Thanksgiving and 6 months down!

I hope you all are stuffed full of happy Thanksgiving turkey and good cheer. Bring on Christmas! Before we get to my week of having the parents here, let me bring you up to speed on a few fun things that happened the week prior.

Thursday before last, I went over to dinner at my friend and her boyfriend's house. This friend and I are going to be going to schools in the area as 'ambassadors' for students who want to study physics. One of the schools we decided upon, a girlfriend of another PhD student is a teacher there. We decided to all get together, five in total (me being the obligatory fifth wheel) for dinner to discuss what to do at this school. The boyfriend made a lovely chicken and couscous dinner and we cracked open a few bottles of wine. It was a really fun night, but the weirdest part was when we were all sitting around talking about teaching and we all ended up discussing our students. The PhD students (including myself) as well as the school-teacher talking about our frustrations and stories about our students, all comfortably sitting in couches sipping on beer and wine. All very posh and grownup. Funny how that can spring up on you. Of course, then we regressed to our immature sides when the boys played video games and the girls gossiped. The early/mid-twenties is a bizarre combination of responsibility and a fight back against it. The weather outside was absolutely dreadful. I am sure that some of you have read the news about the rain here in the UK; that it has been the wettest days this country has ever seen. Needless to say, we all split a taxi home afterwards.

On Friday, my friend's boyfriend was visiting from Switzerland. Since he barely speaks the language, he's been rather hesitant to move out here. This was phase two in her scheme to get him to move here: meet the cool, amazing, friendly friends. He's in his forties and rather shy, so we all went to Roastit Bubbly Jocks for some gourmet Scottish cuisine, and hit up the Lios Mor (the whisky bar) afterwards. I was amazed at the multi-lingual abilities of people at the table. I, thankfully, was able to understand slow german, but not respond. Most of the other people knew conversational german, so that's what was spoken when talking to her boyfriend. She also brought along her sister's fiance, whom he had met before to make him more comfortable. Once we went to the whisky bar, we all had to split up because there was no room for 12 people to stand in a circle, and thankfully, the boyfriend stuck with the other group when my friend joined us. So it was a big success. We all had a super fun night and I hope he manages to summon the courage to move here.

The next day was the big day, the family was arriving! Since they had yet to decide whether to fly or take the train, I wasn't sure when they were going to arrive. Subsequently, it was an excuse for me to lounge around all day long. Despite my encouragement to fly, due to the flooding in most of the UK, they took the train and arrived at 7pm in Glasgow Central Station. My brother was a bit tired so he went to bed in the hotel, but my parents were ramped up and ready to hit the town. We went to one of my favourite pubs, Cooper's, for food and drinks and afterwards went to the Oran Mor for some whisky. Thankfully everyone in Glasgow was nice and friendly and so my parents seemed to enjoy themselves. They finally went to bed around midnight, I think.

On Sunday, I woke up bright and early, went to the coffee house to get some cappuccinos and went to their hotel to wake them up. Our plan was to get some breakfast, head to the city centre and do some shopping and tours. We had breakfast on Ashton Lane, which was super lovely and really tasty. Then we walked down to the underground station so my mum could experience the "Clockwork Orange", Glasgow's underground. I love it, it's one of the oldest undergrounds, along with London (which has since been refurbished) and Budapest (which I've also been on!). My favourite bit about this underground is the lack of technology; at each stop the conductor sticks his head out the window and visually looks down the platform to see when it's clear, then closes the doors and drives away. Once we got to the city centre, we sent my dad and my brother to do the Glasgow city tour, which shows people the east side, the Clyde and gives lots of good stories about the University. My mum and I went shopping at some of the nice places that she can't shop at in Colorado. We bought some new shoes and some shirts, then met up with the boys to decide what to do. We went to Borders then the weather hit again, so we escaped to an Irish Pub just around the corner and hunkered down for a few hours before going out to dinner at the Butterfly and the Pig. We had a great supper there and I think that everyone liked it. The plan was to walk back to the West End, stopping at the Uisce Beatha along the way for some more whisky. Since the weather was so awful, we caught a taxi back to their hotel and bought a bottle of Laphroig around the corner and sat in the hotel room, drinking our whisky.

