Friday, February 26, 2010

Go-Karting!

Wednesday night me and the girls took a cab to a little bar called "Hummingbird." It was so nasty out from the all-day snowing we had. Here, instead of the snow just laying on the ground..it just turns into disgusting slush. We have never been to Hummingbird before, but we've heard about it. You can order huge drinks called fishbowls here. Kateri & Brittany both got one. They even got a glo-stick with it! Haha. I ordered the Hummingbird martini. It was really good, but the strawberry on the side of the glass was better! Mmm. The entire place was adorable and had bird cages hanging from the ceiling with candles in them. We got our drinks, sat down and talked until it was ABC time. (11pm)Around 11:30, we headed out to ABC. It was pouring out so we were pretty much running down the street. Kateri had her new boots on, she was pretty miserable. I felt bad because I've been in that situation before. Haha, not fun.
There was a little line, so we had to stand outside in the rain before we got in. That was annoying. So much for fixing our hair. But it was fun, and me & Brittany got our faces painted! I've been wanting to for a while, so we decided tonight was the night. It was so beautiful. And since it was "Neon" night, all of the black lights made our faces glow. It was really cool.
We left around 2:30am, I skyped with mum & kayla for a while then went to bed. I had to be up to get on the bus for go-karting at 9:30am! I wasn't even really tired the next morning. I was so glad. It took us about 20 minutes to get to ScotKart. It was in a weird part of town that I have never seen before, and was glad that I didn't. There was garbage everywhere. It looked really bad. When we got there, my friend Martin from my class was already there. I was glad he went because he's pretty much the only person I know from Computing. We signed waivers and they split all of us up into two groups. Go-kart group and Lazer tag group. (I got go-kart group first!) Luckily, not many kids went because the weather was bad. So we got to ride and play longer. They took my group into a room, gave us uniforms to put on, and made us watch a little movie about safety and rules. I was so excited! Finally they took us out to the track and we got our helmets. I sat down in kart 13 and they adjusted the seats and pedals for me. (Apparently they didn't do a good job because I am still sore from trying to reach the steering wheel.) After we rode for about 10 minutes, they'd bring us back into the pits...then send us out again. We got to do 4 races. It was so awesome. The first time we went out, everyone went pretty slow and was really cautious. I was so afraid to flip the kart because some places on the track were wet and you could easily slide on it. But then every time they sent us back out I realized it was impossible to flip the kart, so why be afriad? I went faster and faster & only wrecked a few times. When you wreck, you put your hand up and they turn on the yellow light so everyone knows someone is stuck and they slow down instead of ramming into you around a corner. Me and another kid had a pretty good collision, but we were just laughing. I was surprised we didn't get the warning flag waved at us for being reckless. It was so awesome. I had a blast and wish I could do it more often. At the end, they gave us our timesheets and ratings of how we did in each race. I was one of the top 6 fastest (out of 14) in every race and I even got 4th one time.After that, they took us over to "Lazer Planet" and explained the rules. We split into two teams (Red-Star Wars, Blue-SuperHeroes). I was on Red and my name was Jabba (it was written on my pack). The place was awesome with smoke and flashing lights everywhere to distract you. They had really cool music playing that kind of sounded like Pink Floyd. In the middle of the whole thing was a tower with a ramp on each side. The Blue team was up there shooting us forever. Then I got my team together and we took the tower over. It was so funny. We all had a great time. The second game I came in 2nd place for shooting the most people. I was so excited. My team won both games too!
We left for home at 1:30pm and I could tell I was exhausted. I saw Hannah walking to class on my way to Caley Court and I told her to come watch New Moon when she's done. So she did. Of course I fell asleep and missed the last 30 minutes, but it was fun. It was a good day.
I miss you so much.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

