We’re Gonna Take Your Mama Out All Night

There are nine days until I leave this place and ten days until I touch down in Vancouver. There are 12 days until I start working and exactly 2 weeks until Christmas. There are And then there are 23 days until I return. For the first time in 4 months my life is revolving around numbers and dates. This is such a weird feeling. I have gotten used to making plans on a whim and flying by the seat of my pants. I suppose this is the sort of feeling they talk about when all the members from older generations refer to the “good days” or “when I was young.” I have  been missing out!

This post unfortunately will lack the glitter and glory of the previous posts because it will be without pictures. I have graduated from picture book authorship and will now be attempting entirely textual depictions of my life overseas. In short, my computer broke and I have lost all the iPhoto versions of my photographs. Don’t worry, this trend won’t last long. I will get my pictures up and running again once I get home.

Also, I have done significantly fewer exciting things over the past month. Not to say that this whole lifestyle isn’t exciting in and of itself, but I have actually been busy concentrating considerably more on school. I have handed in (an exhausting grand total of) three assignmens already and have one final left next Tuesday. This is my way of studying – by practicing my writing. On Tuesday morning at the godawful hour of 9am (I have been justifying my sleeping in over the past four months by always subtracting eight hours and judging myself by Vancouver standards – so, 1am is very early, even for me!) I have to write 2 essays in 3 hours and they have to be good, 70% of my overall grade good. How daunting.

Marc came and went. His visit was great. It was so hard when he left though. I walked back from the train station at 11 at night and of course it was pouring rain and I was without an umbrella. I remember thinking, where am I going? Marc is going to the only place I want to be and yet I am walking off in the opposite direction. Quicky, though, I came to my senses (and out of the rain). I love it here. And I wouldn’t change it for the world.

My American friends put on a party for American Thanksgiving at the end of November and it was a great hit. We had too many people show up bringing too much food and we chatted in a hundred different languages and it was spectacular. I just am so amazed by the amount of networking that happens so naturally among a bunch of students who have practically nothing in common except for the place and the time they share together for this limited amount of time. Everyone made an effort, big or small, to support this holiday so important in one country and not even recognized in most others. People who hardly knew each other got together to bake a casserole dish neither of them had ever heard of before. People drew decorations for a holiday they had only ever seen on American television before. People from all walks of life, from all social backgrounds, ate together under one elusive cause in a country not necessarily their own. I know this is sappy, but I think it is so interesting.

I had my first event as the International Student Society’s Event Manager. It too was a hit. We were able to get a discounted rate at a new restaurant in town and we charged students a flat fee so they could eat off a set menu. It was great and I felt accomplished for one of the first times since getting here.

This week marks the last week I have with my American friends here in Dundee. It is incredibly sad when I think about it. I am so lucky to have met them and have had such a supporting foundation upon which to base much of my experience so far. I will probably sing some cheesy tune at karaoke next Tuesday to bid them farewell. Conveniently, it also happens to be the birthdays of three of them next week so we’ll do what the Scots do best, and go on a pub crawl of sorts. My 24 hours of flights the following Monday will be possibly the most bittersweet experience of my life… until May at least.

You can expect to hear from me soon as my academic endeavours come to a halt early next week.

How many ways can we say we love each other without saying I love you?

I have been a million places since three weeks ago it seems. It has gone by so quickly but I think I am growing up. Somehow, I can feel that.

I went to London with some new friends. We jumped on the bus one evening and 14 hours later, arrived in the centre of the city that I know so well as part of my cultural adoption; London is part of my repertoire because I’ve seen it so often in films and I’ve read about it so often in books and I’ve heard about it so often. This abstract place became reality for me (for the second time in three months) at 7am on a Monday morning. We walked for what seemed like all day. We walked along the river, we saw the Tower of London, London Bridge, the Tower Bridge, the Globe Theatre and it wasn’t even lunch time.

Karen and Corrado at Picadilly Circus

Our hostel was nice, right at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Nothing can be beat the feeling of waking up in London with a Marks & Spencer pain au chocolate waiting for you. We went to Abbey Road, something I missed out doing with my family. We went to Platform 9 3/4 (again). We saw a movie. We took the tube. We went to Picadilly Circus. And Harrods. We watched the London Eye do what it does best but didn’t ride it because we are students and we were on the wrong side of the river. We went to Camden Market where you can buy anything from jewellery to illegal drugs and where you can learn to be anything from a gangster to a magician. We missed the bus to the airport at 5am because we are students and were on the wrong side of the river.

