Thoughts from the Other Side

Tolkien, Part III (feat. big scary spider)

Peter Jackson's greatest work came one step closer to completion yesterday with the release of the theatrical trailer for Return of the King. Those of you who know me know that I've been waiting for this movie for quite a while now and seeing even just the trailer brings a bit of a tear to my eye. :)

As for the trailer itself, it looks amazing. I got chills watching it. Unfortunately, if my eye is seeing things correctly, it looks as if the screenwriters are once again going to be taking some liberties with Tolkien's text. I find this to be sad, but at the same time I cannot wait. It may not be Tolkien's vision, but it will still be a downright amazing cinematic feature. Oh yeah, and it has one freaking HUGE scary spider. 'Nuff said.

Check it out for yourself here.

CUBS WIN!!! CUBS WIN!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen, you are witnessing history in the making.

As of this past weekend, the Chicago Cubs have won their first division title in 12 years. They will take on the Atlanta Braves today for game one of the division series.

My personal hopes and dreams have the Cubbies going all the way to the Series (not that far fetched according to many ESPN analysts) and playing the Red Sox for the crown.

Before you all laugh at me for being lunatic, check this out.

Let's play two!

Trailer info

New Line Cinemas just announced that the first trailer for Return of the King will be released this Friday as an exclusive attachement to their film 'Secondhand Lions.' For those of you (like me) who either refuse to spend money on a movie you know nothing about or who live outside of North America the trailer will be debuting online as of Monday the 29th. I will most certainly be posting a link to it once it comes out so stay tuned.

For the press release go here.

Losing myself

As yet another gorgeous Glasgow day goes by I am amazed at all the cool things one can find in this city. Zach and I went off exploring this afternoon and came across one of those really nifty hole-in-the-wall CD stores. The kind of place where the CDs are stacked semi-alphabetically on top of each other along the wall and the owners just sit there and listen to music all day. You have to actually take time to browse for what you're looking for. I love it. Its like McKay's but with better selections and the possibilty of finding really good, rare stuff. They have more Bob Dylan CDs than any other store I have ever been in. I've got to make a list of things I want to get and then I'll go back there. . .otherwise it's all too overwhelming :)

After the CD store we wandered into a second-hand bookstore. Once again I was in heaven. They have tons of the classics all tossed together on a shelf (and some VERY old editions) and you have to scan each and every shelf individually to find anything. Since I'm taking so many Literature classes this semester I think this store will quickly become my best friend. Its so much nicer being able to pick up something by Dickens or Shakespeare or one of the Brontes in decent condition and not pay a ton of money for it (eg Tuck Shoppe or Barnes and Noble).

After making these wonderful discoveries I came back up to the library to bask in the benefits of a superfast internet connection and P4 computers (man. . .Covenant really needs to get their connection upgraded). One downside to these computers is that there is no working chat engine. Well, none that I have discovered yet. That's what I'm working on at the moment. . .that and I'm listening to some great techno (Oakenfold and Prodigy, if your interested).

If anyone has suggestions for chat messengers that work outside of proxies and firewalls please let me know.

Shakespeare never saw it coming

So after telling myself I wasn't going to blog any more this evening, here I sit getting ready to put up yet another excerpt from my not-so-amazing adventures. I really am a slave to technology :)

Anyways, tonight Zach and I took the underground down to Glasgow's City Center to watch Underworld. To be honest, I wasn't expecting a whole lot out of this movie, but it turned out to be half-way decent after all. But first things first. . .

I mentioned that we took the underground down to the city center and with that in mind, Glasgow has one of the weirdest underground systems I've ever seen. Ususally when one thinks of an underground you think of vast train systems spanning entire cities with huge tunnels and bustling stop-offs (New York, Boston, and D.C. being prime examples here). In Glasgow however, there is no such thing. The locals here call it the 'Clockwork Orange' since all the trains are small, round, and orange and the system covers a fairly small loop of the city. There are no grand tunnels or bustling stations. Instead there are tiny worm-holes and stations that look like they were created in the stone-age (ok, maybe a little extreme, but you get the picture). Its a great way to get from place to place here, but I still get kind of nervous when I'm flying at about 40-50 miles per hour through a very small tunnel and the train I am on starts making loud screeching noises and jerks back and forth violently.

