I'm almost home!

I am so close to home I can almost taste it. Each day a new layer of excitement is added to the pile so it continues to build! ONLY 3 WEEKS LEFT.

I know I haven't been blogging much, mainly because nothing is really happening or has happened that I have deemed as blog-worthy. But I will see what I can come up with to share. 

Since mom and dad left I went to Edinburgh to see my first football (soccer) game with Kylee's (my sister in law) cousin Adam who lives there. It was really cool too see, not terribly exciting because it wasn't a very big game and our team lost but that's okay. The 2 old scots men behind us made it worth it with their hilarious commentary in their old thick accents.

I have also had 2 presentations. One on how Canada invokes patriotism through its media, with specific reference to the 2010 Winter Olympics and the other on gender and sexuality on TV. Both went over really well and I am glad they are over with. I have also submitted 2 papers. The only 2 I've had to do so far. One on Edward Snowden comparing and contrasting coverage in a few different newspapers and the other on how audiences of The Bachelorette can be considered active. Hopefully I do well on those, I was quite happy with the topics that I chose based on the questions that were provided. 

        The exchange and study abroad fair went over really well. I think we convinced a lot of GCU students to really considered coming to Canada (more importantly Brock ;). Plus the 2 students who were at Brock last year were also there to share their experiences and they both loved it so everybody else should too. There was one lady who had to be mid 40s maybe asking about how it would be for her to go on exchange to Brock, we weren't really sure what to tell her about residence or student living, but if she does it, more power to her.

I have officially cracked open my advent calendar which counts down my coming home. Cheesey I know, but it makes me happy. My mom got one too, cuz we're cool like that. Less than 3 weeks now!

I also bought a new coat! I wanted a nice fancy-ish peacoat-meets-trench style coat but had an awful time finding one. See now, I have ridiculously long arms (apparently to match my long torso and legs), and while they can come in handy, coat designer people apparently never go the memo that not everyone has standard coat-arm length arms, therefore making it difficult to find a coat that is long enough in the arms but doesn't drape off of me (apparently there's some sort of correlation between arm length and size...WRONG). SO! To get on with it, I have accepted that my chances of finding a fancy coat that fits nicely with long enough arms is not likely to happen without having something custom made, and since I'm not made of money, I found a coat I really love, and the sleeves look perfect as long as I keep my arms down :) I'm sure you will see it in pictures from Ireland next or when I am home in 3 WEEKS. 

Anywho,

All I have left now is a presentation about an ethical dilemma with a small write up to go with it. And a few blog posts for class. 

But! That is after Ireland.
 In fact, I need go be up and getting ready to leave in about 2.5 hours. I am on some weird Toronto time sleep schedule so I spend most of my nights awake. This one included apparently. 

Oh well. 

Ireland should be fun and I will post when I am back from finding me a leprechaun.

Chow for now

T. 

So It's Been A While Since I've Posted...

Hi All,

Sorry for the delay with the posts, it's been busy and not busy at the same time. It actually takes some motivation and enthusiasm to sit down and type out everything that has been happening. So here we go; this is either going to be a really long post with everything or not so long but packed with small explanations about everything.

I'd just like to start out by making a point that it is already getting dark here and it is 4:30pm. Cool.
Since our daylight savings starts a week before the Canadian one, for a whole week there has only been a 4 hour time difference!

Okay, where to start.
Post-Thanksgiving:

People here don't really stress much here about anything, which can be extremely frustrating coming from a less-than-laid-back school/country - which is probably what contributed to my frustration and unease upon arriving here the first few weeks.
So when one of my professors cancelled class for two weeks but moved those classes to a time that conflicted with another class, it wasn't a big deal. It was deemed 'unavoidable', but not a problem if you had a conflicting class. So for those 2 weeks I only had 2 classes, mondays and fridays, tough life, I know.

