..Where Was I?

Well since you've all been so good at patiently waiting, I'm going to add pictures with my blogs to go along with the stories.

Berlin Day 6

The three of us woke up early in the morning and took a quick train to the main train station and hopped on a train there to take us to Wittenburg where we would meet up with Regina and her husband. Regina is Lindsay's mom's best friend from college who has dual citizenship in Germany and the US. They showed us around the City and had all sorts of historical facts for us including Wittenburg being the village where Martin Luther preached and lived.

Street Images of Wittenburg:

Regina's husband bought us chocolate liquors that I didn't really like.. and he kind of looked at me funny when I said "No thanks" after he offered me another one. I had a hard time choking back the first one. It was extremely flavourful, that's for sure. We went into St. Marien's Church and then down to Schlosskirche Church Castle, the church of Martin Luther:

On our way to the castle church, there was a rendezvous going on in the middle of town and it immediately reminded me of the Lingwens and brought a smile to my face. :)

After they were done showing us around Wittenburg, they took us on about a 45 minute drive to the little village of Worlitz, where they live. We stopped at their house first... which is absolutely gorgeous and I hope that when I own a home someday that it will look like their's... and we had coffee and good ol' fashioned Girl Scout Cookies. (Thin mints, to be exact). :P We went on a walk around Worlitz park for a good couple of hours. Worlitz is a very beautiful city. I won't post pictures of it on here because quite frankly, I don't know if I can choose just a couple of them. I'll post the links to my Facebook albums at the end of this post so you can see these pictures along with many others. It was just nice to be able to take a relaxing stroll in a park. Apparantely peacocks are wild animals in Worlitz. We saw a couple along our walk. Beautiful birds, really. We had coffee and cake at a cute little cafe after our walk... my piece of cake was absolutely delicious! I don't think I've ever had something that tasted so good in my life. I may be exaggerating a wee bit, but it was good and my mouth is watering at just the thought. mmm....

Anyway, We went back to their house for a few minutes and just had a good craic over some more cookies and a glass of water. It was in the early evening about this time, and we drove to another little village outside of Worlitz for a very nice sitdown dinner. The three of us actually had gotten the same meal Sauerbraaten and a Kostriker, a dark German beir (probably my favorite alcoholic drink that I've had all semester). I'm craving both of those now too. Darnit! After dinner, they drove us back to Berlin on the Autobahn, which only took about an hour and a half to get there because there are no speed limits on the Autobahn. Let's just say that at one point I looked up at the spedometer and it was at 210km per hour. I'm not really sure how fast that was, but I don't really think I want to know either. Sidenote: we had to make a pitstop on the way back because my bladder was about to burst. :P Well that pretty much sums up our sidetrip from Berlin that day. I think that might have been one of my favorite days of the trip.

Berlin Day 7

There was a Marathon that went on in the morning. The streets were jam-packed with runners and their fans. We spent most of our day at the Dutch History Museum.. where I saw Albrecht Durer's "Knight, Death and the Devil" I geeked out a bit at the sight of it. I even had my picture taken with it. We then just kind of walked around Alexanderplatz and ate Doner for a late lunch/early supper. It was very spicy, but very good. Kind of like a Gyro, but better. Later we met one of Lindsay's friends who lives in Berlin at the Alexa Mall and had a cup of coffee at Starbucks. When we got back to the hostel we packed to get ready to leave bright and early for our plane to Budapest.

Alright, well I think this is all that I can handle for the moment. I'm knackered and am going to hit the sack for a bit... I've been up for 13 hours on 3 hours of sleep. :P

Cheers. xxx

Facebook Albums:

Berlin

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2042734&id=215700014&l=0435a68269

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2042735&id=215700014&l=4189b62102

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2042737&id=215700014&l=6aab08249a

Wittenburg and Worlitz

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2042739&id=215700014&l=34f7364cb7

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2042741&id=215700014&l=eee4568426

Ding Ding, Ding Ding.

Berlin

Day 4

The three of us woke up, had breakfast consisting of apples or oranges, and bread and jam. We walked more towards West Berlin to see the Jewish Museum. At first we were kind of confused as to why we had been previously told that people have been known to spend 4 hours there. 4 1/2 hours later, we understood why. There was so much to see, and it was very interactive but very informational at the same time. I really enjoyed our time spent there. We then decided to find Check-Point Charlie and a bit of the Berlin wall. When we got there, we decided that the cost wasn't worth it plus we had already seen the wall line instead. We went to the Sony Center, the area where Lindsay and I had eaten a few days before, and went into the Berlin Film Museum. I wasn't a complete fan of this one, but I thought the layout and design of the exhibit was really neat. A lot of black reflecting walls, floors, and ceilings. Like the room was never-ending. We found a Subway for dinner, because it was cheap and then returned to the Sony Center to have a drink at the bar called Billy Wilder's. Billy Wilder was a film director and he directed one of my favorite films from the American Cinema class I took at RCTC called Double Indemnity. That pretty much ended our night from there. We went back to the hostel and did our thing and went to bed.

Day 5

We had to switch rooms in our hostel, so it was a sad goodbye to our 4 bed room and onto a 6 bed room where we shared with a guy who we now was from England. We were told by the lady at the reception desk that he was a little wierd so we should try not to do anything to upset him. We were kind of scared at first, but he ended up not being to bad of a guy. He just snored pretty loudly. We went to see the Guggenheim, the Pergamon, and the Communications museums. I loved loved loved the Pergamon museum. I didn't realize that I would be seeing so many things in the museums that I had learned from all of my art history classes. Thank you Catherine! :) I geeked out a bit and grabbed Molly's arm quite a bit, when I saw things that I recognized in every museum that we went to.

Oh and by the way, the bikers in Berlin are extremely intimidating with their scary dinging bells. Watch out for them, they will run you over if you don't get out of their way.

I need a watercloset...

Berlin

Day 2

Lindsay, Molly and I woke up around 9am and had breakfast down in the hostel's bar. We thought the breakfast was continental, but soon found out that we needed to pay the bartender 5 euros each. Woops. I started not feeling very well and I decided to stay in and rest. After thinking about it for a while, I realized that I just needed to be away from people for a little while. I haven't really had any time to myself since the 14th. I took a short nap while Lindsay took Molly around to see what she and I had looked at the day before. They came back and we all took a short nap and woke up around 7:30pm and sat around deciding what we wanted to do for supper. After having a good laugh attack for 45 minutes, we decided to go ask the receptionist for a recommendation. She suggested an Italian restaurant. I'm not sure if we went to the same restaurant she was talking about, but it was still good nonetheless. We ate at a place called Piazza Rossa. I had a margherita pizza, bruchetta, and for desert: Haselnuß-marzianeis auf carmellsauce und früchten. It... was... delicious. And extremely sugary. We got back to the hostel around 11:15 and we sat around and talked and watched TV. Mostly everything was in German, except for 'Rock of Love' which is a rediculous show by the way. But, it was the only thing we understood. :P I went online after that, and then headed to bed.