My Life As A Bollywood Film

Well, I'm all moved in at Caley Court. I love it! I am so close to Uni and all of my friends. It's great. I am in a flat with my friend, Kateri even (from Canada) which is awesome. My room is pretty nice and I have a sink in it so I don't have to go to the bathroom to brush my teeth. :)I have 4 other roommates as well. They are all boys. One is from India and the other three are from Pakistan. They love to blast loud music, cook dinner in a huge pot with all of their friends every night and also they like to whistle. It's a pretty interesting life I live these days. But they mostly keep to themselves and there are barely any dishes left dirty in the sink which is such a nice change!Friday night, me and some of the girls went to a bar called "Box" where they have live music every night of the week and its free to get in. We went Friday because there was a Beatles tribute band supposedly playing. We left around 8pm to walk down there. About 5 bands played and we were getting soo tired and uncomfortable. Box is a small place and the speakers are so loud you can't really talk to anyone. It was 1:00am and "Them Beatles" still weren't on. They had people setting up for them for 45 minutes. A bunch of our friends left, but we said it would be so terrible to have waited all this time and NOT see them. So we stayed. They finally started playing about 1:30am and they were AWESOME! I never really got into the Beatles, so I was really surprised I knew every song. It was great. I put a video of them on Facebook if you want to hear a little bit of the tribute band.We only stayed for a couple songs because we were pretty much falling asleep and the Borders trip was the next morning at 8:30am. So we headed back to Caley Court around 2am. I got a cheeseburger and dries at McDonalds on the way back. I was starving. The fries were pretty good, but the burger was nasty. Nothing here tastes like home.I got to talk to Jordan a tiny bit when I got back, then I fell right asleep. Next thing I knew, my alarm was going off. I got up, decided I didn't need a shower (hehe), and got ready for the trip. It was freeeezing outside. I slept pretty much the whole 2 hours there. We got dropped off in a town called Galashiels. Me and the girls went off by ourselves and found a cafe. I got a latte and we talked for a while. We spent 2 hours there just walking around and looking at things. It was a cute town, but pretty boring. We got back on the bus and headed to Peebles (another small town) for lunch. Just as we arrived I got so sick. I basically ran off of the bus and took some deep breaths and was trying so hard not to throw up in front of EVERYONE! I started walking with everyone and the fresh air wasn't helping, so I knew it wasn't good. I went off with Krista and Karen and we looked for somewhere to eat. We found a Pizzeria and went inside. I drank some water and ordered a Calzone (with muchrooms!) It made me feel A LOT better and I was soo glad. I even liked the mushrooms in it. Weird.Everyone else went to the Castle besides us, so since we had so much time left..we decided to go look for it. We walked along a little river and just talked mostly. It was really cold out so we turned around before we ever saw the Castle. We met back at the bus at 4:30. Luckily, we passed the Castle on the way home. It looked awesome. I was happy to at least see it. The sights on the way back were insane. It was all country and looked EXACTLY like Scotland does in the movies. So green and beautiful. I took pictures and even some video. I wished we could have stopped on the side of the road to just stare at the open fields and all the sheep. Haha. It was amazing. It made me want to live here.When we got back, I took a shower finally and got dressed. Krista's flatmates were having a party that night and she invited us to come. It ended up being called off, so we just watched "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" here in my room. I love that movie. It was so funny, but of course I fell asleep. This morning Krista messaged me and said "Was it ok we left you like that last night?" Haha, I guess they felt bad for just leaving while I was sleeping. Alisa told me Krista and Karen were really nervous about it. They are too funny. :)
Great News!.....JORDAN BOOKED HIS TICKET TO COME OVER! I can't believe it! He'll get here March 7th (exactly one week from today!) and leave the 14th. It's going to be great. I am so happy he's going to get to see the things I am and meet my friends. It would be weird for me to come home and talk about them, and he would't know them. So I am so glad. He's going to looove it here. I know it.
Today I am working on homework and just hanging out here in my room. I am still sick and I hate it. I miss you so much.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Ceilidh & O'Couture