Then mom and dad came to visit! There was about a 3-week build up of excitement and anticipation so when the day actually came it was grrrrreat. I was up and out the door at 6:30am and headed for the airport via bus.
There is no longer feeling than watching hoards of people come through international gates but still sitting there waiting for your own famjam. But they came, and it was exciting!
First stop, Starbucks. Enough said.
When we got into town we went to see about early checkin in their apartment, since I had gone to previous week to check, the gentlemen at reception recognised me by name and we were in! ;)
Saturday we wandered the city - checking out the shops and sights.
That night we went the the Atholl Arms and had fish n' chips! (My first haha after a month and a half)

Sunday we did a hop-on, hop-off tour of Glasgow, which was nice because I haven't strayed to far from the city centre. We went to the Riverside Museum of Transportation and Kelgrove Museum.
Monday I had class so mom and dad did the tour again (they were 2-day tickets).
Tuesday they went to Edinburgh.

Wednesday we went on a tour to Stirling Castle, Aberfoyle, Loch Lomond and Glengoyne Distillery which was really cool. There was only 5 of us on the tour and the tour guide was super nice and friendly and full of information. She went on for a bit about all the things wrong in the movie BraveHeart which was actually really funny and interesting.

Stirling Castle in Stirling was really cool. It wasn't super big but it was full of history and cool things to see. The guided tour we did there was kind of random, the guide was nice and full of information but the way he lead us around SOME of the castle and in and out of places was really odd so I didn't care for it too much and just took pictures.











We made a few random stops on the tour for pictures and stuff which was nice of our tour guide. We went to Aberfoyle for lunch which was a little tiny village with a few touristy shops and some places for food. Loch Lomond was really nice and pretty, we didn't do the walk around it

Stirling Castle 

like we could have but there was a nature centre tourist place that we went into and had a look around on before boarding the bus again.

Lastly we went to the Glengoyne Whisky Distillery in Glengoyne. It was pretty cool, we got to try some 12 year old whisky while watching a brief video about the distillery. The guide for that tour was really good and full of information. Single malt whisky has quite the process before being stored away for 10 years minimum. We couldn't take pictures in the distillery because of dust and stuff so I only have a shot from the outside.

Also, fact: In Scotland the spelling is 'Whisky' and in Ireland its 'Whiskey', but of course it's Scotland that has the correct spelling...says the Scots. :P

This was behind the distillery, where they use the water to in their cooling system.

Thursday Ma & Pa went on a tour to Loch Ness. I had already been previously so opted out. And Friday they went to St. Andrews while I was in class.

Saturday we stayed in the city centre and just hung out and did some shopping for souvenirs and gifts. Our last dinner together was italian. I know. I couldn't convince them to try haggis.

When they came over mom brought me Kraft Dinner and Starbucks Pumpkin Spice flavoured Coffee packets and a magic eraser! A little piece of home :)
I won't lie, it really sucked when they left. But as I see it, I've got 2 seminar presentations, 1 trip to Ireland, 2 papers and a class presentation left before I am home for the holidays! (That's only 6 weeks on Friday!)




Anyways, since then, Monday night was Zombie night at Jackson's bar so we went all out for that (see picture of yours truly). The gashes come from liquid latex and makeup/paint. It was really messy and really fun to do. It was also really itchy. But totally worth it.


<= Wouldn't you just love to see that outside your window one night??

Canadian Zombies...

Today I had a meeting with 2 Canadians and 2 Australians about our booth for the Exchange & Study Abroad fair happening next week. For whatever reason, they have put Canada and Australia into one booth... So we volunteered to run it and got together to figure out how we were going to do it, so that should be fun.

That's kind of all I can think of right now...

Anywho, hope you've enjoyed it :)

T.

Happy Thanksgiving! From My Country to Yours!

I love Thanksgiving. 

