My first full week in Ohio, of course, went by like a shot. I went with Grant on campus once or twice, or stayed at home and tidied the flat or watched TV on my computer. I got zero work done, surprise surprise. On Wednesday, though, Grant took me to class with him. He had mentioned his Contracts tutor, Professor Cook, and we thought it’d be fun for me to go along with him and see what class was like. Professor Cook is an elderly man, with a beard and a bow-tie and a super-cool attitude – so Grant emailed ahead of time and asked if it’d be alright for me to tag along, and it wasn’t a problem so I did just that. I quietly followed Grant in and sat next to him, trying not to attract too much attention. Predictably, however, I wasn’t going to get off the hook that easily. He didn’t make too much of a fuss of me – he just mentioned that Stubbins’ girlfriend was visiting and the class should be on their best behaviour, and asked me where I was from. When I said Scotland, he asked if I’d brought any scotch with me; I replied that I was too young (and immediately regretted not using the word “wee” instead), and he didn’t hear what I said and it was awkward. How disappointing – I had so wanted everyone in his class to see me as the exotic stranger who waltzed into class one day and left without a trace, leaving them gazing after me in awe and possibly a little envy. Now they were just going to think I was an awkward little Scottish girl who didn’t even bring spirits. Continue reading
Episode Eleven – Break for Contemplation
I thought I’d take a break from my life commentary and put something slightly more subjective on here. As you know, I’m currently sitting at my mum’s house in the Borders – I couldn’t work the thermostat so have retreated to within the depths of my duvet for the time being. I also happen to be listening to “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley. I just remembered a day when Grant and I were walking to my flat, a couple of days before he was due to leave. I believe I was crying. A bunch of drunk (or maybe just obnoxious) students were singing “Three Little Birds” loudly from a window, and the guy walking in front of me in the street started singing along as he wandered away ahead of us. Of course, in a situation like this there was nothing I could do but begin to softly join in, and as you’d expect from the old Marley, I began to feel quite a bit better. : ]
Anyway, that’s a side-note. The intended subject of this blog is technology.
Basically, my feelings on the subject are currently: wtf. Continue reading
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Episode Ten – Grant Returns to Scotland
I did intend on keeping up with my blog when I got back to Scotland – really, I did. I haven’t actually been that busy either, to be perfectly honest, so I don’t actually have an excuse – although that also means I haven’t had a huge amount to write about. My search for a job finally came to fruition when I got a call from Julian Graves, asking me in for an interview, which led to an on-the-spot job offer which I accepted. It’s ten hours a week, £5.80 an hour, and fairly easy-going; but the hours I’ve had to work, predictably, haven’t been great. I had to work my ten hours a week while Grant was visiting, and by giving up a shift I also gave up five hours of my holiday time without knowing I was doing it. It’s money in the bank, though, which is what matters… I guess. When I get my contract I’ll see how much holiday time I get, and then I can decide if it’s worth staying on. Continue reading
Episode Nine – Life Goes On
Hello to everyone!
So I’m home now.
Well, I say “home”. I’m not anywhere I’ve ever called “home” before. I’m not at my mum’s flat-roofed house in the Borders; I’m not in Robertson’s Close, the place I’d come to call home last year; nor am I even at Grant’s place in Zanesville, which I did catch myself calling “home” a couple of times, even though I guess I didn’t really have any right to. No – I’m at my new flat in Edinburgh, which I’ll be renting out for the coming year with my friend and flatmate from last year, Jenny. But I’m still in this weird interim period before Jenny arrives, living with another friend until the end of the summer, and I’m kind of caught in some weird limbo. Half of my stuff is still not unpacked; I’ve yet to christen the washing machine (although that will need to be done VERY soon); my walls remain empty and I’m in the process of finding a job and settling in to the area. In short – I say I’m “home” but it doesn’t really feel like “home” yet. Continue reading
Episode Seven – The Beginning of the End
Ok, so I am now more than a week behind in my account of my time here in the States. My return from Chicago was last Sunday, and it is now Tuesday, so I’ll probably be spending a large portion of the long journey home catching up in documenting my experiences here, even though I won’t be able to actually post it until later because Grandma doesn’t have Internet access. Wut.
A lot of the time since Chicago has actually been spent doing very little. When we’ve done things, we’ve done them in short bursts, and lazed around in between, so my usual “On Monday we… On Tuesday we…” style – which, let’s face it, was getting old anyway – won’t work for this entry. I saw a few more of the things Zanesville has to offer – Grant’s aunt Susan showed me around her studio downtown, which was really interesting, and then she took us to lunch and showed us around a small art centre-type thing, and the Zanesville Art Museum. They had a giant carved wooden turtle. It was badass. We also went to Tom’s for ice cream, where I probably broke the record for percentage of body mass consumed in dairy produce. Grant took me to Dillon Dam, and Toy Story 3 (epic), and the mall. Blake had his 13th birthday party at the Country Club pool, which was pretty fab. We visited the amusement park near Cincinnati, King’s Island, with Grant’s sister Kara and cousin James. That was super-fun – and I have the photograph to show it. I don’t think I’m a particularly gullible customer in terms of buying those stupid roller-coaster photographs, but in this case, I just couldn’t pass it up. It was worth every cent of the $15 I paid for it. Continue reading
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Episode Six – More from the Windy City
Comparatively, Sunday was much more low-key than Saturday had been. We slept in, took our time getting ready, and dawdled downtown with Elizabeth to the Art Institute. They had a Matisse exhibition going on, which I really enjoyed, and a lot of other cool stuff which I loved at the time but really don’t remember much about… I was comforted by how often I managed to identify the artist of paintings I didn’t recognise, though! I didn’t realise I knew so much about art. We’d also booked an architectural tour of Chicago at 3:30 though, so we legged it out of the Art Institute and had a quick lunch (chicken pot pie, nom nom nom) before heading down to the river for our boat tour. Continue reading
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Episode Five – All what Jazz?
Greetings, one and all!
Ok, so I’m back in Ohio. I’m currently sitting at the bar with Grant and Blake while they play CoD. I tried it out, it’s pretty fun. Anyway, enough of that. Where was I with Chicago?
Oh yeah, Saturday. It was an early start for us, as we’d decided to hit Chicago running. We’d looked beforehand at those Go Chicago cards you can get, the kind that lets you in to a million different things for one “low” price; but we’d rejected them because with only two full days to be doing things, we didn’t want to be running around trying to get into as many attractions as possible without spending time enjoying any of them. So we just paid for everything at the door. That first day we made it to the John Hancock Tower early and beat most of the crowds, so we waltzed straight up there in the 20mph elevator and started snapping away.
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Episode Four – My Kind of Town
My loyal follower(s),
Today I’m writing from Chicago, IL, where Grant and I are currently staying with his cousin. She has a pretty sweet setup here – she’s out in Evanston, which is right next to the beach and a short train journey from downtown Chicago. It took us a LONG time to get here – we left at about half past nine this morning and didn’t arrive at the house until about five thirty local time, and Illinois is an hour behind, so it’s been about nine hours. It really didn’t seem that long, at least to me – but Grant was driving, pretty much without stopping, and that must have majorly sucked, to say the least. It was a pleasant enough journey for the first six hours or so, and I have now officially visited four of the fifty states – Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. It’s just a shame the Indiana countryside is so boring! Grant commented that even Ohio has hills, and he has a point – the scenery in Indiana is the flattest I’ve ever seen. They do know how to make the most of it, at least, through the use of one of the largest wind farms I’ve seen, right next to the I-70.
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Roamward Bound 