Eskilstuna Town Centre

I waited six hours once we arrived back in Edinburgh to catch my flight to Stockholm. I arrived in the evening and my dad’s friend Anders was waiting for me. Now, the thing about flying with the budget airlines here in Europe is that when they say they are flying to a city, you have to take your map out and and look for a mediocre-seeming town that is about 200km away from your destination city. This is where you’ll be landing. Skavsta was about an hour and a half outside of Stockholm. I was staying with Anders’ family in Eskilstuna. We arrived and it was straight to bed for me.

Eskilstuna from the bridge

At 9am, the next morning, I awake to little Tova, who is nine, knocking at my door to tell me breakfast was ready. She had laid breakfast out for me and was watching Swedish cartoons. Her and I spent that day and the following weekend together. We went walking and shopping and swimming. We went to the library, to the science museum, ate sushi, to a Christmas market. We went to gymnastics, rode bicycles and fed ducks at the river. I even met her boyfriend Thomas who lives across the lane.

Anders and his Swedish meatballs!

The most overwhelming part about being in Sweden was that the language was complete gibberish to me. In France and even in Germany, I got the gist of things. I am used to seeing French every where at home and German isn’t completely unfamiliar to me. It was seeing Tova switch back and forth between English and Swedish so perfectly that amazed me. This little girl, growing up with bilingual parents but living in a completely Swedish world was able to converse with me and then translate for everyone else we ran into. I was humbled in a way I never have been before. I have so much left to learn before I can claim any sort of intelligence. This nine year old girl has a whole other world more in her repertoire than I do.

Tova and I after swimming

Her younger sister, Nilla, showed me something I hadn’t experienced or thought about before. She was four and didn’t speak any English. I knew she could understand what I said, but never did of word of English come from her lips. I have been around kids my entire life – when I was one and as teenager and an adult, I have worked with them. She held my hand and sang me Swedish songs and narrated Swedish stories to me, played Lego and ate candy with me and we were friends that couldn’t understand each other. I have so much left to experience in this world, and these two girls have helped me to recognize this.

Nilla and Tova after biking

Eskilstuna was beautiful. And cold. And the sun sets at 4pm. I think I would like to visit northern Sweden in the summer at some point in my life to see the Midnight Sun. But this city had the small town feel about it. Of course it had a McDonalds. But regardless, it felt  homey. Anders and his wife Christina know so much and I had many interesting conversations with them about all sorts of things. They told me about the current situation in this very left-oriented country they live in. It was interesting to hear their opinions when I have always been told that Sweden is one of the best places on earth (falling second, of course, to British Columbia come the Olympics apparently).

The High Street in Dundee

It was my mum’s birthday when I arrived back in Dundee so I got to talk with her. We are finally able to see each other when we talk online now and it makes a world of difference. Technology is so amazing. My family will be making breakfast on Sunday morning and I feel like I am right in the room with them. I always want to be at Sunday breakfast.

Dundee's pride and joy, the Discovery

Since being back again, I have been hunkering down a little harder with school work. Everything seems to be due on the same day. I keep meaning to update the section on my blog about what I have been reading and I will do that as soon as I can. I read Emily Dickinson for the first time this weekend. I loved it. We had a miniature debate in class about whether the word is gendered, whether or not it should matter for literature’s sake if the author was male or female. Of course doing feminist readings or what have you and looking at the historical background is important for a contextual study, but is it possible to study literature without all of this?

Marc and I in St. Andrews

My friend Marc from back home came to visit last week. He is, “doing the UK.” I picked him up at the Edinburgh airport and I guess I hadn’t realized how much I had missed him until seeing his face in front of me brought tears into my eyes. He is grounding me. We picked up where we left off. We went to St. Andrews, and I have taken him out with my friends. Yesterday, he left Dundee to visit Glasgow for a couple nights and this weekend, he will accompany me to Edinburgh.

