childrens Literature classes today. Also had CC practice, but I went to aerobics again before hand and now I will hurt terribly! But it's a good hurt! AND, our xc coach lady did both today, so she's fifty and Im twenty. I can do that if she can? Any who, Sunday I had a lazy day and just sat in and read for Childrens Literature and American Politics! Exciting to hear and be updated about, I know. Tomorrow gets better though, because it's what I like to call...Traveling Tuesday. And I will walk around Glasgow shopping and sight-seeing again. Last week since I went North aways to the Mitchell Library and then to Sauchiehall (Suc-kee-hall) Street shopping, I think tomorrow I'll head what I think is the west direction to Argyle Street. Who knows. I should probably go the library again to hoard/stock up on books. As you can see nothing too much has happened in the last few days. I will report in a day or so on how the week progresses. Hopefully with more events on my schedule. Bye bye

Domino Effect

Yesterday was my first laundry day since Ive gotten here! ICK. My room was getting a little bit messy. Earlier yesterday I went to Aldi's and spent about five minutes just starring at the detergent aisle. I finally picked out liquid detergent and fabric conditioner. I have never even used fabric conditioner, but I got some any way. So after classes were over I took all my clothes down to do laundry. The domino effect began. I apparently was not supposed to put the fabric conditioner in the washer that I used. There are only two designated washers that allow that stuff. My clothes were linty. The I ran out of acceptable coinage to put in the washer and used a two pound coin, but it only counted as one pound (bye bye two dollars). Then when washing was done I put my clothes in the dryer and had the perfect amount of acceptable change left. Everything was good until I accidentally pressed the button for the dryer below mine and gave them an extra 30 minutes. I hope they were watching their clothes because it was set to be in for 78 minutes. haha! whoops! And mine of course had zero. So I went next door to get more change from the Village Office and the lady said she doesnt give change. Gah. I then decided to run across the street to the bookstore and buy something cheap. Well the cheapest thing in the bookstore was a pack of gum, but we all know that I dont chew gum until Easter. So I bought a postcard instead. Went back and put my clothes in the dryer, took them out 30 minutes later. Everything from my two loads of laundry were still soaking and I had absolutely no more change!!! If you can believe it my room is even more of a mess and I have sweaters hanging in my window, socks on my floor, and pants drapping off of my bookshelf. After laundry was done one of my flatmates asked if I wanted to go to the gym. I said sure, I needed to work off some of that frustration. Went to look at my IPOD and it wasnt charged at all because the night before I left it on instead of turning it off. Poo. Today my flatmates Jo and I went to Weekend Wakeup at the gym. My muscles hurt a little bit! Today is also Jo's birthday so we're all cooking something tonight and then going to the movies. After that a few of us are going over to our new found french friends place and having a little get together. On Thursday night we went to the Ceilidh, which was soososos much fun. I felt like it was straight out of a Jane Austen movie, like Pride and Prejudice, where everyone dances together doing waltz(s) and stuff. It was a great experience of Scottish culture. And there were men in kilts! Cant beat that. Well I need to get back to reading my novel for next week's class! Toodles

fat tuesday, pub night, & Ceilidh

So where was it that I left off? Classes, I think. Well classes are going tough and strong so far, I am really proud and appreciative of ISIS/the registration process at Iowa now. I just found out today that I have a tutorial (discussion) every other week for American Politics that collides with my Thursday History of Scottish Society lecture. And I will now have to skip that lecture every other week. That will be an adventure. Today I went to the bookstore to buy the rest of my books for history and they didnt have any because theyre just "recommended texts". We have no course textbooks, we get to choose what to read off of a list of about 5 or so books. Weird way to learn. I walked thirty minutes away to the Mitchell Library to check out a book for children's literature on Tuesday (it was checked out at our library). I refuse to buy a children's book that costs 10 pounds (aka 21 bucks) just to read it once and talk about it for an hour! I saved money and got in a good walk! So Im trying to be thrifty. For American Politics there are books on "short loan" at the library, and we have to read them for class. With short loan you can only read it at the library for 3hrs or overnight. Im not camping out there first off. Second, how are three books going to be available for a lecture class of 150 students, or so?! Weird learning concept indeed! But I may camp out there this weekend to catch up on some reading and hoard some of those stinking books in a corner to myself. Maybe I'll hide them. Yesterday was our second pub night. We went to a club called Yates, it was expensive! But it was just as fun as last time. We got to talk to our newly acquainted friends again, made some hanging out plans, and stuff like that, so that was a lot of fun. I also had aerobics again yesterday!! It was intense because Wednesday's instructor is the Cross country coach. And I tell you, she is probably in her late 50's and has the body/mentality of a 25 year old. Im very impressed! For today/tonight there is a lot on my agenda. I have some reading to do (Goodnight Mister Tom for childrens lit :) ) and I might go to Combat or step class, and then there's Ceilidh! Which Ive heard is really cool. It's slogan is "come along for a swig 'n' jig, it's like a traditional Gaelic Scottish social dance. Oh and I have to go grocery shopping today too! I forgot to talk about Fat Tuesday. I didnt really do anything exciting, just hung out and that sort of thing. But I made of list of things I could potentially give up in celebration of Lent!! Im not Catholic, but I like to have that challenge. Last year I gave up gum and it was a success. There was one time I almost didnt make it though. I was at blockbuster and got a 25 cent bubble gumball out of a machine and had it in my hand and everything. I just starred at it and then remembered that I couldnt eat it and so I gave it to kayla. Any who, so this year I decided to give up cereal, chocolate, gum, and candy. But I went grocery shopping on Tuesday and accidentally had to buy cheerios and hot chocolate. At first I didnt know if hot chocolate counted, but Ive been told it does. So now Im not eating gum and candy. Which will be very difficult since I have a drawer full right next to me. Well that's all for today. Id better get to reading!!! Fun times tonight and I'll keep you all informed :) cheers

