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09 November 2003
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| Cheers- Anyone in the mood for some dandelion & burdock soda, elderberry cordial, or prawn cocktail potato crisps? Or how about some savery haggis soup? What about corn pizza and the radioactive orange IRN-BRU? Why would I need to travel and go sightseeing; a trip to the grocery store is interesting enough. I must admit, the dandelion & burdock soda found its way home with me. It was too cool to pass up. All my flat mates tried it...once. I thought it taisted a lot like licorice, but extra sweet. As for Scotland's fetish with meat flavored potato crisps (chips), I haven't been able to bring myself to try them. Names like prawn cocktail, sweet and sour pork, and charbroiled chicken simply don't belong on potato chips. I will, however, be trying haggis soon. My friends the Taylor's, from church, have me almost convinced that it taists good. Upon their recomendation I will try the vegetarian haggis first; all the flavor without the mental revulsion. The Taylors are also responsible for my first sips of IRN-BRU (pronounced "iron-brew") which is a bright orange soft drink with a unique, indescribable flavor that, although not repulsive, is certainly not conducive to my continued consumption. To continue with the food theme, I spent this weekend cooking with my flatmate, Naoko. Last night we had hamburgers with "American style" french fries and tonight we made a real Italian pizza from scratch. I also supervised as she made her first ever batch of chocolate chip cookies on Friday. Thanks to ASDA, a grocery store owned by WalMart, chocolate chips are now affordable. Thankfully, I am still getting in plenty of walking to burn off all the extra cookie, uh...biscuit calories. As a result, my pants, ops...trousers still fit. Aye, I know it is just about time to start reviewing, um...revising my anatomy notes. But, outside of, hm...outwith my class time I get so distracted by the designer baby strollers, er...prams that I can hardly concentrate. Ach, at least, if someone asks me to dance, I know the protocol. Guy -"Are you dancing?" Girl -"Are you asking?" Guy - "I'm asking!" Girl - "I'm dancing!" Kind of cute isn't it. Back to the veterinary side of things, I got to visit the farm again last week to practice tipping sheep. Rather good fun. The little ones (i.e. 40 kilos, or for the metrically challenged 88lbs) are really easy, but the larger adult rams (i.e 80 kilos) are a bit of a challenge. I find I can eventually flip them, but I end up on the ground with them. As they are considerably faster than me, I soon find I am staring up at the ram rather than down on him. I am sure I can see a smirk on their wooly faces. In addition to my sheep tipping prowess, my recent purchase and reading of the Scottish Farmer had my professor deliriously happy. I asked him to clarify a few terms I encountered in the sales records of ewe hogs and gimmers and you should have seen his face light up. I can even say from experience that the Scottish Farmer is much more informative than the Farmers Weekly (it also had prettier picture). During our lessons on sheep tipping, we also learned how to age sheep based on the number and type of teeth present. After about age six it becomes hard to age a sheep, because all their teeth have usually fallen out. Just to let you know how much I focus on what I learn in lectures, that night I had a dream that all my teeth were falling out. Kind of freaked me out when I woke up. After biomolecular lecture on Thursday, I found my way down to a park in south Glasgow called Pollock Country Park. The park encompasses the former estate of the Pollock family and includes the original mansion, stables, garden, and many acres of golf courses and pastures. It is incredible. The park also contains the largest herd of highland cattle in Scotland. They are so cute. The young ones came right up to the fence to have their head scratched. I used almost an entire roll of film during my walk around the park, and I didn't even tour inside the house. As soon as I can finish off the roll, I will get the photos scanned and posted so you can see the cows and park grounds. Speaking of which, I have posted a few more pictures on my website. If you check the "New Additions" section on the home page, I have links to the new photos. There are pictures of the vet school and quite of few of the vet school's Cochno Farm where I have my animal husbandry practicals. Yesterday, I had my worst Scotland experience yet. My problems with UK banks have been gradually growing until Saturday I was so mad I felt like swearing. First off, it took me three weeks to get a bank account set up. I had originally applied for a currant account (their version of a checking account) with a bank called NatWest shortly after I arrived, but never heard back from them. A few weeks later, just after I applied with another bank, Clydesdale, I found out they sent my "welcome" package to my address in Sedro-Woolley. This, after having to provide them with a detailed letter from the Uni accommodation office, proving that I live in the UK, just to apply for the account. It took me over two hours and about 8 phone calls to straighten out my address. I now have two current accounts, one at NatWest and one at Clydesdale, and I have a debit card and credit card with Clydesdale, but I can't get money into either of the accounts. I was originally planning to do a wire transfer, but my bank back home cannot wire out in pounds and the banks here cannot received a wire transfer in dollars. Then, one of the tellers at Clydesdale bank suggested that it would be easier to simply write a check from my American account and deposit in my Scotland account. After asking the teller three times to verify that really was possible, I called home and had my mom send some of my checks. A week later, yesterday, I received the checks and ran down to the bank to deposit one. But, surprise, surprise, it wasn't that easy. This teller informed me that it would take 4-6 weeks for my personal check to clear. I was quite frustrated. I left the bank to to a bit of shopping, but I realized that I probably wouldn't get the current exchange rate if it took weeks to clear. So I went back to the bank to ask to talk to a manager about this whole process and another teller told me that smaller checks would clear right away. Then I was really frustrated; why didn't the last teller tell me that! When I asked for the exact dollar amount I could write, she left to go find out. Oh, sorry, since I haven't used the account before, smaller checks won't work either. At this point, I just asked for my check back. Then another guy was sent out to talk to me and he wouldn't give me my check. It took me five minutes arguing with this guy before he gave my check back. Aaaggghhhhhh! Does no one in Scotland have any idea of customer service! Tomorrow, when there is a manager around, I go back to do battle with the bank. Can you tell I'm still a bit upset? OK, I'm taking a deep breath. On a more positive note, I attended a fireworks party at the Taylors last wednesday. It was Guy Fox day. What, you've never hear of Guy Fox! Back in the eighteen hundreds he tried to blow up the English Parliament with about half a ton of dynamite, but was apprehended in the nick of time. In remembrance of his capture, the English set off fireworks and burn him in effigy. In remembrance of his noble goal, the Scottish have bonfires and also set off lots of fireworks. There have been fireworks going off every night for about two weeks. Most of which are bigger than anything I have seen available in the states, even larger and louder than those from the reservations. The funny thing is, Guy Fox wasn't even Scottish. Well, I'm feeling pretty tired, er...nakkered, so I'm off to bed. God bless, Rebecca |
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