I have only 41 nights left until I will sleep in my own bed at Christmastime, which will mark the halfway point of this experience, and what an experience it has become. More soon!

40 Days and 40 Nights

In the two weeks since last writing, I have discovered that I have fully acclimatized to this new situation. I know this because I am incredibly home sick – but not in a painful and  upsetting way. I am homesick for the beautiful place that I know so well and the people that occupy it and make it familiar for me. I am also homesick for Tim Hortons but that’s another story.

Some friends and I

I went to an art show at the student art gallery here at Dundee Uni. It was pretty cool. I’m not one to appreciate art for any interpretive analytical meanings. I enjoy it, most simply, because it looks neat to me. I suppose that’s what artists – and not only fine artists – aim to do: capture the attention of the senses first. There was a giant room (and you’ll have to bear with my inadequate explanation) with a sheet stapled all the way across it so that when you took your shoes off and walked onto the sheet, it effectually turned into a less than satisfying trampoline. In the centre of the room there was a model house that the artist had built using calculations from an inaccurate calculator that had been rigged so as to provide false profit for some illegitimate company in Asia. Although I have a hard time even speculating as to what this exhibit meant, it was neat to me.

Me at Arbroath Abbey

A very beautiful lawn at Glamis Castle

The Dundee Uni International team took a bunch of international students on a tour of Angus on the first Saturday of the month. We went to Arbroath Abbey and Glamis Castle. It was great. One of the towers in Glamis is the setting for the death of Duncan in Shakespeare’s MacBeth and Glamis is also supposed to be the most haunted building in Scotland. They put on what is a popular Halloween party every year but (un)fortunately, it is sold out this year.

A group of us at Glamis Castle

I went to visit my family in Montrose. On the same day, the Rangers were playing the Celtic and the Rangers won. My family, being die-hard Rangers fans had a make shift party with lots of alcohol and baked jacket potatoes, a Scottish favourite. It was lots of fun. I think I have already mentioned Montrose and it’s being particularly petit as far as towns go here. When I got on the bus in Dundee and asked for a fare to Montrose, the bus driver looked at me and in all seriousness said, “Why do you want to go there?” Now, there are about a million things I could have said because like I said, Montrose has a special place in my heart, but I figured that simply shrugging my shoulders would suffice.

They had a kids dress-up area, monk five!

I have joined two societies here at school: the LGBT and the International Students Society. LGBT stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender and they are a really fun group of people. Surprisingly, they are a brand new society and everyone is really keen and excited about all that they can do. I went to a movie night they were hosting last week and we watched “Priscilla Queen of the Desert” and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The free wine didn’t hurt. We went to the AGM for the International Students Society earlier this week and partly out of interest – but mostly out of obligation fueled by lack of volunteering on every one else’s part – I am now the Events Manager. Our first even will be a dinner and dance with mutlicultral foods – it should be fun!

The closed gate at Perth

Some friends and I visited Perth this past weekend. We took the train and then walked around town for a while. We tried to get into the castle that is right in the town centre but, because it was a Saturday, the gates were locked. I suppose the people that live there deserve their weekends too. We jumped on a bus to the next closest castle – Old Scone – but by the time we arrived, it was closed to. I did get up close and personal with a couple of peacocks though so I wasn’t overly disappointed.

On Sunday, I am off to London and then from there I will be heading to Stockholm. I will update upon my return!

Also, I realize that I haven’t uploaded any pictures of Dundee itself. I will get on that as soon as I can.

The view from my froom on a nice Dundee afternoon

The New Universal?

I am sitting in a room full of people, of which I am the only one for whom English is the native language.

Everyone is speaking English.

“Dundee Saved My Life”

Although I know it is hardly difficult to come on here once a week to update this blog, it has grown tremendously harder the longer I wait. But, I have set out to spend some time now letting you know how the past month and a half has progressed.

Iain and Sydney are King James and Mary of Guise

I left off I believe when I first experienced Dundee. After that, we visited Stirling Castle. We did the audio tour and I relearnt much of the British history I was so quick to forget after taking a course on it two semesters ago. We visited Rothesay, a very beautiful small town on an island which reminded me of Sidney. There were many second hand shops and the annual Highland Games they host is the biggest event the town sees. I think all the shops take the whole year to prepare themselves. We were greeted with the most delicious scones and tea.

