First off, I want to share pictures of the University. It has been rumored that J.K. Rowling modeled Hogwarts after the University, and after you see it, you know that it's true.
Do those arches look familiar? Yes. They do.
The main tower at the university. It looks like the main tower at Hogwarts, just like the one Dumbledore was killed on.
Did Harry learn how to play Quittich here? Maaaaybe.
Anyway.... After my wildest night, ever, I had a lazy day Thursday. Silvana and I went to the botanical gardens in Glasgow and I saw a bunch of pretty flowers. We just hung out and walked around the city. It's apparently not as pretty as Edinburgh, but I was perfectly content being in Scotland with one of my best friends in the whole wide world.
The guys we met on the street who were then at Viper on Wednesday night invited us to go to another club in the main part of the city so, DUH, we went. When will I ever be 19 and invited by entertaining guys in Scotland to a club called Kushion after this visit? Never again. So we put on our cute clothes and hopped in a cab. It turned out to be a fun night. We explained to them how, in the states, if something is really awkward, you make the awkward turtle or tortoise. I also explained the "awkward palm tree" but one of the guys we were with just didn't get it. He thought it was funny, so he made his own which was more like an Irish Step Dance with some gangster hand gestures. That's the only way I can describe it, but let me tell you, it was hilaaaaarious.
Friday we decided to do some much UNneeded shopping. The shopping district is huge but nothing out of the ordinary. It's a bunch of stores that are trying to sell you clothes, shoes, souvenirs and books that you don't actually need. Of course, Silvana and I saw a shoe store and went in. And of course, they had the most perfect pair of flat black boots that fit me perfectly, so of course, I bought them. That night we went to another club where we met some adorable girl from Sweden and her two friends from Latvia. If you said you would pay me 1 million dollars to point out Latvia on a map, I would not be 1 million dollars richer. But it was still fun meeting them and dancing with them at the club.
The main street with pubs on it is called Ashton Lane and it is adorable. It's a cobble stone street, though, and part of the entertainment is watching the Scottish women walk with their VERY high heels on it and seeing the ones that power through it without so much as a stumble, and the girls who are just not cut out to walk it in high heels. We went there literally every night before going to the clubs. Pubs are open until about 11 or 12, so you get drunk and then get to the club where you can drink even more because drinks are only 1 pound, at least for "Fresher's Week."
My last day in Scotland was a lot of fun. We slept in until about 1:30 to catch up on all the sleep we hadn't been getting for the other nights. For lunch we went to a cute French cafe, and then headed to one of the main museums. You can look at my pictures on Facebook to see all of the funny comments about the different items in the museum. Everything was kind of squished into random order, and the cards below were ridiculous. If they had been under pictures at the Met in New York City, people would be very confused.
This is a good example of what I'm talking about. Definitely a "WTF" moment.
My last night in Glasgow was pretty interesting. We went to dinner at a chinese restaurant thinking we could get a feeling of home. Silvana and I were wrong. The waitress was from China and had come over to Scotland and we couldn't understand anything that she was saying. It's difficult enough to understand Chinese accents in America and Scottish people (separately), but put the two accents together and get ready for the most awkward conversation of your life. I got yelled at while ordering "Mandarin Beef" because I didn't say how many I wanted. Then, two people brought our food out and it was the most chaotic experience, ever. Plates were flying all over the place.
That night we went to the student union which is basically a HUGE club. There are about 4 floors, 5 bars, and sweaty Scottish college students getting wasted and attempting to dance to the weirdest techno music I had ever heard, but it was still fun and quite the adventure.
Getting back to London was pretty quick, but it was exhausting and weird to get back to the house. I had just gotten my bearings in London, and then I went to Scotland for 5 days, so my brain was all out of whack and I got really homesick. What made it worse was talking to Diana, then Cory, then my mother.
My main problem here is when I get tired, I get emotional and homesick and tell myself that going to study in Australia might not be a good idea. I'm seriously debating whether or not I could be away from American University and home for an entire year and be mentally sane when I come back. We'll see.
Alright, this is where I leave you. But I have something funny to leave you with...
Scottish men actually wear kilts. It's even funnier when you speak to them when they're wasted.
Love,
Miriam