I love everything about it; the fall season, the baking (pumpkin EVERYTHING), the food & time spent with family. All of which made it that much harder to be away from home and family for the holiday. Nothing says homesick like talking to your family through a computer as they're all gathered around the table after what can only be assumed to be was a delicious meal with lots of laughs. I know, it's sad but I'll stop with the sad part now.
My home-away-from-home Thanksgiving was actually pretty nice. A group of us Canadian international students went out of our way to let just about all of Glasgow know that it was Thanksgiving for us and we were celebrating.
Sunday night we were going to sit down and have a big family style feast (every student for themselves, unless you wanted to bring a communal dish), so Sunday we trekked to Tesco (supermarket) to get the goods. I myself was set on having pumpkin pie and assumed others would be just as excited so I found all the stuff I needed! Yea... Canned pumpkin here...not cheap, but so worth it. And champagne of course. I ended up having to run back out again and purchase some necessary spices I had missed but all part of the adventure in the end.
I also kicked a pigeon on the way back - now before anyone goes all 'save the wildlife' on me you should know that the pigeons here are so lazy, they are everywhere. Half of the time they will walk right up to you if you are sitting and have food or something shiny. This one just happened to be walking right in front of me as I was walking - he went to move out of the way, I took a step, he started to open his wings as my right foot just kind of swooped under. He was fine. I kicked a pigeon.

Now baking is not always an easy and usually requires some relatively accurate measurements, but when you seriously lack baking tools and measuring objects in general you do the best with what you've got. So I followed the instructions on the side of the pumpkin can and started mixing up my pie filling in my pot (my makeshift mixing bowl). I couldn't for the life of me determine how much of a can  of evaporated milk 1/2 pint was so I eyeballed it as I poured and threw in a pile of sugar (thanks to google conversions) and some spices. Put the filling in the shells and 45 minutes later at 220 degrees I had two gorgeous homemade pumpkin pies ready to go for dinner and you know what? They were delicious and a huge hit! I was pretty impressed with myself after being on a baking craze before I left and then just not being able to for the past month.

This is my pie! There were 2, the other one got eaten fast. It's darker than
usual but it was very good.

So we had a nice dinner, Alex and I had some store bought turkey and instant mashed potatoes (just add boiling water) and Alex made a delightful green bean casserole and gravy. Lauren (also from Brock) had found and cranberry sauce and shared that as well as gluten free stuffing. We had great dinner conversation and explain Thanksgiving to our Finnish and Swedish friends.
Today despite being a Holiday in Canada... was not here. It was not the greatest day in my existence but you can't have a few good days without some bad ones too.



Anywho, hope you have enjoyed reading about my makeshift Thanksgiving. I hope yours was good and filled with lots of turkey, friends & family!
Tomorrow I am off on a hike in the highlands with my friend Kayla so I shall post about that later!

Peace out girl scout!
T.

Taking on Paris! C'est la Vie!

Paris AKA The City of Light, The place where people fall in love, etc.
And just like the other millions of tourists, I too fell in the love with the city instantly. It's hard not too.

Plans for this trip fell into place about 2 weeks ago when I found round trip tickets to Paris for 30 pounds. I asked Alex if she was down to go, tickets were bought, a hostel was booked and shortly after our friends Holly and Shayna joined the adventure.
Friday at 12:30 we hoped on a bus and made the hour trek to the airport located in Prestwick, Scotland. RyanAir is a very cheap airline, you literally get what you pay for with this company, so they don't fly directly into major cities but rather small airports on the outskirts of them. We only took carry-ons since we were travelling light (and it costs 30 pounds extra to check baggage, seriously though - everything except for the basic bare ticket costs extra with this airline), went through security, and had a bite to eat before boarding.
We actually met a couple other Canadians and an Australian from the University of Glasgow travelling to Paris so we chatted with them for a bit. When we finally boarded, we ended up having to de-board and re-board another plane due to a technical issue. So we took off about an hour or so later. When we got into Paris Beauvais, we went through customs and made our way towards the line for the bus into Paris (about 1hr 15m). When we got there - we were looking at a billboard map to try situate ourselves and figure out where our hostel was (no 3G on my phone:( ) when a man out with his kids came up and helped us figure out where we were going by googling our hostel and directing us to the metro.  All of the french people we encountered were so nice and even appreciated if we tried to speak french (Most of which consisted of 'Est-ce que tu parles anglais?' and 'Bon Soire!') and to be honest I am surprised with how much I have retained from my grade 1-9 french classes. I even had a semi-full conversation in french with one guy running a souvenir shop! He totally knew I was english-speaking but went with it anyways. So that was my only full-french purchase. 

