Beck's Birthday

This is Sophie (we're going to Spain together) talking, and Paula is in the background in the gray shirt.

The short girl is Erin who invited me to Austria w/her.

Everyone stuffed in our kitchen.

My hair was Paula's masterpiece...too bad it was really windy and a 20 min walk ruined the curls

Dancing...ppl keep taking my camera, I don't know who even had it at this point.

Girl I don't know, Becca #3, Dave, me

Me and Beck's

Jamie took my camera and took a pick of me and him.

Cairncrossers! Or at least half of us.

Becca, me and Beck's in the cage

Beck's pushed me in the cage reluctantly

Me, Anna and Erin

The awesome dance floor

I'd just like to say those weren't my drinks

Paula and Becca #3

Yesterday was Beck's Birthday. We had a party for her in the kitchen and then we went out to a club called Boho. It wasn't in the same place as the other clubs. The people in this club seemed pretty sleazy. There was a dancing cage and the dancefloor had colored tiles that lit up. There were guys who pretty much just stand around that dancefloor watching. It's creepy. The guys seem to be there just to pick up girls, and the girls are there to be picked up. Luckily we went with a group of about 20 ppl, and they all said they would never go to Boho alone or in a small group. But it was fun. I did really well socially! Too bad classes just ended today, now that I am comfortable with ppl, its almost over. Even at Tutorial today I was quite chatty. What is my problem? Anyways...I met a girl, Erin, here for the year from Canada. She lives across the street from me, and we were talking and she says she has housing until July and said if I wanted I could leave my stuff at her place, and she wants to go to Austria, but not alone, so I said I'd go with her!

I'm off to meet Ashlee and Katie for pizza to celebrate our last day of class!

Paisley

Becca's friend Colly (his real name is Collum. I hav also met ppl named Calum, I've never heard of these names b4. Popular names in scotland: guys its Iain [3 of my tutors/professors name] girls its Emma [my tutor's name and about 8 other girls in my tutorials] yes, we call our tutors by first name, its strange.)

Dark Streets of Paisley

Lost in Paisley

I went to Paisley, which is a 40 min. bus ride from Glasgow, with Becca and Paula for Becca's friend's bday. The trip started out rough. We met a guy on the bus who had a tag/detecter thing around his ankle and he had to be back in by 9pm or he would have to go back to jail. He had a thick Glaswegian accent that we could barely understand. He asked where we were from, and when I said the states he got all excited and said he wished he lived there b/c we have guns and its easier to just shoot someone than to stab them w/a knife. He said, with a knife you have to chase them and if they are really fat you have to stab them multiple times, with a gun its just a pull of the trigger. Then he laughed, so we laughed, nervously glancing at each other. He asked where we lived, and Becca was quick to tell him we went to a different Uni b/c if we said Glasgow Uni he would think we had money. Luckily shortly after this conversation he got off.

Becca didn't actually know where Colly, her friend, lived. Colly told us just stay on the bus til it stops. Emma said it was 40 mins. We stayed on the bus for almost an hour, then Becca called her friend and told him where we were and he said he didnt know where we were, so she asked the bus driver and he said we already passed it. We got off the bus, in what seemed like the middle of no where. It was dark, no taxi's in sight or other buses. We ended up walking and by luck coming upon the Uni her friend went to and he told us to wait there til he came and got us. We walked in the dark for a while and no one was around. All of a sudden a whole lot of guys appeared, just walking around. We were really nervous, especially when one of them said hi to us. Finally Becca's friend appeared from the way we had just walked. We were gonna walk back that way, but he said no it was dangerous at night. He asked us if we say the guy in the red track suit, we said yeah, Colly said he's a psychopath.

The party was fun, we ended up at a club, but the trains and buses stopped running so we just stayed in Colly's flat. Paula has a tendency to want to "flee" during a night out and at one point she said she was going back to cairncross and we were like what, ur gonna walk? And she just walked away from us. Needless to say, I got 1 hour of sleep last night.