Day 3

We all planned on being up at 8:15am, but... we all kept letting the alarms go off and didn't actually get up until 9:30. Molly and Lindsay bought bread and jam the day before for breakfast. We then hit the city again to see a couple of the museums. We first went to the Altes Museum which is mainly Greek and Egyptian art. They had an exhibit going on and we were able to see the actual real version of the Bust of Nefertiti. I was in complete awe. I had no idea that it was going to be the real one. I just got goosebumps again. We then went to the Alte Nationalgalerie. Where I saw quite a few artists that I recognized including Rodin's original version of ''The Thinker''. I was in awe yet again. The third museum that we went to was The Bode, which consisted of Byzantine art. I really wasn't as much of a fan of this museum as the other two, but it was still good. By the way, I was able to take pictures inside the museums... don't you worry. :) Also, for each of the museums we had english audio tours. I loved all of the information and stories they had. I found that I was captivated by a few of them and just had to sit back and relax on the benches while the voices narrated. The three of us were extremely exhausted and the other two's feet hurt so, we layed out in the grass for a bit in front of the Berlin Dom and The Altes only to be interupted by a women asking us if we knew english and then Molly gave her some peanuts to make her go away. None of us were very hungry, but thought that we should grab a quick dinner at the mall and head back to the hostel. We chose McDonald's. lol. Way to be healthy, right? Oh well. We also tooks naps again today and I woke up at 9:45pm realizing that I must have needed that... I felt really good when I woke up and then I took a shower, split an orange with Lindsay and now here I am writing a blog. Well... I should get going. Wishing you all well back home.

Cheers.

P.S. Watercloset = Bathroom

A Journey of a Lifetime

Well, I am now in Berlin. Bailey left Scotland this morning at 8:30am and my flight left at 9:30am. Perfect timing, really. On the plane, it finally hit me. I am going to places and doing things that most people can only imagine and dream about doing. I have been LIVING in Scotland, I have been to both Ireland and England, and now I am in freaking Germany. The best part about it, it has only just begun. The plane ride was reallz smooth. As I explained to Lindsay when I got here, I started to feel a little turbulance and shut my eyes tighter only to open them to see that the turbulance was actually just the plane landing. :P

Lindsay met me at the airport and we had a quick lunch there. We took the train to our hostel only to find out that the room wasn't quite ready yet, but the ladies told us they have computers with free internet here. Which made me extremely happy. We sat and played on the computers for a bit until our room was ready. Oh wow, is this hostel lovely. It's much more like a hotel, but WAY cheaper. I have pictures of it, because I love it so much.

After we got settled in a bit, Lindsay and I decided to take a stroll around Berlin. Our hostel is pretty much right in the city center, so there's lots to see around here. We walked a long ways and saw all sorts of buildings, monuments, and sculptures. We also walked through the Alexa Mall, just to see what it was like. Looked like a regular mall to me. I have already taken so many pictures. About 7pm we both started getting hungry and we found a really neat place in the city center to have supper. I had a reallz good chicken sandwhich which wasn't very expensive at all. The restaurant we ate at was called Alex. The waitress and waitor were really nice. Evidently they get a lot of English speaking customers there, because they knew right away that we were lost in their words. lol.

We got really tired after that and walked about an hour to get back to the hostel. There were so many interesting things along the way. I was in awe. It sort of reminds me of being in Las Vegas, really. And now, here I am writing a short blog to keep you updated on this trip. :)

I really, really like Berlin. This trip was definitely a good idea.

Spring Break

Well.. I'm sorry that I didn't get to update any of you on my travels to Ireland and London. I leave for Berlin this morning. I will be there until April 6th and then I fly into Budapest. Since I will have a week in Germany, I will more than likely hop onto a computer in an internet cafe and keep you updated on this trip for sure.

Love,
Ashley

A Wee Little Message

Just wanted to apologize to you all for not updating my blog in a while. I've been quite the busy girl and will do so as soon as possible. :)

Not Hadrian's Wall

Wow. I did not realise that it has been 12 days since I last posted a blog. That'll tell you how busy I have been. :) I love it here. Glasgow has become like another home for me.

Last weekend Annie, Sean, and I went to England to see Hadrian's Wall. We took the train on Friday afternoon to Edinburgh and hopped on another train to Newcastle. When we arrived in Newcastle, it was already dark so there wasn't too much that we could see. We decided to explore the nightlife, which Newcastle is notorious for. We checked into our hostel, Albatross Backpackers Inn, which was right down the street from the train station. The hostel was really nice. While walking around the city we found a mall that was more like a huge two-floor club. The restaurants there were even playing loud music. I loved it. We ate at the TGI Fridays there. Annie and I split a plate of boneless buffalo wings and a chicken, bacon sandwhich. So good to have buffalo wings again. :) The people there were crazy on the streets. Lots of people dressed in costumes, whom we giggled at and also saw a few people get sick on the street, whom we also giggled at. A guy came over to us after we said we from the US. He had to shake our hands. He was excited to meet us. He was kind of sketchy at first until his extremely intoxicated friend came over and we all had a good chuckle at his expense.

We did quite a bit of walking around and we decided to head back to the hostel at 11pm so we could get up earlier the next day and start our travel along Hadrian's wall. Annie and I found a couple of TV rooms downstairs. I loved the stone look of the basement. Annie and I thuroughly enjoyed being down there, so I called Sean to get out of bed and come join us. We watched a bit of Dirty Dancing: Havanna Nights. (DUMB) After a bunch of rowdy guys came down to play pool, we decided to go upstairs and hit the hay only to find that we wouldn't be able to sleep anyway. A large group of people were constantly warned they would be thrown out if they didn't keep it down. But, their barks were worse than their bites. We got maybe a total of an hour or two of good sleep. We got up at 9am and had complimentary tea and toast and also leftover buffalo wings in the kitchen whilst we decided our plans for the day. We found that there was a Roman fort in South Shields, just 20 minutes East of Newcastle by Subway. We weren't a fan of South Shields, but liked the Roman Fort, Arbeia. They reconstructed a lot of it, which was nice but we kind of agreed that it should have just been kept the way they found it.

When we got back to the Newcastle train station, we bought our train tickets for the day so we could hop on and off the train as much as we want between there and Carlisle. We stopped first at a village called, Hexham. It was a very lovely town. We bought sandwhich meat, cheese, and bread at the local food store to make sandwiches. We explored the town a bit and visited the Hexham Abbey. Absolutely beautiful inside. I even lit a candle and said a prayer while we were there. When we found the visitor's center, we found out that the Hadrian's wall tour actually didn't start until the end of March. The train doesn't go to the wall itself, you have to get off in these little towns and catch buses to the wall. The buses weren't running. But, the lady was really nice and told us that there was a Roman fort that we should go to in Corbridge. It'd be an easy walk from the train station. So, we did.