So our first adventure in Paris was navigating the metro - which was pretty successful! Next was to find the hostel when we got above ground, which we did eventually thanks to McDonald's wifi. After checking in an dropping our stuff in our NEON GREEN room, we went to explore a little bit and ended up at a little cafe-restaurant on the corner. We toasted to a great weekend in Paris and drank wine, ate crepes and baguette sandwiches.
The first night in the hostel I didn't sleep a wink. The street outside was so busy allllllll night long that I could not get past the noise to fall asleep, oh well, c'est la vie. Saturday we went down for breakfast which consisted of chocolate croissants, 1/2 baguettes and cereal and coffee, so that was awesome. We ventured out shortly after and began our trek all over the city.
We had bought Hop-on, Hop-off bus tour tickets ahead of time which allowed us to get on 4 different route buses that took us pretty much everywhere, they were 100% worth it and an easy and fantastic way to see Paris in just 2 days.
Saturday we kind of went a little bit of everywhere just to experience the city, all the museums were

Classic Flip Departure Board at the Gard du Nord 

open and free of admission on the Sunday so we decided to wait for that. Saturday we bussed it around; seeing the Moulin Rouge, Gard de Nord & Gard de L'est, the Louvre, Notre Dame cathedral, Army Museum and much, much more.
The highlight of the day was at the end of the day. We walked from the Army Museum to the Eiffel Tower stopping at about 14 souvenir shops on the way (they all look so enticing), we got the tower - took some pictures and went and got 2 bottles of wine for 4 Euros (they were good too) then went back and sat on the grass and hung out waiting for the Eiffel Tower light show to happen. At 8pm some 20,000 lights lit up the tower and blink and shimmer for 5 minutes. It was really cool to see. After that we headed back to the area of the city where our hostel was (Republique) to find out that it was Nuit Blanche Time Out - a night when the entire city is open and happening. They turned the King's

Fog Square during Nuit Blanche

My new toy.

Fountain Square into a Fog Square so that was cool. After checking out a few other events that appeared to have been happening (an art gallery, club with a strict line that we managed to get excepted into but was too expensive, Mad Hatter party for men only... yea we didn't get into that...) we went back to the hostel, and finally fell asleep after 40 hours of no sleep.
Sunday we checked out at 11am and were on the move again, lots of bussing around. The museum at the Louvre was 3 1/2 hours long and took us 10 minutes just to walk to the end of it, so we passed. Same with Musée D'Orsay and Rodin Museum. However! We did wander the Rodin Museum gardens where we saw the Thinker! We also got to the Love-Lock bridge, where couples from all over the world come and write their names on a padlock,

lock it on the bridge somewhere and throw the key in the river. It was so cool to see, they sun was shining and there was a man playing french music on an accordion too. I definitely loved the Seine River and the atmosphere of it in the warm weather.
We checked out a really big cemetery too before heading back towards Port Maillot where we would head out of to go back to the airport. We decided to have a nice french dinner as our last and it turned out very nice. Afterward we went into this cute little bakery next door and ordered dessert and I bought some pastries to bring back. We all took a bit of a needed nap on the dark bus to the airport and then it was homeward bound from there. I was a little skeptical about taking all the pastries carry-on through security, but I made it so we were good!
The flight was fine, 15 pounds (on sale) gets you a one-way ticket with ONE carry-on bag - no bigger than 10kg, a flight that is on time 90% of the time, a walk on the ground outside

Boarding the plane (1st time)

to the stairs at the plane, a seat that does not recline, a required bus ticket to and from the airport (located approx. 1 hour outside the city) and flight personnel that try to sell you stuff the entire way (no free water, or anything). But it's 15 pounds for 1hr 20min, can't go wrong there.

