Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Day 2 ...Exploration Continues

Its been a wet drizzly day (I'll be the sun is glad he got a break from shining for a while...seems like a lot of work to me). I finally got to go to a class ...It seems deceptively easy. We spent the whole two hours talking about the value of a cat. According to the Welsh (at least I think it was the Welsh) the value of a stolen cat (the penalty a thief had to pay) was the amount of flour it took to bury the cat while dangling from its tail. This is measured from its head which was placed on the ground to the tip of its tail. We discussed the objections a cat might have and how different flour (sticky) might bury the cat faster that other flour (clean).
So far today I have heard two people (out of many) speak with such a distinct accent that I could not understand them. One was a student in class...who supposedly answered a question but I am not sure what came out of his mouth(although the professor seemed to understand). And the other was a skinny phone company lady who must have answered my question about their phone plan in Gaelic. I think I did a good job faking that I understood because right afterwords Scott looked at me and said "what was that" to which, with a stunned expression on my face, I said "ex-actly".
Speaking of Scott, The poor guy's luggage was so lost the plane company didn't even know it existed. Apparently they finally located it though, and it should get here sometime tomorrow.
I found out today that I can't watch American TV shows online from a UK IP address. There are some work arounds though so hopefully Scott, Mike (hallmate I just met from LSU) and myself will head to a coffee shop sometime to catch up on "24".
Being in the city is a excellent change to make for a few months. Today I ended up exploring several miles of the city mostly on accident. I kept walking from ancient building to ancient building fascinated by the architecture. I got pretty far into the heart of Glasgow before I realized that I did not, in fact, personally know many of the buildings. They all started to look very similar to many other buildings. Luckily when you get here they give you so many maps you feel like you know every inch of city from osmosis (I had a city map in my pocket that I begrudgingly consulted).
Oh on my adventure I found a large microwavable Shepard's pie that I got for 1.89 pounds because it expires today. I intend to eat it tomorrow. I've noticed a cultural portion size difference. Everything in the grocery stores is a slightly smaller amount of food than most portions in the US. (hence my excitement over finding what I assume to be a good deal on a rather large Shepard's pie).

Here are pictures of my room so you can understand the depressed jail cell feeling. (I'm still unpacking...although I think the mess is helping it feel more like home). Cheers! as they say here(...I still don't know how or if I am supposed to respond)

2 comments:

  1. So, how much flour would it take? Plain flour vs whole wheat? What does your jail cell window look out upon? The "yard"?
    Jack Bauer will miss you. He waits for no one.

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  2. The cat and flour story is delicious! Great observations - the Shepherd's Pie pic is indeed worth a thousand words. Keep up the good work - and keep posting! Good material here - should make for excellent presentations.

    Oh... and loved the coffee vid!!

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