When we got off the train in Corbridge, I dropped a fiver down below the bridge in a gated area, we went around the gates where Annie jumped it and grabbed my money for me. Phew. :) It was about a 10 minute walk to the village of Corbridge. Corbridge was an even more lovely place. We took the scenic route and walked along the river to get to the Roman site. It was about 15 minutes to get there and we got there with 1/2 hour left before closing. We had the whole place to ourselves to look at it and take our time exploring and we also had free audio guides which had sound affects, giving us a feel of what we might have been hearing if we were really there during the Roman invasion of Breton. (Britain) Hehe, I am actually learning in my Celtic Civilisations class.

We were extremely tired after that and hopped back on the train to Carlisle. When we got to Carlisle we found out that they don't actually have trains from Carlisle to Glasgow. You have to hop on a bus to Lockerbie and get on the train there to Glasgow. We didn't stay in Carlisle for very long, because we were exhausted and it was dark and it was starting to rain. When we got back to Glasgow, I stayed with Annie that night at Cairncross because Liane was in Ireland and her bed was free. :D I actually spent the whole weekend with Annie, which was a nice break from being in Murano Street.

So, that's the jist of my weekend in England. Tomorrow, my friend Lauren from Stout is coming to visit me. She arrives in Edinburgh and will be in Glasgow around 10am and we are going to catch a plane to Dublin, Ireland. We are going to stay in Dublin the first night and then we are going to the other coast and staying in a smaller town of Galway for two nights, and visiting the Cliffs of Moher. Then spending Tuesday (St. Patrick's Day) back in Dublin and catching our flight back to Glasgow on Wednesday morning. I'm gonna have to get a lot of rest tonight, because I'm going to be wiped after this trip.

Here are my uploaded albums to Facebook from my trip.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2041764&id=215700014&l=b2f56
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2041795&id=215700014&l=7fa1c

Cheers!

Did you know...

That they do not refrigerate their eggs here? Sketchy. I still put mine in the fridge when I got home. Apparently bacteria only grows when the air gets into the inside of the egg.

There's my random thought of the day.

Even though I'm not feeling well today still, I forced myself to go outside because the sun was shining and I thought the fresh air would make it better. I walked down to Tesco's and got some groceries along with Sudafed and Kleenex. I also stopped at McDonald's and had lunch on the way back. I don't really eat a whole lot of fast food and I thought it'd be okay to have some since I haven't had any for 7ish weeks. That burger hit the spot.

The weather was really weird today. It was raining one minute and the next the sun would be shining and then it would go back to rain again. It has been like that all day today. It is weird how rapidly the weather changes here. Chris, my piping tutor, and I were talking at my lesson about the weather and how it used to be. I guess they really haven't had a proper winter here in a LONG time. He said that it used to get down to negative 5c and now it doesn't. He believes that the fact that it hasn't been cold enough is the reason why so many people keep getting sick during the winter here. It isn't cold enough to kill what's in the air.

I'm going to Newcastle and Carlisle on Friday and Saturday with Annie and Sean. We will also be seeing Hadrian's Wall. :) Don't know what that is, google it. I had to. :P I'm excited. I'm going to England this weekend! WOO HOO!

Anyways, I'm doing laundry today! WOO HOO! Clean clothes! Oh... and I'm really starting to get fed up with the lack of help of cleaning around here. Sabrina is the only other one that seems to do her dishes. I just don't understand how people can't pick up after themselves, it's not that hard to wash your damn dishes. I think the thing that really frustrates me is when my stuff is used and then it is left out dirty for me to wash. I know this sounds ridiculous, but I feel the need to wash and keep my bowl and plate in my room just to make sure that I will have something to eat off of when I'm hungry.

Another thought... I will have been here for 8 weeks on this coming Tuesday. Weird to think that I have been here that long. And the month of February is now gone. Time is flying. Makes me realize how much stuff I still have to and want to do before I leave. :) Time to get crackin' at all my travel plans!

Cheers

Only seeing half

Updates... well, sort of. :P

I can't really sleep even though I'm exhausted. I haven't really been feeling well this week. But, I have had a lot of help at getting through it. :) And I am getting better. So, instead of laying in bed wondering why I can't sleep I thought I'd amuse you all with a new blog.

I went to the SECC, Scottish Exhibition and Conference Center, for a Snow Patrol Concert with Amy, Matthew, Gurlin, Ashlee, Lindsay, and Lucy. I posted my pictures to Facebook and here is the link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2041531&id=215700014&l=7bc9a

I have been to quite a few concerts, but of the ones that I can remember, this one was my favorite. We were really close to the stage, it was so exciting. The whole time I was wishing that I was taller. :P A verbal fight even took place with me right in the middle. Matthew helped me avoid getting roughed up by the drunken idiots. There was a guy there that made me laugh a bit. He joked about getting me a crate so I could see better. I didn't realize until that night that the members of Snow Patrol are from Dublin, Ireland and they lived in both Dundee and Glasgow, Scotland for a while. Quite exciting if you ask me! Ashlee also lives in MSSV, which was a relief for both of us. We agreed that we are going to become good friends. lol. She's from Texas and she actually has relatives that live in Rochester whom she visits regularly!

I caved and bought a phone after being told that I am "an extremely hard person to get a hold of." lol. If anyone ever feels up to it my number is +44 07964045848. My international calls are only 6 pence a minute which is about 10 cents. Not too shabby. If I ever call you on it, don't worry it doesn't cost you anything except minutes, it'll only cost me money. :) The lady at Carphone Warehouse asked me how long I'd been without a phone and I said, over 7 weeks. Her face was priceless. She laughed and said she can't even go outside on a break without making sure she has her phone on her and couldn't believe that I had gone that long without one. Personally, I kind of liked not having one for a while. At home, I always feel like I'm so attached to my cell phone and I always feel obligated to check it because I don't want to miss anything. I find that I'm already constantly checking my phone. Oh! My phone has Sudoku on it as well as temperature and currency converters. :D

At my bagpiping lesson this week, which I had to reschedule for Friday, I freaked Chris out. My pinky on my right hand has always cramped up on me while I played the flute or piano for too long and Chris noticed it. He was really curious about it at first until he saw that my pinky bends backwards farther than it should and he thinks that's the reason why it cramps up. He kept shuttering every time he looked at my hands from there on. I laughed and then I gave him a pouty look telling him that I didn't want to play any more. :P

One thing that I want to say before I wrap this up for the night, is that I know more twins here than I have known in my whole life. Granted, I only know half of the set but still. It's weird. My flatmate Alex, my friends Liane and Annie both have a twin back home, my piping tutor Chris, uhm I know that there are at least 2 more but I can't remember who they are at the top of my head.

Well it is now almost about 5am and I really should hit the sack. I'll try to get back on tomorrow and finish my thoughts.

Cheers

Backpacking Across Europe

I'm getting really excited. Want to know why? I have made travel plans for 5 weeks in a row.

