swordBeatsPaper

Whenever I stop and think about it, I can’t really comprehend that I’m really in Scotland. At most, it feels like an extended vacation, because I haven’t started school yet. I’m basically just learning how to get around, do my own grocery shopping, and budget money a bit more than last year.

I don’t know what I was expecting, but somehow I thought that living in Scotland would somehow feel… constantly foreign, or that I’d feel like more of an outsider. Truth is, it feels a whole lot like any other university, just with people that talk funny (beautifully is more accurate). It helps a lot that everyone in my flat is international. I don’t feel like the only one that came from far away to be here. I’m eager to make some Scottish friends, but that might have to wait until classes start in a week or two.

I still don’t have a UK bank account or a cell phone, but I’m starting to get the hang of grocery shopping for myself. Something I haven’t found yet that I really hope I can find somewhere are instant or boxed noodles. You know, like Top Ramen or Macaroni & Cheese (Easy Mac for you Canadians…). There’s a fair amount of pre-made, packaged food, but in the little Tesco on Byers Road (pretty much a Safeway-type place) I haven’t found a single box or bag of noodles. Plenty of pasta and sauce though, so I could make spaghetti, and in fact many of my flatmates do. Maybe I’ll just have to cook more.

That’s another thing I’m glad about. My flatmates really know how to cook. It’s no stereotypical college flat here, with junk food lying everywhere and a kitchen that only smells like booze (not that they don’t drink). Personally, I think it’s because most of the people here are from Europe, where people would probably be more likely to learn to cook at a younger age. Even the Finnish guy here says there is barely any pre-made and packaged food back home.

I can’t wait to make my favorite chocolate chip cookies for everyone.

Photo: A little shopping area close to my flat. A good bagel place and little convenience shops, but not a lot else. We usually walk about 10 minutes further to a place with more grocery stores, drug stores, banks, etc. I’m definitely getting my exercise here. And yes, there are a lot of houses and accommodation around this area that look like the buildings on the right and up above on the left. I think it’s gorgeous.

Yesterday, I went shopping with one of my flatmates. It was such an incredible day. As we walked toward the shops, we passed a bagel shop, and I got coffee and a bagel with bacon and cream cheese (it was delicious). After passing a few of the nearby shops, we decided to take the subway into town. It was such a short ride, I feel blessed that I’m so close to town.

Downtown, there are tons of shops, including two pound shops (dollar stores), plenty of department stores, an HMV (music and games and movies), and much more. The department store we wetnt to, Primark, had very cute stuff at a very low price. We’re going to have to go back when I feel like I can spend money on clothes.

While we were walking around downtown, there was one fiddler, two guitarists (one had electric), and two different places where someone played bagpipes and the other played the drum beside him. And they wore kilts. Kilts are very common here, and especially when guys in Scotland are dressing up, like to a prom–a kilt is almost always what they wear, rather than suit bottoms. This culture is fantastic.

That night, I went to one of the two student unions on campus, GUU, Glasgow University Union, with most of my 10 flatmates. Ministry of Sound was the DJ. There were three or four floors, two dance floors (the main one was where the advertised DJ was at), at least four bars, and hundreds of people. Despite the sticky floor and difficulty walking around due to how many people were there, it was a blast.

I’m just waking up now, it’s about noon where I am. I’m doing my best to do one blog a day, but if I skip a day, forgive me, I have so much to do.

Let me just start out by stating there is SO MUCH to say. But I can’t put it all in one blog post. Though I might try.

The trip over, my first flight/travel alone, was… intense. The flight to LA was nice. At first I sat by a woman with a little dog, but she wanted a seat for him (and there wasn’t much space) so I offered to move. Then I sat by another woman who was sort of talkative, and it felt good to connect with someone on such a long, lonely trip.

LA was horrible. The line for security was nearly two hours long (apparently they’re usually long, but not that long), and I was very glad I had the time I did. I got to the gate just as they began boarding. My back is still in a lot of pain from carrying my heavy laptop backpack for those two hours. And for standing in other lines that followed, that weren’t quite as bad.