We came back and made amazing bagel, bacon, lettuce and cucumber sandwiches this morning. Then Sophie and I booked our flights to Spain over spring break. We're flying from London to France to avoid passport checks by the Spainiards, then taking a train to Barcelona. We hope to cut thru Andorra on the train and some how eventually end up in Portugal b4 flying back to Glasgow. All in 5 days. We'll see how it works out, to save money and time we are thinking of just taking sleeper trains so we don't have to book hostels.

NEDs

I was walking thru Kelvin Park today (luckily with my friend Emily) and saw 2 guys shoving each other, then one of them punched the other in the face. Emily pretended not to look and we kept walking, but then I said, "did you see that?!" She said yeah, those are definitely NED's.
NED = Non Educated Delinquents.
One night a few weeks ago I also saw 2 NED's spray painting their symbol, sign, signature, i dunno what it was. But I have seen the same symbol various other places.
Needless to say, that was my wakeup call today as to why ppl keep telling me not to walk thru the park at night alone. It was good timing to, bcuz I went to a club w/Becca, her bro, Sophie and Rebecca #3 last night and we walked home thru the park at 3am, but we were with 3 guys so it was ok. I did learn that it is more dangerous for a man to get raped in the park than a woman.
I also went home alone on St. Patrick's Day, got lost, only had 5 pounds with me, couldn't find a taxi, none of the girls had their phones on, walked in the wrong direction and finally got a cab, which cost exactly 5 pounds, finally getting back to Cairncross around 4am, and I thought the girls had left the club already but somehow, in the midst of everything I beat them home. Needless to say, I will now stick to them like glue and NOT go off by myself.
*rolls eyes* at own personal stupidity.

Anyways....I gave my presentation for Scot Lit today. I am all finished for the year, next week is the last week of classes, then I don't have exams until May! I have only had 4 hours of sleep the past 2 nights. I felt fine today, I even wanted to go out again tonight, tho no one else would! I went to the movie screening for my Film&Tv class, and I almost fell asleep except that my head went backwards into the plastic on the seat and I jolted awake. Guess I was more tired than I thought lol. I'm going to bed early tonight...I'm going to Paisley w/Becca tomorrow to some kind of party...I don't know where Paisley is, but we have to take the train and I'm excited!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Kitchen decoration courtesy Becca

Becca drew shamrocks on all of us

My day started off rough. Fire alarm went off at 7:25am and we stood outside for 40 mins.
I was feeling all depressed cuz I hadn't talked to anyone the day before...what can I say, I'm needy.
My day picked up when Paula texted me and asked me if I wanted to meet her for lunch! I said sure, thinking it was just a last thought invite when she was meeting everyone else. It wasn't! It was just me and her! We sat at lunch for almost an hour. I talked alot, I get into this nervous chatter, but it was ok, she seemed like she had a good time.
I have a presentation on Thursday for Scot Lit. It was sunny today, so I took 4 walks. Didn't accomplish anything, really. On the fourth walk I met Sophie, who asked me to go w/her to an Irish Pub. I was all for it, tho I had no money w/me. I went anyways and we met Joanna and Anna, who live on our floor. There were also some other Americans there that I know. The pub was so busy and there was traditional Irish music and so much fun! I stayed for a couple hours, had a pint of guinness, then made my way back to Cairncross.
I went to the kitchen to cook my dinner, and Becca's mum, who's Irish, gave me some of her homecooked irish potatoes! I was very excited. I think I had a good Irish St. Patrick's Day, for being in Scotland!
Now I'm off to the clubs!♣

Random Tidbits

Style Comparisons

• Scotland: It's mostly the girls that have a different style from what i'm used to, rather than the guys. Girls have the side fringe going on (hence my new haircut). The majority of girls wear black leggins, usually with shoes similar to converses or keds, or boots. Usually with either a long shirt, sometimes buttondown with a big belt, or a skirt that is pulled really high up. They also tend to wear tank tops or "beaters", and this is considered club wear. As for accessories, big bracelets, necklaces and earings. Guys usually have longish hair, best i can compare it to is Edward in the Twilight movie (maybe cuz everyone is so pale here lol).
• Italy: Most of the people in Italy, because i did not see many teens or young adults, were what I would think of when I think Mafia, yeah i'm stereotyping. But the women wore big fur coats and the men wore suits.

