2 Day Trips

Well now that my bracket is completely busted I figured it had been long enough since I had blogged. This past week sums up what exactly means to be a student studying abroad. On the 17th I was in Dublin and on the 21st-22nd I was in Paris. If that is enough of a description for you there is no need for you to continue reading, however, if you are remotely interested in what occurred on the trips feel free to continue reading.

Dublin: Like many other Americans, I decided to make the trek to Dublin in honor of St. Patrick. However, due to a group presentation that I have mentioned in previous posts it required me to plan ahead to meet up with the group at a set time at a set place. This plan however fell through and I was luckily able to meet up with a guy from Dublin who had exchanged at ASU last year and had played on the soccer team. While the night definitely did not start out the best, it still could have ended much, much worse.

Paris: The next trip taken was to Paris, this time however for a little over a day instead of a scant 12 hours. Having drawn upon my past experiences in the city, as well as the knowledge of my Grandfather. I spent the day going to the major tourist spots i.e. Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Notre Dame. However, one of the most amazing things about Paris is the beauty that seems to emanate throughout the city. This made the walks from site to site extremely enjoyable and a very rewarding part of the day.

While Paris is an amazing city, the reason for my travelling there is due to my flying into Ireland and therefore never receiving a temporary visa stamp from the UK. It was necessary for me to therefore leave the UK so that I could obtain that stamp, and lets just say that British people seem to have a certain affection to their stamps that they just don't seem to want to share with the rest of the world. After arriving back in Glasgow after midnight, I was held up over half an hour while I explained to the uniformed official that I was studying abroad and had been studying abroad for almost two months already.

Here is a link to the photos I took in both cities...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2452000&id=10051388&l=6fd836f857

Whoa

Sorry for the delay in posting. It has been out of sheer laziness and in my opinion a lack of anything that is noteworthy to blog about. However the time has come to write something, and for that I will be inflicting upon you some rather mundane stories that will have you wishing you could get the 30 seconds that you spent reading this of your life back.

First off, I buzzed my hair, seeing as I am far, far away from my Mom (i.e. 7 time zones) I am now looking at my hair as a blank canvas. That means all the stupid hairstyles that I did not have the guts to do back home are now going to be tried out on an unsuspecting audience.

Second story to waste your time. I just recently started training with the football team here and to get to the training ground one must take the double-decked bus. Well on Tuesday, upon getting to the second level of the bus with some other mates from the team and proceeded to see a group of NED's (Non Educated Delinquents) already sitting there drinking and smoking. One, very high and drunk NED came forward and proceeded to interrogate us, first asking the most loaded question in Glasgow, "who do you support?". Which means do you support Glasgow Rangers or Glasgow Celtic, kind of a big deal in these parts due to the religious backings of the 2 clubs. My stock answer to this question has been a blank stare and then a stutter mentioning that I am from America. Well upon telling this NED that he asked my whereabouts and not wanting to explain myself any further told him California. To which he launched into a butchered version of some California song which soon turned into American Boy and then American Idiot. This being my first experience with a NED, I will say that they are indeed as dumb and as stupid as everyone makes them out to be.

Third story. Watch this video, I have probably seen it at least 100 times and cannot stop laughing. After you watch it the first time, on the second go around pause it at 20 seconds. Enjoy.