I finally have internet!

Hello all,
Wow... this is going to be one long post. I haven't had internet in my flat until today. :( So much has happened in the last week and few days. I'll go day by day so I can try and remember everything that has happened.

Friday, Sept 11
So my trip didn't start off quite as I'd expected. My flight out of Milwaukee was supposed to leave at 1:05pm and fly to Newark, NJ and then onto Glasgow, Scotland. I was supposed to arrive Saturday at 7:30am their time. Just a quick note, Scotland is 6 hours ahead of all of you. As dad and I got to the airport and were checking in the lady told me that there was bad whether, a.k.a. thunderstorms and such (which I find funny because we fly with ice on the ground, I think they need to toughen up) so she decided to send me on a bus, yes a bus... to Chicago O'Hare Airport to catch a flight at 5pm to Heathrow airport in London. Bad idea, that is the worst airport... it's super busy and has super intense security! Anywho, before I got on the bus to Chicago, I met a SUPER nice couple that were heading to Glasgow as well, so I buddied up with them. And of course dad felt better. ;) so I got on the plane and the flight was fine. I sat next to a lady from San Diego who was heading to Ireland for something related to golf. The airplane was really nice, except that I was right by the bathrooms. But we all had our own television screen and could watch movies or television shows. It was a 7 or so hour flight, I didn't really sleep at all. So we get to Heathrow airport and have 1 hour and 50 min to catch our next flight at 8:40am. We had to sit in so many lines and go through so much security that when we got to where we needed to purchase our ticket, they told us we were too late.. we were literally 2 minutes late. Not to go into too much depth about this horrible Heathrow experience, I went through security 3 times, the customs thing where they check your passport twice, had my picture/eye taken twice. Finally we got on a flight for 1:30pm. If I had not been with that couple, (their names were Linda and Doug) I probably would have been stuck there a lot longer and it would have been horrible. I finally got to Glasgow around 3pm. Got picked up from the airport at 5pm and brought to my flat. I met one of my flatmates at the airport, her name is Katie and she is from Maryland.

We got to our flat finally around 7pm, mind you, now I had been awake for 30ish hours. When we first arrived none of our flatmates were around. We attempted to find the grocery store, that took awhile. It is called Tesco. After we got back, we met our flatmates. All of us are international students. There are 6 of us total: 1 from Germany - Britta; 1 from Mexico - Maria; 1 from Malta (an island south of Italy) - Stephanie; 2 from America - Katie (Maryland) and Caitlin (California). They are all soooo nice and fun to hang out with.

So that night I slept 12 hours and I'm sure I could have slept much more except we had a meeting for all international students.

Sunday 13 Sept
Sunday we pretty much got acclamated to the uni and the town of Stirling. That night, a guy by the name of Fraser came to our flat. He is dating a girl from my college (St. Norbert) and she put me in touch with him. He is sooo nice, except his accent is so hard to understand. The English/British accent is a piece of cake. Try listening to a Scottish accent and it'll take you a bit to understand them, and then they throw in words that you have no idea what they mean. There are also different kinds of Scottish accents. Glasgow has a very thick accent and that's where Fraser is from. I'm still trying to understand everything he is saying. He was over for quite a while answering questions we had and telling us stories. Glasgow and Edinburgh are HUGE rivals. Oh, for all of you wondering how to pronounce Edinburgh it is pronounced, Edinbura. The gh is not g as in English as we know it.

So it kind of sucks that we have to pay for electricity, heat, and the water heater... who has ever heard of paying for a water heater?! I also have to pay for a bus pass. I take the bus to the uni everyday. I like living in town though because it is close to the grocery store and all the pubs and clubs and other restaurants. It's a nice place to live.

Monday 14 Sept
Had some more meetings for international students. I can't really remember everything that we did. We did have to figure out our class schedules. They do things funny here. Some how two of my classes had a lecture that was at the same time, so I had to change the class, or module as they call it. I was kind of freaking out during the week until Wednesday to see if I could get into a class. But it all worked out. Monday night Fraser invited me and my flatmates to a pub called the Corn Exchange. We met some of his friends. It was a lot of fun, especially since now we know more than one Scottish person. The Scottish are very adament about buying you a beer. You can't say no. As we were leaving, one of the guys really wanted me to try Haggis. So I did even though Katie told me not to. I think it tasted fine, but the trick is to not know what you are eating. I still do not know what Haggis is made of and please don't tell me because I enjoyed it. I don't know if I can once I find out what is in it.

