The Land of Scots (and how I came to live there)

Warning: This is a long (yet highly amusing!) post.


Currently, I'm sitting in my PINK sweatpants and tiedyed shirt gazing out the window at the pouring rain (and giggling as I watch people walk through it). However, it took me a while to get here... this is the story of my journey from the O'Hare International Airport in Chicago to Flat D of the Queen Margaret Residences in Glasgow, Scotland. It was written last night after I unpacked to make sure it was all fresh in my mind. :)

WELL. The adventure has begun. Right now it is 10:06 PM on January 3, except my computer still thinks it’s in Chicago and my body is just plain confused. Everything started out fine last night in Chicago. I checked my bags, got a seat next to Ryan on the plane, and waited for her to get to terminal 5 so we could walk through security together. Our plane was only delayed 20 minutes, which we assumed we would make up in the air with the tail winds and such.  Our plane was originally supposed to leave at 8:35pm but then with the delay we were supposed to leave at 8:55pm (just keep that in mind time-wise). Plane starts boarding, we get to our seats, make friends with the girl sitting next to us who was also studying abroad, and all the sudden the lights go out. This confused everyone on the plane, including the flight attendants. The lights come back on maybe 10-15 minutes later and the pilot announces that they’ve called an engineer on board. He also said we would have to wait another 20 or so minutes because when the power shuts off so abruptly it’s hard to get the computers going again or something. Maybe half an hour after all of this happened the power shuts off again, this time for around 20 minutes. At this point, the very southern man behind us is talking to someone on his cell phone about the plane being delayed… “Yeah, we’ve been sitting on this airplane for an hour, I don’t even care though, because I am on a plane full of college girls studying abroad!! An entire plane full of college girls studying abroad!” It was rather entertaining (and accurate). We finally took off an hour later than we were supposed to (not until around 10pm), but the pilot said that our flight, which was originally supposed to take seven and a half hours was only going to take six and a half hours! It was very windy, apparently (more on that later). About an hour after we took off they started serving dinner, which consisted of salad, bread, chicken curry or cheese lasagna, banana cake, water, coffee, and tea. They also offered you red or white wine as you selected your main course, which, I suppose, is normal but I wasn’t expecting it. I also found it rather odd that they were serving us dinner at 11pm Chicago time, which is 5am London time. The plane also had the equivalent of OnDemand on it, so I watched Winnie the Pooh as I ate my dinner. After dinner we slept for about three hours and then it was time for breakfast! Breakfast consisted of a muffin and more coffee and tea. Now, our flight was originally supposed to land at 10am London time. However, the winds were so bad in London that there were a lot of delays at the airport. This resulted in us circling around the airport for another hour. You could also watch a GPS version of your flight on the TV screens, so obviously I watched us fly around in circles the entire time. It was amazing to look out the window and see London, though. All of the buildings are so different than back home! And there are a lot of farms too, which I knew about from my watching of excellent TV shows such as My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.

