WIND!

The entire city of Glasgow shut down on account of wind one day. I had a French class at noon that was cancelled. I soon found out the entire University would shut down that day for wind. So even if I wanted to be studious and do some coursework in the library, I’d have to wait until the next day.

Honestly, I think people were just keen for a day off. It was getting close to Christmas and about a month prior, half the employed population (the public sector) was on strike for a day, to what seemed little effect. Marc was the only one in the office that day and couldn’t actually get any work done that afternoon as every business he called was closed due to the wind.

We couldn’t really figure out what all the fuss was about. Sure the wind was howling against the windows but other than that we couldn’t make out any problems. So we decided it would be a great time to venture into town to get some Christmas shopping done, as we assumed people would be shut up at home safe from the dangerous wind. We were right, it was a ghost town! And Glasgow is known for its shopping so there are always plenty of people about. Not that day, the worst of the damage I saw was a lit up hanging Christmas ornament that had fallen into the street and blocked some traffic.

Perhaps there was some potentially dangerous situations avoided by shutting everything down on account of the wind, but to me it just kind of seemed like an overreaction. Little did I know that wind would be back and ruin some of my travel plans… Marc and I were on a train home from Inverness after spending the holidays with his parents up north. An hour in and we get an announcement from the train conductor saying they will be terminating service at Perth (an hour away from Glasgow) due to adverse weather conditions in Glasgow.

What were the adverse weather conditions? None other than wind! So we’re thinking ok, maybe it’s just a wind storm, we’ll hang out for a couple of hours on the train and they’ll start up service after. An hour into waiting at the Perth train station, we get kicked off the train as it left to go back north. We then get a bit antsy wondering if and when they will start up service again. Oh, and according to the rail service, no buses were running because the highways have shut down as well. We find out there is brush blocking the tracks at several points along the route and it doesn’t seem like rail service will be a viable option if we want to get home that night (Marc had work the next day).

We find out that in fact buses are running and book the next one out. The driver is quite funny about the whole situation and begs us to hang on. The drive itself isn’t bad except for a couple of points when you could feel the wind pushing the bus. We also drove by a huge lorry (semi-truck) turned over in a ditch off to the side of the road, that wasn’t very encouraging. So I guess the wind was a pretty big deal. 200 mph is hurricane type wind. I thought I came from the windy city, but I think Glasgow deserves an honourable mention; ‘’Glasgow, the unofficial windy city.’’ We did eventually make it home safe and sound and only about three hours later than scheduled.

My First Scottish Ceilidh

November was Ceilidh (pronounced Kay lee) season and of course I had to take part in this Scottish country dancing tradition! When I arrived, the International Student Welcome had a Ceilidh planned for us, which I attended, but it doesn’t really count. Basically, it was a bunch of international students many of whom English was not their first language, trying to comprehend the steps that the MC shouted out in his thick Glaswegian accent. It was fun, but most of us were confused. I was excited for a proper ceilidh where everyone would be in kilts and actually know the steps.

The best way for me to describe ceilidh dancing is to compare it to square dancing. There is a live band that will announce the songs and if you’re lucky go over the steps at the beginning. And you’ve always got a partner and either dance around in a big circle of couples or you line up and face your partner in groups of 4-8 couples. There’s lots of twirling and stomping and it’s surprisingly fast paced, you could easily work up a sweat doing this kind of dancing. Like square dancing, which used to be danced at traditional American weddings, ceilidh dancing still takes place in the modern day Scottish wedding. Everyone knows how to do it because they teach it in school and people actually do it outside of school! I really like that. We were taught how to square dance once in gym, but I can’t remember any of the steps because I never had an opportunity to practice it outside of that one class. I’ve never seen square dancing at a wedding. Ceilidh dancing is a lot like square dancing; it’s old fashioned, but everyone does it, young and old! It’s fun too.

