Saturday, February 28, 2009

In search of McDonalds.

There is a reason I have not posted in awhile. Not much has been going on to begin with, and there is this assignment that I am finally completing for this blog. I probably could have been done with it much sooner but I think Randy (Instructor of our CLAM class-one of the reasons I am Blogging) did not realize that one of his students was in Scotland and that it is very hard to find a proper McDonald's in Scotland (Burger King's on the other hand are plentiful). Basically, I was instructed to go to McDonald's and compare it to McDonald's in America, so Scott (he decided he was bored) and I went. The first MacDonald's we came too had a much more homey environment than any McDonald's I had ever been in before. upon realizing that it did not, in fact, serve food Scott and I decided to continue our search. We walked into the heart(at least its the heart of the city in my opinion) of Glasgow otherwise known as Central Station. We walked around inside the station but again the station was a fruitless search, just Burger Kings. We were finally rewarded upon walking around the outside of the station with what I thought was a true McDonald's. It wasn't till I bought an apple danish that i realized the food was WAAAAY to good to be a classic American McDonald's. So I took my Apple pastry and walked out, then down the street, stunned that something called McDonald's could serve something so terribly delicious. It was after another minute of city trudging that Scott and I came upon those horrible golden arches. There they gleamed in the non-existent sunlight singing a sorrowful song of woe. Their warning cry echoing off the dirty city streets. "Spend not your pounds here for too be found within are only grease, dirt and a full belly of unfulfillment." Scott and I ignored the wailing arches... this mission called for it. we boldly placed our orders. The prices would have made sense in American dollars...but being in pounds it seemed a bit expensive, perhaps this is just because it's downtown. We received our food (my sandwich had to much mayo on it but they have really good bread for a McDonald's...maybe they got it from the McDonald's Bakery down the street?)It was a two story so we sat upstairs. There was an adolescent with short spiky black hair, baggy blue jeans and skater shoes. But he/she was wearing a tutuish skirt on top of the jeans. This greatly confused Scott and I(Scott voted boy I voted girl...guess we will never know for sure). Here is a picture of the food I ordered. The frys were normal the sandwich bread was delicious but the coke tasted diet. And they have this McFlurry here called a Yorky...it was too rich (in a chocolaty way) for me, but I ate it anyway. Scott and I finished and left.
Another assignment down, another McDonald's found. There was a tile outside depicting the totality of McDonald's domination.

Oh one further development, Taylor (a fellow Clemson Student) has been playing the violin since he was five, he is a fiddle God. Anyway, we got together the other evening and played some sweet folk music it was really fun. I anticipate actually having decent background music for the video projects that will be coming in the future.

2 comments:

  1. Of all the possible situations, I think yours (being in Scotland) offers opportunities for some of the most interesting readings of how cultural "texts" (like a fast-food joint) translate. After reading your experiences, I now wonder why Ronald McDonald doesn't wear plaid or speak with a marked accent. Interesting post! Please tell more about why you think these changes were made... does the website comparison reinforce your findings? I'm especially interested about why they call it a "Yorky."

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  2. I'm afraid the website is horribly unhelpful. Apparently the bread is simply a onion and cheese topped Ciabatta bread. All the soft drinks over hear taste diffrent and so far no one has had a good explanation as to why. It was just like an American McDonald's but with an accent. I think the Yorkie name comes from a particularly chunky chocolate bar. There is a interesting and quick history of the Yorkie Bar here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yorkie_(chocolate_bar)

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