Yesterday was sooo much fun! I had one lecture for an hour, then I went and waited at the Refectory for the Ceilidh (Pronounced "Key-Lee") event. It was set up so nice with different countries flags hanging around, and a lot of Scottish flags evvverywhere (there always is, anywhere you look). I got a table with some girls and we drank come juice and then had some wine (wasn't as good as yours, dad). A lot of the kids dressed up like their countries. (All of the Denmark students wore Viking hats with the horns on it). It was really neat to see what people came up with. The dancing started and the one guy in the band would announce what kind of dance it was (couples or sets) and then people would go up to the dance floor. I didn't dance to the first one. I asked the whole Denmark table behind me to dance and all of them ignored me. How embarrassing. The next dance was "sets" and Ali (the annoying Pakistan whose jokes aren't funny) asked me to dance so I said yes! I was glad to at least go out there. It was groups of 4 ( 4 boys, 4 girls) and it was so fun. My group was pretty terrible and we couldn't seem to get it right. But by the end, we did pretty good. (In the picture I am the one in the gray long sleeve being twirled around.) After that, I danced to evvvery song :) The music was awesome. One guy played an accordion and the other had what looked like an electric violin, or fiddle? There were only two of them and they did awesome. We learned about 10 different dances. For a couple of them, it was all about switching partners. It was pretty much like speed dating, haha. One guy who was super tall (and he looked about 35) was my partner at one point. For this dance you had to "polka around" for eight counts and he just picked me off the ground and swung me in circles. I was laughing so hard because the whole thing was just outrageous. With the music, and the switching partners, and the band kept playing faster and faster. And that guy thought it was so normal and then just pushed me to the next guy. Ohh boy.
I danced a waltz type dance with Ziga, a dance that looked like the one they do in "A Knights Tale" with Gary, and I danced about 7 other ones with Ali. I really had a blast! I never went to something like that where you just learn dances and do them. It was so cool. I took a couple videos.
Around 8pm we got a meal. I had garlic bread and pasta. It was really good, but I could have eaten 6 more plates of it. Plus, everyone's breath smelled especially good after that. I thought it was over, but there was more dancing afterward. Luckily, I found some gum in my bag. For the verry last dance, everyone stood in a huge circle and held hands. They played a well-known Scottish song (I didn't know it, but everyone was singing it) and a boy who goes to school at Caledonian played the bagpipes in the middle. Then it turned into running to the middle and running back out while people get there arms ripped off, haha. It was funny. I was standing next to Chris, and I know he was trying hard to keep me alive. I can't wait to show you some of the dances. Hopefully, I can remember some!
After it was over, we headed up to Caley Court to get ready for Hannah's birthday outting. I decided to wear the flower headband I bought. I was a little nervous about it, but it turned out pretty good. The guys & Beth set up the kitchen of the flat with balloons, a cake and streamers. It was really cute. They even bought her a Celtics jersey! It was awesome and she really loved it.
When everyone was ready, we headed to a bar called "O'Couture" down on Sauchiehall Street (Pronounced "Sookie-hall"). I was expecting it to be a club, but it was just a bar. There wasn't many people there, but then again it was ONLY 10pm. So no one was out yet. I got a Foster's beer and talked to everyone. Me, Brittany, Hannah, Krista & Kateri all took a shot of Tequila for Hannah's birthday. They were out of limes, so that was pretty nasty. After a while, some how the used-to-be bar turned into an International dance club. It was so much fun! They started playing good music and all of us were dancing. The other locals who were there mostly just stared at us. I only fell over a little stool twice, and it was pretty graceful. (Why?!?) We left around 2:30am and my feet were killing me. I ate an entire bag of popcorn when I got back, drank soda, watched some of My Best Friend's Wedding, & then fell asleep without brushing my teeth. Big mistake. I feel good today and the sky is blue AGAIN! It looks beautiful out even though it is still cold. I am so excited about tomorrow (watching the Celtics play at Maggie May's bar and then flat party here at Blackfriars with my roommates). I am more excited about watching the game. Then on Sunday, for Valentine's Day, is movie and dinner with the girls! I can't waiiit for that.
I miss you and wish you were here every day.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Oh, this is how the Superbowl works here...?