Scots Language

For my Scottish Literature class, we had 2 lectures on the Scots Language, which is similar to English, but not. Here are some examples:

1. bairn = child
2. oot = out
3. worl = world
4. tae = to
5. auld = old
6. Jack walks oot to the hen hoose as usual, wee shed beside his mother's hoose. Oh, every nest is full o eggs, hens' eggs, duck eggs, the nests is all full. Jack picks up four o the big beautiful broon eggs oot o the nest, gaes back in an 'here, mother, th're fowr,' he said, 'two tae you, two to me.' De aul wumman says, 'I'll no be a minute, Jack.' It was a open fire they had. The wumman pulled the swar oot, put the fryin pan on, pit a wee bit o fat i the pan. She waitit an she waitit an she watcht, but the wee bit fat wadna melt. -Scottish Short Story: Death in a Nut

I learned what Posh (pronounced p oh sh, i pronounced it like wash, and everyone laughed at me) means: it is one of the heirarchy classes in Britain. These people are very class conscious. It goes Royalty, Nobility, Posh, Upper class, middle class, low class. One of the girls that hangs out with us, but not in our kitchen, is posh. She said she can't date anyone in a lower class than her. They even have a certain accent, b/c when they talk they keep a stiff upper lip.

I met Becca's mom and sister today. Her mom is abnormally tan for being from Ireland, a place that it rains an awful lot.

The Week I've Been Waiting For

Becca always makes Cucumber, ham and mayo sandwiches after clubbing.

Inside the club O'Couture...there are so many ppl in the clubs on a Wednesday night.

Rebecca #3, Becca (who can never seem to take a good pic) and Paula

Becca, Paula, me and Rebecca #3

Rebecca #3, Becca and me

My new haircut, I got a side fringe

This has been a good week, social wise lol! I went out with Becca and Paula, and we met another Rebecca who lives down the hall. She was super nice and really fun! The 3 of us went to Paula's futbol friend's flat, then to O'Couture. We had a great time!

The next day, it was a beautiful (bonny also means beautiful in scottish) sunny day, and i only had one lecture, so I was gonna go for a walk, maybe go shopping after lunch. I ran into Becca in the kitchen and she said she was gonna go shopping, and I ended up going with her and we went to a couple stores, and got a free hair styling and shampoo w/head and hand massage, just by chance meeting some guy on the street! Then we met Debbie and Emma for coffee. Unfortunately, everything closes at 5pm here, so we had to postpone our shopping and walked back with Debbie and Emma.

The next day, Paula and Fabian were in our room, and I really needed to read a book for English, and they were being loud so around 8:30pm I go to the kitchen to sit and read by myself in the quiet. Around 9pm, Becca comes in and we started talking, and ended up talking about religion and had a very philosophical deep conversation. Debbie and Emma walked in once, then Emma walked in later and was like are you two still having ur deep conversation? Then Carol walked in and kinda took part in the convo while she made a pizza. Finally Becks comes in with a guy from the 2nd floor, Jaime, and then he leaves and we talk to Becks for a while. Finally we're like what time is it? And Becks says half 11! We had been talking for over 2 hours! It was great! (needless to say i did not get my book read).