Over all I am really happy with the way the weekend turned out and cannot wait to go back later in life, for a longer time and maybe not in a hostel... but that's the student life and for now, it works when your travelling for only a couple days at a time!

I hope you have enjoyed living vicariously through my post. If you have any questions don't hesitate to comment or email me!

I have also attached a photo album of the trip because there were soooo many pictures. I'm warning you now that most of them are of the Eiffel Tower - so just a heads up for that. Every angle is a good one!

:)


                                       Taylor's Paris 2013 Photo Album

Welcome to the Highlands! Destination: Loch Ness & Fort Augustus

We finally did it! We took a trek into the Scottish Highlands! More specifically to go to Loch Ness and Fort Augustus which are pretty far North.
The day started off by hopping on a coach bus and departing at 8AM sharp.
We were travelling with Student Tours Scotland, a tour company for students featuring one man - Gary Brown. Gary is an awesome guy to say the least, he's very enthusiastic about Scotland and the tours and tells lots and lots of stories. He organises and runs tours every weekend that go all over Scotland to different areas and landmarks. All that jazz. And he only has 3 rules:
1. Always make sure you pay
2. Make sure you have fun
3. Just don't die.
You do those and you're set for your trip.

So we set sail for Loch Ness at 8am. By the time we stopped once for a 1/2hr coffee/bathroom break and again for a quick bathroom break it had taken us about 4 1/2 hours to get to our first destination, Urquhart Castle. There wasn't a whole lot left of the castle, but it was still being worked on to preserve it  and it was pretty cool. We had about an hour to see the castle and gift shop (what's a castle without a gift shop right?) before we had to get back on the bus. Oh, and we went do to the waters edge... so I can proudly say I've had my hands in Loch Ness :P  And I know what you're thinking 'Did you see Nessie??'  The answer is yes, however for legal reasons we weren't allowed to take pictures, sorry.

 This is the top of the mound you walk down to go to the castle. That wooden stick thing in the distance is a giant catapult.

Gary was telling us that at one point there were about 3000+ castles in Scotland but now there is only 375. A lot of them were destroyed and pulled apart by the Scots - simply to prevent the English from taking them over and using them against the Scottish.

Next after the castle we got back on the bus and headed back to a little town called Fort Augustus where we went to this lady's (Ginny) B&B / farm. We had free time to roam around, take pictures and pet the animals which included horses and the ever so famous Highland cows AKA 'Hairy coos'. This lady's property was absolutely gorgeous. Situated right on Loch Ness. It was so peaceful and we could not of asked for a better day.

The main attraction was definitely the 4 highland cows. Everyone loved them and lots of pictures were taken of and with the cows. We were allowed to pet them but had to be careful of their horns because that's what they use to scratch (and defend) themselves. I didn't get too close because big animals make me nervous but the one behind me in the picture is the Bull (he didn't enjoy being touched), and the one off the the right is his girl. She could be pet but the bull didn't seem too thrilled about it.

Here we have Amanita Muscaria - a super poisonous mushroom. Not really seen in Canada so I thought I'd take a picture of it.

 

Following the B&B/Farm adventure we had time to wander Fort Augustus. There wasn't much there besides a tiny little (expensive) highland shop, a few places to eat and the locks that lead into Loch Ness. This picture is just up one of the streets where we stopped for food - before we realized we didn't have time for a sit-down meal.




