it's beginning to look a lot like a new england winter

it's snowing! (this is the view from my sitting room.)

Do you guys remember when London was in the news last year for days because it snowed and nobody could handle that? It's like that. Apparently it rarely snows in Glasgow, because it's never cold enough to snow, so it's very exciting. Nobody knows what to do with it though!

happy thanksgiving!

In solidarity, today I am eating a turkey sandwich for lunch (& looking fairly demonic, sorry about that).

Tonight I am going to a seminar over at Glasgow Uni and then I am going to my second Thanksgiving dinner with some international friends; I'm very excited. Thanksgiving is something I think everyone can get behind when you present it as "eat a lot and drink a lot until you think you will explode, take a nap, AND THEN EAT MORE."

pot kettle black

For a while there, we had coffee in the office. Then some sort of bureaucratic restructuring occurred and then we no longer had departmental coffee. I suppose that's fair, they do make everyone buy their own tea. So I am trying to switch over to tea! At least in the office. This means I drink about 7 cups of tea a day and alternate between doing work and going to the bathroom every hour or so.

As we all know I love coffee more than most things, so this was a bit heartbreaking. But at the same time it makes me feel really Scottish.

jive turkey

Happy Thanksgiving week, blogfolks! Continuing on the theme of my blog as a food blog...

I was worried that I was going to miss Thanksgiving and be sad about it, but this was not the case! Instead I am going to not one but two Thanksgiving parties. The first one is tonight, with the Scottish Lesbian Army & Friends. My international friends are having a Thanksgiving party on actual Thanksgiving, which is going to be a lot of fun - they really like the concept of getting everyone all together in one space.

On the whole the UK is very confused by Thanksgiving, which is adorable. They get the concept of it, but not much else. They don't really get the customs or the food you'd eat. But I have a bunch of friends who are also Americans, and we've been trying to explain it as "everyone gets together, gets dressed up, drinks a lot of wine, eats a fuckton of food, watches tv, takes a nap, and eats more". Everyone likes the idea of it, and we've told them to think of it sort of like Christmas, but with more food. Christmas is their big holiday, with turkeys and stuffing and whatnot. I had a "Christmas sandwich" yesterday, which was chicken, ham and stuffing. (And probably mayo.) Close, guys...

We have cranberry sauce here, but it usually comes in a small jar and is very expensive. Dried cranberries are pretty easy to come by, but nothing beats a good cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving, right? It took four stores in two different parts of town, but finally found some! LOOK AT THIS:


I bought three bags of them, had to go hunt down nutmeg, and ran home to get down to business. My flatmates thought I was NUTS. They watched me do it, deciding that I was in fact making cranberry jam. Not quite... All my friends (except for the Americans, they are clearly excited too) think cranberry sauce is "mental" and simply cannot wrap their minds around it. I hope they are ready...I just tasted it & it's delicious.

I feel it in my bones

It is November and I am freezing already. I have many more months of this, and I understand it is only going to get worse.

You would think that after 22 years of bitter New England winters I would be prepared for Scottish winters. I thought I would be! I'm a pretty hardy New Englander. Being cold doesn't really bother me - I am prone to opening windows in February in New Hampshire. In fact I don't think I ever thought to myself "holy HELL, it is cold." In New England, it's a really windy sort of cold - the temperature will drop really low and you can feel the cold on your skin.

Glasgow shares a latitude line with Moscow. Which, by the way, is in Russia. But I was assured that we get a "nice Gulf Stream warm-up" from being so close to the Atlantic. This was a lie. Every day I think "Holy HELL, it is cold." (On paper it doesn't sound terribly cold here - the temperature's been hovering around 45 degrees Fahrenheit, which isn't terrible. I would daresay that 45 is a pretty good temperature for the fall, especially this time of the fall.)