We also visited Edinburgh and my dad and brothers went to a football game between the Hearts and the Rangers. My mum and I went shopping – an activity more down our alley. Upon hearing about the game, I was astounded to learn about the security measures they take. It is even worse than Canucks games. They have a load of police and they don’t even serve alcohol. You have to sit on the side of your team so that huge supporters of opposite teams are not interspersed with one another. It’s crazy to think what kind of violence and conflict provoked these measures – I don’t think I want to know.

We visited Pitlochery, another beautiful town, supported mostly by the whiskey economy. Every Monday during the summer they have a Highland night full of highland and country dancing and singing and pipe bands. RMM was the guest on this particular Monday. They host the event on this large grass field and cars surround the entertainment and turn their headlights on to provide the lighting. It was very neat.

RMM at Rothesay

We went to Montrose, which has high significance for both my mum and me. My mum spent some of her childhood there and that is where most of her Scottish family is from. I visit there the summer after ninth grade and I fell in love with it. The town is just gorgeous. We went for tea with my mum’s aunt Peggy, who is the greatest lady of her age I know. She is funny and blunt and very entertaining. We then trekked out to the light house on a peninsula and the sky opened up, the sun came out and I was so moved by the experience. I love Montrose.

My new Scottish boyfriend

I spent the last weekend of August and the first week of September in England. It was gorgeous. I don’t know if it has had its consequences in the course of history or not, but as soon as we drove over the border between England and Scotland, the weather shifted and we were greeted by warm and sunny. We left the Cowal Highland games on the Isle of Dunoon in the evening and made the treacherous journey in the dark to Preston. Needless to say, I was asleep for most of it. We arrived to the most dismal looking building and a parking lot so crowded with posts and large cars that it was a miracle we even made it into a spot. Since we arrived so late, they had given one of our rooms away so the five of us crowded into a teeny tiny room. Lucky we get along…

Some Cambridge

The famous dualing bridge

Punting on the River Cam

The next morning we set out for Cambridge. The hostel we stayed in was great. The food we ate was great, and my brother just had the time of his life walking around his dream school in his dream town taking pictures for his dream job. I say dream, but I am certain he will make it a reality one day. We also went punting down the River Came. It was lots of fun. We got a tour guide and he told us about all the different colleges. The day after we went to Oxford. It is very clear that both of these schools (established about fifty years apart) were based on the same model, a distinctly English and a distinctly religious one. I had a wonderful time in Oxford, walking through the buildings, imagining I was Hermione Granger. I definitely felt inspired by all the academia and if I was ever uncertain about my life surrounded by it, all my doubts have officially been cleared away.

The streets of Oxford

Only in Oxford...

We arrived in London the next day. What a busy and expensive city. We wandered everywhere, my family and I. We saw Westminster Abbey and I spent a good deal of time tearing up in Poet’s Corner. Again, any doubts I had about my life in literature dissolved then and there. I was very affected. We visited St. Paul’s Cathedral, and climbed all the way to the highest viewpoint. London is a beautiful historical city,  such a collage of old and new.  We visited the London Eye, walked along the river. We went shopping at Fortnam and Mason’s, Whole Foods (yikes!), and Picadilly Circus. We saw Buckingham Palace and I went on a date with Prince Harry in my head. We went on the tube everywhere and we took a double decker bus. We went to King’s Cross Station and visited Platform 9 3/4. We went to a muscial show, Billy Elliot, and we stayed in a wonderful hotel at Gloucester Road. I had a great time in London and I would go back in a second.

Big Ben!

A monstrous cathedral

Buckingham Palace, before my date with Harry

The Globe Theatre!

On top of St. Paul's

Just classic...

My family stayed in London two days longer than I. I took a plane up to Edinburgh Airport and got picked up by Dundee University. There I met a bunch of people who I won’t soon forget. Most of them are Americans, from various places in the States. They are great people. We arrived in Dundee to, would you believe it, sun! I spent the next week getting settled in (and partying!). My family eventually joined me and brought the rest of my stuff. They took me grocery shopping and their departure left me tearful and distraught. I miss them with every second.