This is the last lock in the canal before Loch Ness. In Scotland 'Loch' means Lake - so all the lakes are named Loch _________. Apparently there is even one called Loch Loch, meaning Lake Lake, because not everyone is creative... And 'Inver' means 'On the banks of' so Inverness means 'On the banks of Lock Ness'.

 All in all it was a beautiful day and fantastic trip into the highlands. My advice for anyone who comes to Scotland is to see the highlands at some point because if you don't.... not only have you failed this country, but you've failed yourself as a Scotland tourist.
The drive back was just as gorgeous, if not moreso, than the trip up - especially with the sunset. It took about 3.5 hours to get back which wasn't bad and totally worth it.
I took pictures of the mountains as we were driving up and I tried to be the best photographer I could while sitting on a bus so I hope you enjoy my pictures of some of the mountains and try not to mind the reflections!

I think my next Highland trip will be the Glencoe Tour because that's when Gary actually takes you for a nice little hike up one of the mountains in Glencoe and that's pretty cool. Glencoe is also home to a ski resort (Alpine Centre). It's not very big, but you can mountain bike too and all sorts of stuff. May have to hit that up at some point!

Until Next Time,

T.

My Birthday in Scotland!

Yesterday was my birthday. And it was Grrrrrrrrreat!

Started off by walking to the Queen Street Train Station to meet Brittany who had come in from Edinbrugh to see Glasgow (and me of course ;) and we went for a walk through the city centre before starting to shop. Now I don't know if y'all have ever heard of the store Primark before but it is dangerous. Nice clothes for VERY nice prices. I was looking for a dress and found one... but decided to wait and see if I could find one at Forever 21 (which is 3 levels) or the widely advertised student lock-in sale at the mall that night.
I found 2 dresses at Forever 21 that I loved and bought the one that I figured I could where more places. Oh! And this headband to keep my ears warm when it gets cold out - it's very cute with a 3-rose accent on it :) So overall very happy with my birthday purchases.
Next I showed Brittany our school and accommodations then we met Alex and wandered over to the Necropolis cemetery behind the Cathedral we had been to earlier. This place was HUUUUGE and was the resting place of many, many families back in the 1800s. As you went around and got higher up the burial tombs and tombstones/statues got bigger and bigger. It was insane, and provided an awesome view of the cathedral city. 




We headed back after that to the residence to eat something and get ready before meeting others for dinner. I was going to wear my new dress but opted not to because I didn't want to be cold walking back down through the city centre.
In total 12 of us gathered for a birthday dinner at TGI Fridays... I know, not exactly Scottish cuisine...but it's MY birthday! It was really nice, even though I was so far away from home, having dinner with a bunch of friends was so much fun and I couldn't of asked for a better birthday in Scotland! They had a French-Canadian burger on the menu which had maple syrup on it! I think 4 people ordered it! (I didn't, sorry. I opted for The Black & Blue Angus burger - which was sooo good and had blue cheese on it).
Towards the end I gave a small semi-sentimental speech about 'being so far away from home on my birthday and being so glad that I could celebrate with a bunch of wicked cool people...and something about our 'international family'... all that jazz. So we toasted and then the wait staff brought me a giant piece of chocolate cake which I shared :) Yea, it was awesome.

Dinner! On the left: Me, Brittany, Nina, Julie. Left: Alex, Lauren , Ian, Jared, Antje & Isabella!
Missing: Shayna & Holly (but they were there for dinner)

After dinner a few of us headed for the lock-in sale at the mall. It really wasn't good. It was soooo crowded with students from all the universities that we left shortly after going in. But on the plus side - we met batman!

 Myself & Brittany 
       & Batman :)

So I walked Brittany to the train station and waited for her train -sharing our opinions and experiences of being here so far away from everyone and settling in. 

I then met up with Lauren and Nina and we walked home...but not without stopping for chocolate milk first. 

I was exhausted by the time I got home and was overall thrilled with my Birthday and was surprised to have received easily 50+ birthday emails from lots and lots of people at home. 

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes and support. It was awesome. :)

T.