At least there is good reason for my weeks delay on this post. I have spent 4 of those days wandering outside the country and the other 2 dealing with morons who lack the ability to communicate in English. Lets start with the good, ease into a little bad and then finish with the good again.
The good: Thursday night after a very, very long day of classes and tutorials I was able to escape Glasgow and life in residence for a couple days and head to Lancaster England with one of my hall mates. Jess was going home for Halloween and was kind enough to ask me along for a meal outside of the cafe! Lancaster is in the Northwest part of England and is not terrible far from the Scotland border. It took about 2.5 hours to drive there which was included 29 songs by the Beatles and an argument with a GPS navigation woman. We showed that automated voice! We arrived just after midnight and after some quick hellos and introductions, we crashed. Friday was spent trying to find a Halloween costume and after no luck finding a complete one that was not made for a 7 year old or astronomically priced, I decided to make one. I went as Where's Waldo (or as he is known in the UK, Where's Wally). With a couple red shirts, a roll of white hockey tape to make the stripes, a pair of 1 pound plastic glasses and a Santa hat turned inside out I was rolling! Turns out I got more comments on this Halloween costume than any other I have ever warn. And it did not cause nearly as many arguments as the year I went as a shadow! I had a random guy hug me on the street and tell me how happy he was to find me because he had been looking for years. Halloween over here is not the same as home for a few reason. A) Everyone dresses scary, there is no dressing up just to dress up. At home, girls usually take Halloween as an excuse to go out in to public scantily clad. Not so much over here. Also, I learned that kids only started the tradition of trick or treating around 5 or 6 years ago. Kids my age never did it and honestly thought it was just something on TV or in the movies.
Friday night might have been the most entertainment of the entire weekend and it had nothing at all to do with Halloween. The bathroom on the top floor of the house I was staying at has a large sign on it that reads "To the user, do not close this door as the lock is broken and you will be stuck inside. However, if this happens please sing loudly. If nobody answers, go ahead and take a bath." Well, it turns out that people don't read so well these days and sure enough, three of the girls that were trying to get ready for all halo's eve ended up getting locked in the bathroom. Why three of them where in there at once has yet to be determined. Anyways, myself and Jessica's mom started trying to play with the locks and with no luck where ready to knock down the door. I decided to attempt to save both the solid wood door and my shoulder, I would climb out and around onto the roof and into the bathroom window to see if I could fix it from the inside. If you want to imagine a waldo looking man climbing around on a clay shingled roof, in the dark on Halloween night then you might get the same image as the neighbour did when she came out to ask me who I was and tell me that if nobody was home in that house she was going to call the police. After a brief explanation we got things sorted out. Anyways, with a little fandangling, two screwdrivers, a hammer and a flashlight the door practically opened itself.
Halloween night included a few different bars, some drinking, some dancing, some more drinking and me watching an English Ice Hockey League game on the TV. Stereotypically European hockey, I watch for over 20 minutes and witnessed 2 hits, and one of them looked like an accident where the guy just couldn't stop. The night ended with a trip to the local chip shop where I gorged on Chips'n'Cheese. They are just a gravy spoonful away from a poutine.
Saturday was spent vegging out for the most part. Crew of us went to see the new bond movie and it was alright. I miss Q and his crazy inventions.
Sunday we went down to the lake district, which is about 40 minutes away and saw Windermere. It is a gorgeous little town right on the water that reminded me of a shrunken version of Niagara on the lake. It was such a beautiful day we took a ferry ride around the lake. I found a few pieces of property I would like to buy that have a modest castle on a couple of acres on the water. Nothing to spectacular. And right out a movie, a Rolls Royce cruises by with Mr and Mrs. taking a nice Sunday drive in the country!
Sunday night I was treated to a full dinner of Lamb, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, beans, gravy, Yorkshire pudding and a few things I didn't recognize but tasted great!
As for this week, I have spent all day Monday, Tuesday after class and all day today dealing with these french idiots who I have somehow ended up in a group with and am supposed to write a 'group' paper with. I use the term group paper very loosely as I have had to write the entire thing myself. I will spare the details but the long and the short of it is that of the three frenchies, only 1 of them gave me their work on time and it was about the half the needed length and not referenced at all. I managed to convince one of the others to send me some work today which was a perfect copy and paste from some online article. Not only could we not use it because of the mass plagiarism but it was on the wrong topic! And to top it all off, he also did not cite the work he plagiarised from! As for the third SOB I have yet to hear from him other than a note to ask "How go paper right?" That's the exact words of the email I received.
However, despite all of this I managed to write the entire paper myself, and although it is not my best work it should pass me and I can forget all about this group work business. Tonight I took in the Celtic vs. Manchester United Football match and it was a great showing! The pub was packed with fans from both sides, I won a few bets based on first goal and the game ended in a 1-1 draw. I had a blast and might actually look into getting tickets for the next home game.
Plenty of work this week, long day tomorrow and a few papers and projects to get done this weekend. No trips this weekend although I might try to take in a live ice hockey game at the rink in town. As the days roll on I seem to get busier and busier but I am enjoying every minute of it.
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