The Robbie Burns

The weather continued for all of September to be beautiful and relatively warm. I met alot of people in a short period of time and they are from all over the world. I think something like 40% of the students here are international. The town itself is made up of around 30% students. I met people from Italy, Germany Hong Kong, and many from America. I did also meet a couple of Canadians, from Edmonton and Toronto – a little piece of home from so far away.  We visited St. Andrews together, it was beautiful. I got that feeling that everything was right, like I had made all of the right decisions up until this point to bring me to where I was.

Some friends and I at St. Andrews

I started classes the week after I arrived. I am taking one class on American Literature and another on Scottish Literature. So far, they are great. There is alot of reading involved and alot of extra research required but I am enjoying the classes. My professors are wonderful. They are accommodating and upon meeting them in person, they are quite personable and helpful. I feel very comfortable in the classes. It will get some taking used to though because for each course, the assessment is based only on two assignments. I will definitely be required to put my best effort into each of them.

My new room

I went to Paris to visit Nick for a weekend. I traveled on Ryanair which is a budget airline on which you have are required to pay for anything extra you may need. Needless to say, I traveled very light with only my backpack and a jacket. Paris was absolutely breathtaking. It was warm and sunny and we walked around all day. We visited the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, The Louvre and everything in between. We had French coffee and baguettes and the most delicious pizza I have ever had the pleasure to eat. I would go back to Paris in a heartbeat.

Arc de Triumphe

Notre Dame

The Eiffel Tower

A month after arriving, I will say that I really love it here. I have settled in, I have a nice group of people to hang out with and fall back on. The social side of university (“uni” as they say here) is really emphasized on campus, what with our two pubs and two clubs just two minutes away from my room. There is something different going on every night, and Tuesday night they have something called SKINT during which entrance to everywhere is free and drinks are all £1. Saturdays they have Spice Up Your Life, a nineties themed dance party that will be fun for the first little while but I can foresee it becoming  old very fast. They also have themed evenings every Thursday. For example, last night was Geeks and Goths, and almost everybody out looks ridiculous to one extent or another. It’s a lot of fun. There are many cafes to eat at, there are grocery stores and malls close by. There is nice park just ten minutes away and the library is in close vicinity as well. My room is great. I have my own bathroom and I share a kitchen and common room with five other people, every one of which is nice and interesting and from a different place. Although food is expensive and somewhat different from what is available at home, I am slowly getting used to it and I have been eating surprisingly healthily.

Some wonderful new friends

I have much traveling still to do. I will be going on an Angus Adventure tomorrow, an initiative of Dundee International. On Sunday I will be going to visit my family again in Montrose. In three weeks, I have planned to go to Stockholm to visit some family friends, and in the meantime I will be doing local things in Scotland.

Katie and Sydney on the beach

I promise to be better at updating. Until next time!

Clan Victories, Highlands and Interpretations

I realize that I haven’t written in a while and I have so much to say. I guess the thing about traveling is that you don’t always have time to sit and write. I have taken to writing on the train or on bus rides not only to pass the time but also to make sure I don’t forget any thing. Consequently, the following post may seem to go in various random directions. You will have to bear with me.

This is the Falkirk Wheel!

I suppose I left off exactly a week ago, Thursday night. From there I will begin. On Friday, Iain had to lay low with the band. They were told not to go further than McDonalds (only I am aware of just exactly how far away that is) for the whole day. Heaven forbid one of the players get lost or scrape a knee. The remainder of our family took a drive. We ended up (completely free of my persuasion of course) at the Falkirk Wheel. Now, this is something the Scottish government (and only they would) built to lift boats from one canal to another. It is extremely well engineered. I will include a picture of me here standing in front of it, but I definitely recoomend googling it. It can hold the weight of 100 elephants and only takes the energy of two boiling kettles to run. Amazing! Well, we had lunch there and then took their tourist boat from the lower level and then back again. It was pretty awesome.

View of Massed Bands from our seats, incredible.

Saturday was the big day. The World Piping Championships and for anybody who has ever been involved in piping or anyone living in Glasgow, this is a big deal! The weather started off nasty and then, typical of Scottish weather, it turned into a very nice. This kind of weather is all good and well, except when it rains all morning on a Glasgow Green (a very large grass field) you are bound to have to deal with wet shoes, socks and feet for the rest of the day. Luckily, I just happened to find a pair of flip flops in my backpack and so I only had to deal with dirty feet.

