Look what I found in the pub downstairs after work...

They made it!

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US vs Scotland

So in my head I've been keeping an informal list of differences between US and Scotland (or the UK in general in some cases) and it's time I start documenting them and keep a running total to see who wins. And since I'm sat in an airport waiting for dinner, might as well start now.

Round 1: restaurant beverages.



I've never realized how great it is to get water instantly brought to you every time you sit down somewhere to eat. It's not common in the UK (maybe with the exception of London). If you ask for tap water it's usually not a big deal but some places seem to be confused by it. In addition, straws also seem to be a luxury you have to ask for. Again, not everywhere but I feel pretty strongly about my straws so I notice. I also get them after asking, but the asking is the point.

So after round one the score is:
Scotland 0 - USA 1

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Disabling Giddiness?

Finally filling out my application for a provisional driving license. Please note #9 below.


Anyone who's spent time with my family should probably check that box.

Glasgow!

This weekend Peter and I drove down to Glasgow for a night and stayed with our friend Leesa. She's in the UK on a three month secondment from Australia and started in the Aberdeen office a couple weeks before I did and also lived across the hall from me in my temporary housing. But anyway, after a month in Aberdeen she went to Glasgow to work there so we decided to visit!

We got a late start Saturday morning though and didn't get down to Glasgow (2.5-3 hour drive from Aberdeen) til late afternoon. Then spent an hour getting lost around the city because the GPS kept losing signal and didn't know where we were going. So we finally got close to the Spires (same serviced apartment chain Leesa and I stayed in while in Aberdeen) parked in a parking garage, and walked to 160 Bothwell street. And found this:





There is no 160 Bothwell street. A quick google search found that the Spires had moved locations in June 2010 and the pile of rocks we were next to was no longer the spires. Although I was disappointed in my google map app for sending us to an old address it did give us a 15 minute walk across the city which was nice.

I really love Glasgow as a city. There seems to be a great mix of old and new buildings and lots to do. And random architecture like this peacock:



After we finally made it to Leesa's, we walked around while we tried to decide where to go. We walked past Jamie Oliver's restaurant, but I was too hungry to wait in line just to put our names in




But don't worry, we went back later for some very very late dessert. It has a casual feel,




which was good because we weren't dressed up at all





Anyway, to back track we ended up having a leisurely dinner at an Italian restaurant called Viva and then walked around town to see Glasgow at night.





I fell in love with Glasgow a bit this weekend. I liked the combination of the old and new and the size of the city as well. It isn't huge but big enough that you feel like you're in a city.

There are a lot of pedestrian areas and shopping (thankfully for my wallet we didn't have time for that) and from what we saw on the bus tour Sunday morning, some nice parks and open areas. Maybe it was because except for the occasional rain shower it was sunny all weekend, but I would really like to spend more time in Glasgow.

Few shots from my phone:




















It was a hop-on, hop-off bus tour but our only hop-off was to stop at Glickman's, Glasgow's oldest sweet shop.

It was tiny but I got some pretty delicious treats :)





Then after the tour we made one final stop to an "american" sweet shop Leesa had found:



Yes, that's statues of the Blues Brothers.

The name is a bit misleading as most of the store is not candy from America. But the back of the store was a bit more promising. I was most excited by the pop selection, which included cans of a&w root beer, wild cherry pepsi, and welch's grape soda. I was planning on stocking up until I saw they were £1.50 ($2.25) per can. Once I realized how much the 12 pack of wild cherry pepsi and 6 pack of root beer was going to cost I quickly downgraded my quantity.

I did come out with a decent haul though, which combined with the first sweet shop stop of the day meant we spent about £50 on sweets (and soda) in one day. Yikes.




But I'd say it was worth it :)


And one more bonus of the weekend, saw my first uk rainbow on the drive back from Glasgow




Followed by a full rainbow not too far after.  One small perk of lots of rain!

Next weekend, it's down to Reading (pronounced RED-ing) near London to visit some of Peter's friends. And then it's only 2 more weeks until my mom and Bill are here!!

Yep, I live in Scotland

Poor quality video, but had to share since it's not a common sight while on the way home from work:

ok, so you can't really see it.  but that man by the statue is playing the bagpipes.  not the first bagpipe sighting at this location, and certainly not my last!

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Problem: I never blog. Solution: buy a blogging iPhone app

Hello blog and anyone reading this! Sorry for not updating in a while. But everytime I think of something to blog about I'm not by my computer and if I am I probably don't have time or feel like blogging. Good thing there's an app for that.

Currently, I'm in a pub in sunny London town watching the manchester united vs. arsenal match in the quarter final of the FA cup. Just one of the many non-premier league related games. I'm finally starting to get a handle on all of the football (soccer). But more on that later.

Peter and I came down this weekend for a few reasons. It started because two friends from the states were going to be here this weekend (for separate reasons) so seemed like an obvious choice. Then I was supposed to have an induction in watford (near London) on Monday and Tuesday so was definitely coming down. Then it turned out work plans changed for one friend and my induction got cancelled (found out yesterday) but i still plan on seeing a friend from KPMG Boston tomorrow for lunch :) pretty excited! And by the powers of facebook, found out Peter has a couple good friends in London this weekend so will hopefully see them sometime too!

Being here really makes me miss living in a big city. Even though I didn't take full advantage of Chicago when I was there it's something that I miss. Aberdeen isn't as small as I thought it would be but it just doesn't have as much to offer.

For example, this morning Peter and I took the tube (unfortunately pronounced chube) into central London, wandered over to the theatre district, bought discounted matinee tickets for million dollar quartet (£25!), had lunch and a wander around, watched the show (REALLY good) and are now watching the game in the pub.

Good day, brought to you by a large bustling city.



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Quick update (mostly venting...)

Moved into my apartment this weekend.  walked in saturday and there was water on the floor in the kitchen, due to a leaky ceiling and lots of rain friday night.  Sunday there was no heat because we didn't have any gas apparently.  thankfully the guy drinking in the pub downstairs is also the maintenance guy so he showed us the gas meter we need to use a step stool to get to and explained how we need to add money to a card and then put it in the meter.  Also found out we do the same thing with electricity but the leasing company didn't give us the electricity stick.  there's £11 on the meter that (we think) is ours, so fingers crossed that's enough to get me through the week, or at least until i can get the electricity stick.  next challenge: figure out how to get a hot (or just not freezing cold) shower.

oh, and work sucks too.

upside: i'll be spending valentine's day in the same time zone and country as my boyfriend.  and he cooked me dinner saturday night (when we had gas!) and sneakily bought me flowers while we were at the grocery store :)

i would say thank goodness everyone here speaks english, but this accent can get pretty ridiculous! (more on that when i'm not trying to conserve energy!)


UPDATE: figured out the shower.  just turn it to cold and you get hot water.  of course.  but at least i got a warm shower!