Here’s where the real adventure begins. We arrive in London and successfully make our way from the plane to the bus to the terminal by 11ish. Then we follow the signs for UK Domestic flights, as our flight from London to Glasgow was set to leave at noon. We are about to enter the UK Border Control to get through the terminal when we are informed that all flights to Glasgow are cancelled. WHAT?! The nice airport lady tells us that we need to turn around, go back through regular Border Control, get our bags from carousel 7 and head to Zone E, wherever that is. We got a little lost at Border Control because it wasn’t very well signed, but eventually we made it through and down to the baggage claim (or reclaim, as they call it here). Apparently, carousel 7 held all of the bags for all of the cancelled flights out of London (and trust me, there were plenty). We waited for our bags for about half an hour and then went through customs. (Which, I would just like to point out, was just walking through a door. I thought customs was supposed to take some time or something?). After clearing customs, we found another airport man, told him our story, and asked where Zone E was. He said that if we were flying to Glasgow or Edinburgh we were NOT to go to Zone E, but instead go to the British Airways counter and they would help us. It took us 30 minutes of wandering around Heathrow to find this unmarked counter in the very back of the airport, but hey, at least we got there. It was at this point that I realized I still hadn’t contacted my parents and told them I was alive and what the story was. I checked my phone and I had no service, so I used Ryan’s phone to text my mom and tell her I was alive and to add the international plan to my phone so it would work until I get my new UK sim card. This was a whole other ordeal within itself, but basically we got my phone working in the hour and a half we spent in the British Airways line. While waiting in the line, we also learned that my dad had rebooked us on one of the 2 flights from London to Glasgow that was yet to be cancelled. Once we got up to the front, we learned that they were bussing everyone from London to Glasgow who was on one of the cancelled flights. We were okay with this until we learned that it was going to take roughly 9 hours to get there and the next bus that we could get on wasn’t leaving until 4pm. We told the man at the British Airways counter, Raj, that we thought we were booked on a flight to Glasgow but we didn’t have the confirmation number or anything because I didn’t have internet on my phone. Raj worked his magic and found out that we were indeed on the 3:05 from London to Glasgow, however it was around 2:15 by this point and since the plane was already “gated,” there was no way we could check in. So Raj worked some more magic and got us transferred to the 4:35 flight. By the time this was all finished it was around 3, and he told us to go upstairs to Zone B, C, or D, find the shortest line and go check our bags. Of course, since I had 2 bags, I was going to be charged for one of them so this resulted in waiting in yet another line. Apparently the paying systems were down at the bag check so you had to first check your bags, then take them over to the excess luggage payment center and pay for them and weigh them again there. Then we went through security and found a place to sit down while we waited for them to give us a gate. We then learned that our flight was delayed until 5:05, and I spent most of this time waiting at the airport sleeping. Once we got on the plane, I fell asleep almost instantaneously (I wasn’t conscious for the safety video that tells you how to buckle your seatbelt) and woke up only from the crazy rocking that came before our landing. And now, we enter the Glasgow airport!

If the London airport is equivalent to LAX, Glasgow is most definitely the John Wayne. It’s small and easy to maneuver. There’s basically only one hallway that takes you from the gate to the baggage reclaim to the exit! We got our bags and headed out to find a taxi. As soon as we left the baggage claim, I set my eyes on the most beautiful sight I’d seen since we touched down in London… STARBUCKS. We didn’t get anything, but I was happy to see it none-the-less. We walked outside and got into a cab. The cab driver was very friendly and talkative. Unfortunately I didn’t understand most of what he was saying. He took us to our dorms, Ryan to hers first and then mine second. On our way from Ryan’s dorm to mine we drove through campus a bit, and it is absolutely breathtaking. The buildings are gothic-style and massive! We also drove through a bit of “Downtown Glasgow” which, much to my surprise, is the style that most modern-day cities are modeled after (aka Boston and Chicago, according to our cab driver). I couldn’t see much because it was dark and the windows were tinted, but I could definitely see a little bit of a resemblance between Glasgow and Chicago.

He dropped me off at my dorm and helped me carry in my luggage to the main desk where I made a new friend, Mr. Security Guard. I don’t think he introduced himself, but if he did I definitely do not remember his name. He gave me my key, told me he liked my name, and walked me to my flat. He, like the cab driver, was also very kind except I could understand him a bit more. After he showed me to my room he said, “Melanie, right? I’m going to remember you! Go poke your head around in the kitchen and introduce yourself if anyone's there. You're a sweet gal!” and then left. I don’t know if he does that for everyone but hey, it made me feel special. I wandered around our flat for a bit (and by that, I mean I looked in the kitchen and in my room and kept going back and forth) and realized I was the only one here. I decided I should probably unpack rather than wander the streets of Glasgow, so I did that, and now I’m here writing this blog. I’ll probably go watch a movie and then head off to bed soon. Tomorrow Ryan and I are going to go shopping to get the rest of the things we need, like shampoo and an Ethernet cord (essential items, ya know?).  I’ll update more later! But for now, I'll leave you with one of the many Scottish proverbs I learned along my journey; they are good that are away! Also, props to Eddie for the title of this post.

Miss you already!

Mel

Update: I did in fact wander the streets of Glasgow today with Ryan, and in doing so I picked up a sim card for my phone (my old phone number won't work.. so you can text me on it but I won't reply) and an ethernet cable which allows me to connect to the Internet! That means we can Skype now! Yay!