A Few New Things

Today was, like most days, a big and exciting day. I had four classes--two lectures and then two seminars of Childrens' Literature and Detective Fiction. It was a tough decision but I ended up parting from my Detective Fiction class. I read the book we were supposed to read for today and did all that, but when I got there it wasnt just about the solving crimes, mystery, who-dun-it scenerio, OH NO! It was about the feminist approach to a woman's voice in crime. And we are supposed to psychoanalyze what it really means for woman to have this type of occupation blah blah blah. BORE-ing. I spelled that wrong for emphasis. Any way, it just didn't speak to me the right way and the professor lectured like a junior high student reading nervously off a handout that each of us had (and could therefore read ourselves...) Boring. So I opted for American Politics. I hope I wasnt too hard on Detective Fiction though! It just wasnt for me. Yes. But Childrens' Literature was really educational/fun we discussed The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Which as I said before is always right up my alley. I know American Politics is cheating a little bit, but I dont expect it to be easier than any other class. I mean how much do I REALLY really know any way. Let's just say I could stand to learn a wee bit. So. Today I bought a gym pass and went to aerobics class with two of my flatmates, which was really fun/intense. I also joined the Cross Country team and had my first practice an hour after aerobics. I will feel that one tomorrow! On tuesday aka tomorrow I only have one lecture in the morning so Im going to run a few errands and go shopping! No practice tomorrow, but Im going to more fitness classes at the gym (Ive finally found something to occupy my loads of free time!) I think I might try and go to bed before midnight tonight. I have a hard time falling asleep because of the time change, but luckily and for whatever weird reason I can wake up at 7 in the morning like it's no big deal. I dont know how that worked itself out, but I like it. Okay that's all for today! cheers

The Bday Celebration

Finally it's the weekend! Couldn't be happier! I'll recap my Friday, had one lecture which was really funny. My professor is Scottish, but he said the phrase "dude jesus loves you!" in an American voice. Dont ask why, it was just a part of lecture I guess. But it was funny. So then I went grocery shopping with the girls at Aldi's, out of all the places you wouldnt expect to find here, right?! But it was extremely and amazingly cheap and I walked away with some good eats. Let's see, last night was Katie's 21st bday and we went out to a pub called Firewater. Met a lot more people from her building 16 and that was cool. I think I like hanging out at pubs a lot more than going to a fancy and expensive club. I just love how those words rhyme too, pub club. Pubs tend to be a lot more chill and easier to talk and just an all around better place to enjoy the night. (in my opinion!) The club scene hasnt been all that impressive so far. People dress up for their lives! Ive literally seen the worst and fanciest things and that scares me. But at least they have standards. I hear that Static in Des Moines (not that Ive been there) lets people who are wearing sneakers and white beaters in. So Scotland has upgraded. Last night before we went out we had to sign an electronic guestlist just to be able to get in to the club. Apparently we were supposed to print that off, did not know that. But I ended up getting in by tagging along really fast, but then I left with my friend Laura because it was 10pounds (aka 20 bucks) and I wasnt down with that. It was so crazy though, they had about two levels before you even got into the club and then you had to see about 5 people before you could enter the actually club club music place. So I ditched out and went back to my casa early (apparently 1am is early?!) Today I woke up and it was snowing outside, that was a first since I've been here. Luckily it was all melting once it touched down. That's the thing about weather here, it's really tricky! It changes literally every minute and it's not the same 1 block down the road. Two days ago during the afternoon it was both literally sunny and raining and sleeting at the same time! What a combination the weather throws at you! Yesterday it didnt rain at all, which also was a first. But today has more than made up for that. I think I made a wise investment with my Columbia jacket, it wind and water proof and not overly hot, so Im protected! So like I said earlier, I went to the grocery store yesterday and it took about five minutes for the check out lady to explain to me the "aldi's system". first I couldnt understand her because she was talking so freaking fast and then I just didnt understand what she was saying. They dont have any plastic bags there at all, you have to buy big baggies. which btw, is such a great idea for stores who really do want to cut down on their plastic use. But I just happened to have my backpack and shoved everything in there for the walk home; which is so funny because I felt like I was stealing. Yep. Today's definitely a homework day. I have to read two novels for class on monday. For Children's Literature I read The Chronicles of Narnia in one day (it was so good!) and then today Im trying to finish this book for Detective Fiction called An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (boring but okay). I think Im really going to like the Children's Lit class because isnt that all I do in my free time any way? Yes I read kid books, partially because I like them and partially they were forced upon me at the daycare. We were going to go out tonight, but what a streak that would be. Plus tomorrow's the superbowl. But tonight we were supposed to go to the Student Union and there's this event that happens once a month and you go and wear headphones, pick a live dj to listen to, and dance with headphones on. Apparently when you take them off it's completely silence! But our new found french friends are having a party too. So who knows what type of adventures we'll be having tonight. Tomorrow Im going to a Superbowl Party which is live on the BBC for the first time ever! But at this party the hosts are making haggis and then after we all try it theyll tell us whats in it. which I already kinda know, but am trying not to picture/think about. Any way, that's all I have and it's probably a lot more than usual because Im procrastinating homework!!!!!! Okay Til Next Time