But it's not the same kind of cold. This whole country wears wool coats all the time, because it's the only way to keep warm(ish). By mid-October, I had to go out and buy a wool coat because my New England-Acceptable ski coat wasn't keeping me warm! It's not a windy sort of cold here - though we do have wind sometimes and then you just sort of want to die - it's more of a damp cold that seeps through your bones and into each individual muscle and you wonder if you will ever be warm again. Suddenly I understand the wool coat thing, they sort of act as insulation for your body.

In light of my blog slowly but surely becoming a food blog, this brings me back to soup. As you might know, I love soup. It's good for you and warms you up - what else can you ask for? Unfortunately, as I know all too well from my previous visit to the UK, the only sort of soup you can really get is Cream of Blank soup. Even straightforward things like minestrone soup is more like Cream of Minestrone soup. If you order chicken soup expecting chicken noodle soup you are going to be very disappointed, because you've actually got cream of chicken soup. Some cream of blank soups are delicious - cream of broccoli, for instance, is a magical thing. And then there are others that are just surprisingly lumpy in ways you don't want. (I imagine the Brits find American soups to be terribly weak.)

As a result of being cold all the time, I spend a lot of time around lunchtime thinking about how much I would like soup, but I would not like the cream form of it. (The last time I did this I got cream of lentil soup, which I would like to not eat ever again, thanks.) I would look around at the soup selections in the grocery stores, thinking, "This would be great if it was not going to be cream of blank." (I realize I could make soup myself, but that sounds difficult.) Imagine my surprise when I found pumpkin and coriander soup the other day!
yes, I do eat in my room rather than in the kitchen.

Pumpkin is not A Thing here - I saw a few of them for a hot second around Halloween, but they're not very popular, whereas you are all drowning in pumpkin flavored everythings. So naturally, this is all I have been eating for the past few days. Admittedly this is also a cream of pumpkin situation, but that is totally the correct way to do this. I am very pleased. All is right with the world again, or at least until they take this pumpkin soup out of the stores - it's a "limited release".

meeting people is easy

It would be presumptuous to say that I was a popular person at home. I certainly knew many people, though. If I wanted to do something, there would almost always be someone around. Also, I don't know how to talk about Having Friends without feeling like I'm six years old, but here we go.

If I were to move almost anywhere within the continental US, I am fairly certain that I would know someone (or know a friend-of-a-friend) who lived there too. And if I didn't, the time zone isn't different enough that I wouldn't be able to keep in touch with everyone. It's not like moving a seven-hour plane ride away! I don't like to keep harping on this point, but going from knowing a ton of people on one continent and then moving to a new continent where you don't know a soul is, quite frankly, a terrifying prospect. You have to go out and meet people, and you have to make friends all over again. And it's stressful! You have to remember to call them or text them and invite them to do things and try not to feel like you're bothering them. I spent a lot of time doing things that interested me, like going to art galleries and gigs and such, hoping that I would meet people who also liked these things. Unfortunately some of the things I'm into are not the most accessible things to invite someone to - "hey, do you want to come with me to a minimalist composer's concert?"

The international society has a weekly pub night, where we all converge on a pub and socialize, so of course I go to that - I now have a pretty solid group of international-student-friends who go every week (mostly Germans, they're a lot of fun) and I think I am friends with most of the people in my office (although I feel like I probably come off as a tool most of the time, to be honest; there's a handful of MRes students though, and we all hang out together as The Newbies). Everyone in the office is really nice and we all get along really well - it's a good group of people.

And then a really strange small-world twist of fate, I ran into a girl whom i had had been introduced to briefly once at a gig a few weeks ago - it turns out she is my advisor's wife's student over at Glasgow university, studying sociolinguistics. She runs something called Lock Up Your Daughters, which is a magazine & monthly club night - I met her girlfriend and bunch of her friends and they've been great. (Though I am definitely comfortable with my international friends and my office friends, I did need some gay friends. Sometimes international groups of people are not the best places to be out, loud & proud, you know? I live near a whole bunch of gay clubs but would never go to them alone, and I'd feel weird asking a straight person to come with me.) But yeah - I've been hanging out with the LUYD crew and getting involved in that, which has been fun; they're exactly the sort of liberalminded queermos I was looking for when I first arrived.