Friday, I went with Becca, Becks and Sophie (not Sophie from our kitchen that i'm going to spain with) to go shopping. Becca and Becks were super excited, they wanted me to get new club clothes. We split up in Primark (the cheap clothing store that EVERYONE shops at). Sophie did her own thing, but both Becca and Becks picked up soooo many clothes! When we went to the dressing room, there was a 6 item limit. Becks, Becca and I each took 6, and we had to leave the leftover outside the dressing rooms. They had picked out over 30 items of clothing. I had to try each thing on and then model it for them. It took almost 2 hours! But I ended up buying a pair of shorts, skirt, jacket, and 2 tops. Then we went to accessories and I got a bracelet pack, 2 necklaces and some hair ties that Becks and I are sharing. It was dark by the time we got back. Then we had dinner, got changed and went to the University club Cheesey Pop, which plays music from the 90's and 80's. It was pretty fun, but just me Becca and Paula, so it was kinda boring. We did meet a guy who wanted to keep doing magic tricks for us, then bought becca and I drinks!

Which brings me to today. I worked on an essay that I haven't finished reading the book yet, but its due Monday. I have 1,554 words out of 2,000 which I think is fantastic for only working on it today! I also have a presentation due on Thursday, which I've not read the book for yet either. That'll be tomorrow's project.

Paula and I went to the hairdresser today so I could get my hair cut. It was rather expensive, but I do like the fringe! So does everyone else! Paula said she liked it. I immediately went to Debbie's room to show her when I got back and she said she really liked it. Then Becca and Emma knocked on the door and were really excited to see it. Finally I was leaving to go for a walk and ran into Becks, who was super excited and can't wait to try out new styles on me for next time we go out! Tonight, Becca, Emma, Debbie and I made pancakes for dinner and had tea! I always feel bad cuz I never have any of the ingredients to cook the pancakes. So I offered to cook them. Debbie and i each had a frying pan, and I was doing good at first. Debbie messed one up, so Emma took over. Emma can flip the pancakes w/out the spatula, and she taught me to flip them as well, by my last pancake I had it down perfect! I was actually talking and part of the conversation and didn't feel awkward at all!

Bamboo

Debbie and I in our outfits

Emma and I doing our golf swings

Becca and me

Debbie and me

Emma and I trying to be gangsta

Becca and me

Kathleen, Emma, and Becca

I got back to Glasgow around 4pm, and I was feeling sick b/c I had been soak and wet all day Saturday, and had no dry shoes. However, Becca, Emma and Debbie asked me if I wanted to go out to the club Bamboo. I said yes...actually I said Heck Yeah! But to get in free, we had to dress like we were tennis or golf pros. The club was crowded and hot and had loud music, but it was fun! I also got my first chips and cheese (cheese fries!) in scotland! They were sooo good!

It was totally worth not getting to bed until 4am b/c I got to hang out w/Becca and Becks in their room b4 we left, and I was actually talking and it came naturally and easy! Then today I talked to Becca in the kitchen for an hour. She told me all about Ireland and "The Troubles" (she's Irish). There was a shooting yesterday in Ireland by the IRA, and Becca explained to me about everything that has been going on in Ireland. She is Catholic and from Northern Ireland (i think that's how it goes). Her father and his brother had to leave Ireland at one point b/c the IRA threatened to bomb their family shop. I think Ireland might be a dangerous place right now.

Loch Lomond

Emily, Kara, Lindsay and Katie w/Loch Lomond behind them

Emily and I after abseiling down that cliff behind us.

Katie got to hold an owl, named wol

Emily and I singing Karake!

Sheep dog taining

Me, Kara, Katie, Emily and Lindsay at our hostel

Katie, Lindsay and Emily dancing

Dinner after our extreme sporting day

Waterfalls run down the mountains, because there is snow on the top that melts.