My 10-hour flight from LA to London was interesting. I didn’t sit by very talkative people: a slightly older woman than me and an old man who didn’t speak much english, his wife sat across the aisle and his language sounded maybe slavic. The in-flight entertainment was amazing, we had tons of movies and TV and music to choose from, that could be played exactly when we wanted. I watched Moulin Rouge! and Letters to Juliet to help me stay in good spirits. We got free dinner and breakfast, plus tea, coffee, and cold drinks. The flight attendants all seemed to be Australian or New Zealanders (since it was, understanadbly, Air New Zealand). I didn’t sleep much, but I rested for a while.

Next was London. It was fine through customs until I needed to write the address of where I was staying, and I didn’t have the exact address yet, nor the general one with me. My iPod Touch wouldn’t connect to the free WiFi at the airport, either. I started freaking out. I went to the nearest people–a really nice Canadian couple standing in line–and after embarrassing myself by starting to cry, they sort of took me under their wing and stayed with me through all the lines of security. They were going to Glasgow too, but ended up on another flight and I didn’t really get to say goodbye. In Heathrow, though, I overheard some conversations. “Hi” was frequently “Hiya” and “Goodbye” was usually “Cheers.” Friendly folks.

The flight from London to Glasgow was amazing. Somehow, I got bumped up to Flex Economy, or unknowingly paid for it. Whatever it was, it was worth it. I got free food (economy had to pay): I chose a small tin of pringles (they called them “crisps”, but yes, they DO have pringles) and a “chicken and stuffing” sandwich. It was basically chicken with mayo and spinach. It was good, and I needed food. I got the window seat, and had the whole seat beside me open, with one other woman on the third seat. The flight was quick and easy. England and Scotland are gorgeous from above, very green and pastoral. None of that brown land you frequently see in the US.

In Glasgow, I thought I got my bags in time for the free transport to Murano Street Student Village, but I couldn’t find the bus, so I took a taxi. The guy was nice, definitely Glaswegian. I could see hills all around us outside the very flat city. Or at least it felt that way, since Seattle is definitely not flat.

Getting my flat was fairly easy, even though there was a slight room mix-up. There were lots of older students around helping people move in, since today was the first official move-in day. Most international people are here already, though. After unpacking, I started feeling really out of place. No one (I thought) was moved in yet, and everyone talked funny, and why did I decide to do this in the first place? Two of those helper people came by, two girls, and consoled me. What can I say, this whole thing was stressful. But just then, people came by who apparently had moved in already, and told us everyone was out on city tours.

Soon after, I met all 10 of my other flatmates. The 11 of us share two tiny fridges, two tiny freezers, two stoves, two single shower rooms, and two single bathrooms. Everyone is international, from America to Sweden to France to New Zealand. There are one or two more guys than girls, but they’re all nice people, and I think we’re going to have a blast.

That’s all for now… soon off to the grocery store and the one-pound store to do some much needed shopping!

Tomorrow morning I leave for Scotland.

It really is nearly a whole day’s flight. Leaving the west coast in the morning, I arrive in Scotland in the afternoon, the next day. Traveling time, including layovers, is 18 hours total. It’ll be intense.

And one more twist–my mom can’t come, because the fees are now too high to buy her ticket. So I’ll be going on my first flight alone, and it’s international, the second-longest flight I’ve ever been on. The longest was probably from here to Rome, about five years ago when I went on a Europe trip with my classmates.

I’ve spent the past day packing up my whole room, to either store or bring with me or send via snail mail. I’ve cried a little, stressed a lot, took a break, and felt better. As I wrote in my journal, I’m excited beyond words, but it’s hidden behind anxiety. I think I’m as prepared as I can be, though, so I’m sure I’ll be alright.

Short blog today, and no picture–I need to devote my time to packing and other details. If I can’t fit in a blog tomorrow, it’s probably because I’m traveling. But never fear, I’ll come back the next day with a lot to share.

At the moment, I have my music on random, and this song started playing:
“I’m going home, to the place where I belong… be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it all…” – Home, by Daughtry. Yes, the meaning of the song as a whole is different from these lines out of context, but I can’t help relating it to how I feel about this trip.

Yesterday, my mom was frustrated enough about our problems with the UK Border Agency that she contacted our Washington State Senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, along with Congressman Jay Inslee. First thing this morning, Murray’s office called us, asking for us to fax them a Privacy Release Form so they could help us. Later in the day, Cantwell’s office called. It felt great to have powerful people on our side.

By midday, I was feeling worried and rather aimless. But I eventually got around to baking chocolate chip cookies–the last batch I’ll make here, since we had only one more helping of chocolate chips. I listened to Buddha Bar music while I worked, and I started feeling a bit better.