But about the movie, its not very often that someone has the visionary ability to mix the brain children of Bram Stoker and William Shakespeare into a Matrix-ish environment in which rain never ceases to fall and everybody speaks in that annoying panting out-of-breath-but-not-really kind of voice.
For example:

Bad guy: How (pant) dare you (pant) (pant). I (pant) am going to win (pant) (pant).
Good guy: No (pant) (pant). I (pant) will not (pant) give up (pant) (pant).

This happens a lot in this movie and it really drives me nuts. When the hot vampire chick in leather walks into the room and finds a large group of other vampires in leather just standing around there should be no reason for the main vampire dude to be out of breath. I think it is meant to add some sort of drama to the acting, but instead it looks comical and is downright frustrating. I did enjoy the movie's action and I thought the Romeo and Juliet influence was intriguing, but they picked the wrong female for the lead role.

All that being said, it was a fun movie to watch and since I got to see it in a very amazing 12-story movie theater (the tallest in the world according to the Guiness World Book of Records) with a very large screen and at a much cheaper price than anything back home I feel that it was an evening well spent.

Senseless Blathering v 1.5

I heard some statistic the other day, apparently Scotland is the only country in the world in which Coke is not the number one selling soft drink. Instead, they have this drink called Irn-Bru (anyone who has ventured to the UK will know of it) which is a kind of orange cream soda made with real Iron content. Why is this important or interesting? It may not be either, but I bring this up because Glasgow (my city of residence) seems to be the heart of this Coke-alternative-drinking country. It is everywhere. You can't walk down a street without seeing a can lying on the sidewalk or a taxi or streetsign advertising for it. It all just goes to support my growing belief that Scots, once they decide they like something, will abandon all hope for recourse in order to give their approval. Its the same thing with football, clothing, movies, food, or what have you. I find it all to be very interesting since they become more passionate about the little things than Americans do over big things.

Not sure if that made any sense whatsoever, but oh well. . .

I was blog-surfing this afternoon and came across Tim Fridsma's blog. I was intrigued since he happens to be in a band with my friend and hall-mate Seth Park, whom I have not heard from in a while now. On this blog I found a link to their band's webpage and after some more searching, links to a place where their music can be heard. The band is called Served to Raise and I think its pretty good so drop by the webpage and maybe even go check out their music.

For a minor sports update, the Cubs didn't play last night, but their rivals, the Houston Astros did and they lost. This means that there is now a tie for first in the National League Central division between the two teams with just over a week left to go in the season. At this point it appears that the Cubs may be poised to do the impossible and make it to October's playoffs. They have the upper-hand in scheduling (thank you front-office) and their pitching has been solid of late. The verdict should be in by the end of the week.

Ah yes. . .I just found out that Evanescence is beginning a Europe tour this fall, and apparently they are going to be stopping by in Glasgow in November. This is really cool since I've been wanting to see them live for quite a while now. I think I may try to get some tickets for this.

5,6,7 will fall

Last Week's NCAA Football games produced some really amazing results. Though the top four teams held on to their spots, numbers five, six, and seven all fell in upsets. Michigan lost to Oregon, Kansas State lost to Marshall, and Georgia lost to LSU. I'll update my sidebar scoreboard soon with the complete listings.

In other news, the ChiSox have now dropped themselves out of baseball's playoff race. They currently have lost 5 of 6 games and are 5 games behind the Twins who need just two wins to clinch the division. The Cubbies, on the other hand, have really turned on the steam and are one half game behind the Astros for the NL Central division. They also have an advantage in scheduling with one series remaining against Cincinnati and one home series against the Pirates.

Of Bens and Coos

I got back yesterday from one of the most amazing trips I've ever experienced. Zach and I took a Haggis Tour with several other international students from the University and for three days we saw an incredible amount of the Scottish Highlands, including the Isle of Skye. The weather was beautiful all three days (described as miraculous by our guide), it was clear enough to see for miles and incredibly cool as well.