Pub Night and SO Much More

Yesterday was a big day! We had our first international student pub night, which was such a blast. It was hosted at this pub called The Counting House and there were lots and lots of people! I was able to publicly purchase my own alcoholic drink! Or three! haha. So that was an exciting first for me. After about fifteen minutes at the pub we ended up chatting and hangin out with these really cool and funny french students here from paris. Surprisingly my elementary french actually made for good conversation. I nicknamed three people: pamplemousse (grapefruit), haricot vert (green bean), dinde (turkey), and yaourt (yougurt). And I was called la peinture. like my last name. I had a bartender's number written on my hand by the end of the night, so that was also memorable. I think we even took a picture of that one, just for keepsake, or in cased it smudged...Hum, I'm finding it really hard to sum up how cool and exciting last night was. You'll just have to check out the pictures on fb! Let's see, after the pub closed at 12 Katie and I wandered to the clubs because we could get in for free (so why not!). but we tried a really gross drink called stella's and it tasted like bad breath smells. and it was a very cave-like place so we decided to say goodbye to our new found french friends and hit the road. The walk home was terrible! There were hurricane strength winds and it was literally blowing us up the stairs and to our dorm. But all in all a good night! Today I went to my first two classes, which were fast paced because there was a lot of material being covered, but I have to tell you it was the slowest two hours of my life because I was running out the door this morning and I missed my most important and favorite meal of the day. Breakfast. So. I stocked up on cadbury chocolate and caramel from the pound store because they didnt have granola bars. it's delicious! One thing that I find extremely funny is the fact that every water bottle Ive bought says "detox with evian" or "detox with...whatever name brand" but it just proves how bad of pub culture their really is here. which I guess I think is funny? any way. One class tomorrow, then we're all celebrating Katie's birthday!!!!!

Making My Way Around Town

So I am in LOVE with my room and my flatmates. I live with 5 other girls and we all have our own rooms, but we share a suite and it's lovely. We've actually got quite the variety of people from all over the world living here. I'll list where they're from: Scotland (linz), Sweden (jo), Canada (joyce), Geogia (Carrie), and the Netherlands (Amy), and me! Tonite jo cooked for us and we all had dinner together along with wine and cheeze! Tomorrow I have my second international student meeting and the guy who talks at this one gets all of the study-abroad students together every wednesday for pub night. Not sure which one we're going to tomorrow, i'll have to blog about that one though. Today a couple of us went shopping and it was amazing. People here from the ages of 3 to 80 are fashionable, it's SO intense. But I made a few good purchases to start me on my way. I still don't have AIM, but the library told me that MSN works for sure. So if I have to, we'll see. Still havent been able to go to class, because I don't technically have any yet. They say and repeat to all of the study abroad students that moving in, registering, and going to class all works out in time. I'm really banking on that statement. Im all moved in and ready to start filling my free time with school? Well at least something that makes me feel educationally productive. Oh! I learned today. I made a PB&J for breakfast this morning and one of my flatmates said that it was the weirdest thing ever to mix peanut butter and jelly! She said it must be an American thing! But she had heard of hazelnut nutella and cheeze. Ick! How about that combo. And I'm finding out that even though I'm far away from home, it's still a very small world and there are many things that I have in common with almost every person I've met. So all in all, it's been a LONG but exciting, interesting, funny first couple of days here.

