7/21/13 -- Scotland Trip, Day 2

Itinerary

Hilton Glasgow Grosvenor

            We had absolutely nothing that we had to do today! And thank goodness for that, too, because we were very tired. I had to sleep on the floor on a duvet (pronounced "doovie" here) last night, but it was no trouble at all; I fell asleep straightaway.

            We all got up around 10:30, and got downstairs to eat breakfast just in time -- breakfast ended at 11:00. It was a delicious breakfast which included Nutella. I had forgotten about how popular Nutella is in Europe.

            After breakfast we went back up to our room and I wound up sleeping some more. Sadly, I snored quite a bit, which I know because I kept waking myself up. I tried to sleep while pinching my nose so I didn't snore so much, but that didn't work at all.

            Eventually, around 3:00, we went around the corner to the Botanic Garden, which was basically a park except with greenhouses. They were so cool. I took a ton of pictures and generally had a great time. After roaming around for a while, we went to a place that had "tea" which was basically breakfast, lunch, and dessert. We got there at a point when all the tables were full, and we ended up sitting with a woman who offered to have us at her table. She was a little strange, and might have been schizophrenic. She was pretty nice, though, and recommended a few places to go shopping and stuff. We probably won't, because (a) we don't really shop, and (b) we're leaving tomorrow afternoon. The woman left before we did, and we thought that she might not have paid, but apparently she did so that was reassuring.

            As we left the Botanic Garden, we noticed signs for a program called "The Bard in the Botanics." We were excited for a bit, until we noticed that it wasn't showing Sundays and Mondays. Shoot. However, it looks awesome, and is another reason that I'd really like to study in Glasgow. Their website is www.bardinthebotanics.co.uk if you want to look it up.

            After that, we went to our room again, and Mom and I played our instruments a bit, then we went and ate a bit of food, then came back to our room again. Soooo exciting. It was a good day, though. Relaxing, fun, enjoyable. I really do like Glasgow so far.

7/20/13 -- Scotland Trip, Day 1 Pictures

The shuttle bus van thingy was rather large.

Boston bridge is falling down!... Oh, wait. It isn't.

I found a pretty thing in Boson, of all places. So I thought, why not share it with the world?

Obligatory from-the-airport picture!

I just love the sun and the clouds over the wing.

It looks like a bullet-hole, but all the windows had them. Anybody know what they're for?

View of England from above. Pretty patchwork! 

Newcastle upon Tyne happens to be one of the places we're visiting. Note the absence of Edinburgh or Glasgow; they know what's really important.

7/20/13 -- Scotland Trip, Day 1

Itinerary

Pick up -- 6:00 p.m.

Drop off -- Logan Airport

Leave Boston Logan Airport -- 9:30 p.m.

Arrive London Heathrow Airport -- 8:45 a.m.

Leave London Heathrow Airport -- 9:55 a.m.

Arrive Glasgow Int'l Airport -- 11:20 a.m.

Arrive Hilton Glasgow Grosvenor Hotel

            Even though I've known this trip was coming for a long time, it didn't really sink in until we were in the air, turning away from the shrinking lights of Boston. Most things about getting on the airplane had been a little hectic, from the terrifying drive on a shuttle to scrambling to get a bite to eat before boarding. And once we finally made it aboard, I was more wrapped up in the fact that I was finally sitting down than pondering our imminent journey.

            Once we got to our cruising altitude, though, I looked out the window. I saw one flash of light, then another: lighting illuminating the clouds from above. I tried and tried to get a picture, but alas, my poor iPhone doesn't quite focus as well as I do.  I'll try to describe it to you, though. The clouds had the same translucency as parchment paper, and spots of light would intermittently blink in and out, so that the yellow light glowed through. It was beautiful.

            After a while, clouds covered everything. I slept fitfully for two hours, and woke up to find that it was daylight, and we were above the clouds. A quote from a book (I can't remember what book) kept going through my head, a quote about a "false horizon" that pilots encounter when flying through clouds. The quote was: "You'd be surprised how many [new pilots] emerged flying completely upside-down." I decided that we weren't upside-down because we probably would have noticed all of our things dropping to the ceiling.

            We finally got to Heathrow Airport and made our way to Customs, only to get bad news: we were too late to board our flight to Glasgow. And the next flight (at 12:10) was booked to the brim. If everybody showed up, there would be people left behind. The only other option was 6:00 p.m., meaning a wait at the airport for approximately nine hours. We talked to a couple of customer support people, and eventually came to the conclusion that, if we wanted our luggage this evening, we should just stick with the 6:00 flight. So, we settled ourselves in for a long wait: me typing on my computer, and Mom and Grossmutti reading.

            At one point, there was a group of people waiting where we were waiting, including a family with a little boy. This little boy was running around in circles, pretending to be a plane, and then he ran straight into the glass divider that separated us from where we could board. Everybody went, "Ohhh!" And the boy fell over and wailed a little, but he was really fine. It was rather amusing though.

            At last, we boarded the plane to Glasgow, got there, got our luggage, and got our rental car. (It's huge and it's all backwards and so it's kind of scary to ride in when Mom is driving.) We got a little lost on the way to our hotel, but everything worked out OK. We checked in to the hotel and relaxed. No more airports for another 10 days!

Life as usual.

WARNING: ALL OF MY POSTS WILL NOW BE IN AN APPROXIMATION OF AP STYLE

     I'm taking a journalism class at my school. It's pretty awesome. I like the teacher and I have a few friends in the class. Also, I enjoy interviewing people. The one problem is that I don't know anybody really. Except people in drama club.

     Where, by the way, we're putting on a production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." We had a pretty big setback before vacation: half the cast got sick with norovirus.

     You see, we got Olive Garden food catered the night before the show. Actually, the father of a cast member got it catered, at pretty big expense. About a half-hour after eating, the puking began. This was right before we started rehearsing Act I. At the end of Act I, five people had fallen ill.

     Our director learned of this, and the green room stunk a lot (I almost threw up from the smell), so he canceled the rehearsal and told all of us to go home and get better.

     We went home, but we didn't get better.

     The next morning, we had school off in order to put a show on for the elementary school kids. Only half the cast showed up, and a few people who did show up were still throwing up. The director sent the sick kids home again, and the rest of us went to class, hoping that we'd be able to do that night's show.

     It was canceled. Maybe Friday and Saturday, then?

     Kids were still sick Friday and Saturday.

     We took vacation off, except for one rehearsal on Monday, and did some major work figuring out when people would be free to do a show. The only three days that were free until it would be too late were Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

     So those are the shows we are doing.

     Now a more personal scheduling problem is becoming apparent for me.

     Friday night is the last show, so after that show we will have a cast party. That historically goes pretty late. Saturday morning I'm taking the SATs, and Saturday evening is prom. Sunday morning my AP Spanish class is taking a practice AP test, and Sunday afternoon I may be rehearsing with my band.

     There goes my weekend.

     Not that I'm doing anything against my will; not at all! I'm really excited for the end of the shows; it's always a really fun and bittersweet time. I'm also happy that I'm finally taking the SATs again, and I'm looking forward to prom. The AP test I agreed to, and the rehearsal is necessary.

     I'm going to be operating on not a whole lot of sleep.

     Here goes nothing!