We saw the Wallace Monument and I almost killed myself climbing to the top, but the view was more than worth it. We drove right through the heart of the Highland mountain ranges and stopped at Glencoe and Eilean Donan castle on the way north. We spent Friday night on Skye and I woke up Saturday morning on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean with the sun shining down through the ruins of a 5000+ year old Viking which was no more than 200 yards away. Words cannot really describe just how amazing it actually was. We spent most of the day on Skye, visiting castle ruins and Lochs and we even hiked to a hidden waterfall down the coast. Along the way we became immortal and 'sexy for life' by submerging our faces in a mountain stream which had been blessed by the fairies many thousands of years ago. For lunch I had my first haggis, which was actually quite good. After lunch we had to leave the island and head inland. We stopped for the night at the foot of Loch Ness and spent most of the evening partying in the hostel's bar. Yesterday we drove up past Inverness and stopped at the Culloden Moor, site of the English massacre of the Jacobite Uprising. We were able to walk on the battlefield and our guide told us the story of what happened there. Overall it was quite moving. . .something akin to visiting Gettysburg I imagine. We left Culloden Moor and spent the rest of the day driving back to Edinburgh with occasional stops at famous places along the way. Zach and I got back to our apartment last night around 8-ish.

Obviously there is no way I can relate everything we did and saw. I found the massive amount of Scottish history and culture we were flooded with to be a little overwhelming. Even so, the tour was incredible. I would reccommend Haggis to anyone wishing to visit Upper Scotland, and I've heard that their tours of Ireland and England are amazing as well.

By the way, the title for this blog is Scottish for 'Of Mountains and Cows.' I've added a couple pictures of highland cattle (known as a hairy coos) below for your enjoyment. :)

Skye High

You know, last night I was at a pub called The Three Judges enjoying a really nice pint of Maclay 70 ale (which was followed by some Belhaven, my personal favorite thus far) and watching the Rangers v Stuttgart football game and I was once again struck by just how amazing this place really is. Even though I've never really been much of a soccer fan I couldn't help but get caught up in the excitement of all the people around me. When the Rangers scored two goals in the final 10 minutes to win the game everyone was yelling. It was great. . .I'm really going to miss this when I have to leave.

But on to other things, I am leaving either tomorrow afternoon or really early Friday morning to go on a three day tour of the Scottish highlands. Needless to say I am very excited. Me and Zach and several other international students from Glasgow University will be leaving from Edinburgh early Friday morning. Our tour is going to take us up to Loch Ness and Inverness on day one and we spend the first night in Fort William. Then, we head on up to the Isle of Skye where we spend the day and night exploring. The third day we start comng back by way of Glencoe, Stirling, and the film sites for Rob Roy, Braveheart, and even Harry Potter.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

The latest. . .

After a remarkably successful first week in the predictions column (I really wanted that NC State over Ohio State pick. . .oh well) I am happy to produce my NCAA football week 5 predictions.

As before, feel free to chime in with any and all thoughts or premonitions you may have.

Oklahoma (1) def UCLA -- 42-14
Miami (2) def Boston College -- 35-21
Ohio State (4) def Bowling Green -- 24-10
Michigan (5) def Oregon (22) -- 38-24
Kansas State (6) def Marshall -- 28-21
LSU (10) def Georgia (7) -- 31-28
Virginia Tech (8) def Texas A&M (20) -- 42-7
Florida State (9) def Colorado -- 35-10
Pittsburgh (11) def Toledo -- 28-0
Tennessee (12) def Florida (17) -- 35-31
Texas (13) def Rice -- 63-7
Arizona State (16) def Iowa (14) -- 21-14
Arkansas (18) def North Texas -- 31-21
TCU (19) def Vanderbilt -- 28-3
Washington (21) def Idaho -- 42-6
Notre Dame (23) def Michigan State -- 24-10
Minnesota (24) def La Lafayette -- 38-24
Washington State (25) def New Mexico -- 35-17

Scotland, a summary (of sorts)

The other day in my Scottish Studies class our teacher lectured from a poem about the Scottish national identity. From one poem, he was able to draw his entire lecture. I find to poem to be quite fascinating and I'm going to post it below. It is Edwin Muir's 'Scotland, 1941.'

We were a tribe, a family, a people.
Wallace and Bruce guard now a painted field,
And all may read the folio of our fable,
Peruse the sword, the sceptre and the shield.
A simple sky roofed in that rustic day,
The busy corn-fields and the haunted holms,
The green road winding up the ferny brae.
But Knox and Melville clapped their preaching palms
And bundled all the harvesters away,
Hoodicrow Peden in the blighted corn
Hacked with his rusty beak the starving haulms.
Out of that desolation we were born.