When I went to check my email while I waited for the cookies to bake, I couldn’t believe what I saw. I had an email from the UK Border Agency, telling me that “your application has been approved and the visa has been issued.” They gave me a UPS tracking number, though saying it would not be activated for 1-2 business days, and to not make travel plans until I get my visa in hand. I don’t know for sure whether it was the senators that helped with this, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

Now, I told all this to my dad. He went ahead and checked out the UPS tracking number, something I didn’t think of doing (partly because I was dancing around the house in glee). It turns out, the number was already “activated,” and they had sent it next day air!

So, tonight (apparently it’s even the best time of the week to buy plane tickets), I will be figuring out when my flight is. It’ll be either late tomorrow or on Thursday. Mom may or may not come, depending on if she thinks she can spend the money. We’ll see. It certainly has snuck up on me, and now I have to power-pack my room.

After all this, I had delicious cookies waiting for me in the oven. I ate two to celebrate.

This afternoon, I finished the second draft of my novel.

My plan is to put it aside for a few months and eventually go over it again with a fine-toothed comb, fixing things like vocabulary and sentence structure. For now, I’m just glad it seems a lot better than the first draft to me. Subplots are not left dangling, certain events feel more plausible, and details are ironed out.

After finishing editing today, I worked on the final version of a map for my book(s). My mom had spilled a drop of tea on it and it got crinkled and brown in one area, and I also had to change some names. I took the old map and made a makeshift light table with a clear plastic box, two stacks of books, and a small lamp underneath, then traced the old map. I drew it all in pencil and then carefully drew over the land, rivers, and cities with black ink. Copying the Lord of the Rings map/poster I have in my room, I made the roads and place names in red ink. It almost needs to be a larger map, for all the names to fit and still see the land formations, but it’s good enough for me to use to judge traveling distances and remember place names.

It feels strange to not have to work on this big project anymore. Maybe it will feel liberating, since school starts again soon and I have a whole new country to explore. Or perhaps, after a while, I will long to have a big project and work on it again.

Photo: A sneak peek of the map that I made. If you are one of my “beta readers,” you’ll see familiar landmarks…

I’m doing two blogs today, to make up for yesterday. I was really tired after the convention.

If you haven’t read my previous posts, PAX is a gaming convention held at the Convention Center in Seattle. They have everything from tabletop to console to PC to Wil Wheaton (who I sadly couldn’t go see, since he was there on a different day).

Not only was this my first gaming convention, it was my first convention, period.

When dad and I neared the Convention Center in our car, there were swarms of people crossing streets–and they were all gamers. I couldn’t keep from smiling for probably half an hour as we entered the building and found our way up to the expo floor. There had to be thousands of people there. To imagine the impact, think of all the multitudes of people who like to game. Mostly guys (the womens’ restrooms were nearly deserted), but all ages and all personalities. Think of everyone, for example, who plays World of Warcraft. Take a random chunk of those people and place them in a large space where they can see each other in reality. And there you go. It was pretty amazing to me.

Most of the games you could play had extremely long lines, so we didn’t play too many. But we did try a few games, one called Power Gig, a band game where instead of buttons on the guitar, there are real strings, and the controller is actually a working electric guitar. On what I’m guessing was the easy setting, you can press any string on a particular fret and it would count for that color. Among a couple others, I checked out Captain Comic, a console game where when you move or beat people up, there are exclamations like BANG! and WHIZZ! and there are frames, like in a comic book.

I even saw the Back to the Future delorean, in honor of a game coming out based on the movie. I was going to see Bill Amend of the Foxtrot comic strip (who is an avid gamer himself) do a presentation, but there was too much else to see.

As for “swag,” or free stuff, I got about four t-shirts, three of which are huge on me (that’s what we get for being there at the end of the convention), for example, one has “/godmode” on the front and funny modding code on the back, and one I got for playing Power Gig; twenty little buttons with various things on them like guitars, gold coins, and little cartoon characters; an inflatable sword for Dragon Age 2; a computer screen cleaner; and a few more items. Needless to say, my near-empty backpack was stuffed full by the end.

If you are a gamer at all, I highly recommend going to PAX sometime in the future. It’ll blow your mind.

