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!

SUPA-Heros and York

This past week left me with a warm, fuzzy feeling. So, here's the story: Just after graduating high school, one of my fellow Anglophile friends and I made a pact that by the year 2010 we would be living in the UK and would meet up for a pint. Four and a half years later, with a month and a half to go, I was on the train down to York for the much-promised pint! When we made the pact, neither of us were really sure how it would work out, given that life is so dynamic and so many goals and dreams change, but we managed to fulfil it.

I caught the 7am train from Glasgow Central (having to leave my house at the wee hour of 6am to make the walk to the city centre) and made it to York by 10:45. We went out for some breakfast and tea (mmm egg and bacon roll with Yorkshire tea and lemon). York is really a cute town. Very very English. If anyone is planning a trip over here, I would suggest making a stop in York, even for a day. We went to the Minster (my friend is Catholic) which is a giant cathedral. We paid to walk around the Minster (well, I did, he got in free) as well as climb the tallest tower. It was a super steep climb, to the point that the person in front of you, you're looking at the underside of their shoes, as well as the stairwell only barely a shoulder width wide. It was about a 10 minute climb straight up, but then we got spectacular views of York at the top. The vertigo you feel at certain points is not so much the height, but the dizziness from the circular climb.

After climbing the tower, we went to the market (since it was Saturday, they had the local farmer's market, yes, they have farmer's markets here) as well as the Shambles, which resembles Diagon Alley. It's a very narrow street with the second storey of the buildings leaning over the road; giving a cramped feeling. There were great little fudge shoppes, tea shoppes, and the like. We also found Guy Fawkes' birthplace which is now an inn. The next time I go to York, I'm going to stay there, dash the cost.

We then hit the pub (something both of us, being expats, thoroughly appreciate) and hunkered down for a few hours. This pub is known for it's pies (not dessert pies, but pies here, meat and gravy enclosed in a pastry). I had the most AMAZING pie; it was a lamb and apricot pie with mint-infused gravy. The gravy was poured all over the potatoes and veg on the plate as well...goodness! My mouth is watering at the thought of it again. The lamb was perfectly cooked as well and the gravy inside the pie was super thick and fantastic. Just oozed out of the pastry. After we left the pub, we went back to the Minster because some parts were open that weren't earlier in the day. I really do love Gothic cathedrals; this is the largest in England. It's got a great feel to it when the sun is going down.

We then went to this place that supposedly had amazing cocktails that my friend has always wanted to try. It had been so long since I had a nice, fruity cocktail. My booze intake since the end of May has primarily been beer, wine and whisky. This was one of those really fancy places, but not in the same way that it's an over-crowded, old building...not at all the ambiance of a fancy martini bar. We had a cocktail that was 7 types of rum and absinthe. It tasted fantastic. We tried a few more, woe be to my pocketbook, before we had to go back to the train station. We got to the platform early and sat on the benches and chatted some more before my 7pm train back. We are both in similar romantic situations and so grilled each other for advice as well as making another pact, since we were so successful in the last one.

The train arrived on time and I settled down with some films on my laptop and a BLT from the trolley. I got back into Glasgow at 10:45pm and since it was a Saturday night and the city was bustling, I decided to walk all the way home, mostly to placate my body for the egg and bacon roll, the lamb pie and the amount of beer I had. It was such a great time seeing my friend and he's planning on coming up to Glasgow after the holidays, though I'm sure we'll be seeing each other while both in Colorado.

In other news, the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA) had their AGM on Thursday at the Glasgow Science Centre. Having a full meeting in the middle of the week really threw off my productivity for Friday. They had a PhD induction thing in the morning for the new physics PhD students from around Scotland (geez, I'm almost 6 months into my PhD and I am still going to these things!) to talk about our expectations, fears, desires from the PhD process. It was nice to be referred to as 'Doctoral Candidates' though; its things like that which make it much more real. In the afternoon, the rest of the SUPA community showed up for lunch and a bunch of talks. It was filled with celebrities (in the physics world, I mean). Dame Professor Jocelyn Bell gave a talk on pulsars, which was very good. She is a hero for any female physicist. Also attending was Peter Higgs of the Higgs Boson, which anyone who has read any article on the Large Hadron Collider would recognise. The head of CERN also gave a talk on the current status of particle colliders. The talks after that were mind-numbingly dull and quite painful. There was a nice reception in the evening and then we all went home, exhausted after the full day.