Emily, Katie, Lindsay and Kara after we arrived at the hostel

I went to Loch Lomond w/IFSA Butler. There were 5 of us from Glasgow: me, Katie, Lindsay, Emily and Kara. There were 110 of us from Scotland Universities in general. We stayed at a hostel in a castle. Saturday, we went to this extreme sport place. Emily and I did Mountain Biking and Abseiling. It was very intense. It poured down rain, and we got muddy and soaked. My trainers (sneakers) smell like wet dog, I think I will have to throw them away. We biked thru forest and puddles and a bike course. The guide told us the puddles were deep, but Emily didn't believe him. She went thru a puddle and half her bike became submerged! We did a course around a pond, and a girl fell in the pond! The guide was laughing so hard, he couldn't get her out!
Next we did abseiling. Which included us having a harness, and climbing a 50 ft. cliff. Then we abseiled (repelled) down it. It was frightening. The guide told us to just let urself fall back until ur bum is even w/ur feet, you are in control of the rope and let urself down slowly. I was so scared I didn't look down the whole time! It was really slippery, too from all the rain. We also did an indoor rock wall climb, which I fell from, but luckily Emily was holding my rope and I only fell a couple feet.
That night, Emily, Katie, Lindsay and I sang Karaoke twice! I don't remember what we sang the first time, but the second time we sang I Would Walk 500 Miles. We were last, and most ppl had left, but when they heard us singing, 20 more ppl came back and danced! It was soo much fun!
The next day, we went to a national park. Lindsay and Kara (not outdoorsy at all) went to a grocery store for chocolate. Katie, Emily and I went for a walk in the park and ended up getting lost b/c we were frolicking in a field!
Next we went to a wool farm, where we learned how they train sheep dogs. It was snowing and freezing cold, but it was really interesting!
The whole weekend was really fun, and I became friends w/Emily, since we decided to do the same activities!

Clubbing...again ;)

Debbie, Emma, Sophie, Becca, Me, Joanna

Becca, Joanna, Becks, Debbie

Becks and Becca getting married in the pretend chapel...it was all very bizarre.

Me, Debbie and Becks
I finally finished my English essay today. Spent almost 3 hours at the library...most of that time was my stupidity and wasting money. We have print credits we have to pay for using the printers ahead of time. Well I didn't know I was out of credit, and I was wondering why it wouldn't print. I pressed the print button multiple times and went to 2 different computers, 8th floor and 2nd floor. I just kept running up and down the stairs, finally I went to check my print credits, and I was at -.30 pence! I was so mad! And all I had was a fiver, so I had to put 5 pounds on my account, and I thought it would print off, now that I had credits, but NOOOO, I had to print it off again! I'm sure I lost a good amount of money, and my essay is probably printed off at multiple printers in the library right now for everyone to steal! Not that it is any good, I have 0 confidence in this essay, I didn't even understand the question. *shrugs* oh well. I went clubbing last night! We went to Arches, but the girls wouldnt tell me anything about it, cuz it was so spectacular, we even had to buy our tickets online! Sophie also came with us this time, and everyone except Paula. I think she's still mad at Emma. Sophie didn't know that they weren't telling me, and Becks forgot and they accidently told me the arches had a pool! I wore my new outfit, a skirt, tights, tank top and flats. I let Becca curl my hair again, and Becks did my makeup, tho I don't like the makeup i think it makes me look kinda trashy, but Becks enjoys it, so she did mine and Sophie's. We finally get to Arches and it was crazy! They had pools (which seems kinda dangerous in a club but whatever) and they had blow up bouncy castles and a pretend church that Becks and Becca got married in and other things, that we didnt really see. It was strange, I think we were under a bridge, or something, but the inside looked kinda like a cave. I just love the club atmosphere, music and dancing. Sooo much fun. Its dangerous for me to go to the clubs, I enjoy it too much! If it were up to me, I'd go every night! The only downside is, I didn't get to bed til 4am, woke up at 6am freezing cold as usual, fell back asleep around 7 and got up at 9am. So all together I barely got 4 hours sleep...and its already 10 pm now. I need to go to sleep.I'm off to Loch Lomond again for the weekend with IFSA Butler and the other Americans, Katie and Lindsay and i dunno who else is going.