Courage beyond the point and obdurate pride
Made us a nation, robbed us of a nation.
Defiance absolute and myriad-eyed
That could not pluck the palm plucked our damnation.
We with such courage and the bitter wit
To fell the ancient oak of loyalty,
And strip the peopled hill and altar bare,
And crush the poet with an iron text,
How could we read our souls and learn to be?
Here a dull drove of faces harsh and vexed,
We watch our cities burning in their pit,
To salve our souls grinding dull lucre out,
We, fanatics of the frustrate and the half,
Who once set Purgatory Hill in doubt.

Now smoke and dearth and money everywhere,
Mean heirlooms of each fainter generation,
And mummied housegods in their musty niches,
Burns and Scott, sham bards of a sham nation,
And spiritual defeat wrapped warm in riches,
No pride but pride of pelf. Long since the young
Fought in great bloody battles to carve out
This towering pulpit of the Golden Calf,
Montrose, Mackail, Argyle, perverse and brave,
Twisted the stream, unhooped the ancestral hill.
Never had Dee or Don or Yarrow or Till
Huddled such thriftless honour in a grave.
Such wasted bravery idle as a song,
Such hard-won ill might prove Time's verdict wrong,
And melt to pity the annalist's iron tongue.

Senseless Blathering v 1.4 [Scotland]

Wow. . .so much to talk about. . .where should I begin?

I was walking around down in the Glasgow City Center the other day with Zach and we discovered that Glasgow is, in fact, the home of the tallest movie theater in the world (we even saw the Guinness World Book of Records plaque commemorating it). Its a twelve-story building with some 18 movie screens in it. I felt very strange walking into a movie theater with escalators everywhere. Oh well, at least I know that there is going to be a good place to see Return of the King when it comes out in December.

Speaking of movies, it was announced today that the newest Caped Crusader (that's Batman, by the way) will be Christian Bale. I'm quite pleased by this news since, well lets be honest folks, ANYONE would be better than George Clooney. The news gets better in that the movie is being written and directed by Memento's Chris Nolan, a director for whom I have a great deal of respect. Who knows, this installment might actually be worth watching.

Over the last few days I've been reading up on some of this RIAA stuff. I find it quite appalling that they would, of all the people in this world, single out a twelve-year old girl. I've tried and tried and, to be honest, I can't condemn them for wanting to track these people down, but seriously. Anyway, I found thisto be quite befitting of my current mindset on the issue.

In personal news, it looks like I may be off to Loch Lomond this weekend. Hopefully the weather will stay nice and I can get some more cool pictures to put up here. More on that later. . .

And finally. . .

Sadly, as my friends on Chattablogs have also pointed out, Johnny Cash, the singer-legend himself, died this morning due to diabetic complications. I don't really have much personal experience with his song-writing, but I greatly enjoyed the hall listening sessions which ocurred last year (primarily in Mesh's room) after his newest album came out. Check out what Josiah and Ryan have to say for more information. RIP Johnny.

Pictures. . .finally

Here they are! I finally figured out a way to post the digital pictures that Zach and I have been taking. The only problem is that with this first batch the camera was set for a resolution of 1600x1200 (for the non-computer savvy that is REALLY big). We're working on the problem and hope to have a more manageable size next time.

So. . .the pictures:

Our humble abode
This is my side of our room at Cairncross House, which is currently our home. Its been very kind to us for the most part (the obvious exception being our 50 cent-worshipping neighbors) and the size is very nice. We leave this room on Monday and move into the student apartments. I'll get pictures up when we're settled.

Edinburgh Castle
This is the group that went to Edinburgh last Saturday. From the left it is Caitlin Woodyard (the third Covenant student here), Zach, Me, Jihay, and Bryan. The picture was taken just outside of Edinburgh Castle.

Me with the Thinker
Zach with the Thinker
On our tour of Glasgow (provided free by the University) we stopped briefly at a place called the Burrell Collection, home to many pieces of international art and sculpture, etc etc. On our way out we saw this replica of The Thinker and couldn't resist.

