31-Marzo-2006

I like studying in Italy, granted it’s hard and I still don’t feel like I could carry on an intelligent conversation in Italian, but it’s still been alright. After being in Scotland, I don’t want to go back. It is absolutely amazing. We landed in Glasgow-Preswick and boarded a bus to the center of Glasgow. On the way there were rolling hillsides, sheep, cattle and it really had a mid Michigan type of feel to it. Lots of farmland and everything was so green!

Once we made it to the city center we saw a lot of business that we hadn’t seen in Italy. There was the infamous Starbucks where we proceeded to enter and order in English, there was a ton of fast food, but I asked Jim, our Scottish friend and he’s assured me that fast food isn’t really taking off over here. The downtown is sort of like Via Garibaldi. It’s strictly a walking street and walk we did. We saw people dressed in wind pants, gothics, and thug looking type people. I forgot what it was like to see such a variety of people. In Italy you see one type of style and in Scotland they definitely have many different flavors.

We met up with Jim at about 6pm when he got out of work. From there he walked us through a small part of town while on the way to his flat. Him and his girlfriend Jillian have just recently bought the flat and that’s good because it’s amazing. It’s a loft with two bedrooms, a nice living room and a great kitchen. I had forgotten what it was like to actually have a place to sit and comfortably be with people. The plastic chairs in our kitchen in Torino do little to set up a friendly atmosphere.

When Jillian got home we headed out to grab some dinner and had trouble finding a place. We visited three different restaurants before we could sit down. It was a nice little Japanese restaurant since the Scottish cuisine place that we tried was off limits because of a Jazz band that was playing. The dinner was great and after that, since it was raining, we stopped at the liquor store and made our way home. Jim was bound and determined to have Jeff try all the drinks that the college kids drink because of how cheap they are and their awful taste. It was entertaining to watch, nonetheless.

The only downfall to Scotland is its prices. The pound is worth double what the dollar is right now. Luckily we have a place to stay and don’t have to pay for a hotel. Jillian and Jim are great and were planning on touring Edinbrough and other fun sorts of things tomorrow.