Dabbling in Adventures

So this week was a bunch more "firsts" for me. On Tuesday I spent a few hours discussing Harry Potter with people during coffee and we decided to go see it at the IMAX that evening (we were excited). One of the girls went home first so myself and one other girl decided to walk to the IMAX after work. The IMAX is at the Glasgow Science Centre on the other side of the River Clyde. This was my first time going across the big, scary river. I always knew it was a bit rougher on the other side, so I was a little hesitant...but I was more than willing, especially with other people and to go see Harry Potter. We left right at 6 and walked to the Subway (mmm meatball subs) which was on the way to the theatre and then continued on. It took us about 25 minutes and the centre was right on the other side of the river. It was a really nice stroll and we got there in plenty of time. We got great seats and watched the film. Extremely entertaining was the reactions from Glaswegians, which I adore. One of the adverts before the movie was for this bizarre soda here in Glasgow called Irn Bru (Iron Brew) which was hilarious and can be watched on this link. There's one that is absolutely wonderful that is at this link. One of the girls leaned over and was like "Do we really talk like that?" Quick tangent, there's another Irn Bru ad from Christmas that is set to Nightwish music (with the lyrics changed, obviously)...how bizarre is that (if you're familiar with the fact that Nightwish and Scotland are two of my most favourite, most discrepant things out there)?! You can watch it at this link Okay, anyway, Glaswegians crack me up. There were two guys in front of us that were pretty tough looking, blue-collar workers...you know, picture scary Scots a la Trainspotting. Yeah, they loved the film. Also, so since it was the IMAX 3D, a staff member came out beforehand to explain that we had to put on the dorky glasses to watch the previews and the first 15 minutes of the movie. He was trying to get people excited and ended with "ENJOY HARRY POTTER IN 3D!!!!" and people did the sort of sardonic, snarky, sarcastic 'yay' in response. Not 5 seconds later a preview started in 3D and everyone seriously went "oooooohh" then burst out laughing at being completely contradicted for mocking the 3D. Good times.

On Wednesday I had a crazy busy day with tons of meetings that I'd rather forget about right now, but that evening I met up with the people from work and we went to the Hetherington Research Club which is a private club for university graduate students and staff. Excellent and cheap beer...hooray! We stayed for a few hours then bolted at 9:45pm so we could make it to Marks & Spencers Food Service before it closed...though I instead went to the chip shop.

The next morning I got up and got ready for my trip to East Midlands. I got the underground at 9am and went to Glasgow Queen Street Station. I caught the train to Edinburgh and shared a table with a giant family from Canada. At Edinburgh I got the National Express East Coast train (the one that goes from Edinburgh Waverly to London Kings Cross) all the way to Doncaster. It took about 3 hours and shared a table with a great older British couple who had a daughter who lives on the same street as me (which isn't difficult because I'm on a main street). The train was (of course) delayed, but I managed to catch the commuter from Doncaster to Lincoln. In Lincoln, I met up with my friend Patricia (the reason for the trip) and met her boyfriend, Will. We went and met his family (parents and brother) for lunch/dinner. I don't exactly know how to explain what they were like except maybe like Hyacinth Bucket (Bouquet) from Keeping Up Appearances. They were quite friendly in a sort-of fake etiquette sort of way. After dinner we drove to their village, Woodhall Spa. It was a nice break as I got away from the traffic and got a home-cooked meal. Though very interesting as this was the first time I really got a taste for racism against the Scottish. I didn't feel that uncomfortable, but a few things that were just casually mentioned were really hurtful...it's a little hard to go into off-hand comments so I can just generalise. I would like to point out, however, the fact that I know tons of English people here in Glasgow. Three of my four flatmates are English, the post-doc and the advisor with whom I work are both from England, etc etc... and I have never met a Scottish person living in England so I think that says something about how the cultures allow the opposite to feel comfortable or not. Ultimately, it was just an interesting social observation. I have never been happier, though, to see the Scottish border and I don't know if it's because I've settled here or because it's just a more relaxed culture.
Anyway, in Woodhall, we went to the Kinema in the Woods which was sort of a WWII cinema with low ceilings, no incline, coat hangers on the wall and an intermission where an organ rises from the front and a man plays while people go buy ice cream. Lots of fun. We did lots of small, english village things like spending hours in the pub and when we got back to the house, the town vicar was visiting for tea. No joke. I felt like I was temporarily in a BBC Wonderland. Glad to be in Glasgow again though.

Last night, I got back from the station and my peers from the department called me. They were getting together at my secondary supervisor's house (he's really laid back) for curry and poker. He lives just up the street from me and we were there until about 1:30am playing poker and drinking immense amounts of German beer. And today I cleaned the apartment and went to the Oxfam Bookshop for a while...that's where I will leave you for now! Cheerio!