9/1, 7.15 dalyrimple hall, glasgow

well, this was *going* to be my first real time entry, but it turns out that the students at the front desk have been specifically instructed that they aren't allowed to log on for anyone (breach of security and all that) and there's no "guest login" option. technically we *are* u. glasgow students but we don't matriculate until the end of September. :( time to find an internet cafe....
bought 3 £5 cds (corrs - forgiven not forgotten, tori amos - boys for pele, afro celt sound system - vol. 1) about 8 bucks each. bought a pair of docs - the chick at the store claimed they didn't make half sizes anymore, but 4s just *barely* fit. however, this was also the only store in glasgow that retails docs, and all they had were 8 holes. but i can return 'em, so if teddy can find me a better store in london, i'll buy some 10 hole steel toes.
the weather is very portlandish in its schizophrenity, but when it's raining, it's more like virginia.
when i go to st andrews, jeremy will probably come with me - for rapier practice, not heavy. :)
i have no idea how i'm getting anywhere and where i'll stay... i think i'll have my parents send my garb box to teddy's house so i'll have my gear for the second molesworth practice.
bought postcards. maybe i'll even send them. one to mike gordon, with his check, one to nana, one to mike/jasper, one to home, one with her cd to donna... and of course one to andy. i'll think of more people later, i'm sure.
went to bed at midnight (After taking a nap from 8.30 to 10) and woke up around 2pm... my body didn't seem to have any problem justifying 15 hours of sleep - hey, it was 9am in va!
...right. exploding pen break. those spiffy pilot v5s don't do pressure changes well.
anyway. i was going to look at the docs receipt to see what the time limit/condition of the shoes was for returns, but it's in the suitcase that i packed to leave here and that got carted off to storage this morning. oh, well. i'll just be careful and assume it's 30 days.
*gods* i want a puter... i feel really isolated. and that's not the best thing to be feeling in a foreign country.
the chainsmoker chick in the next room had a double with a no smoking sign. so she switched with me. so i've spread out. and there aren't any rooms that are actually adjacent to this one, so i have no qualms about playing music.
speaking of which, the corrs cd just ended. time to finish listening to the tori cd.
...sorry, got distracted by the pic of tori nursing a piglet. she's an odd woman. ...ehh, train of thought derailed, crash burn die...
hm. so there's a second movie from the people who did "lock stock and 2 smoking barrels" called "snatch". well, at least that's what it is in europe - apparently they changed it to "snatch'd" in the states, a token reduction of vulgarity. two of the main character (other than brad pitt, i don't know who his character is) are gypsies, i'll have to mention it to troy. opened today in europe.
ooh, pt cruiser ad in the uk edition of elle. and it's a chrysler car, i couldn't remember.
i'm lonely. there's no one here for me to hug. of course, listening to tori probably isn't helping... ya know, i'm not sure i like this album. not enough like little earthquakes for me.

9/6, 5.00 glenelg chalets

i'm going to be really buff when i get back, with all the walking we're doing. in the highlands they like to go "hill walking" by which they mean " hiking up surfaces just horizontal enough that you aren't actually climbing". and we've been doing a lot of that. also, the chalets we're staying in are 3/4 mi from the place we eat. so we walk there in the morning, then walk up a mountain... and then walk back down for lunch. ::sigh::
it's really beautiful, though... i' mean, i've seen pictures, bought postcards, but they're all *flat*... just pigment on paper. waking up in the morning, i stagger out to the living room and the first thing i see when i peel my eyes open is straight out the window. i feel like i'm going to fall over from the beauty of it, every time. and walking back at night, i look up and the sky is *crowded* with stars.
okay, i'm really tired and not very verbose. i'm cold too. i want to hibernate. it's all gorgeous and none of the people i really want to share it with are here.

