Dad's Visit

My Dad came for a visit! I had only been in Scotland for two weeks so it wasn’t like I was able to show him around, that was really Marc’s doing. Dad was stopping in Scotland for a few days on his way back from Afghanistan. He’d been six months without a drink, so he was pretty excited for that first “dram and a pint” with us! The place we were at was doing a polish night so we stayed for that and had a lovely meal. The next day I took dad around to see my Uni and that afternoon we visited the Glengoyne Distillery. I don’t think Dad was that impressed because although he was super excited about all the whisky he was to consume, he didn’t end up leaving the distillery with a bottle. That evening we had a really good meal at a sort of “gastro pub” which had been converted from an old church. The next day was dad’s last full day, and lucky for him it was a beautifully sunny day! So we took that opportunity to visit Loch Lomond, a beautiful lake just a half hour away. We spent the morning walking through cute little towns along the lake, and dad found his favourite scotch that he’d tried since he’d been here. So he decide to take a bottle home “for Karen.”

That afternoon we took him into the city centre and Marc took him to a great whisky bar that I think dad enjoyed very much  I enjoyed the free wifi… Our final meal was at a great little Scottish place called Roastit Bubbly Jocks. It was BYOB so we took some of our favourite Chilean wine. The service and the food were great! But by this point my liver was starting to feel like pate from all the rich food, but I recovered eventually. I was really happy Dad was able to visit. Hopefully we gave him a good impression of Scotland so that he’ll come back for a proper holiday next year! It was really nice seeing my Papa 

Glasgow

I’ve been in Glasgow now for about a week, which is just enough time for me to figure my way to Uni from my flat, and that’s about it... Glasgow is relatively small though, the underground is just one line, or circle rather. But the nice thing about that is you can go either direction in the circle; a plus when comparing it to the loop on the Chicago El. They call it the clockwork orange because it’s completely orange and well, it’s shaped like a clock.

There are two nice bits of Glasgow, the city centre and the west end. Well, I’ve only been to those two areas so far, and since I’m an expert in Scottish cities those are obviously the only nice parts of Glasgow…  I live in the west end where the University of Glasgow is. I really like it! All the housing is “tenement” style, which to me means they are all very old beautiful buildings, four stories tall, with 12 feet high ceilings and huge bay windows; really spacious and really nice. Three main differences would be the radiator style heating, absence of a garbage disposal/dishwasher, and the absence of a clothes dryer. Instead we have this awesome pulley-line system that runs along the ceiling of our kitchen. Knots in the “pulley-rope” hook the rope at different levels. So for example you would let all of the rope go and hook at the last knot to hang your clothes on the line, then pull the rope hooked up to a pulley and hook it on one of the first knots so that your clothes hang over head to dry.

My Uni is seriously Hogwarts, circa 1451 (I know Hogwarts wasn't around in 1451, but if it were, I would imagine it to look like my Uni). I’m not joking, it completely gothic style. But cool! It’s a pretty small campus, and unfortunately I don’t have any of my classes in the Hogwarts bit. But, I am in some old, grand, houses that had been converted into office and lecture buildings. I’m doing my Masters in Public Health or MPH, and I was surprised how small the programme is at Glasgow. It’s good for me because I’m pretty sure I’ll get all the help and guidance I need. There are only four full time students and maybe 10 students in total! I haven’t actually started any classes yet, just been attending a bunch of introductions to the programme and refreshers courses. We’ll see how it goes, it sounds pretty demanding doing the MPH full time in one year, but I’m pretty sure if I keep on top of things and get ahead when I can, I should be fine.

Inverness

Marc picked me up from Edinburgh airport and drove us to our flat in Glasgow where I dropped off my suitcase and packed a weekend bag. We were heading up north that evening to spend the weekend on the Black Isle (actually a peninsula) which is about 20 minutes away from Inverness; the capital of the Scottish Highlands. Also, home to the Loch Ness monster, which I saw! I took a picture with him too.

The drive up was nice; we stopped off in the cutest little town called Pitlochry for a “pit-stop” har har har. I saw lots of heather (a purple plant that covers the Scottish country side) and quite enjoyed the drive up while getting used to the narrower roads on the left and round abouts. Marc’s parents live up on the Black Isle and I was going to meet them for the very first time.

They were very nice folks, it was quite nice spending my first weekend in Scotland with a family being well fed. And I was well fed! Marc’s dad is French so we had French food; which confused me because I didn’t realise you get a salad and cheese AND dessert after the main course. It was so good, but I was stuffed by the end! All in all, a pretty great first weekend.