Me and a friend
Zach finds meaning
Whilst in Edinburgh, four of us took a tour of the Scottish Whiskey Heritage Centre. Upon conclusion we were awarded a coupon for a couple pounds off any large bottle of scotch in their store. The brand featured here is really quite good. (No, I am not smashed. . .this was taken right after we returned from our all-day trip).

Zach molests a fountain
This fountain is in the garden of the oldest house in Glasgow (some nearly 550 years old).

Zach and Haggis
Yes. . .that is indeed haggis. This was during the tail end of our stay in Edinburgh and Zach was the only one of us who was brave enough to try it (though I did snag a bit of his). Though it looks like pure crap, it actually tasted quite good. The haggis shown here was actually fried so neither Zach, nor I have yet tasted real haggis from the stomach.

Zach and a deep-fried Mars bar
In addition to serving fried haggis, the shop we were in also specialized in serving deep-fried Mars bars. . .an Edinburgh favorite (or so we were told). We all ended up getting one and it was really quite good.

That's pretty much it for now. I have a few more pictures, but none that really make sense. We'll be taking more as the weeks go by and I'll try and get them posted on a regular basis.

Irony DOES have a sense of humour

In keeping with my current run of sports blogs. . .

ESPN is currently putting up their annual "Who's going to win the World Series"-type articles. As anyone who has read my last couple of blogs should have gathered, I am a Cubs fan. I've been a Cubs fan for longer than I can actually remember. So, the idea that the Cubs may be headed for their first successful October in recent memory makes me very happy. Now, it just so happens that my girlfriend Katie and her family (particularly her mom) are Red Sox fans. With that in mind, I found it to be quite humorous that ESPN's latest post-season picks article would come to the conclusion that it would in fact be the Cubs playing the Red Sox for all the marbles this year.

If this, by some strange and unbelievably form of luck, were to happen. . . :) :)

Race update

This is going to be a good one, folks.

Yesterday the Cubs beat the Expos to keep them tied for first with the Astros.

Read it here.

Also, the White Sox extended their lead by beating the Twins.

That one is here.

I don't know if I should be holding my breath or what, but I do believe that this is the first time two baseball teams from Chicago have been in first place together in several decades.

Gotta keep up

As I was browsing over my friend and former RA Aaron Mesh's blog I noticed that he has begun a sidebar devoted to the scorekeeping of NFL games this season. This got me thinking. Since I am in Glasgow this semester I am going to miss out on an entire season of college football. The only sports they watch here are soccer (or REAL football) and rugby, nothing else. So, in an attempt to keep up to date on scores and such I am borrowing a page from Mesh's book and putting a college football scores sidebar. Each week before the games start I'll toss up a blog with my picks.

So. . .

This week is looking to be fairly straightforward, though there could be a few surprises. The best games will be in the Big Ten with NC State traveling to take on Ohio State and Notre Dame braving Ann Arbor against Michigan.

I'm going to put my picks up and then after the games are played I will tally up the number of corrects and incorrects and keep track on the sidebar. I'll include projected scores, but they won't really mean much. Anyone who wishes to take a shot at picking their own is more than welcome to throw up a comment.

Here are my picks (in order of rank):

Oklahoma (1) def Fresno State -- 40-21
Miami (2) def East Carolina -- 55-7
N.C. State (22) def Ohio State (2) -- 27-20
USC (4) def Hawaii -- 38-10
Texas (5) def Arkansas -- 28-14
Kansas State (6) def Massachusetts -- 35-3
Michigane (7) def Notre Dame (14) -- 21-17
Georgia (8) def South Carolina -- 42-21
Florida State (10) def Georgia Tech -- 35-30
LSU (11) def Western Illinois -- 42-7
Pittsburgh (12) def Ball State -- 30-14
Wisconsin (15) def UNLV -- 42-24
Arizona State (16) def Utah State -- 56-17
Washington State def Colorado (17) -- 21-20
Nebraska (18) def Penn State -- 30-14
Iowa (19) def Iowa State -- 20-7
Florida (20) def Florida A&M -- 42-0
Wake Forest (21) def Purdue -- 24-21

Enjoy!