Movember is when guys grow out a moustache for the whole month of November to raise awareness for testicular cancer. There’s a similar practice in the US, I’ve heard it called No-Shave November. Anyway, most ceilidhs have a fund raising purpose (although not all, sometimes they are put on just to get the community/family together). This ceilidh was for testicular cancer and had an auction, raffle and pound slide. You had to slide a pound coin as close as you could to a bottle of whiskey and whoever was closest won the bottle. Oh that’s the other thing I forgot to mention, usually you bring your own bottle to ceilidhs, steak out a table, get drunk with your friends and dance all night. It’s a good time. If you’re ever in Scotland, try and get yourself to an authentic Scottish ceilidh, they are loads of fun!

St. Andrews: The Actual Place

I joined the international student society when I first arrived at Glasgow Uni, and every weekend it seems they have a trip planned to some place in Scotland. I finally decided to go on one of the day trips to St. Andrews. I went with my friend Josephine from the MPH programme. We were both very disappointed with the castle, or lack thereof. Among many of the activities we were promised on the trip, the castle was one of them. Little did we know they were referring to rubble. O well, at least it was a beautiful sunny day and we got some good pics.

St. Andrews itself is a quaint little place. The University is where Prince William met Kate and there’s even a little café that proudly proclaims on the window ‘'the café where Wills met Kate for coffee.’’ It’s a well-respected university, the 3rd oldest in the English speaking world (behind Oxford and Cambridge and Glasgow being the 4th). It was quiet too; for a University town I was expecting to see more people about on a beautifully sunny day.

St. Andrews is also known for its golf course. It’s supposed to be one of the oldest in the world and is known as ‘’the home of golf.’’ I spent half the day looking for this golf course which was odd because this town was tiny! I didn’t realise that the tiny patch of green that I had passed up in the beginning was it! I was expecting a grand course with rolling hills and steep cliffs overlooking the ocean. Perhaps I just saw a tiny bit of it and the rest was closed off to the public or something, I’m not really sure. There was a nice gift shop/museum with a statue of Arnold Palmer and replicas of famous golfer’s grips. I didn’t go in the museum; perhaps if I did I would have understood the layout of the golf course better.

It was a nice day trip. I had a horrible bought of car-sickness (bus-sickness?) though. It was intolerable! For some reason I can’t deal with the narrow and windy roads of Scotland. It’s weird though, I took 24 hour buses throughout South America and every time you went over a mountain you had to wind your way up and down it, and I never got sick there… I’ll need to find some car-sickness wristbands for the next time.

Bed Sheets

For some reason the Scots don’t believe in bed sheets. You have the fitted sheet that goes on the bottom of the mattress and then the comforter. There is no sheet in between you and the comforter. Instead, they make removable sheets for the comforter and you wash that sheet instead. It’s like a duvet. I don’t really like the concept because sometimes the comforter is too warm, and you just want to be covered by a bed sheet. Plus, changing the sheet on the comforter is so much more complicated than just putting a fresh sheet on the bed. Hermmff. Grumble grumble.

St. Andrew's Day

Yesterday was St. Andrew’s Day, and I didn’t even know it till I got to my usual Wednesday evening Zumba class. (Our friend from Edinburgh, Scott, does Zumba btw!) Our instructor reminded us that we had come for a special St. Andrew’s Day Zumba and he disappeared into the back and started playing some pipe music over the speaker system. For those of you back home, traditional Scottish music is pretty much the same as traditional Irish music, very Celtic. After a bit, “Sandy Zumba,” our instructor, emerged in a kilt and sporran (Gaelic for purse). Scottish Zumba…It was good crack!

If you’ve never seen a proper kilt, they are quite heavy! Loads of material wrapped round and round saving space for a bit of middle age weight gain. Scottish men typically are given a kilt at their 18th birthday and they wear it to formal occasions for the rest of their lives. Midway through Zumba, Sandy was getting quite warm, I could tell. As you probably guessed, a strip tease ensued. Off came the kilt to reveal some very pasty white legs and a pair of Scottish flag short shorts (like really short and really tight, cerca 1960s basketball shorts). All in all it was good fun. I really do appreciate how Scotland has kept enthusiasm for one of its oldest traditions in modern times, when let’s be honest, how much more feminine can a skirt and purse get? Although, I think certain lines between masculinity and femininity are less clear here as I once saw a man on a British reality show straightening his hair…
Surprisingly enough, I knew in advance that yesterday, was going to be strike day before I knew it was St. Andrew’s Day. I feel a little bad for Scotland for that. Apparently, St. Andrew’s Day is supposed to be the national holiday. You know how every other country always celebrates an Independence Day with much vigour and national pride? Well what does Scotland have? They never really got away from the English…O well they have ceilidhs!