So we arrived at Glasgow Green and found my brother’s band (the SFU minatures, RMM) and watched their performance. To my (apparently untrained) ear, they sounded leaps and bounds better than everyone else. Anyway, they only got to perform once, as they were in the juvenile category. Not kidding, these kids practice hours and hours every week for three years all for a five minute performance on the Green. And they do this, year after year, never fail, just becuse they love it.

The Barras Market archway

The Chippie!

There were still a couple hours to spare before SFU performed so our family (along with my uncle and aunt and cousins who came to see the Worlds on their way home from France, decided to go to a walk. We had heart that the Barras market was something to see so we decided to go. A word for the wise, the Barras market is most assuredly Scottish mafia owned. It was a definitely a sigh to see and I recommend it to any Glasgow-goers, so long as you wear your backpack on the front. There are definitely some finds, especially in the antique section, I even found a collection of ever taboo Golliwog dolls for £1 a piece.We ate at a Fish and Chip joint in that area, claiming to be Glasgow’s oldest chippie. Whether or not this was true, it was delicious. Another word for the wise, they take the term hamburger literally and so my brother ended up with pork on a bun.

Some SFU pride in Scotland

We went back to the Green to watch the SFU performances. We had splurged on grand stand tickets because we were told that they would be under cover (man do the Scots have a sense of humour). Even though we were repeatedly taking our umbrellas out and putting them away again, the view was great. They were broadcasting the games live on BBC and they had cameras swinging every which way. SFU did wonderfully, they are amazing to watch. We sat there for the mass bands at the end. There were so many bands, it was unbelievably, and when they all played together, it was absolutely breathtaking. I will never forget that. Anyway, RMM, much to their own dismay, came fourth. Their families though of course, had never been prouder and that is the important part. SFU, however, won a landslide victory and they were not going to hide their excitement. It was really cool to see.

The Infamous Caber Toss!

On Sunday, the RMM band played in a Highland Games in Crieff. Sam and I took the train later on in the day to meet the rest of the family that had left earlier. This Highland Games was less about piping and more about the Scottish athletics. On top of the usual caber toss, they had cycling, running and, I’m not kidding, tug of war. It was also the last Sunday before schools goes back over here, so everyone in Crieff was out enjoying themselves. They had rides and games and plenty of junk food. RMM won this time!

After the games, we got on the road and headed to Aberdeen. We stopped at this really dirty truck stop on the side of the highway at some point for dinner. It was huge and we were the only ones there. I settled for just good old French fries. As my dad has promised, this place was much more memorable than if we had gone somewhere generic like McDonalds.

The hostel in Aberdeen from the road

The kitchen at the hostel in Aberdeen

We arrived at the Aberdeen hostel tired and frustrated by getting lost and my aunt and uncle and cousins were there waiting. This hostel was absolutely beautiful. It was a refurbished old stone house in a very ritzy area of town. The kitchen was huge with brand new appliances and all the communal areas were very very new and nice. This hostel is part of SHYA (Scottish Youth Hostel Association) and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone.

My great grandfather, John Lamb

The next day, we headed to Inverness. We made a few stops in between. We went to New Pitsligo, a very small town where my grandfather was buried. My mum was determined to find the gravestone. We parked on the one main street and walked towards where we figured the cemetary must be. We ran into this very nice man named Scotty. Once he found out what we were looking for, he jumped at the opportunity to be helpful. He walked us to this elderly couple’s house and they too jumped at the opportunity of being helpful, and looked through books and pamphlets, trying to figure out where he may be buried. They couldn’t seem to find anything but pointed out the direction of the cemetary anyway. We went there and lo and behold, we found it! The elderly couple, at the same moment, came running to say they had found it in the book! It was quite funny and surreal.

The five kids outside the Inverness hostel, we look like a Scottish genetics experiment...

We then went to Rhynie and then to Inverness, where we checked into a youth hostel much larger than the previous night’s. There was a French group of students visiting there and they had stolen all the bowls and forks before we even got a chance to heat up our Indian Take-Away. We did get to eat with some neat people though as we had to invite all the stragglers to eat with us after you-know-who stole all the space in the dining hall.