9/8, 8.45 glenelg chalets

ecch. something i ate didn't agree with me. but other than that, and my friends not being here, i'm having fun. went to inverness today and looked around in the history of highland music exhibit, which was really neat. bought two sweaters, two cds, and a brooch. (natalie macmaster - fit as a fiddle, rankin family - north country (not that good, i only bought it cause "mo run geal, dileas" was stuck in my head), finnish beast.) and last night we had a spiffy presentation on scottish music by sandra and farquhar (pronounced "facher" with a german ch, *not* "fucker"). both of them played bagpipes, sandra played guitar and sang, and farquhar played a *mean* fiddle. if i recall correctly, he's gone through a bow a month so far this year. (just the hair, it's not like he breaks the bow or anything.) went down to the pub afterwards and listened to them play some more. i didn't drink nearly enough water to counteract the two pints of cider, which may have contributed to my ickiness today. although i didn't really start feeling bad until lunch or so. maybe it was the car ride, which made at least one person rather unhappy.
i'm so tired... everyone is; maybe they're drugging our food. :)
oh, and i bought farquhar's cd. it's nifty.
i've been spending *waay* too much money. two turtle necks, two sweaters, 3 cds, a bottle of cider... it's adding up. ::sigh:: but we get 200£ for our free travel week... (about $135) but i bet i'll burn through that, going from glasgow to cambridge to london and back to glasgow, and finding food and bed.
i wish my friends were here. even though i'm sure most of them would look down on the pubbing.
eh, visitor.

9/10, 3.15 glenelg candles

they interrupted my journal writing so i could go read from my journal. which i didn't even do... i don't like reading from my journal. i don't feel like writing it for them. i suppose there were entries i could have read, but... blah. donwanna.
i hate not having my own phone and internet... teddy's sending me all this stuff about trains from molesworth and i just can't even think about it, i feel so disconnected.
i need a phone card. i wish heather would let me use hers... maybe i can get one on skye. then i could call teddy, and call that place i swear she mentioned in cambridge...
i thought i was going to cry last night, i missed andy so much... i wish i'd actually gotten him to print out a picture.
aoife's really cute. that dog.... it's amazing how happy she gets when people throw rocks at her.
goddamn whiny sheep. makes me want lamb stew again tonight.
the activist mentality of lc students really puts me off. i'm glad it's a student thing and not a college thing, otherwise i'd be less happy with lc. slackers and activism don't mix, and i'd like to stick to my slackerness. actually it'd by nice to be industrious instead of lazy, but changing would take too much effort.
need to do laundry, and organize credit card receipts so i can see exactly how toomuch i've been spending.
*god* this cake has good frosting... i love donna's cooking.
aoife's so cute... it's great when she *really* wants someone to throw a rock, so she pretends and starts attacking stationary rocks as if they've just landed.
ooh, pretty red striped butterfly.
the candles is roofed with sod. lesley (one of our drivers, from glenelg) tried to convince us that they put lambs on it to graze and keep it mowed. :)
okay, done with cake. and everyone else has gone to play football (the soccer kind). time to walk the 3/4 mi back to the chalets and continue writing. god i want to update my livejournal.

9/11, 12.15 portree, skye

well, i didn't write in my journal last night, but i did write postcards! be proud of me!
finally got a belt and some more contact solution.
i can't remember my dream last night, but it involved troy's car. and at least two other cars as well, but one eyed jack is hart to forget.
bought a clock for nana, glass with purple roses on it, one of the ubiquitous (and pretty) charles rennie mackintosh designs.
there were two things i wanted to write about, that i thought of on my way back from the candles, but i can't remember either of them now.
i don't have to go hill walking up the quiraing! i'm so psyched!
so far this car ride we've listened to afro celt sound system, great big sea, and ashley macisaac. or about three people have, the rest of them either plugged into their own music or went to sleep, the uncultured savages.
i want food and lack of nausea.
and andy.
eddie stiven, the guy who organized all the stuff we're doing in the highlands, is a playwright. i think most of his stuff is based on scottish legends.... he did a play based on tamlane that's been produced at least five times. he claims to not have clean copies of any of them, but i want to at least read tamlane before i leave, if not take a copy with me. it'd be really cool if troupe or drama could perform it. eddie's done children's plays and plays written in scots, as well as the standard. oh, and October is sam beckett month in scotland, if i remember correctly.