Tag Archives: Ohio

Episode Eighteen – Ode de Toilette

I know, I know, I know. You’re all waiting with bated breath to hear about the rest of my Christmas trip to the States, and it’s now almost April and you’ve heard nothing. You’re sick and tired of my blasé attitude, and you don’t know why you don’t just give up this wild goose chase and go read a better blog. Maybe you’ve already given up – in this, I’m addressing those of you not reading this post, those of you who have read my past entries and have not, in fact, borne with me until now. I don’t blame you. I don’t. I’ve neglected you, Readers, and I don’t expect your forgiveness, I don’t expect you to accept my peace offering.

But there is a peace offering. Continue reading

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Episode Seventeen – Third Time’s a Charm

[Once again, you’ll note that this was actually written a couple of months ago. Whoops].

Liberty International Airport, NJ. I’ve been on the road, so to speak, for 11 hours. Not too bad, compared with my last few trips over here! Dad not only paid for expensive Christmas flights to Ohio for me, he paid extra to get a two-flight journey instead of the usual three. What a treat! Every time I take that route from Edinburgh to Amsterdam, then back over the UK to get to America, my soul weeps a little. So it’s a huge relief and a huge time-saver, just going direct from Edinburgh to Newark and then on to Columbus. Not only this, but I made it out of the U.K. in the nick of time! As I was waiting to board my first flight, I glanced at the TV in the departure lounge which was scrolling through headline after headline of disruptions caused by snow. It hit northern Scotland last night and apparently some other parts of the UK today, and the next wave of weather warnings was rolling in just as my flight was taking off. I also checked the departures board – pretty much every flight after 10am was displaying either “Cancelled due to weather” or “Contact Airline”. Guess which message appeared next to the Amsterdam flight I would have taken if it weren’t for my dad being a hero? The former. Continue reading

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Episode Sixteen – Ancient History 101

[FYI, these first few paragraphs were written quite some time ago, between my visits in October and December, as you’ll be able to tell from the confusing discrepancies in dates etc. I know – I was not made to be a blogger].

So I’m embarking upon my final journey home before Christmas, to wish my family season’s greetings and to relax a little before my exam on Tuesday. It’s been a long time since I’ve been home, and I’m anticipating luxurious relaxation, silver spoon service and generally a pleasant change of scenery. At the moment, I’m in Palmyra Pizza with a cup of coffee and a clean plate (which used to house a £3.20 hummus falafel, but I made short work of that), and waiting for my bus. I missed the one I intended to get but I’m actually happy with how it turned out – I was hungry, in need of a cup of coffee, and I could’ve done with some time to work on my blog anyway. Continue reading

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Episode Fourteen – Return to Zanesvegas

My visit to Ohio this fall has been something of a blur, and as a result I do have some difficulty distinguishing between the days. “Well Megan,” – I hear you say – “If you’d just updated your blog as you went along instead of uploading twelve posts at once, it would’ve been exponentially easier”. Whatever. I know I had plenty of time on my hands – believe me, the piles of schoolwork, photos still on my camera, untouched Secret Mission and creaseless Spanish novels in my carry-on baggage are quite enough testimony to that – but I couldn’t really help but see this trip as something of a holiday. I couldn’t even really tell you what I did all day – at least, on the days when I stayed home. If I had to make a guess, I’d say my daily activity distribution would look something like this: Continue reading

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Episode Thirteen – OH Là Là

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

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Episode Twelve – EDI, CDG, CVG, CMH… FML.

Hello again! Sorry it’s been so long. I’ve had several prompts from my loyal and loving fans to start posting again, and it just hasn’t happened. This is mainly because I’ve been super-busy with one thing or another, although I look back and realise that I haven’t achieved a great deal in the past however-long-it’s-been. My life has mainly revolved around my course, my job and my relationship and I haven’t dedicated a lot of time to anything else, really. Long story short – I’m never, ever, at a loose end. Oh yes, look at me, I have so much going on in my life – false. Actually, I’ve been moseying along, keeping my head down, trying to keep on top of things, deciding whether I want to have a job, and waiting for the 28th of October to arrive. Continue reading

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Episode Eight – A Long Way Home

Alright, so right at this moment I’m sitting in Detroit Airport and the fire alarm is going off but nobody’s moving so I guess there’s no fire…? Well, in any case, I’m on my way home now. If I don’t die in a blaze then I should be making it in to Edinburgh Airport at around 9am Scottish time. Which means I’ll have been travelling for like, nineteen hours.

I say “travelling”, but up until now there hasn’t been much of that going on. My flight out of Columbus was delayed by two hours – first of all we were told it was because the plane was late coming in but then the pilot said it was something to do with a “maintenance discrepancy”. That, coupled with the fire alarm here in Detroit that’s only just stopped, is leading me to be somewhat concerned that I am going to die today. Anyway, I didn’t start from the beginning. Where was I? Continue reading

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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 Three – Breakfast in America (and lunch, and dinner)

Whatup.

Well, I’ve been in the States for five full days now – which seems pretty crazy to me. I only have sixteen left! But let’s not think about that right now. I am currently chillin out on Grant’s deck, occasionally in the sun. There are huge-ass ants running around and making me feel slightly uneasy – the bugs here are definitely much bigger than I’m used to. Nonetheless, I ventured into the woods behind Grant’s house last night with him, his younger sister Amanda, brother Blake and friends Pat and Cody for a small campfire at “Fort Grant”. Pat and Cody were over for Grant and Kara’s graduation party, where I had a chance to meet the majority of Grant’s closest friends and relatives. I’d already met a couple of them at the house-warming party his aunt and uncle had hosted the day before. This party was to celebrate the completion of the renovations of their old house – they’d had a lot of repairs and refurbishments going on since the fire which destroyed a great deal of it. So I met Grant’s uncle and aunt then, of course, and his grandfather and a few others briefly before Blake, Grant and I headed off to do some mini-golf. I lost, needless to say, but it was good fun.

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Episode Two – Goodbye, Scotland the Brave!

Hello all!

(You know what I mean by “all”).

Today has been long and difficult. It’s 1:37 in the morning and I’ve been up almost a full 12 hours!! The difficulty was that today was Moving Day – I am no longer a resident of Flat 6, 11 Robertson’s Close, Cowgate, Edinburgh, EH1 1LY. I spent the majority of the day packing up my last things, and boy do I have a lot of things! The more I packed away, the more I stumbled across – it was virtually never-ending. But, finally, at around 8:30pm, all my worldly possessions were packed into my grandmother’s car and we carted them off to her house, only to have to unload them all (after a quick cup of tea, of course). Anyway, I’ve spent a few days writing this thing, and it’s been sitting unposted for a while – having said all that about “today”, I’m actually chilling at Grant’s in Z-Town as we speak – so the comments I make about the “present” etc. might seem a little weird. I’m sure you’ll manage to deal with it.

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