The monument on the Culloden battlefield.

A sign in the Victoria Market at Inverness

Tuesday, we walked around Inverness and then headed to Culloden, where a raging battle between the Jacobites and the Government (a.k.a Bonnie Prince Charlie) took place. The battle field has been preserved and measures have been taken to ensure that it looks almost exactly as it did at the time of the battle. It was pretty cool. It is a war grave site as well, and all the clans are buried together and are marked by rocks.

Me prior to dunking my head in Loch Ness

We then drove down the west coast of Loch Ness. We saw Urquhart Castle. We went swimming. It was nauseatingly cold but it definitely had to be done. We then stopped for dinner in Fort William and drove through the highlands home. The highlands are just beautiful. I have not seen Lord of the Rings, but if I had, I think this would bear an uncanny resemblance to the setting there. There are cows and sheep and just neverending green mixed with heather. There are abandoned ski resorts but besides that there is very little evidence of civilization. You can buy a whole house up there for £5000… if you can find one.

Yesterday, Sam and my dad decided to take a spontaneous trip. They bought a four day train pass and caught the first train headed anywhere. Last I heard they are somewhere up north, Wick or somewhere thereabouts.

A really great store front I found in my journeys

My mum, Iain and I went into Glasgow and did a bit of shopping. My brothers will be getting kilts in our family tartan and so they are researching prices (and they seem to be extremely pricey).

Today I met the North Sea. I decided to take a train by myself up to Dundee just to suss it out. So I got up, and packed all my important stuff (in case I needed it for some reason) and boarded the train. I arrived in Dundee and walked up the High Street and the university is right in the middle of the city. I walked around the perimeter of the University and just as I finally come to an entrance and decide to take it, what does it decide to do? Pour! And I mean the skies just let Dundee have it. It was raining so hard that the drops were rebounding off the pavement so hard that they were splashing my face. I was absolutely drenched. Despite having an umbrella, every single item of clothing I was wearing was soaked through. Needless to say I have all that important stuff I thought it necessary to bring strewn across my bed airing out before I take the hair dryer to them. Also needless to say, I have let myself indulge in one great comfort food: Heinz macaroni in the can. It brings me back to my childhood, that’s for sure.

I went and saw the residences. They seem very nice and very new. I went into the DUSA (the student union building) and caught a glance of the two clubs and two bars that they boast of. I went into the bookstore and then I walked back into the city centre (there are not one but two H&Ms in this city I’ll make my home for the next nine months and they are both within walking distance). Then I caught the train home, where Stirling is full of sunshine.

I refuse to see the rain as an omen of sorts despite the evidence to the contrary. Perhaps it represents the struggles that lay ahead for me in trying to adjust or perhaps it was Dundee’s way of welcoming me. During that twenty minutes of waterfall that came down, every person I ran into smiled at me and we chuckled in mutual despair, rejoicing in the fact that although it is the middle of summer, we’re in it together.

Tesco's very own...

Set Down, Up Lift and Out With

I thought I would begin by commenting on the variations of familiar jargon that the Brits use. Set down instead of drop off. Alight in place of get off. Up lift instead of “please take with you.” Out with not without. There are so many and I will get used to them. I am just warning you all back home that I will be saying some very weird things when I get home.

Also, as much as I thought haggis was just the outside world’s way of giving Scotland a hard time, it really is a big deal here! That or they are embracing the fun poked at themselves by showing it off like it’s something to be proud of. For instance, you can buy Haggis pizza… or haggis-flavoured potato chips (or “crisps” as they are called here).

The main difference between home and here: the traffic. Drivers are extremely aggressive and I am sure that these people are all perfectly nice people but they are not used to yielding to pedestrians. At all. This, combined with the fact that I am still not used to (nor do I believe I ever will be) the idea that traffic is going in the opposite direction!

So yesterday we went into Edinburgh. How absolutely beautiful that city is. Everything is so old but the crowds are so lively, and so international. It is the beginnings of the Fringe Festival and so every street that we visited was just chocablock with people. We had lunch in a pub. And we walked around for hours and did some shopping. So many touristy boutiques. My brothers bought these really cool old pocket watches.

