I haven't given an update in a while (thanks to being really really busy) and I am currently looking for any excuses not to work on my paper but I think it's boring.
So as the pictures on Facebook showed, I made a spur of the moment decision and went to Glasgow for the day. It takes about an hour by train to get to the city center. Glasgow is more of a modern city compared to Edinburgh; it has less of a medieval look with more modern buildings and all of the streets laid out in a more logical pattern (and no giant castle on a rock in the center). I went to the botanical gardens (hence the million pictures of flowers and shrubberies) and the Cathedral- the only one in Scotland to survive the reformation (where the protestants went mad and ran rampant through the country side tearing down anything that had any part in Catholicism- my interpretation of it) because the people of the church managed to hold their attackers off and the building has survived mostly in tact since it was built in about the 13th century. Some of the pictures were too dark, but it is an incredible building with many beautiful arches that are supposed to mean something and some saint supposedly buried beneath the building (or nearby, I'm not really sure which...). I was the obvious American wandering through with wide eyes and a gaping grin and quite possible offending some Catholic standing nearby. I do think that they still hold services there on Sundays.
In the center of Glasgow there is a square that is in front of the city chambers they set up an Occupy Glasgow with tons of signs that said "We are the 99%." There is also one in Edinburgh and London (Occupy Edinburgh and Occupy London) and they say the same things. I really haven't gotten straight answers from people on how exactly they are the 99% and considered asking a few of the people who are camping in one of those places to explain it (and to identify myself as an American by using terms like "Awesome" and "Ya'll") but as I've seen videos of the things that can happen during Occupy Wall-street, I decided to just stand back and take a few pictures instead.
As I've talked to people here, they generally say Glasgow is good for a visit for some shopping, and they have streets that are pedestrian only that are lined with varying shops (including the one I took a picture of: what lines the windows are old fashioned SEWING MACHINES!). I also watched this street performer man with the mutant power of a seal; he balanced a soccer ball on his head and feet and was able to pass it from one to the other and spin it and such. I gave hims some change because I was very impressed (and he was kinda cute).
So besides my trip to Glasgow I've mostly just been doing school work type things. In ballroom we've been adding to the Jive and Cha Cha and getting the Waltz to move around the room and not just in straight lines as well as learning Samba and Rumba with my partner who's name I haven't learned yet.... I also wanted to take home a Lunger (greyhound mix) named Diesel who tried to climb into my lap (keep in mind- he's a greyhound, so it was a leg over mine and hugging close to me). Worked more on my yarn project, but it is going slow because I only really work on it once a week (but there is a flight coming in about 40 days where I should have several hours in order to work on it until I run out of yarn). And there are about 3 weeks until my next exam when I will fail because it is Immunology, Pathology, Parasitology, Bacteriology, and Virology and that's a lot of -ologies.
And so I should probably actually work on my paper on infectious disease in the UK and environmental changes that I hate and just want done so I don't have to care about it anymore.
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