Monday we woke up and went to a coffee shop for breakfast before heading over to the University. I took them up to meet my advisor and showed them all around my office and the common room, my home away from home. People were all really nice and excited to meet my family. I showed them all around the University and we went to the Hunterian Museum in the main building. We then walked down to the Clyde to pick up Beauty and the Beast tickets for me. My dad wanted to find out where he was going to rent the car the next day so him and my brother went to explore while my mum and me went to the Kelvingrove Museum to wait for them in the lobby. They both discovered Glasgow's propensity to create a hodge-podge of exhibits for museums, with not much flow or design, but it's endearing. Once we met up at the museum, we went to run some errands to get ready for our trip. My mum discovered the proper grocer's and fell in love. Also surprising for her was the discovery of how cheap food is in this country. I remember discovering that when I first moved here and it is indeed a bit of a shock. Once errands were run, we met in Tennent's for some ale before going to Mr India's (mmm) to discover proper Glasgow curry. It seemed to be a big success and we went to the Lios Mor afterwards for more whisky (I think they're sick of whisky now) before walking home.

The next day my dad and I went to go pick up the rental car in the city centre and got absolutely soaked the entire way. Thinking about the driving experience makes my blood-pressure spike, so I'll gloss over it and say...we didn't die. We packed up the car, my mum and I went to buy some last-minute groceries and we made our way out of town. I directed my dad up the east coast of Loch Lomond for some lovely views, but the weather was threatening to wash out the road so we didn't stay long. We made our way back to the A82 and went up the west side of the loch, on a proper highway. The drive to Glencoe was lovely, if a bit rainy, and I don't think my dad liked how curvy the supposed 'highway' was. We finally found our cabin and settled in, going to the pub for dinner. I had an amazing boar sausage pie with some excellent vegetables. The views from the cabin were breathtaking. I don't know if my awe at Glencoe is because it is actually a phenomenal setting, or if it's because I was an avid student of Scottish history and am aware of all the events that happened in this glen, particularly concerning my family. So, quick story before I continue: The name "Glencoe" means Valley of the Tears because the Macdonald family was all slaughtered there in the 17th century. They invited the Campbell clan to visit their territory, without knowing that they were in the pocket of the English and in the middle of the night, attacked their hosts. Anyway, it's an interesting valley.

On Wednesday, I woke up after a great and peaceful sleep, with only the rain banging on the window (well, it might have been ghosts, but I think it was rain...my blood is welcome in the glen). I got the family up, made some breakfast and we struck out to explore the walks around our cabin. These paths led up An Torr, a little hill and went out to Signal Rock, which used to be a meeting place for the Macdonalds and is also supposedly where the Campbells lit the fire to signal the slaughter. In my happy fictional world, it's the place in Kidnapped (one of my favourite books) where Davey Balfour and Alan Breck hide for days from the English, watching their movements below in the valley. So we went exploring, getting a little soaked, but enjoying the mystique of the surroundings. We came back and warmed our clothes by the fire, settling in and reading. There was a 1942 edition of Jane Eyre left in the cabin, so you can guess what I read. We had a little tapas meal that evening, to spare ourselves from the heavy Scottish food we had been indulging in.

Thanksgiving, we got up late, made a lovely breakfast and settled in the cabin for some cooking. As you all had similar meals, I won't go into the details, but we used the same fantastic recipes from the previous year and had a great meal with lots and lots of wine. We woke up on Friday and packed up the car and went exploring the west coast highlands. After some white-knuckle moments, we stopped in Tyndrum for some food then continued on to Glasgow. Dad and I returned the car and met my mum and brother in their new 'regular' coffee house in Glasgow. We then went to Cooper's for dinner again and went to the Oran Mor afterwards. I got a few texts from my friends at the office saying that they were in the Common Rooms (another pub, not the physics common room) and that we should come by so they could properly meet everyone. After some convincing, I got my mum and dad to agree to stop by, buy a round and meet my friends, so they can see that I'm not lonely here in Glasgow. They were all really friendly and I think my parents liked meeting all of them. Then my parents left so they could be up bright and early to catch their flight and left me with my friends in the pub to celebrate my Six Month Anniversary of moving here. It was a great vacation, that I much needed and I hope my family loves Glasgow as much as I do.

Until next time! Ta ra!