So there's that! YOU GUYS I HAVE FRIENDS.

(On a mostly unrelated sidenote, this is how I am apparently going to a party on Tuesday for the BBC tv show Lip Service, which is like The L Word but set in Glasgow. It's pretty terrible- seriously, check it out. LUYD has been asked to be there to do a DJ set, as they are a "staple of Glasgow's lesbian scene"... I'm starting to get involved with promotional stuff like flyering, so I'm apparently going with them. You guys, these are my friends!)

we're from north america!

I have been here long enough that the initial shock of UK vs American English has sort of worn off. At first I was making a conscious effort to try and translate things into UK English - especially in an international community, many people only know British English - but I've mostly given that up. I probably sounded like a tool. If anything, retaining American English makes for a good discussion point amongst English studies and linguistics people.

But it still stresses me out that I don't know how to be polite over here. Well, it's not that I don't know how to be polite; I consider myself to be a very polite person. Cashier at the store, I know you are probably having a shitty time; I want you to know that I appreciate your existence. Waitress, thanks for bringing over my food; no, I don't need anything else, I'm all set thanks. It's just that I don't know what the UK equivalent of politeness would be!

For the most part, I can deal with this sort of thing in mini interactions. In stores or at the coffeeshop, it's mostly fine. Every morning I see the housekeepers for my office on their way out and I will tell them "Have a nice day." (They are still baffled by this, and I have been doing this for nearly a month now.) After purchasing something from a store, I will tell the cashiers to "Have a nice day." ("Cheers" means "Thanks", but it's not the same sort of thing. "Ta" is more of a "thank you" than "cheers", though, and is used mostly as a "thanks for holding the door open" sort of situation.)

Everyone here seems very taken aback by the question "How are you?" (and variations thereof: "How have you been?"). The usual answer I get - once the other party gets over the original processing of the question at hand, that is - is "Yeah, I've/it's been alright." AND HERE IS WHERE THINGS GET COMPLICATED FOR BOTH PARTIES:

In American English, "alright" is used to show indifference. Maybe it was mediocre. It was okay. Nothing spectacular. I've been okay.

In British English, however, "alright" means that it was good, or that they've been well, or that they had a good time.

I'll ask someone how an event was and they'll tell me that it "was alright, yeah". And that means that they really enjoyed it! If you've asked how they've been doing, "I've been great, thanks!" I imagine the pragmatics of these particular conversations would be FASCINATING to study. That said, I think the British English equivalent of "How have you been?" is "How've you been getting on?", but that seems to be used to show concern over something.

Occasionally there are people who are used to interacting with North (Canadians do this too!) Americans, who are used to getting this question a lot, and they usually ask me back - "How was your weekend?" And I will say that it was "alright", in the American sense of "it was okay", whereas they are using it in the sense of "oh, it was very good." Do you see the problem here? (My Irish flatmates will describe something as "grand" if it is good, which is at least a little less stressful.)

Clearly I don't want to come off as an stupid American lumbering around any more than I have to, but it legitimately bothers me that I can't figure out how to come off as polite here. To finish a transaction and not say anything - which appears to be the standard UK response - seems terribly rude to me. The same goes for not asking someone how they have been doing! I don't think I'll ever wrap my mind around this. And I'm sure as soon as I do, I'll be back in the States being horrifically rude to everyone ever.

Q: What's orange and tastes like bubblegum?

A: Irn Bru!

Yes, this is a real thing. Here in Scotland, Irn Bru annually outsells Coca Cola products.

It is not as terrible as it looks. It's actually pretty good, once you get past the color. It has been described to me as the national beverage of Scotland and "the best hangover drink of all time". (It is basically 100% sugar.) I was very apprehensive about trying it - admittedly, the color is very offputting; I will only drink it from a can - but it's not terrible. (It's also not great, however.)