OUT of the hostel!!

so I don't think I had enough internet time at the library on saturday to talk about how crazy/creepy/scary our hostel was. Good news: we found showers there though so that was a blessing in a dirty/broken/moldey disguise. And the owner guy only charged us £11 (aka $23.50) for three nights, instead of £11 each night. so that was nice. last night he invited us three girls (laura, katie, and myself) down for a glass of italian wine. we said maybe and ended up being creeped out and too busy to go for it. Well the fun part of our weekend adventures has been walking literally for 8 hours around the town. We wandered over to University of Glasgow and tried to get in because it's gated, and this old lady came up to us and said "I'll go ahead of you and if I get kicked out you'll know" and then we got in. but it was funny because we asked her if she was, you know, just out for an afternoon stroll or something and she said no, she was looking for the toilets! haha. good times. We also ventured over to the Kelvingrove art gallery/museum which was really really cool not to mention free. Lots of good things to look at and take pictures of. Today we moved out of our scary hostel to the dorm life at Strathclyde and it's okay so far. It's been a difficult and LONG day running back and forth everywhere trying to get things sorted out. and lugging my 100lb luggage everywhere has given me gross bruises on the back of my calves! I'll be posted pictures of that! And Im of course on the top floor of our dorm. no elevators. so im getting in shape to say the least. we're about to go shopping for things like an ethernet cord, towels, converters, and the like. ahh! breathe~! any way, I guarantee there are many more adventures to come tonight! So stay tuned! Cheers!

Here

I'm here finally at 3:30pm Friday, which means Ive been up for a straight 25.5 hours! I made quite the sight carrying so much luggage, one thing learned: pack lighter. There have been many many happenings so far! To say them in sum--missed bus stop to youth hostel & told the bus driver so he literally stopped the bus and we (laura & I) got out on the side of the street! Keyboards are different. Met a four year old girl on the plane who told me her doll's name was fairytale and then she wanted to know if I needed to hold hands! Hum, oh yeah, our hostel doesnt come with a shower so I will maybe try some other method of making myself clean in the next 4 days. People are quite fashionable here which makes me feel FAR from home! just kidding, I was mainly just talking about myself being unfashionable. I need to brush my teeth. I watched three movies on the plane: atonement, bourne supremacy, and into the wild. I am really happy at the moment because I looked in my carry on and there was a giant rice cripie treat waiting for me. I got a library card within the first hour I was here and I dont even have an address yet. one very friendly man collecting his suitcases at the airport kept trying to converse with me but i kept saying "what?" because he was talking too fast and in foreign tongue. I cant believe Im here and it still feels surreal, but I think I'll feel more at home when I actually have a place to live with a shower and single bedroom! Alright, well I need to walk back and get a little shut eye. Fun times!

Leaving Day

I'm all packed and ready to go (or as ready as I can be!). Being at the airport by myself is a little frightening, but hopefully I'll make a flight buddy or something. With everything packed I have two big suitcases, my back-pack and my laptop.. which all added together probably weighs more than I do. But I'll manage I hope! Or at least make for a funny sight. I leave from Des Moines to Chicago, Chicago to Manchester, Manchester to Glasgow. The plane from here leaves around 3:30pm our time and I will arrive in Glasgow around 12:30 pm their time on Friday. I have a feeling I'm gonna be tired! There have been several questions to me about where my animals are staying when I'm gone. Guin-Guin the guinea pig is with Lyric and Tuffy the fish is here at home! If I could take both of them I would! :( sad. Any way on a happier note, I'm going to leave for the airport in a while, so I better make sure everything's good to go! BYE!

Getting Ready To Leave

Count down = 20 days! It's very surreal to know that in less than one month I will be leaving the country and studying abroad for half a year! BUT, some things have been on my mind every day. Like packing, for instance. Right now I cannot imagine being fully packed and ready to go. If you've ever been on a trip with me, no matter how short the amount of time spent there, no matter how trivial the occasion, I will try and pack most of the contents of my bedroom. I have to say that though this upcoming trip feels so far away I am nervous and trying to think ahead about all that I can. I'm absolutely cannot live on three jeans, four shirts, and a bath towel (well maybe I could, but still!). So I've got to be prepared. I've started making a list of everything I should definitely pack, but at the very bottom of my list there are the dumbest things that I would never need. I like to look around my room and imagine myself starting to pack and the same thing happens: I find clothes that I "might" wear, I see pictures that I "could" hang up on my wall, etc etc. I'm just an overpacker I think. Oh well! There are still quite a bit of technical and important issues that I'm left in the dust on right now too. Like my place of residence hasn't been mailed to me yet. HUM. Where shall I live?! No I'm kidding, sort of. I know where I'll be living I just don't know my exact room yet... I don't register for classes until the first day of school. The list goes on and on! Should be fun! Alright, well I will for sure keep everyone up to date on all the going-ons before my flight!