Its just not fair

I really can't understand it. The Chicago Cubs have not won a World Series in almost a hundred years (the last time was 1908 I believe). I've been a Cubbies fan for most of my life and through all their times of dispair and defeat I still rooted for them.

Now, the first time I leave the country for any more than a couple of days, they decide it would be a good idea to join the pennant race. Not only will I not have any chance at all of seeing a game live, I won't even be able to watch it on TV!

The crowning insult however, is the fact that not only are the Cubs winning their division, the White Sox are as well! We are facing the possibility of the first Chicago subway series in October since the early 1900s. Its really quite amazing.

You can check all this stuff out here.

One for the books

My first class as a student of the University of Glasgow is complete. I loved it. The class is called Scottish Studies and (for those Covenant students out there) is basically like Christian Mind meets May term on the topic of Scottish history. Our teacher is a guy named Ted Cowan who is a very outspoken Scotsman responsible for lectures around the world from Australia to Canada and back. He hates George Bush and Tony Blair, does not believe in God, and thinks that the weather in Glasgow is "piss-miserable." All that aside, he knows a TON about Scottish history. In a single two hour class he somehow managed to get us the drift of the first 5000 or so years of known Scottish culture.

I am really going to love this class.

I think my favorite part (aside from when he was relating to us the true history of William Wallace), was when he went off on the Canadian mounties. He start talking quite loudly about how it was ironic that as the Americans were off shooting up the Wild West, the Canadians were reveling in their red-coated policemen. He then proceeded to "gallop" around the classroom saying "Look at me! Look at me!"

I was quite amused.

Things that I like

Having been in Glasgow for nearly a week now I decided to put together a list of things that I really like about being here (this is in no particular order).

Here goes:

1) The weather

Upon arrival we were told that Glasgow is supposedly the rainiest city in all the UK. However, I have yet to see more than a shower thus far. The temperature has been in the low 60s to mid 70s every day with a really nice breeze all the time. I hear most people are skeptically waiting for winter to push all this nice stuff out of the way, but while its here I am loving it.

2) The people

The other day there was a huge rugby match between the Scotland and Ireland teams. This happened on the same day that I was heading to Edinburgh by train so coming through the train station I was seeing dozens and dozens of people (primarily men) walking through the city and station in their favorite team's colors (obviously more Scots than Irish). They would be piled outside pubs and taverns, all wearing kilts and uniform shirts. I love how fired up these people get over something like soccer (ahem. . .football) or rugby. And the accents rock too.

3) The pubs/taverns

So far I've been in four and each one has been awesome. They make some of the best beer over here and I'm now becoming a fan of their whiskey also (had a whiskey tour in Edinburgh). The other night I was in a pub that had some live music and let me tell you, the combination of a really, really good pint of beer (Belhaven for any interested) and live Scottish music is one of the most amazing things I've ever experienced.

There are several other things that are slowly working their way up the list as well (eg: TV, which I was exposed to for the first time last night) which I may talk more on later. This place is really amazing.

Scotland is the Holy Land

Scotland is the Holy Land

As my title states (whether correctly or incorrectly is up to your own judgment), I am currently residing in what some believe to be the Holy Land of Presbyerianism. Before I left I was jokingly told by someone that I should bottle up some water and hold on to it as it would be Holy Water. Ironically (well, maybe), the closest thing I've seen to Holy Water is either scotch or Guinness, take your pick.

Whatever.

If Scotland is the Holy Land, then I was at its capital this past weekend. I went to Edinburgh with Caitlin, Zach, and a couple other international students from GU. It was an amazing trip (and quite cheap, too). We visited the National Gallery of Scotland, walked the Royal Mile, saw John Knox's house, and even got some pictures of us standing outside Edinburgh Castle. We searched high and low and eventually found a place that sold deep-fried Mars bars, supposedly an Edinburgh specialty. They were amazing bad for personal health, but tasted delicious. I almost felt unclean after eating it.

Upon arriving home (home being Caircross House these days), I realized that I actually like Glagow a great deal more than Edinburgh. Its so much easier to get around and do things here (Edinburgh is so packed with people its insane) and the people are extraordinarily nice. So far choosing to come to GU and not UE (Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities, respectively) has turned out alright.

