Canadian Love, Haggis and Proof of Humans

Hello again!

So I'm already lying in this blog. I said I would post yesterday but I didn't. Oh well. I'm here now!

One thing I find difficult here is understanding the Glaswegian accent. Apparently, it's the thickest Scottish accent you can find. Didn't know that. Do now. When we're having group discussions in class, I find it really hard to understand what other students are saying. They slur words, talk fast and start every sentence with "Erm". I've been told that the American/Canadian accent is really easy to understand because we speak so clearly. Yay. I'm always getting mistaken for being American. It's actually quite hilarious to tell people that "actually, I'm Canadian". The immediately start apologizing like they've just slapped my child. I've experienced a lot of American hate down here. I don't think Europeans are "the land of the free's" biggest fans. In one of my tutorials (like labs at U of R), we were working on a case study about a Japanese business man coming to the USA to work. An Australian girl was giving her answers when she was asked who she would rather work with, the Japanese man or the American. Her answer was that she would rather work with the Japanese man because the American in the case study was "just your typical, lazy American". I had already spoken, so people knew my accent. Once she said that comment, people started to laugh nervously and look at me. I noticed this and said "Oh don't worry, I'm Canadian" and you could feel the tension woosh out of the room. One person actually said "Team Canada!", so you know. They've got my Canadian back.

I've been trying to watch as much of the Olympics as I can, but it's hard with the 7 hours time difference between here and Vancouver. I did stay up to watch the USA vs. Canada hockey game a few nights ago (BRUTS!). The main coverage of BBC has been curling. Anyone who knows me, knows how much I hate curling. But that's all they show here. I've been trying to explain how curling works to the American girl I live with, but my high school gym memory only goes so far. The best part of the curling coverage is when they show the BBC commentators. They just look bored out of their minds. Probably because Canada is dominating.

The rest of the week looks good for me. I joined the university club volleyball team and we have practice tonight. It's not the caliber I'm used to with U of R intramurals, but it's volleyball nonetheless. I have two classes tomorrow afternoon (War, Terrorism and Conflict and Tourist Behavior) and then no classes Friday! It's just like being in business at U of R. I wonder if that's some sort of unspoken rule of business schools everywhere...whatever, it's great! I'll probably try to get some work done on my essays this weekend, since next weekend I might be taking a little trip with two American girls I met. We're thinking Norway, Sweden, Ireland or Brussels. Wherever we go, I'll be sure to post pictures!!

Oh and Dad, I don't take pictures of people, I take pictures of places! I don't think Mike would appreciate me bringing my new camera out to the clubs and taking pictures haha. However, I'll try to get some pictures of actually humans to show that I'm semi-social. But here are some that my friend Sarah from Iowa took at Dumbarton castle:

Okay this is just me, but it's a good shot. I mean, come on.

Me, Stacy and Sarah at the top of Dumbarton Castle.

So yeah, there you go. Proof of human interaction! Suck it Megan.

OH MY GOD I almost forgot! I had HAGGIS last night. Yeah. And it's not that bad! It just tastes like ground beef with different spices. It has a weird texture and a rank aftertaste, but it's not horrible. Apparently I need to try deep-fried haggis, but I think I'll leave that up to Mike to try when he's here. Not a big fan of the deep fried foods.

Until next time!

A Picture Post

Hello everyone!

As promised, here are some pictures I took downtown. The city center is about a 2 minute walk from my dorm, which is awesome! I've counted about 5 different Starbucks locations, 3 Top Shops, 3 H&Ms, 1 Apple store....it's amazing. On top of the great shopping, there are some beautiful buildings.

This is the main street downtown, Buchanan Street.

Another shot of Buchanan Street. Sorry about the bluriness, shaky hands!

This is the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art. The lights are hung on either side. Walking through there is beautiful.

Front view of Glasgow Museum of Modern Art.

This is George Square. From what I've gathered, is it's a giant pedestrian block with a bunch of statues.

Another statue and building in George Square.