My roommate Lauren, from Stout, is coming to visit me from March 14th to the 20th. We already have a plan to go by. She arrives in Edinburgh on Saturday morning. Plans that day for me are to take a bus to Edinburgh and meet her at the airport. From there, we are going to walk around Edinburgh for a little bit and then take a bus to St. Andrews and stay overnight at the hostel there. Sunday morning we are going to take a bus back to Glasgow and hop on a train to Belfast, Ireland. We are going to stick around in Ireland doing who knows what until early Wednesday when we will take the train back to Glasgow. We will be spending St. Patrick's Day in Ireland. Can you say excitement? We are going to spend Wednesday and most of Thursday around Glasgow because I still need to attend my classes, which she should be able to join me. I think either Thursday night we may go to The Primary (pub) so she can meet more of my friends in the International Student Society and go to Edinburgh early in the morning either that or we will go back to Edinburgh Thursday night and stay at hostel there so we don't have to get up as early for her flight back.

So Lauren leaves for home on Friday morning and Bailey will be arriving in Glasgow on Saturday afternoon. :) We haven't really talked too much about our plans, I just know for sure that we will be going to London while she is here. She will be here until Monday, March 30th. 9 whole days with my Bailey Jo.

When Bailey leaves I will be starting my three week Spring Break by departing to Berlin, Germany to meet my friend Lindsay. Our friend, Molly, is going to meet us there later in the week and we will all travel to Budapest, Hungary on April 5th together. April 7th or 8th, Molly and I are going to Bratislava, Slovakia and then we will meet Lindsay in Vienna, Austria and spend a few days there. After that, we are going to travel to Venice and Florence, Italy for the remainder of our vacation. Molly is going to fly to Dublin to visit her family while they are visiting there and Lindsay and I will return to Glasgow on the 16th/17th of April.

So, that's 8 countries in 5 weeks. Scotland, Ireland, England, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, and Italy. Can you see why I'm so excited now? How can life get any better than this. I'm so fortunate for everyone and everything in my life especially right now. If I could go back in time, I would not change a thing. I love where I am in life. Everything is just perfect.

I love and miss you all. And don't worry, I will have my camera and I'll be taking plenty of pictures. :)

Ashley

"Heritage and stuff."

Hello friends!

Well it has been over a week since my last blog so I have things that I need to catch you all up on. I had weekend full of success. Friday night my flatmates, Alex and Gordon and I had a party in our flat. The first one this flat has had all school year.

Some pictures of the aftermath:

Close up of our lovely broom sculpture: The sign reads "**** Off".

Yup, the party was a success. Happy to say that we will no longer be known as the "Geek Flat" of Lomond House. haha. As soon as I heard about that I was all for having a party. I wasn't around for the whole thing, but it was good to actually talk to these people while they were still sober. I had my first taste of Absinthe that night. My impression: tastes like black licorice and it's disgusting. Although, I was told by Emil that it wasn't prepared correctly. But, that doesn't mean I'm going to try it again. It made a bad first impression on me. lol. Also, someone fixed our fridge that night. YAY! There was a huge chunk of ice in the back and one of the drawers would not shut and we resorted to using tape to keep it closed because no one could get the iceberg out. Classy.

Valentine's Day was also a success. I was able to spend time with Luke through Skype. I love the invention of webcams. :D I had a delivery of a beautiful flower arrangement on Saturday morning. The delivery man said, "Someone must like you." I laughed and replied, "Just a little." My flowers came in this ridiculously huge box that is taller than the height of the back of my chair. :P A little excess if you ask me. Oh well. I am a very lucky and extremely happy girl.

Here is a picture of my lovely flowers:

Jealous? You should be.

We have a thing called "Reading Week" this week at the Uni, so my Celtic Civilsations class is cancelled. Meaning, I don't have class at all today or tomorrow. Annie, Liane, Charlie, Amy, and I made a trip to St. Andrews by train on Sunday morning. As I was leaving my flat I realized that I forgot to charge my camera, it was dead. :( So, I don't have any pictures of my trip, but everyone else got plenty of pictures and Liane let me steal her camera when there was something that I wanted to take a picture of. :D Anyways, we arrived in St. Andrews around noon. We stopped by at the Tourist Hostel to make a reservation and drop off our stuff (Liane, Annie, and I.. Charlie and Amy didn't stay overnight with us). The room that we stayed in at the hostel had 4 bunk beds and a couch. So, we shared our room with 5 other lovely people, of which I think 3 of them had been staying there for a while. We headed straight over to the golf course and took our pictures on the famous bridge of the very first golf course in the world. Unfortunately they were not open to play, but this way we actually got to walk on the fairways.

We then went to the beach of the North Sea. I got to put my hand in the water, get a couple of shells and even wrote my name in the sand. :) After that we took a walk up to the castle, it was 4 pounds to get in and tour it, but it was in ruins enough that we were able to see just about everything that we needed to through the gates. Charlie and I went back down to the sea in search of seaglass. He explained to me what to look for and told me, "It'll be your lucky day if you find a blue one." I looked down, picked up a piece of seaglass, smiled and said, "You mean this color?" The look in his eyes was priceless as he shouted, "KEEP IT!" :D My first piece of seaglass was a rare one. :)

We went to the Cathedral ruins and this is where my title comes in, Charlie said "I love little towns like this because of the heritage and... stuff." We all laughed. We stopped and had ice cream at Cafe Janetta to tide our stomachs over while we continued to explore the city. We made our way through the streets and visited some of the St. Andrews' University. As much as I love and adore this town, the main building of Glasgow University is much more impressive. We had an early dinner/late lunch at a little Italian resturant where I had a 4 meat pizza that was delicious. Charlie and Amy left to return to Glasgow after that. Annie, Liane, and I stopped at the movie theater and bought tickets to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at 7:40pm. In the meantime we went back to the hostel and chilled out on the couch in the living room for until 7pm. I loved this living room. There was a huge bay window, yellow walls, and white crown mouldings. The people there were extremely friendly and they were playing a trivia game and asked us if we wanted to join, but we were so exhausted that we all took a short nap before we left. One of the reasons why I am in love with St. Andrews is that everything is literally just right around the corner from you. You don't have to walk 30-45 minutes to go do something. Anyways, my impression of the movie: terrible. It was a really awkward love story. I'm not going to spoil anyone on the story, you'll just have to see it yourself. Although, I'm not really even sure if it's even worth your money to see it.

We crashed when we got back to the hostel. The next morning Liane and I had planned on going to see the sunrise over the North Sea. I woke up to a tap on my back from Liane... "Ashley, it's 8:30", I laughed. The sun rises here now at 7:30ish. Oh well... it was a crappy day and there wouldn't have been much of a sunrise anyways. :P We got ourselves ready and walked down to the next block to Tesco's and bought bagels and cream cheese and found a little local coffee shop where we ate and got drinks, I had a hot chocolate. Afterwards, we went around and looked at some of the shops, then went to the bus station to take us to Leuchers to get on the train back to Glasgow. Since it was still early by the time we got back, we stayed down on Sauchiehall (pronounced Sockey-hall) Street and went shopping at Primark. CHEAP CLOTHES! YAY! We also used the restroom at the McDonald's there and boy is that the fanciest McDonald's I have ever been in. I'm going to have to go back there to take pictures of the inside. It was a little extreme.