That's all the new exciting things! My family is coming to visit on Saturday, so I don't know if I'll get a post up next week, but there will be an extra long, special Thanksgiving edition after they leave! Toodles!

Remember, remember...

I know this is a little late getting out, but better late than never! It has been unbearably cold recently. I mean unbearable. You know in all those Masterpiece Theatres where people keep getting super cold at night? All those images of Edwardian England of people in nightgowns shivering wrapped in shawls? Yeah, it's kind of like that. Well, exactly like that. It must be the damp air coming off of the ocean or the fact that I'm living practically at the Arctic Circle! The nights are now properly long. It's super hard to go back to work after afternoon tea/coffee at 4:30 because it's pitch dark outside, and it will only get worse before it gets better. All that aside though, I still love living here and the vast amount of pubs make the weather a little less painful. It is very satisfying to go into a warm, loud, bustling pub filled with laughing, cheering drinking Scotsmen while it's properly freezing outside. You never want to leave.

This week, in our post-Halloween revelry, we had a Glaswegian friend visiting from his post-doc position in Germany. We all went out for...guess it, guess it...curry! There were too many of us in the tiny restaurant and so they split up our two tables and served us separately. I was on the losing side of the table with myself and another chap getting properly grumpy about our food not coming out yet. They were almost done with their meal by the time we got ours. So we started a mini-war between the two tables by putting a moat (our water glasses) and a wall of fire (the candles from the table) on the border. The whole thing started when someone put the bowl of their rice halfway over the line and it was properly sent back over. Then they had to borrow some of our rice later and so we charged an export tax. It was super immature but very entertaining. I went to the Oran Mor afterwards with my office mate and we had a great chat about the holidays and living in Glasgow, etc.

The next day was super stressful in terms of work and so this other girl, who is also a PhD student, and myself in the group decided to hit the pub afterwards. The night turned out to be a bit too much like Bridget Jones for me, but I had a great time nonetheless. We had a few pints at the corner old-man pub, Tennents. Then her boyfriend, who she's living with, called and they invited me over for dinner because he was making risotto. They live in a super cute, domestic little flat and really made me want a proper flat more. I really miss having my own fantastic little place, with a dining area, a living room, a kitchen all to myself and the like. We had a bottle of wine (the next morning it was discovered that finishing a bottle and a half on top of three pints is, in fact, a poor idea) and had a great dinner. It was weird to be the 'single person' again with a couple. But don't get me wrong, they were super friendly and I had a fantastic night.

The next night I was properly excited about; it was my first Guy Fawkes Night in the UK! I was tired from going out every night and so decided to stay in and cook myself a really nice meal (I was inspired after the home-cooked meal from the night before). When I left the office at about 7:30pm and stepped outside, the whole city smelled like gunpowder and there were constant fireworks going off in all directions. I went to the grocer's and got a bunch of vegetables and a bottle of wine before heading home. I passed the neighbourhood underground station and there was a queue all the way around the block to go to the Glasgow Green to watch the city fireworks. Since I was in the mood for a quiet night, I decided to skip this and head home. Plus, being me, lots of explosions and people make me very nervous! So I went back to an empty flat (THANKFULLY) and made my meal, which took about an hour. Then settled in my room with a makeshift table from a chair and sat on my couch and watched V for Vendetta while I ate. Aside from the fact that it's my favourite film, it was brilliant to watch with explosions going on outside my window. Particularly at the part in the film when V is addressing the (futuristic) nation, lecturing them for not celebrating Guy Fawkes Day anymore.

The next day the main guy in our department (our 'dad') got appointed to a chairmanship position, a big deal, and was giving his inaugural lecture. It was at 3pm then they had champagne in the common room starting at 4. He kept toasting to Gravitational Waves and our university and our department. We didn't leave the common room until about 6:30 after about 7-10 glasses of champagne each. It was time for the weekly pub-go and so we headed to Cooper's for a few pints. After that, it was suggested to go back to one of our flats and drink whisky. So we did. I think I got home around 1am. It was a super fun night though. The next morning, not so much.

The night before, we had all decided to head to SeeWoo which is this big Chinese food distributor for the Asian population as well as all the Asian restaurants in the city. It was like WalMart, but filled with Chinese food. Thankfully, one of my friends is Chinese and so he helped us find really good sauces and rice. It was all super cheap too, which was fantastic. Now I have food for a very very long time. Afterwards we went back to his place and watched some anime before he decided to cook us all a big roast pork meal. It was SUPER good.

