One of the main purposes of this blog was to force myself to take pictures while in Scotland. As many of you may well be aware I am pretty terrible at taking pictures. I think this unwillingness to constantly be snapping away comes from my first trip abroad. While in London, I was fortunate enough to see the Changing of the Guard. While the event was impressive, entertaining and quintessentially English I was shocked and appalled by the amount of pictures being taken. People were taking so many pictures that they themselves were completely missing out on the spectacle. It was in that moment that I became a slightly selfish tourist. I decided that while taking a picture or two was of course necessary and beneficial, it was much better to simply enjoy the travel moment for it's worth, to actually remember without having documented evidence. While this idea was all great and good, my memory was slightly less effective than originally thought and I realized that pictures are important. Perhaps not important enough to take so many pictures of the Changing of the Guard that you could make a stop-action film, but important. It was for this reason (and many others) that the blog was devised. This plan, like many plans, has had a bit of adverse effect. Now, I rely a little too much on photos. This week I took absolutely no photos and was terrified about doing the blog. But, I finally realized that while no pictures were taken a lot happened this week that can be shared.
Monday was Richard's birthday. The day that I could finally reveal some super secret surprises that I had been planning. While I absolutely love surprises, I am not always skilled at keeping them a secret. For this reason, Richard had somewhat of a clue as to what his birthday gift would be. However, he wasn't entirely sure and it was for this reason that for an entire month I was pestered with someone trying to ruin his own birthday by figuring out the gift. I heard such lines as "I never keep secrets from you, I tell you EVERYTHING!" "If you are going to make me go somewhere on St. Patrick's Day can you at least make sure I get a Guinness" "So, I hate to tell you this but I can't do anything on St. Patrick's Day because the guys from class have decided we should go on a fishing trip together" and my personal favorite "Our relationship has become a bed of lies." On Monday, Richard finally was told that we are in fact going to Dublin for St. Patrick's Day. He will get a Guinness and we will not be getting facials as he was told we would be for the last month. But, because he handled that surprise so well I decided to have another little surprise, a birthday dinner. The dinner ended up being a total surprise and it was a lot of fun to celebrate with friends.
Tuesday, I took my first Scottish field trip! My 1920's and 1930's class was going together to see a play, a musical to be exact. Because my program is so small and we are very close knit the play became an entire evening of festivities. First, we had our actual class seminar. Following the seminar we decided to kill time before having dinner by having drinks. After having a drink or two we made our way to a pub, around the corner from the theatre, for dinner. While discussing the evening's upcoming performance over supper a particular member of my class stated that this would be his first ever musical. While I would love to say that my response was nothing but polite, I am afraid that it consisted of a slight gasp, gaping of the mouth and a shocked "You've never been to a musical?!" Reactions like this are my greatest fear, being an arts major you unfortunately stumble upon conversations like the following all the time.
"Oh well I am positive you have read Charles Dovseknti"
"Ummm.. hmmmm. Well actually I have never heard of him"
"WHAT?! You have never read Dovesknti, where did you get your English literature degree?!"
This third degree burning continues on while you begin to doubt every part of your English liteature background. (And, for those of you that believe you've heard of Charles Dovesknti, you haven't, I made him up).
The moral of this story is that I don't want to be one of those over-educated arts students who makes the rest of the World feel like uneducated swine. Besides I have quite a long way to go before I can be considered even close to "over-educated." Back to the story. I believe that this statement took me by such great surprise because of my secret love of musicals. It's embarrassing but I know a lot about musicals. To be totally honest, I am not even sure where this knowledge came from. Yes, I did watch lots as a kid.. I was rewarded with Calamity Jane for finally kicking the sucking thumb habit, but I can't remember the last time I watched a musical. Yet, I know a bizarre amount about these singing, dancing, sappy story features. While I may have given him a hard time at the beginning, it was really fun to go to a musical with a first timer. Especially, a musical that is as ridiculous as "Thouroughly Modern Millie." It was during "half-time" that the class began to discuss the play.
Like in so many American written plays a young girl decides to travel to New York and make it big. This poor girl comes from some terrible, stuck-in-the-past-place in the Midwest. A place that has lent her little and made her very backwards, prude, uninteresting and in complete and total desperation to escape that life. That girl without fail always comes from Kansas. While my classmates were all excited and surprised that she was from Kansas, I had seen it coming. As previously mentioned anytime you have a young woman desperate to escape the middle US, that girl comes from Kansas. It was for this reason that my classmates were convinced I should produce the musical "Thouroughly Modern Kate" regarding my time in Glasgow. If that happens, I am making them all background dancers in an act of revenge. It was entertaining, however, to hear the actors struggle a bit with Kansas pronounciation. Millie was from "Sa-Leena" Kansas rather than "Salina."
I am always reminded of my American-ness at the most unexpected times. Generally, this time happens when I loudly say leisure with a thick American accent. Not that my accent isn't obvious.. but that is the word that always gives me away! I was once again reminded of my American-ness Saturday evening. Wanting to check another place off the Glasgow list, I went to see a movie at the Grosvenor Cinema. Having never been inside this particular theatre, I was pleasantly surprised by the small size of the screen and theatre. The cinema had a very relaxed and homey feel. This provoked me into stating "This is so nice, it's like being in someone's home theatre." This statement received a slight rolling of the eyes and a "Wow. Sometimes you are so American" return. Well, yes I am American and apparently home theatres aren't as common in the rest of the World as they are in American. I spent the rest of the night trying to argue that just because I have been in someone's home theatre doesn't mean my family personally owns one (although that would make my dad's wildest dreams come true). Home theatres can now safely secure a place under garbage disposals on the list of things not so common outside of the US.
Glasgow has a great number of fun places to explore on the weekends. This weekend it was finally time to explore a small bookstore that I had heard a great deal about, Voltaire & Rousseau. The bookstore is located in a little back allyway and is known for having piles upon piles of inexpensive books. That description is certainly accurate, there are massive piles of books everywhere in the store. In fact, pulling any book off the shelf, or from a pile on the floor, is a bit like playing a game of Jenga.. it's best to have a spotter. The narrow walkways are completely surrounded by books of all description. Walking through the store you can hear sporadic crashings and the tumbling of books to the floor. The store is very inexpensive and has a lot to offer but is wildly overwhelming. I loved rummaging through all the books and got a few great baragins but have to admit that I am more deeply in love with the organized beauty that is Waterstone's (though you may not expect this from looking at my room.). I am always impressed at all the different places to explore within Glasgow, I am certain I will not run out of new places to uncover any time soon.
If you were able to make it through my ramblings and thousands of tangents, I applaud you. I promise to have pictures to share next week!
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