That ends my trip. When I got back, I took a shower and talked to Sabrina and also Gordon for a little while. Gordon is in the midst of cleaning up the kitchen right now. He said, "This is so gross." I replied, "Yep, that it is." lol. At least it's being cleaned! :D

I just want to say that I got an email from my mom telling me that my Great-Grandpa Bernie passed away yesterday morning. He lived a long and happy life. In the words of my mom, "He just turned 97. Long life with no regrets! Just think what a grand party there is in Heaven today! Whoop! Whoop!" RIP Papa Bernie, you will be missed. But, I know in my heart that you are enjoying being with Grandma Inez again. :D I will forever remember you playing the spoons with such excitement and also the set you made for me when I was a little girl. You were always happy and always smiling, just enjoying everything about life.

As soon as the others post pictures of our trip I'll post the links on here so you can take a look at them. Until then, I hope you are all doing well.

Cheers

Edinburgh with Carrie

I went to Edinburgh with Carrie just for a short day trip. It was SOOO cold, yet still very beautiful. Wasn't what we were expecting. Reminded us a lot of Glasgow except there were more snowy hills and there was water. :) Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland, but we heard that it was much smaller than Glasgow, so we both had different thoughts of what it was going to be like there. Although it reminded us of Glasgow, Edinburgh has a huge population of tourists, that was kind of weird to see so many of them. We did the whole touristy-like thing today, but we plan on going back to do our own thing next time. I took some pictures while I was there and uploaded them to Facebook of course. Here is the link, enjoy:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2041153&l=76f98&id=215700014

A Traditional Scottish Meal

Yup, you probably guessed it. I had my very first real Scottish meal tonight. I came home and was boiling up some broccoli and Gordon asked me if I have ever eaten Haggis before. He and the people from the flat next door were cooking some up and they let me have some. My impressions of this exquisite cuisine? Mushy. I don't mind the taste as much, just the texture grosses me out. I could stand to eat a few bites but after that, I had to throw it out. Gordon laughed, saying that you have to have an acquired taste to like it. I have been warned before that I wouldn't like it, but I had to try it for myself. And I'm glad I did. I'm definitely not afraid to try new things.

I have a traveling buddy for my spring break now! Woo Hoo! Her name is Lindsay and she is from the state of New York. She was one of the first people that I met here during orientation. I have my Celtic tutorial with her. So, I am in the midst of making plans to travel with her for 3 weeks. :) We are thinking Greece for a part of it, and possibly Denmark? Not sure yet. We just decided this today. I am sure whatever we do will be wonderful. I am really looking forward to it. :D

This Saturday Carrie, Charlie and I (possibly Janene) are going to Edinburgh for the day. A lot of the group that I made friends with are going to the highlands this weekend with the International Student Society to stay overnight in a castle. They sold out of tickets really fast for this trip, so I don't get to go. So the three of us made it a point to get out and do something this weekend. Charlie has gone to Edinburgh already and he plans on showing us the cafe where JK Rowling began writing the Harry Potter Series. Jealous much? :P Charlie and I also talked about going on the Harry Potter train ride, but that doesn't start until mid-May. :)

In Celtic today we were given an assignment for next Thursday. We are going to be doing some role playing. We had the choice to be a trader or a monk. I chose to be a monk. I even get a name. :) I am Diarmait, the steward of the monastery. I am in charge of looking after the guests. Should be fun. :P Not everyone got a part where they got to have a name. I feel special. Yay! Yesterday in my rendering class at the GSA, we got to draw our model using pencil. I think this is by far my favorite class. I love drawing and I am learning so much and have already improved. Yesterday Debra used the words, "Excellent", "You learn so quickly", "It's so accurate", and "You have mastered this technique". That feels really good to hear that from a teacher that instructs some of the best art students in the UK. :) You can say that I was pretty proud of myself after that. I was able to develop two of my pictures yesterday in photography class. I think they turned out really well. I tried taking pictures of the pictures, but that doesn't work so well. Doesn't do the actual picture any justice.

Sabrina answered our flat door tonight and a girl gave her a free mix cd from a club and the cd is actually pretty good. Good club dancing music that's for sure. I'm enjoying myself listening to this. There are 29 songs that are about 1 1/2 minutes long each. :) Hooray for random people that hand out music.

Oh shoot, one more thing before I get going. There was a guy with a microphone that came up to Annie and I on Byre's Road today asking us what we think about YouTube. I was scared out of my mind. He didn't have a camera or anything. It was weird. I was speechless. He was right up in my face, I kept trying to back away but he just kept getting closer. I don't think I could ever do what he does. Those people are fricken psycho.

Well, I guess that's all that I really have time to write about now. I have an essay for Celtic due on Tuesday and I need to get at it.

Ta!
Ashley

What I have learned thus far.

Well it has now been 1 month already since I started my adventure. Let me tell you, it definitely does not feel like it has been that long already. Time is flying. As much as I do love being at home in Minnesota/Wisconsin, I am having the time of my life. I'm trying to make this time go slow so I can enjoy and savor everything that I do and the friends that I make because I don't know when or even if I ever will be back here again and I know for a fact that I will be back in the states and see everyone there again.

Last night I experienced what I thought Scotland would be like. The pub music scene. My flatmate Alex invited me to go with her and a few of her friends, one of which I've already met. I didn't know this beforehand, but every Sunday this pub has live music where anyone can bring an instrument and take turns playing tunes. There were guitars, banjos, flutes, saxophones, harmonicas, ukuleles, violin, and even a kazoo. The pub was crowded, but everyone was having so much singing along and keeping the beat. One of the banjo players introduced himself to me. Michael McIntyre, is a crazy and friendly old man. He has a long gray beard and long eyebrow hairs which are pointed. Chatted with him for a while and we ran into him later at one of the chip shops that we stopped at. He and his friend gave Alex, Claire, and I a ride back to MSSV. :P

With that said, here is a little list of some of the things that I have learned:

1. They do not use the letter “z”, pronounced “zed”. Celtic Civilisations, realised, and so forth...

2. People not only drive on the left side, but they also walk on the left side.

3. A Quid = A Buck

4. Pedestrians do not have the right of way. Clause, another exchange student, was hit by a car his first week here and broke his arm.

5. Walking for a total of 2 hours or more on a daily basis is not uncommon. Good for the gluts. :P

6. Robby Burns, the poet, is an icon. They are very proud of him.

7. It’s Football not Soccer. Yes, I knew this before I came here, but I was reprimanded when I accidentally said soccer.

8. Traditional Scottish men do not wear anything under their kilts.

9. Everything tastes sweeter here.

10. Dressing up to go out at night does not mean a pair of nice jeans and a nice top. It means doing your hair and make-up for hours, putting on a dress with nylons and 5-inch pumps.

11. Skype and web cams are my heroes.

12. There are no regular street signs. You have to look for plaques on the buildings on the road to figure out where you are.

13. Taxi drivers are really nice here. They like to tell stories and jokes that half the time you don’t understand but you end up laughing anyway.