Photo (bottom): A few people who work at a nearby booth and a guy dressed in Halo armor play Just Dance 2. The song was, fittingly, techno (a song called Satisfaction, by Benni Benassi). Throughout the day, people who were brave enough could step up and dance.

This morning, we weren’t able to get anywhere with Icelandair. Travelocity was willing to waive their flight change fee, but Icelandair didn’t budge on theirs, and it was much more money. So, 24 hours before our scheduled flight, we canceled our tickets, losing half our ticket money.

I’m doing my best to think positively about next week. That I’ll hear as early as Tuesday from the UK Border Agency, that I’ll be able to fly out by the end of the week, that I’ll easily reschedule my adviser appointment. Wish me luck.

For the rest of the day, I watched episodes of NCIS and Rizzoli and Isles and played Civilization 4 (computer game, if you don’t know) with my dad. I ate fresh bread with clam chowder for lunch and then sushi for dinner. It all helped me unwind.

Then, tomorrow, I go to the gaming convention craziness that it PAX! Apparently there are four floors and events going on all day and hundreds of booths. And free stuff. Everyone loves free stuff. Especially geeky stuff. I’ll have plenty to say about that in my next post.

No photo that fits today. Maybe I’ll do that every other day. I won’t always have something interesting to say or some picture that sort of relates to it. But I want to stick with it! And I’m still thinking about an acronym.

I still haven’t heard from the UK Border Agency. And because of Labor Day, I likely won’t until Tuesday. My original flight was on Sunday, so I’m going to have to act fast in the morning to change or cancel my flight. My mother is actually on the phone right now with Travelocity, trying to get somewhere with refunds. We’ll see.

I’ve been really stressed these past few days. As you can probably tell. One thing that I keep being reminded of is to think positive. Maybe everything seems messed up. But it’s not hopeless. There are some good points. 1) I am still going to Scotland, eventually. 2) I get to go to the PAX convention this Sunday and celebrate geekiness. 3) I get to avoid Hurricane Earl altogether, whether or not it is a strong storm or passes by my flight path. 4) I will get more time to pack, because with this whole debacle I have lost interest in packing. 5) More people will be moved into my flat by the time I arrive, so it won’t feel so empty. And if I sit here long enough, I could probably come up with more reasons. I just need to focus on them.

As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve kept up with blogging every day of September so far. Let me tell you a bit about that. There are some cool people who did BEDA, or Blog Every Day August. And then, someone else has decided to do it in September. While I do not feel completely comfortable with their acronym, Blog Every Weekday Besides Important Evenings in September (come on, does it have to spell that?), I want to try daily blogging, at least in September. When I get to Scotland, I’m going to have a lot to talk about. But I need a new acronym… I’ll get back to you on that. Leave suggestions if you are inspired.

Good news first. I heard from the UK Border Agency a few hours after my last blog.

Now bad news. They want more paperwork from me, by snail mail.

More specifically, they want a transcript–the official one, not faxed or emailed–of my schooling at UBC. If they do not receive it within 4 business days, or if it is the wrong document, they will cancel my visa application. I called UBC and found out the fastest they can mail me my transcript was 2-4 business days, because I live in the USA, not Canada. I decided picking it up in person would be faster (a three-hour drive there and another one back). But, of course, the UK Border Agency has my passport. So my mom is driving up there right now and getting it for me, using a letter of consent I wrote.

On top of this, I called Travelocity about fees. They are expensive, whether you’re changing or canceling your flight. I think we should have gone directly through the airline to buy our tickets, partly because all of their customer support is in India, and I have no idea if they understood when I asked, “If I have a good enough reason, will you refund or wave any fees I’d have to pay to change or cancel my flight?” The answer was, “The policy [which they kept going on about] is to pay this much to change, and this much to cancel.” I knew that, thank you. I called Icelandair to see if they were any more help, but they said if I want a refund, I’m going to have to go through Travelocity because I bought my tickets through them.

I’m hoping now that I’ll hear from the UK Border Agency soon after they get my transcript, and that they will tell me how much longer I have until my visa arrives. Otherwise, I’ll have to cancel my flight altogether (losing half the $ from my ticket) and buy new tickets when I know the date.

There are a few benefits for not going to Scotland on the day I planned, but it’s really difficult to look to the bright side right now. At least I’ll get to Scotland eventually.

Keep checking back for updates. Instead of posting a picture, I’m going to go de-stress by playing video games…