Yesterday was the East Lothians trip to the Eastern Coast of Scotland (past Edinburgh). We met up at the Uni at 8:30am and it took us an hour and a hlaf to get to the town of Dunbar. There, we saw another castle. Well, the remains of one. It was pretty interesting and I couldn't believe people actually lived in that town. Haha. I guess compared to huge Glasgow, it seemed like nothing. We looked at the castle, the harbor and we walked down by the water even. (I made a video of me putting my hand in the water. I was in such pain after that. I'm pretty sure I got frostbite, but it was worth it.) Alex, from France, said that body of water was the Northern Sea (?) Very cool. I also snatched up some rocks and shells from there. They are pretty neat.
Then we went to a little Garden Cafe and warmed up. I had a latte and a chocolate chip cookie (sugar rush on the cookie). The latte burnt all of my taste buds off, so that was nice. But it was good once it cooled down an hour later.
We got back on the bus and headed for the Tantallon Castle. This is by far the coolest thing I have seen yet. We got to walk around inside for almost two hours and take sooo many pictures. The castle was enormous and you could tell it had a lot of history to it. Me and the girls explored everywhere (even where you're not supposed to. Hehe) The view from the top was amazing. All you could see was green one way, and water the other way. I was in love.
Next, we headed to a town called North Breswick, for lunch. Me, Karen, Alisa, Brittany, Sophie, Kateri, Krista & Emmy at a little bar/cafe. When we walked in there was a bunch of guys hanging out at the bar staring at us and saying "Ar ya laust?" We felt pretty stupid and not welcome, but we sat down anyways. Most of us got fish & chips (I did too). It was gooood! We hung out there for a while til we had to be back on the bus at 3:30pm. A rugby game was on the TV there (Scotland vs. France) and all the guys were huddled around the TV yelling and cheering. It was cool. I watched some of it, and it looked like a really fun sport to watch.
On our way home, we stopped at one more place. There was a castle there, but you had to pay to get inside. So we just got out, looked around, and took some pictures. I was too cold and tired to just hang around outside anymore. So me and some of the girls got on the bus early and waited.
On the back to Glasgow, I slept mostly and it felt good. We planned to go to a bar/restaurant called "Campus" for the Superbowl game because they had signs up saying "The Biggest Event in America, Watch it Here!" Plus, we heard they had free pizza at halftime. So I walked back to Blackfriars, skyped a bit, ate ravioli's, and uploaded my pictures. Around 10:45pm I headed up to "Campus" for the game. (It started at 11pm here! Sleeeepy.) All I heard was LOUD music and people screaming so I was confused. I was expecting it to just be people sitting around watching the game...? I walked in and it was totally a dance club with people in tiny dresses and high heels everywhere. They had the game on all of the 50 Tv's in there, and they had a huge screen set up too. But they were all on mute, so you could only watch. There were no commercials played over here, and I was really bummed about it. And some Scottish guys were hosting the game? It was really weird. Mostly everyone there was cheering for the Colts. I was for the Saints. (I still don't know who won. Haha.) Thankfully, Brittany and Kateri showed up in jeans and boots too so I didn't feel so stupid. We got drinks and watched the game. At halftime, we wondered about our free pizza and asked a guy who worked there. He said our best bet is to go ask the kitchen, so we did. The cook acted like we were nuts and said no. Embarressing. But then when we were about to leave he handed us one for free. It was so cool. We took it upstairs and devoured it. :) It had peppers and onions on it. Delicious.
Then we headed out.
I was soo tired when I got home from the long day. So I slept good last night.
Today I have one class (an IP1 Lab) at 2:00pm, and that's it. So I'm hoping to move today if it's possible. I just need the "okay" from Caley Court. I can't wait!
The sun is shining a little bit today, but I think it will be gone soon.
I miss you!

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Haggis, No Thank You.

Scottish Word of the Day: "Daft" meaning Stupid or Silly.