Sunday was spent lounging around the flat, cleaning my room, etc. Nothing too exciting, which is how Sundays should always be. Time is flying by now; I'm going to be back in Colorado in 5 weeks, which is almost incomprehensible. Until next week!

This is Halloween!

Oh man, do I love this holiday. My week was fairly uneventful as the majority of it was spent preparing for the joys of the weekend to come. Others share this sentiment as well. When we were chatting about our past weeks, no one really had anything to say. So, I won't bore you with the minute details of my days. Friday was my last day until after the holidays of demonstrating the Astronomy labs. It was a super fun group of students this year. They were enthusiastic and optimistic, particularly when stuff would go horribly wrong. Anyway, so I said farewell to them and now I have a giant stack of lab books to grade. We'll see how they did.

One of my friends is finishing up her PhD dissertation and is, understandably, a bit stressed out. She hasn't been out with anyone in ages and doesn't even come to coffee any more. So we decided to go out for a girl's science fiction night. The original plan was to dress up like science fiction babes and hit the town. But since we had all been pretty stressed, and poor, we decided to have a quiet night in at one of our flats. Two of us still insisted on dressing up though; me because I lost a ton of weight to fit into my costume and the other because she wanted to wear the Star Trek uniform I have. We ordered the usual curry from the usual restaurant and sure had a laugh when I had to answer the door in my costume to give him the money. Anyway, we drank some leftover bottles of wine from the flatwarming party the week before and hunkered down for some much needed chat. We ended up watching Love Actually later on in the evening, which was a lot of fun because I hadn't seen it in at least 4 years. At least. Thankfully, my diet was over, so I inhaled my Chicken Tikka Garam Masala and Naan. Inhaled it.

The next day, it was Halloween; one of my favourite holidays. I stayed in my pyjamas all day, sluggish from the curry baby in my stomach. I watched all the old Halloween classics: Nightmare Before Christmas, Hocus Pocus and Rocky Horror while I worked on my Halloween costume. The theme of the party was "dead celebrities" so I was going as Jackie Kennedy Onassis, obviously, being my sexy, classy, stylish, American self. So my big project of the day was constructing a pillbox hat from an old charity shop hat I had bought. Surprisingly, it was super difficult to find sunglasses in Scotland, so I settled for an old pair of mine. My friend came over, dressed as Farrah Fawcett, to help me with my hair before the party. I have a LOT of hair, so it was pretty difficult to rat up, but I finally managed what I could and we headed out.

I had heard that Halloween was sort of a big deal in Glasgow, particularly in comparison to the rest of the UK, where it passes almost unnoticed, but nothing prepared me for stepping out of my flat at 8pm and seeing almost every person, of all ages, dressed in costume wandering the streets. Trick-or-treating obviously isn't that big of a deal in a big city with sketchy flats and even sketchier (is that a word?) people, but everyone was dressed up, going to pubs or parties. And I mean everyone was dressed up. It was excellent. So we walked the 10 minutes to the flat where the party was, me fine in my wool, 70's coat and my friend freezing in her swimsuit and tights.

We arrived to the party to find Charlie Chaplin already drinking, Keith Floyd (a famous British TV chef who just died) drinking his signature wine, Natalie Wood taping fishes to her shirt and Chairman Mao struggling with taping Chinese Flags to his uniform. More and more people arrived and everyone put in tons of effort. There were Che Guevara, Audrey Hepburn, Marie Antoinette, and so many other great costumes. Even one chap did a last minute Scotty (the deceased Star Trek actor) uniform and discovered that his camera case looked conspicuously like a Star Trek communicator and had to spend the rest of the evening convincing people that he really wasn't that into Star Trek to put together such an accurate costume. Even my friend with a giant, red beard that is actually his, came as a disturbingly convincing young Sir Alec Guinness (dressed as Obi-Wan of course).

All was fine and well until Karl Marx started making pints of white russians, which promptly put me to sleep on the couch, along with Freddie Mercury and Linda McCartney. I finally woke up, with nothing drawn on me, thankfully and walked home with a few girls. We left at about 1:30am and you still couldn't believe how many people were in costume on the streets partying.

This was the first Halloween party that I didn't have to organize and definitely the only one where everyone put in at least SOME effort. It was a fantastic time and everyone really seemed to enjoy themselves. For those of you on facebook, photos are up...so enjoy!

The next day, I finally suffered the never-ending, day-long hangover. I stayed in bed all day, watched half of the first season of the West Wing and a few films, eating nothing. Absolutely worth it though.

Sorry for the short post...see you next week!