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.