Well yesterday was a good day. (02/05/10) I woke up and I wasn't homesick because I had already made plans with Alisa the night before to go shopping. :) I got up and skyped with my dad about 4 times throughout the morning, showered, and got ready. Alisa said her flatmate, Billy (Scotland, with the longer blonde hair), and his friends (also from Scotland) wanted to go eat at a place called Campus where you get a free pizza when you order any drink. It was for real! I got a coke and a Hawaiian pizza. It even tasted better than the Pizza Hut the day before. I loved it. Chris (one of Billy's friends, in the picture too by me) ordered pizza with haggis on it. (By the way, it's sheeps stomach...) So I tried some because I needed to before I left. It was...interesting. At first it tasted familiar, then a very unfamiliar taste happened, and I didn't feel good about it. Haha. It was terrrrible though. There were these cards that were laying on the table. It was for an ID card that will get you in free to some clubs and get you discounts for some restaurants and shops. So me and Alisa filled them out, went upstairs, got our pictures taken, got a new ID card, and a whole bag of free stuff from the clubs in the area (a pillowcase, cute underwear with the clubs logo on them, flip flops with a bottle opener on the bottom, and a hoody! The hoody is awesome, I love it and it fits so nice. I was expecting an XXL.)
Then me and Alisa went shopping...we only made it to Primark and spent 2 hours in there. Haha. I love that store. I got a cute little leather purse and a leather wallet. It was supposed to be 6 pounds, and for some reason it was only 3 pounds! I was so excited.
After that, I headed home to get ready because they invited me out for some girls birthday. They were planning on going to Hummingbird, a bar, then to Kushion, a club, to dance. When I got home I checked my email and I had an email from Blackfriars saying they found someone who wants to move into my room asap! I about hit the ceiling! I was so excited and emailed back right away saying I'll find out when I can move out, hopefully this weekend. Caledonian Court hasn't emailed me back yet to tell me when I can come up. But I am so excited!
I skyped with dad some more and then with Jordan. I got ready then and met Alisa at ABC around 11:30pm. (I guess they couldn't get into Kushion? So they went to ABC instead)
It wasn't as awesome as it is on Wednesdays and they played really weird music. All the Scottish people loooved all the songs though and knew all the words. I drank a Vodka Apple (it tasted just like a Jolly Rancher, but I could really feel it laying in my stomach. Ew.) We danced a lot and my feet were killing me. She started talking to a Scottish guy (the one in the picture with us, so obvious he's Scottish, haha) so I got stuck with his weirdo friends. One of them was 28 (and kind of looked like Jason from the Bachelor) and he was the only coherent one. He kept trying to make conversation with me because it was pretty awkward. I couldn't understand one word he was saying. I got soo frustrated with him and just kept yelling "I CAN'T UNDERSTAND YOUR ACCENT!" But he would just keep trying to talk to me. So I had to start ignoring him and just smiling. I was pretty annoyed.
When it closed, I walked home in the rain and my high heels. I couldn't wait to take them off and just lay down. I was so tired. I got to talk to Jordan for a second, but it was so nice.
Today I want to try to go and get stamps, but it is already 4:30, and everything here closes at 6. Oh well, I might as well try I guess. It is really cloudy here and looks like rain again. I guess it's better than a foot of snow, haha. Sorry PA.
Tonight is an International Students birthday (Ziga), so people are celebrating. I don't know if I'm going to yet, we'll see.
I miss you every day.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

My First Pint.

It's my second day of classes and I'm already ready for them to be done. (Big surprise there.) They run the courses verry different here though, and I don't like it. Every class has AT LEAST one lecture, one lab, and one tutorial...all at different times. Each is one hour only and the professors don't show up til 15 minutes in usually. For my Integrated Project class I have one lecture, two labs, and THREE tutorials. Uuuugh. Super annoying. My Statistics class is alright I guess, better than IP at least. I still need one more class. My advisors assistant is supposed to be doing that for me and emailing me, but again I haven't heard from her since yesterday afternoon. Oh well.
I am done today now and I am glad to be back in my warm room. I am really homesick today again and the weird classes, moving situation, and lack of food is really taking a toll on me.
Last night I did go to the WalkAbout with all the International Students. It was pretty fun. I had a huge migraine all day, but I didn't feel like being alone, so I went. Krista said she wanted to try Guiness but was scared to. I told her to just do it and get it over with, so she bought one. I was going to order a pepsi...but I just ordered a Giuness too with her. Haha. We both never had it before, just a sip. Yikes. It was so think and strong. Olof (Sweden) and Alex (France) both got one too. We all struggled to not throw up and make a scene. The futbol game was on in the bar on a huuuuge screen hanging from the ceiling. Everyone was going nuts! It was a cool experience. Me & Krista both want to just go sit in a pub on the day a futbal game is on and watch and see what happens. That will be cool.
We ended up both actually finishing our drinks after a while and I was so proud. I made sure to get this picture with our empty glasses:) Heheh.
After that, I walked back up to Caley Court, got my bag from Hannah&Beths room, then headed back down to Blackfriars. I was soo tired and couldn't wait to talk to Jordan on Skype. We talked for about a half hour...then I woke up an hour later and he was gone. I felt so bad for falling asleep on him and that I barely got to talk to him. :(
Good News! Kayla booked her ticket to come over and spend a week & a half with me!! I can barely wait, seriously. I already told everyone that she is coming and when. Haha. And I told everyone about Greyson, duh. (Karen's (Norway) friend just had a baby RIGHT after she left, so it will be 4 months when she sees it. I'm happy Grey will only be one, hopefully, when I see him!) But I am counting down the days for Kayla to get here! :)
Tonight we might go out dancing again. That will be fun, but it is soo cold here today and it's snowing. I heard that people were going to ABC again, but I wouldn't mind trying a different nightclub. Whatever, as long as I'm around some friends.
I miss you!