14. People from here are annoyed when Americans come here and say to them “Hey! I’m Irish too!” (or whatever your heritage may be) or “I want to go to Ireland because I’m Irish.” (I didn't say this to anyone, but they complain about it)

15. Studying abroad in Scotland hurts your face from smiling too much.

16. Studying abroad in Scotland hurts your face from the Gael force winds when it rains and/or snows.

17. People from the UK think it's cute when Americans don't swear and say things like "shoot" or "holy crap" instead.

18. Australians hate snow and cold. They hate it so much that they develop a phobia. (well, maybe that's just one of the Aussies that I know.)

19. People from New Castle, England call themselves Geordies. After King George.

20. I have learned to be more relaxed with everything. I'm never rushing and constantly checking my watch when I go to my classes or am meeting someone somewhere. (well, I mean I still do it a little, but I don't flip out as much when I'm running late.) My attitude is, I'll get there eventually.

Well, those are the things that I can think of at the top of my head. As you can see, I still have lots more to learn. Luckily for me, I still have 110 days left. I just can't believe that I have been here for a month already...

Lots of Love,
Ashley

Loch Lomond

Liane, Annie and I went to a little town called Luss to see Loch Lomond. I took a bunch of pictures and uploaded them to Facebook. Here is the link to see them.

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2041014&l=af2fc&id=215700014

What's for dinner?

After noticing today what poor shape my shoes are in because of all the walking I've been doing, I decided to make them a focal point in some of my frames for my B & W Photography class. This is what I came up with. The thought of doing this made me giggle my whole walk home from class.

Scrum-Diddly-Umptious. :)

I do have other pictures that I will have to wait and see how they turn out, because those are not on my digital. I just had to get a digital of this and share it with you all. :) Oh, and don't worry I scrubbed that plate good.

Cheers!

I'm finding...

... that it is really hard to adjust to the different time zone here. I am still on central time. Bah. It is now 2pm and I am finally ready to start the day except now I only have 2 and a half hours left of daylight. Hmmm. . . Oh well, after all how can I be angry when the things and people in my life make me so happy? I just can't be.

Life is good.

Mmmm Hmmm. ;)

The air in Scotland....

...must be messing with my head. Either that or it's just all this new independence. I don't know. I love being less dependent upon people. Makes me feel like a grown-up. :P One of the reasons that I love being away at college. You learn to do things for yourself. But, being in a completely different country has been even better. I've been learning to do things for myself more like sticking up for myself and speaking out when I have something to say without feeling like everything I say is idiotic... my confidence has definitely boosted. Yeah, you've all probably noticed that some of this began last semester, but I feel like it's already so much higher than before.

Anyways, the reason for all of this is because I made homemade mashed potatoes for the very first time. AND they were delicious. Also, I boiled broccoli for the first time ever last week. I'm so proud of myself. :D

Cheers!

Feels like home.

Well, it has been a few days since I last posted. I am now through my second week of classes. I started my art classes at the Glasgow School of Art this week. I'm really, really excited about them, especially my Rendering the Human Form class. I keep calling it my drawing class, but I know that we are going to be painting as well. My teacher is someone that I feel like I can relate to. Her name is Debra. She's very down to earth and easy to talk to. I have a feeling I am going to learn so much from her. There are only 5 people in our class, making it easy to get to know one another and have more one on one time with her and also the others in the classroom. The other class that I have at GSA is Black and White Photography. The teacher doesn't seem to be as personable as Debra, but he sure does know his stuff. We are all going to be given fob keys to get into the buildings of the GSA... I love that, I feel like I'm important and it's a privilege to be attending that school.

Yesterday morning, I had my first bag piping lesson. My tutor's name is Chris. I have talked to the other people that have his as their tutor as well and we all get the feeling that he doesn't really want to be there. Hopefully it was just that he was having a bad week or something. I kind of wish I had Finlay as my tutor instead. He seems so relaxed and likes to have fun. In our class today, we learned so much about the bag pipe itself, including all of the components that make it. We also got to hear him play some tunes. I love the way the bagpipe sounds, I don't care what you all think, it's pretty freakin' sweet. Anyways, we all have chanters to practice with. We will have the opportunity to play the bagpipes but, we need to learn the fundamentals first. I have now learned how to play the scale. :D I felt at first like I had some standards that I would have to live up to because I used to play the flute, but really the chanter isn't anything like it. Oh, I guess I should explain what a chanter is.. A chanter looks sort of like a recorder. It's black and comes in three pieces. A top, bottom, and a reed. The reed goes in the middle of the two pieces, you don't actually blow on the reed directly like a clarinet. The chanter is also a part of the bagpipes. It's basically like just putting the mouth piece and the part where you place your fingers together. It sounds like a muted bagpipe. But, because of the poor quality and cheapness of the ones we have, it tends to squeak and sound like a duck. :P You have to clean it out like every 15 minutes of playing... and I guarantee it's one of the grossest things. There's so much spit. lol. Anyways, I can't wait to get home and impress you all with my amazing chanter playing skills!

I also found out that the GSA and the Piping Centre are only about a 30 - 40 minute walk from MSSV. Which is nice. I will save lots of money on taking the tube. Walking has been a great way for me to get exercise and I love all of the little things and places that I would usually take for granted or miss completely if I were to just drive by. I'm starting to really find my way around the city and it's definitely starting to feel like home. I like it here, a lot. But, don't you worry I'm not going to move here, I will return to the States. :)

Love you, miss you, wish you all were here,
Ashley
xoxo

Take a Walk With Me

Instead of going to Edinburgh today, I decided to stick around Glasgow for the weekend to try and get rid of this darn cold. I didn't want to make it worse by going around and staying up late.

Today I decided to take a walk. I took a left instead of a right on Maryhill Road and just kept walking. I took a ton of pictures. I for sure thought that I was lost until I saw a pub that I had been at a couple of nights before and was relieved to know where I was. I uploaded all of my pictures to Facebook.

The walk was a span of about 3 hours and it includes pictures of the University and the Botanical Gardens.

Here are the links to the pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040717&l=5e116&id=215700014

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040718&l=96eeb&id=215700014


Enjoy!
Ashley

Bagpipes and Kilts

Take a look at the website for the National Piping Centre. This is in the city center of Glasgow, which I found out that is only about a 20 minute walk from MSSV. That will save me a lot of money to not have to use the underground to get there. Also, the Glasgow School of Art is just a couple of blocks from there. I love that I'm starting to find my way around this place!

As I was looking at the website I noticed that my instructor was on there and there is a link to his band's website. Have a look at that as well. Found out that he not only plays the bagpipes but the flute as well, he and I had a discussion about that because I also played. Anyways his name is Finlay MacDonald. His hair is amazing. He has a side Mohawk. When anyone that knows him and is talking about him, they always put their hand on their head to gesture the famous hairdo. lol. I noticed this last night when we were all at a pub called The Primary last night. I laughed every time someone did that. I don't think they realize that they do it.

The National Piping Centre:
http://www.thepipingcentre.co.uk/

The Finlay MacDonald Band:
http://www.finlaymacdonaldband.com/

Tomorrow I am off to Edinburgh with a huge group of people from the International Student Society. Should be a lot of fun!