Senseless Blathering 1.3 (Scotland edition)

Now that I've been over here in Scotland for a few days (somehow Zach and I have already managed to become 'honorary Glaswegians'. . .don't ask me how), I've finally managed to get some things in order. Namely, I've secured a reliable way to get intenet access through the GU library (read: GU's twelve story, 2.5 million+ volume library. . .hehe). I've also made it through my first couple of orientation sessions and it looks like this is going to be a wonderful semester. The Scottish Lit teachers are really interesting. They gave a small presentation type thing at one of our meetings and they were all yelling at each other and being very enthusiastic about Scottish culture in general. I'm looking forward to having lectures with them.

With all the spare time we've had, Zach and I have been doing a lot of walking all around the West End of the city. The university is located in this end and it just happens to be the nicer part of the city. There's a great many pubs and taverns and a LOT of amazing, 200-year-old architecture (I promise that pictures will be forthcoming). I haven't ventured into the city center yet (though we did have a tour which took us through there today), but I will probably head down there soon enough. Tomorrow I may be heading off to Edinburgh with fellow Covenant student Caitlin Woodyard (there are three of us here) and a couple other internationals. There's a deal that gets you a train ticket from Glasgow to Edinburgh and back for £4 as long as you come back on the same day.

Basically, things are going really well over here. In fact, the only thing that is not going well is our neighbor situation. Our room is in a great location, right next to both the kitchen commons and the bathrooms. However, it also happens to be right next to the really annoying group of 'white students trying to act black.' One guy has this really annoying habit of playing 50 Cent's 'In Da Club' over and over and over, only he just plays the first 5-10 seconds of the song (he does the same thing with a Sean Paul song). So, every 5 minutes each afternoon our room is bombarded with cheap hiphop. It reminds me a great deal of the stories my dad used to tell me about his days at Temple University where he lived next door to the captain of their basketball team.

Hehe. . .in better news, Zach and I hit our first pub the other night. We went to a place called Spud Mulligan's (I love it) and each got a pint of Guinness. For the record, this was my first Guinness on tap and it was excellent. I really want to know how they always get the foam to come out just right every time.

I've got some great pictures that I will be putting up as soon as possible. More stuff will follow. . .

What day is it?

So here we are. Zach and I have officially made it to Scotland, though it was quite the trip getting here. As reflected in the title of this blog, it took about 5 minutes this morning to figure out what day it actually was. I finally settled on Wednesday since we left on Monday and it took almost two days to get here. Anyway, here's the story:

We left Atlanta airport at about 3pm on Monday. In our attempts to comply with their recommendation that you arrive two hours early we actually got there three and a half hours early. This meant that we had to sit in the terminal for three hours before we actually got on the place to Washington. In the end, we left for Dulles International without any trouble though it was the smallest plane I had ever been on. It was so small, in fact, that I had to check my overnight bag before getting on-board (it wouldn't fit in the overhead compartments). It was a jet though so the flight was smooth and fast. We arrived in Washington about a half-hour early so we weren't forced to run through the airport to our connection. Instead we got to ride a very cool airport trolley thing that had air-lift springs. It was kind of funny getting caught in a traffic jam on the runway and knowing that I was in a bigger vehicle than the plane that was holding us up. So, we got to our international gate easily enough and got onto a Boeing 777, officially the biggest plane I have ever set foot on. I was seated next to a man named Zak (short for something way longer which I cannot pronounce) who was heading to Afghanistan and had another 20 or so hours of travel after we landed in London. Pity that man. The flight to London was uneventful, even boring. I watched Bruce Almighty, Daddy Day Care (very boring, yes), and Identity and perhaps got about an hour of sleep (though I'm not sure because its all a little surreal in my mind). We came into London to a beautiful sunrise, but then started to descend and everything was blocked by clouds. Heathrow itself was a madhouse. It took us over an hour to get through customs and then at least another hour to get to our bus. Thankfully all our luggage was on time and intact. We hopped the bus to the Euston train station and then the train to Glasgow.

Basically, it was a very long trip and while I remember it, everything is pretty hazy and I was too tired to pay much attention to my surroundings. Right now I am sitting in the Mitchell Library's computer room and, after I post this, I will be off with Zach to check out the University's campus for the first time. Hope all is well with anyone who is reading this and I'm sorry about not putting up links. Maybe next time.