Tuesday 15 Sept
I can't really remember what we did during the day.. short term memory loss lol.. Oh wait, I remember I finally found hangers to finish unpacking all my clothes...but that night Fraser invited us to Studio which is one of two bars that they have in their student union. It's pretty sweet! We watched some football (don't say soccer here, they don't like that). Everyone is very intense on their football. It's insane. After we went back to his flat, which is on campus. We met the rest of his flatmates. Everyone here is sooo nice!

Wednesday 16 Sept
Some people started classes, I didn't though. We took a bus tour of Stirling in the afternoon. It was really cool. We saw the Stirling castle. Fraser invited us out to dinner that night so Katie and I went with him and one of his flatmates to a Chinese restaurant. It was expensive and was different from our Chinese restaurants back home. And oh yeah, for any of you who have facebook saw that I mentioned Macaroni and Cheese does NOT taste the same.. who would've thunk, such an easy thing and it can't taste the same. :( After dinner we went to a pub to watch football. Then we went out to the uni's dance club for Dave Pierce (apparently he's a really good DJ??? not really sure lol) So crazy..

Thursday 17 Sept
Still no class for me. I slept a lot lol. And then I had one of the guys show me where my classes were. The buildings are very confusing! Then I went with him and the other guys to watch some more football at the Studio. Never watched so much in my life... but it's different here. They get into it way more so it's actually fun to watch. After, Fraser offered to drive me and two of the other girls home.. firsst of all sitting in the passenger seat is very weird.. because I feel like I should be driving. and second he made me shift gears. I'll be a pro by the time I get home lol...

So my class schedule is as follows...
Mon: 9am-10am People and the Environment lecture
4pm-5pm History: Kinship and Nationhood: Medieval Scotland c.1100-1513 lecture
Tues: 11am-12pm Religion in Culture: problems of representation lecture
2pm-3pm Religion in Culture seminar
Thurs: History seminar, except at the moment I don't know what time, that could be an issue lol
Fri: 12pm-1pm History lecture
1pm-2pm Science lecture
2pm-3pm Religion lecture
So as you can tell I only have 8 hours of class a week. It's nice.

Friday-Sunday
Friday I started class finally. It wasn't too bad. I like the classes. We went to a snowboarding and skiing show thing on campus... it was set up on one of their hills. It was pretty sweet. The weekend was very slow. A lot of people go home. So we all just chilled. I brought a Disney Princesses and a Cars coloring book, so we spent a lot of time doing that. We also went to a rugby game on Saturday. That was interesting. I do not understand the sport, but I will figure it out! We did some exploring of the city too. Sunday we had people over and cooked them dinner. I also bought alcohol from the grocery store for the first time... nice feeling since it's completely legal here! We met a lot more Scottish people.

Monday 21 Sept
Class, then tried to figure out my internet, then more class. Then that night we colored some more.. we are now all reverting back to our childhood :) Then we went to a club called Dusk. Apparently Monday nights are Dusk and Thursday nights are Fubar?? Or so we are told. It was a lot of fun.. it was crazy!

That brings us to today... Tues 22 Sept
I had class, then I finally got internet and I had class again. Tonight I believe we are going to a pub?? Not sure yet.

I absolutely love it here. It is very different, but it's a nice change.

Some of the words I've learned so far:
queue = a line of people
baerm = the way Edinburgh people say child or kid, there's a Glasgow version but I forgot
bin = garbage can.. do not say garbage or trash can, they laugh at you
pants = underwear... be careful how you use that word as well
ken = something like... okay?
uni = university
wee = little or small
gid = good
rubbish = garbage, nonsense
quid = slang for money, like we say a million bucks, they'd say a million quid
They say aye a lot and nae bother...

And oh yeah... their accents are hot!!!! :O)