Here are my own pictures that I took of the Piping Centre

My Friend Liane and I in front of the Piping Centre... I do love Glasgow, but I hate what it does to my bangs! Oh well!

The Piping Centre

There are a few stained glass windows in the Piping Centre. This one, Finlay explained to us that it represents the Scottish Dance called Ceilidh. Not sure if he was joking or not because he said it looks like a few of the objects in it were toppled over from a long night of drinking. :P

This is the art museum on the other side of the Uni. It is free and can you believe it? I still have yet to go there!

The Main building of the Uni at night. Apologize for it being blurry. I was kind of doing this while walking. My friend Charlie was upset that he forgot his camera when we were walking by and then later that night he told me that he forgot that he put his camera in his backpack, so he did in fact have it with him at the time.

So...

I'm starting to think that I don't really need to tell you guys every detail of my life here. HAHA. Please forgive me, I've never done a blog before. :P From now on, it'll only be the exciting stuff. Which will be hard, because everything is exciting. :)

Slumdog Millionaire

A bunch of us went down to Buchanan street in the city center last week and went to a movie. The movie theater was flipping huge. I had to go up 7 flights of escalators, yes... I went up that far even with my fear of heights. All of the movies start at the same time. It's kind of a neat ordeal. The movie that we saw was Slumdog Millionaire. SO GOOD! I would recommend this movie to anyone.

Today I went down to Tesco's myself. It's a really short walk which is nice. But, I bought a plate, mug, bowl matching set; set of silverware; 3 saucepans and a frying pan; tortellini, ravioli, and cheese sauce; bananas; and some turkey. All for only £28. I would think that was a pretty good deal. Also, I am going to be a club member at Tesco's. Yay! You get money off of things every time you purchase something from there, including trips to London and for mailing. The weather kind of sucks today but it was so nice the last couple of days.. so much sun! :D

Oh, and I'm extremely frustrated. I tried logging on to abc.com to watch Desperate Housewives, and it won't let me because I'm not in the United States. Boo.

One week down...

First off, just want to give a shout out to my homeskillet, Kate. It is her Birthday today. Happy Birthday! lol. I say it like I'm on a live tv show. :P

Anyways, I can't believe that I have been here for a week already. I have personally met only 2 of my flatmates. I have seen the other 2... but, I don't really think they care too much to meet me. Eh, their loss. :) I am living with 2 other girls and 2 boys. Alex, Sabrina, Emil, and Gordon. I'm not sure where Alex is from but Sabrina is from Germany, Emil is from Sweeden, and Gordon is from Scotland. My flatmates are so noisy. I don't know what they are all doing, but I would like to get some sleep sometime in the near future. Last night Gordon brought a couple of his friends home with him at 3:30am, I'm pretty sure they had been drinking. They were playing on a guitar and singing really loudly until about 5am. Yeah... I'm downright tired today. Sabrina and Emil are really nice. I had lasagna for dinner with them last night and we watched an episode of How I Met Your Mother, which they like to call "The Naked Man". lol. It was even funnier because it was an episode about Minnesota. :D They kept asking me questions.

I bought some more groceries today. I need to go out and buy a pan and some dishes and silverware still. Celtic Civilizations seems like it's going to be a pretty neat class. We have 3 teachers, and 5 tutors. The class works as follows: Monday and Tuesday we have lecture and then on Thursday or Friday we have a small group session with one of the tutors that we will be assigned to. I don't start my art classes until next Wednesday. YAY! And then on Thursdays I have Bagpiping. :) Which leaves a three day weekend Woo Hoo!

Alright, well I best be off. More later.
xoxo
Ashley

PICTURES!

Here are some pictures! I have more, but I only have so much time to upload them

This is the pub that we went to on Friday night, which is in an old church.



















This thing is being feisty, so for the rest of them we have:

The bridge to Murano Street Student Village.
River that goes under Byer's Street/Queen Margaret Road.
The door to my loft.
Lomond House 6 in MSSV.

Feels like spring.

Here I am, in the computer lab... soaked like no other and I could care less because I am in FREAKING SCOTLAND! The weather has been kind of depressing here the last couple of days. I mean, I do LOVE rain. I love playing in it and I don't mind walking in it, but the wind is TERRIBLE! Janene and I walked to Tesco's (the cheaper supermarket) and we had the hardest time trying to walk there and back to MSSV. I had to stop a few times to keep my balance. I'm so glad I didn't buy that umberella at Tesco's. It would have been shredded by the time I got back. I think I've decided that I'm just going to stick out the rain and not worry about buying an umberella, especially if it's this windy. I would end up going through a lot of them. Waste of money if you ask me..

Janene and I had a late lunch at McDonald's. Late lunch because we didn't start our day until noon. My flatmates have been coming in at 3:30am and get quite loud... I have to resort to using my ipod to overpower their noise. It has also been really hard for me to get used to the lack of daylight here. The sun doesn't really shine much here, and the daylight starts at 9am and then sets at 4:30pm. I am wicked tired by 6pm and just want to go bed. But, anywho even though I really don't care for fast food, I was just way to hungry to care. Just so you all know, it doesn't taste any different than the ones back at home.

So I noticed that my blogs are ridiculously long already.... hopefully my internet is up and running tomorrow so I can post pictures. We start classes tomorrow and I only have one and that doesn't start until 1pm. YAY! The class will be Celtic Civilations. Tonight, I think a few of us will be going down closer to campus on Byer's road to catch a movie. What movie you ask? I don't know yet. We'll see.

Well... off I go. I'm cold, wet, and stinky from walking in the rain. I need to change my clothes. One more thing. You all would love my hair right now. No, I am NOT going to take a picture of it, but let's just leave it at the fact that I have been wearing my winter hat all day. Frizz fest! I looked at Tesco's to get a hair straightner and yeah, there's no way I am going to pay 74 pounds for one. NOT HAPPENING. I'll just have to look around at other places. But, I did buy some hair spray to maybe enhance the wave. :D

xoxo
Ashley

Hi!



Still no sign of getting internet connection in my room. :( Should be working on Monday. yay! Then, I'll be able to post some pictures.



We had orientation for the study abroad students all day Thursday and Friday. Wednesday night I asked one of the ladies at the reception desk how I was to get to the university. And it's basically just a straight shot walk of about 25 minutes. For anyone that's wondering, the street is called Queen Margaret Street which turns into Byers Road, then take a left on University Avenue. The campus is HUGE! It's hard to even tell if the buildings are even academic buildings. It's so different here than back at Stout. Anyways, the lady gave me directions, but also had a worried look on her face when I asked. She said she didn't recommend going down there that late at night, especially by myself. When I told her that I was just making sure that I knew how to get there and would be going in the morning, she was extremely relieved. I guess things get dangerous here when the sun goes down.



