Step to Me

As I was writing things down in my planner this past week, I began to realize how fast time is really flying by while I'm here. I counted down the days and as of this week, I have less than 100 days left abroad. Cry cry. Although I absolutely love BC and St. Louis, I really could stay in Glasgow for a while longer. And a long while at that. Every time someone asks me how I'm liking Glasgow, the only thing I can say is that I never want to leave. This country is incredible and it's unfortunate that I only have a short period of time to enjoy it. It's also unfortunate that time flies when you're having fun, because it's practically impossible not to have fun here. I know that when I leave I'm going to have serious withdrawal. It's definitely going to be difficult going back to 40-hour work weeks for the summer. I don't even want to think about it!

Last week was pretty typical, although there seems to be more work going on than usual. The deadline for the entrepreneurship project is rapidly approaching, so we've been meeting twice a week to make sure everything is perfect. On Wednesday of last week, we had a group meeting after our lecture, where we decided we needed to check out some prices on bedding, towels, cookery, cutlery, crockery, etc., so Seb, Simon, Chris and I all piled into Seb's car and drove to Ikea. As soon as we walked into the store, however, instead of checking prices we headed straight upstairs to the café to get some of Ikea's famous Swedish meatballs. After our feast, we wandered through the store and gathered some pricing information for our project. This week we've almost completed the business plan in its entirety, so things are going well. Our goal is to have the plan finished by next Thursday (although it's actually due on March 8th) because we're all going out of town the weekend before it's due.

After conquering the pyramid when Hannah visited, we've grown tired of the Hive and have been switching up our usual Thursday night routines. This week we went to Bamboo, which is a club that we've been to before. It's fairly relaxed and drinks are outrageously cheap, so it's the perfect place for us. This time we discovered another room in Bamboo. This room's DJ plays more R&B music than the pop music we're used to. It was definitely a fun discovery -- that is until we got into a fight! There is a Scottish stereotype that all Scottish people like to fight. So far we haven't really encountered anyone fitting that stereotype but on this fateful Thursday, we met quite a few girls who fit the bill. These girls were aggressive to begin with, we're not sure why, but when one of them poured a drink all over Jess, things got ugly. We really have no idea what her motive was for doing this, but the next thing we know there are two or three girls spitting in Briana's face and pulling Laura Kelley's hair. It was disastrous. Luckily the boys we were with were able to hold the girls back until the bouncer got there to carry those crazies out. It was an interesting night, to say the least. Surprisingly that fight hasn't lessened our love for Bamboo -- we went back this past Thursday night (and avoided all altercations)!

After an eventful Thursday night, we had a more relaxed rest of the weekend. Friday we went to cheesy pop, as usual. If it's possible, each week cheesy pop gets better and better and always ends far sooner than I want it to. On Saturday, Laura C's parents met us in Edinburgh. It was so great to get to meet her parents. As I said in my last post, I always love meeting people's parents, and this trip certainly didn't let me down. During the day, we all went shopping because Liam and Ted wanted to buy kilts. In Glasgow, kilts are relatively expensive and even though they can cost a lot, many of them aren't made particularly well because they're aimed at tourists. The boys had done some research and found a vintage store that sells vintage kilts, so we used the GPS software on my iPod touch (thanks to my grandparents!) to locate the store before we got off the train. The store was crazy and full of every type of vintage clothing you could imagine plus some absolutely insane costumes. They even had the red pleather suit that Britney Spears wears in her Oops... I did it again video. Ted and Liam both bought some stylish kilts and the traditional socks that go with them. The girls, on the other hand, didn't get anything except for a fashion show from Ted and Liam. I'm not complaining, though. Seeing the boys in skirts was totally worth it.

The crazy kilt store in Edinburgh

Ted and his kilt

Saturday night, we enjoyed drinks with Laura's parents at World's End, a pub that houses part of the Flodden Wall, which was built to protect Edinburgh from the English in the 1500s. When we had finished our beers and ciders, we walked up the Royal Mile in search of a place large enough for the 10 of us to have dinner. We ended up at two five-person tables in a cute restaurant near the castle. It was here that I had quite the culinary experience: I tried haggis for the first time! Haggis is the national dish of Scotland and is comprised of sheep's heart, liver, and lungs. Although it sounds absolutely disgusting, it was surprisingly good. Once we had all finished our meals, Ted suggested we go to the Balmoral Hotel, which is the choice hotel of Sean Connery. Here we had some incredibly delicious drinks and just relaxed after a long day. Ted had play practice early the next day so he left early, but not before paying for everyone's drinks! Shocked, we all walked home raving about Ted and how perfect he is.

The Balmoral Hotel

Sarah and her delicious drink

We parted from Laura's parents once we got back to the hotel and got ready to experience a night on the town in Edinburgh. Jess, who goes to Smith, has a friend studying abroad at the University of Edinburgh, so we got in touch with her and she agreed to show us the hot spots in Edinburgh. We decided to go to Vodka Revolution, which is where we went in Newcastle, and walked in to find quite the scene. There were men in women's dresses with lipstick all over their faces, girls in multiple costumes, and just weird stuff all around. Apparently there were a bunch of "hen parties" (bachelorette parties) going on that night, so it was pretty comical to watch. We settled into a booth and just hung out for the entire night. Vodka Revolution closed earlier than we were expecting, so after we left we were on the hunt for somewhere else to play. We ended up at a burlesque club called Siglo, which was anything other than a burlesque club. Basically it was a bunch of intoxicated older people dancing inappropriately with one another. Since Siglo was clearly not our type of venue, we decided to head back to the hotel in hopes that the hotel bar would be open. It was. We ended up purchasing approximately 15 cans of Pringles, a few bottles of cheap wine, and five BLT sandwiches from Gordon and Craig, the bartender and concierge, who were obsessed with us. We enjoyed our provisions in our hotel room while we watched the olympics and laughed about our night. All in all, I'd have to say that this night was one of my favorite nights in Scotland.

The Family at Vodka Revolution

This past week has gone by in a haze. I'll post more on it later since there's a lot to cover.