This past Sunday, I went on a trip to Dumbarton Castle, which was organized by the international students office. We took a 20 minute train ride just outside of Glasgow and then walked up 500-something steps to get to the top of the site. This was the castle where William Wallace a.k.a Braveheart was taken captive. The castle is now in ruins, but part of the wall is still standing. It was a beautiful view of the River Clyde from the top.

Bottom of the hill.

Starting to head up the stairs.

View of a mountain (not sure which one) with snow!

View from the top of the hill

Yeah, expect more of these. I'm going to attempt to take one every site I go to. PS: Look at that vertical!

Some of the remaining structure.

This is apparently the house where William Wallace was held.

I've booked a spot on the international students trip to Caribisdale Castle from March 12th-14th. We will be staying in the castle and take walks around the grounds. The description, according to the brochure I was given:

"This unique, statue-filled castle hostel boasts a commanding position overlooking the Kyle of Sutherland. The castle has its own statue gallery, art collection and ghost!" (Hopefully not like Fort San).

Other than that, I plan on taking a weekend trip to Edinburgh soon. I have 3 essays due the same week Mike is coming, so I'm going to be devoting a lot of time to get those done before he gets here. However, I think the standard for writing essays here is very low compared to U of R. In my class today, my teacher said that she wanted us to "use journals as our references instead of wikipedia and google search results since we are now 3rd year business students". I've never used wikipedia as a reference and have been using journals for my entire university career. The papers are only 1500-2000 words each, which is nothing. Another criteria was to use headings and the students in the class flipped out because they didn't know how to use headings in a paper....I think I'll be fine.

Future trips: Going to London a few times to visit Uncle Chris and Aunt Karen, visiting family in Ireland, exploring the rest of the UK and hopefully France, Spain, Brussels, and possibly Italy? We'll see how far my money goes. I want to backpack during spring break (beginning of April) but I still have to plan out exactly where.

I'll try to post at least 3 times a week, but don't hold me to it! I'll probably post again tomorrow, since I started this a month into my trip. Hopefully I'll have more pictures soon!

Late to the Party...

Hello all,

So I'm jumping on this bandwagon they call "blogging" a little late into my exchange, but better late than never! I'm starting this in hopes that it will be easier to update a mass amount of people than individual Facebook messages. We'll see how it goes.

A quick rundown of what I've been up to for the past 3 weeks or so to get you caught up. My grand european adventure started with me missing my plane to Glasgow from London because of ludicrous security measures at Heathrow. Four dull layover hours later, I was off to Glasgow on a tiny charter plane that clearly was not made for people over 5'0". I was so excited to land in Glasgow, seeing how my travel time was up to 24+ hours, only to find that my luggage did not make it. No surprise there. I'm pretty sure the airlines are out to get me, since on almost every plane trip over 8 hours my luggage ends up lost. After checking with lost luggage, I headed to my dorm where I proceeded to sleep for about 16 hours. Long story short, I got my luggage the next day and all was well.

Since then, it's been a flurry of classes, meeting new people, and drinks. They are not kidding when they say that the Scottish are the heaviest drinkers. They give Canadians a run for their money. I've managed to make my way to various bars, pubs, and clubs in Glasgow while holding my own against Scottish drinkers. Woot woot.

The greatest disappointment of my trip so far has been that my laptop hard drive decided to give up. Thank God there's an Apple store within about a 5 minute walk of campus AND they fixed everything for free! New hard drive, casing and upgraded to the new operating system. However, I now am missing a ton of applications that requires CD installation. But I do have an application for uploading pictures off my camera! I will post some of my shots tomorrow, since quite frankly, I'm all blogged out.

Next time on my blog:

-A rundown of my trip to Dunbarton Castle (a.k.a. where William Wallace/Braveheart was held captive), complete with pictures.

-Life (and pictures) in and around Glasgow

-Being Canadian...yes I've gotten the "you're so polite, you must be from Canada"

PS: Here's a look at what my dorm looks like. Tiny, tiny room, in a flat shared with 7 other people.

View from my room during the day

View from my room when it snowed. People here went CRAZY over the snow. About 300 people were outside sledding. They've clearly never been to Canada.

Part of my room. That big blue safe-looking thing is my wardrobe.

Where I spend many studious hours...

Nice color palette, right?