I could go on forever about Adventures in Eating here. Maybe I will just give up and turn this into a food blog.

remember remember the fifth of november

Today is Guy Fawkes Day! (If you do not know who this is and you are reading my blog, I am going to need you to go obtain a copy of V for Vendetta - the film or the graphic novel are both acceptable - and check back in when you are done.)
Scotland is a very... nationalistic place, to say the least. Though it is part of the United Kingdom, it is very much it's own country: Scotland has its own parliament and Scots law is different than English law. Yes, it's technically English, but it is its own variety of English. (They even have their own dictionary.) Here in Scotland, we are SCOTTISH DAMMIT. Someone who is a native of Scotland would probably be very offended if you thought they were English.

(The closest analogy I can give you is that Scottish nationalism is much like Southern [American] Nationalism - it's as if Texas was the most liberal part of America and constantly threatening to leave as a result of the rest of the country being too conservative. Perhaps more accurately, Scotland is what would happen if Vermont got its act together and decided to become its own country once and for all.)

So naturally the Scots are very, very excited about Guy Fawkes Day. How could they not be? Dude tried to overthrow an entire government by blowing that shit up. I imagine if their Personal Life Hero role had not been already claimed by Robert Burns (more on this in January), Guy Fawkes would be a close contender for the position. People don't seem to really excited about going out for Guy Fawkes Day like we would for the 4th of July, though I have been promised many fireworks tonight. I assure you that my daily life is not full of bagpipers and kilted men - though this does happen, but mostly for weddings and other severely formal events - but I would not be surprised if they were out in full force today.

keep calm & carry on: it's a thing

When Americans talk about stereotypes they often forget about themselves - how are we seen by the rest of the world? (I have many feelings about this, of course.) More often than not, I've discovered that Americans are viewed as industrious people. (Or, at least, I am seen as such a person.)

Things will frequently go awry and nobody seems to notice. Well, not even awry, that makes it sound like something terrible has happened. But "Keep calm and carry on"? That's not a joke. That's a real mantra here. Well, they might not say it, but it's been totally internalized.

Little things will happen in our flat- like the lightbulb that burned out in our hallway over a month ago - and nobody seems to mind the inconvenience of not having a lightbulb there. All we have to do is go down to the accommodation office and ask for a new one, but everyone seems to be okay with not having light there. This is fairly minor - the second week that we were here, we didn't have running water when we woke up one morning. No running water meant no shower AND no coffee (and no tea), and my three flatmates sort of thought about it and decided well, it wasn't the best of situations but surely we will manage. I got dressed to go find someone to fix this situation immediately, because water is one of those important things that people need to have.

But it's not just my in my apartment. The other week, we blew a fuse in the department's kitchenette. While this remained unfixed, the tea drinkers were all busy running around chasing/hoarding the kettle across the department. Meanwhile, the coffee drinkers would be herded to move the giant industrial coffeemaker to the next nearest office, sit and wait for the coffeemaker to do its thing, and then move it all back into the kitchen in case whoever's office it wasn't around or was busy when the next coffee round happened. This was fixed pretty quickly, lest the department fall apart from lack of tea. Meanwhile, the door handle of the ladies room fell off and nobody seems to be especially concerned. We might get trapped in the toilet for a while if we're not careful - but no bother! Nobody (besides me) seems to be overly concerned about these things. In fact, I would maybe venture to guess that nobody is worried about anything here.

Similarly and/or tangentially, nobody seems to be especially upset over not having internet. In fact, I know a lot of people who don't have internet in their flat. Not only does this seem to be an extraordinarily normal thing, nobody seems to be particularly bothered by it. (In contrast, I get stressed out if I'm going to be at Glasgow University library for more than 2 hours, because I will not be able to get online without a Glasgow university username to check my email.) I guess it is the same sort of idea of just keeping calm and carrying on.

This boggles my mind, but I am slooooowly getting used to it. I'm quickly learning that if something happens it could take a few days to get fixed. A printer jam in the States will be fixed in about 5 minutes, but here we might be printerless for a week or so, but we'll manage somehow. We always do.