This morning, my mum and brother and me took the 5:50 train into Glasgow and then from the train station took a bus to the airport to meet my dad. His flight, contrary to our disastrous one was free of any problems and he arrived half an hour earlier than expected. He was surprised to see us as we had decided last minute that it would a nice thing to do. We picked up our rental car. Now, cars here are much much smaller than back home. The whole time I’ve been here I have only seen a single pick-up truck and an SUV is not a regular sighting. Anyway, our rental car is a Mercedes (how luxurious!) and it’s one size up from what the website described as “compact.” It would probably fit about five pieces of medium-sized luggage if we are lucky, which will be a mighty stretch when you consider that the five of use travelled here with sixteen pieces of luggage between us. It should be very interesting when we attempt to pack up and drive down to London at the end of August.

I am now off to a Pub Night!

Here’s To My Very First Post

So I left Vancouver at 3:25p.m. on Friday, August 7th. I don’t know if I have ever been so devastated in my life. All I could think about for the next twenty four hours was how much I wanted to come home. I guess I still feel a little like that now but I know that I need to do this (and besides,  I can’t very well afford to come home anyway)

We stopped over in Calgary, and then flew straight to Manchester. I am not sure about most other airlines but on the one that I was flying with, you are required to pay for everything (stopping just short of using the toilets). Luckily, when my parents booked the tickets, they had preordered the food, which turned out to be a delightful mash of stew, green beans and Mexican rice. Suffice to say, I was so hungry, I’d eat anything they put in front of me. I do feel the need to comment on the flight attendants. Each and every one of them had a Scottish accent. I knew that I could have a hard time understanding the accent at first, but it was like they were speaking a different language. I must get used to this.

Upon arriving in Manchester, the problems began. For some strange reason, there was one of those stair trucks sitting in the middle of the runway (as an Arrested Development fan, this seemed to me the most hilarious oddity). Of course, it was not supposed to be here and so while we were taxiing to the gate, the tip of our wing made contact with the stairs and then we were done for. They attempted to fix it (after all, we still had to fly to Glasgow) and so we waited and waited. They finally let us off the plane to wait, and after about two hours, they had finally arranged for coaches to take us up to Glasgow. All was well, aside from the fact that this bus ride takes about five hours, on top of which we had to catch another bus into Stirling, an additional hour.

Finally! Just about twenty four hours after we had begun, we arrived at the Stirling University dorms, which will be our home base (with the SFU and RMM pipe bands) until the end of August. It is a beautiful set of residences. They are very old but have clearly been recently refurbished. Each one of us has a separate bedroom, which comes with a teeny tiny bed, a desk, some shelves, a wardrobe and a sink. We all share a bathroom and shower (or a WC as they would call it here) and a kitchen. The one main downside is that there is not internet here. In order to use the internet, I have to make the grueling fifteen minute trek to the McDonalds just over the bridge.

On Sunday my mum and brother visited Perth to play in the Highland Games there while my brother and I visited the city of Stirling. To my surprise, almost everything is open on Sundays. I was able to get a cell phone (and man are they cheaper here) and now I can call all of my new friends all over the UK…

We also visited Stirling University. Seemingly smaller than Simon Fraser, there’s something to be said for having a university in the middle of the Scottish countryside complete with a lake in which you can actually swim.

Yesterday we took the train to Glasgow. Iain’s band played at St. George’s Square as part of an annual piping festival held in Scotland every year called Piping Live. I have never seen such a congregation of pipers. My brother and mum and I went shopping on the high street. Generally, things are more expensive here but the price you see is what you pay as all taxes are included in everything. This is very unfamiliar to me but it makes paying so much easier.

Today, we went grocery shopping and then I (typically) came to the McDonalds. I have yet to visit a pub which is surprising. Hopefully I’ll be doing that soon. They have imposed a new rule here. To buy alcohol (from the grocery store) you must be 18. They reserve the right to ask you for ID if you look like you are under 21. At the pub, however, you may drink at any age (over 5) so long as you’re with someone who is over 18 (or else looks over 21 and will therefore not be asked to show ID). I am so intrigued by how relaxed all of these rules are over here. But I suppose drinking has always been a cultural thing here and these new rules are just an attempt to ensure safety.

I will be writing soon.