Thursday morning, I made my first walk down to campus. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Although I have learned that the pedestrians do not have the right of way around here. :P I met so many people that day from all over the world. Including Australia, Boston, Chile, Czech Republic, California, Virginia, Texas... yeah, you get the idea. During our lunch break one of the professors asked that all of the Wisconsin students meet up with a group of graduate students from the University of LaCrosse. Who can refuse a free lunch? I felt like I was on a panel with all of those other students questioning us, but it was also relaxed at the same time. I was finally able to meet up with Carrie and Ben who are from UW Stout as well. After the initial orientation, we had to sign up for our classes and then had a 3 hour break. My classes this semester are going to be great, I can just feel it. I have Celtic Civilization-Medeival times, Photography, Human life drawing, and last but not least, Bagpiping!

I got to see where Ben and Carrie are living and Carrie came to Murano street to see where I live. Also found a cute little cafe called Pico's that has free WiFi, but is a bit slow on my laptop. Later that night the study abroad students had a social gathering in the main building. They had a buffet and I was then able to meet even more people! There were about 70 to 80 students that were included in on the orientation this week. Just to give you a rough estimate. I learned a lot about the University that day. Started in 1451. Isn't that crazy to think that they had a University before our country even exsisted? I thought that was intriguing for sure. After the social gathering a bunch of us went down to a pub that is located in an old church. It was a pretty weird feeling, but the pub was beautiful inside. I made a good friend who is from Sydney, Australia by the name of Janene. We both found out that we are living in MSSV. We have become walking buddies to and from campus.

Friday we finished orientation and I had fish and chips (not french fries, chips) for lunch. We then went on a bus tour to the city center. I didn't realize how large this city really was. All of the buildings are gorgeous. I started not feeling very well on the ride around, so I didn't get to enjoy it as much as I wanted to, but I did get a few pictures. I'm planning on taking a bus down there with Janene tomorrow to explore the place on foot. As well as go grocery shopping. I really need to get some food!

It's crazy how easy it is to make friends here, I never had this at RCTC or Stout. For example, I was down in the computer lab earlier today and started a chat with a girl by the name of Laura and we are now friends. It's just that simple. Oh, I finally was able to meet one of my flatmates, she is from Germany. Her name is Sabrina. She apologized for the kitchen looking like a complete disaster. And she even said herself that she gagged when she walked in there. lol. Nice to know that they don't actually live like that. I was worried.

I don't know what else to say at this point, so that's about it for now.
Wishing you all well!
Ashley

So it begins...

So, I originally wrote this on the 7th, but am posting it today... I'll try to keep you all updated more, now that I found a place with free WiFi and some schools in the Reception area at Murano Street.

Well everyone, the web address is correct. Ashley is in fact, in Scotland. First off, for anyone that wants to mail me anything here is my address:

Ashley Nandory
MSSV
Lomond House
6 Caithness ST
F3
Glasgow
G20 7SB

MSSV is an abbreviation for Murano Street Student Village, where I am staying obviously. I am on the third floor of Lomond House 6 right across the street from the reception desk, which I have been to about oh, 8 times since I got here less than 24 hours ago. I hope I don't start to annoy them with all of my questions. Jet lag did not hit me. :D Or maybe it did. I slept from 10pm to 3am then 5am to 10am. Sounds like a normal day in the life of Ashley to me. I haven't been able to explore much yet, because I've been waiting for my internet connection to be hooked up in my room. Apparently before Christmas there were some computer viruses going around campus and they shut off all the Internet connections to every room. Masterpoint, that is. AKA *6 on my phone.

Everyone's probably curious as to what my first meal in Scotland was, considering I do love food. Well, it was the Brown Sugar Cinnamoniness of Pop Tarts... MMmmmMM. I bought them at the airport in Chicago. Also, I bought a bottle of water for $2.93, which was before I realized that I would be going through security again. The line was long, so I had time to chug most of it.

Speaking of security. I can tell you now that I'm grateful of the people at the Minneapolis airport. Luke took me to the airport on Monday and Mary and Jamison both told me they thought he would be able to go through security with his Military ID. When we asked the guy at the check-in, he said that the traveler needed to be in the military to do so. After struggling to find mine, I was saddened by the thought that he would not be going through with me. After the guy checked my baggage, he looked at Luke and said, "Give me your ID." He let Luke go through on a "Priority AAccess" ticket! Oh, and I was the "chosen one" to go through extra screening. It really didn't matter I was just too excited at this point to care. They let Luke go through, so I sacrificed a little of my time for them. FYI Kate, the TGI Fridays at the airport doesn't have pot stickers either. I was the very last person to get on the plane. They even called my name on the intercom to board. Everyone knows that I am never late for anything. I guess a part of me just didn't want to leave.

Everything finally hit me once I got on the plane and arrived in Chicago. That first hour of being completely by myself, and becoming more independent. My flight was delayed to leave at 8:50 instead of 7:35, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Carrie and I were one of the last to board that plane as well. When I got on the plane, there was a guy in my seat. I asked him if he was assigned to that seat as well, he showed me his ticket and there you have it. There were two people assigned to seat 29C. There was no way that I was going to be sitting on this guy's lap for 7 hours and 15 minutes. I checked with the flight attendants, and they found another seat for me while I had a chat with the guy that stole my seat. They were going to put me in the very last row of the plane, but when I got there another flight attendant asked me if I would be so kind as to move to another seat so another person, who was dreadfully sick, could be by the lavatory. I moved to my final destination at seat 42E, in the middle, right next to an older couple who were missionaries from Colorado Springs. The lady said it was very nice of me to move so the lady that was sick could be in the aisle seat. She also told me she was just plain old happy that she wouldn't have to sit by her. I had to laugh. The guy on my left was nice, but got on my nerves after a while. As soon as I was about to fall asleep he'd start clickign the little thing that held up his table. I wanted to give him the evil eye so bad. He quit after about an hour and I was able to get maybe 2 hours of sleep.

The airport at Amsterdam scared me. The place was really cool looking, reminded me of the Bauhaus style. The people there seemed stuck-up, overly confident, and self-absorbed, if you will. Usually everywhere you go you'll get a smile or something from someone that walks by, nothing. There were a lot of people there that looked like my sculpture teacher, Lars, who is from Denmark. *Shivers* It was kind of cool though, we had to ride a bus out to where our plane was on the airport grounds. It was like we were famous rockstars. I put my sunglasses on, turned around, and waved goodbye to my adoring fans as I boarded my plane.

Eek. At this point I am not in Scotland, my home for the next 5 months. I met a really nice guy at the airport by the name of Andrew who gave me his information if I needed any help. I must have looked like a lost puppy and he came to my rescue and helped me find out where I needed to go. That was nice of him to help. I got in a Taxi to take me to the University and the driver showed me some cool points along the way. When I asked him what his favorite thing about Scotland was he said, without hesitation, the people. I think I'm going to like this place. I haven't met anyone yet who hasn't been willing to help me or hasn't smiled at me. I like it when people smile, it makes me fell at home. Oh, and this 24 hour clock thing is going to take a while to get used to.

That's about it for now, I have orientation all day tomorrow and Friday. So, Anywho... ;)

Love you and miss you all,
Ashley

P.S. As promised, I did not read the book until after I got to Chicago.... Bailey... You all crack me up.