Didn’t really follow the strike too much, just knew it would be a day off from class! It was a public sector strike, only not really. It was planned out in advance, and they kept a 1/3 of public services open. Their hospitals obviously had to keep running for emergencies and some dentists stayed open as well. Most kids didn’t have school though. I guess the Royal Mail isn’t public sector? I sent a package yesterday. Anyway, from what I gather it didn’t do a whole lot. What can you expect from a half arsed strike? I’m not even sure everyone in the public sector really wanted to strike. I don’t actually know, shouldn’t be commenting on it…But yah… Happy St. Andrew’s Day!

Xscape!

Went to Xscape the other night, it was the coolest place/entertainment centre I had ever seen! Imagine every single thing you do outside or any sort of entertainment activity and this place has an indoor version. I’m assuming the reasoning for bringing it indoors is because it rains a lot and you don’t have the seasons to worry about to ruin your plans.

For example, the main attraction is an indoor sky slope. It’s like a bunny hill size equivalent, but you can ski here anytime of the year! It’s not even that expensive either, I’m coming back as soon as I get some ski pants, or I should say, trousers. We went for bowling, but there’s also a movie theatre, mini golf, laser tag, bumper cars, a high ropes course and rock wall, an arcade, restaurants, shopping all in one gigantic centre. I even saw carnie rides out front. It has everything, downside being the ever presence of NEDs (Non-Educated Delinquents). They’re basically little punks who are annoying and usually up to no good. They also speak another language; I don’t even think it can be classified as English.

Still, I reckon Xscape is one of the most unique epicentres I’ve ever seen. You could spend a whole day there without stepping out. Maybe even a whole week! That was the one thing I didn’t notice, no hotels; they could really market the ideal of a family fun destination for out-of-towners. Oh wait, I just remembered the advert for the Great Wolf Lodge in Wisconsin (or is it Canada?). No indoor water park I’m afraid…But there is a Nando’s, which is amazing.

Erin Visits

Literally two hours after my Dad leaves, our friend Erin, whom we met in Chile, arrives. Erin is in the midst of further traveling, on a sort of around the world trip before heading back to South America. This time instead of Chile, she will be heading for Colombia! I am a little jealous she gets to go back to South America, and I think Marc is too. We always talk about how much we want to go back. Life is just simpler, and you rarely seem to stress out there, upside-down, on the other side of the world.

There’s a cheese shop in the west end (where I live and go to Uni in Glasgow) where Marc had forbidden me to let him go. The reason he is not allowed in this cheese shop is because once he ended up spending over 100 quid on cheese…in one visit…which only lasted him a week! Nobody should be consuming that much cheese…I don’t care how delicious. Anyway, because Erin was here I let him go and we had a lovely Scottish brie.

We also visited Edinburgh where we met Marc’s old flatmates for lunch. No trip to Edinburgh would be complete without a visit to the Edinburgh Castle, which was cool. I’m planning on visiting loads of castles this year so like the cool person I am, I got Marc and I signed up for the Historic Scotland membership. It gets us into every castle in Scotland for free, and we get discounts on English historical sites as well!

We had a wee walk around and found the café where JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book! It had changed names since then (15 years!) so it wasn’t even really the “same” place, but still pretty cool. We didn’t go in, it was way too crowded and I guess the coffees there are like £5 ($7.50) so I wasn’t too keen. And it was getting late, so we needed to hope on the train back to Glasgow.

Erin was on her way to Norway so there ended our first round of visitors. It was nice though, having visitors. I was brand new to Scotland so I wasn’t the best guide, but at least Marc had lived in Glasgow for some time. Round one of visitors had finished, and I can’t wait for more! Come see meeee!