Scotland!

For the next two months, I'm going to be living and working in Glasgow, Scotland. I'll try to blog (tons) more frequently than I have in the past in order to keep everyone updated on my adventure and also to keep a record of the trip for myself. I have a couple blogs already written that I'll post after this introductory blurb. They're not really written in any order, or actually about anything at all, but maybe someone out there will find them interesting to read. And if not, that's fine, too. I don't really care. I left Nashville on Wednesday, May 27. I remember my flight was scheduled to leave at 12:40pm, so I left my house at 10:45am. I had everything packed and said goodbye to my cats. While Ben was putting everything in the car, I started crying and got very upset about leaving them (if you knew them, you'd be upset about leaving them, too!), so I had to go back inside one more time to say goodbye. Ben and I got to the airport and he parked to walk in and help me with my bags. I got through check-in and security and then found out that the flight was delayed an hour - there was a gate hold due to a back-log of flights in Philly. Then, a storm passed through, so our incoming plane couldn't land in Nashville. It landed in Birmingham instead. More delays. In the end, I sat in the airport for 5.5 hours, finally boarding the plane at almost 4pm. The whole time thinking "Ben's 5 minutes away at work, my cats are 15 minutes away at home, I could be spending more time with them all, but no. I'm stuck sitting here..." Needless to say, that made me quite cranky. When I finally got to Philly, Leric picked me up at the airport and took me home to NJ. The next morning when I reached into my suitcase for clothes, I found another surprise: My clothes were soaked. Remember that storm that passed through Nashville while I was at the airport? I guess my bags were sitting outside during it... Anyway, Thursday and Friday were filled by shopping trips with mom to get last minute things, some new shoes, more jeans, etc. And way too much eating. I eat too much whenever I go back home. Its ok for now (while I'm just visiting) because the quality of the food in NJ is so much better than that in Nashville (or anywhere else I've ever eaten, really) that its best to stock up while I'm there. I'll have to cut back on several WaWa trips/ day once I move back to the area though.
On Saturday, Mom, Lisa, Leric, Kelly, and I went to Ocean City for a couple of hours. It was a great day for the beach! We laid on the beach for a little while and played catch by the ocean (ok - if you know me, it wasn't 'catch' on my end - it was "throw the ball near Laurie and let her chase it down and bring it back" maybe more like 'fetch' ?). But the sun was out and we all got a little burnt, and it was a great end of summer celebration (yes, on May 30). Then lunch was pizza on the boardwalk, of course. That night, I played Trivial Pursuit on Wii with Lacey and Joe for several hours, and even though I was the first person to have all the pieces of my pie, I could not roll the right number to land on the end-game square of the board!! I sat there crossing over it back and forth answering tons of questions for a long time, while Joe came from behind, filled his pie, landed on the end-game square, got the world's easiest question (asking what you are lacking if you have albinism!) and won the game. But, no, I'm not bitter. (haha, I only rememeber the winning question!!)
So, that about sums up my pre-trip excitement... on Sunday I went to the Philadelphia airport, exchanged money with the worst exchange rate ever, waited around for a couple of hours, and boarded the flight. It was uneventful. The flight was more comfortable than my previous trans-atlantic flight (maybe it was the butt-cushion I borrowed from mom?), although I think their overhead speaker could use a volume control (too loud!!). When we arrived in Glasgow at 645am, it was on a freakishly hot day - 80 degrees!! So that really helped to ease my transition. The following day was in the low 70s, and then after that it returned to normal Glasgow weather, which is, I'm learning, unpredictable and changes quickly. So, let's see. What else... I've been trying to post pictures on facebook, but it hasn't been cooperating. So, I put them on shutterfly. If you can go to shutterfly and look at other people's pictures, you're welcome to view mine... I don't know how all that works. Maybe I'll look into it after this. There's not a lot, because there hasn't been much to take pictures of yet. I got here, moved into my flat, found my way to work, and since then have only been between work and home. Why is this? Well, I've been sick. Day 2 in Scotland I woke up feeling like complete crap. Sore throat, running nose, and terrible cough. And that's the weird part, for me. I've had my share of colds in my life, and they never start with a cough. And that's been the primary symptom of this cold... this constant, deep, exhausting cough... kinda makes it difficult to do anything since breathing is hard, and talking... So exploring has been out of the question. And I've been trying to rest up to get my strength up and get better... So, keep that in mind, too, when you're reading the next blogs that I post. If they don't sound particularly cheerful or anything... I'm going to post them as I wrote them (in word) while I was lying in bed sick and bored to death because I didn't have anything else to do... (I brought several books along with me to read, but I could only read for so long, you know?)