i have pretty much given up trying to keep warm while indoors. It may be sunny and warm outside but my friend's apartment (who has kindly offered me a free bed) is a basement flat in an old tenement building and is therefore bloody freezing!
However, i must remind myself that i am no longer in North America wherein we waste so much energy; Scotland is all about conserving. Even if it means freezing your ass off. The water in the shower never gets hot enough and i feel like motherfucking Sam McGee - ready for cremation just to feel heat again.
i have been in Glasgow for four days now and i must admit, it feels completely normal. The only strange thing, when i think about it, is that i am an immigrant. In the four days that i have been here, i have managed to:
-profess my love to random Scottish people
-fall down drunk in the street
-puke up red wine all over my white tank top and into a sink
-secure a flat (i move into it April 16th)
-get my first ever mobile phone
-eat amazing curry
-run along the Kelvin river and fall in love all over again with this city
All i need now is a job. Although i have an interview tomorrow for an event assistant job, it doesn't start until the end of May so i might have to take a temp job.
If there is one thing that is striking, when comparing Toronto and Glasgow, it's the people. Even though the population of Glasgow is 1 million, the West End was so packed this weekend, i feel like they all live on Byres Road. The people of Glasgow, however, are well put together; there are so many beautiful women in this city. The men are pretty hot too. The strange thing, however, is that they never seem to cruise one another.
In Toronto, people - for the most part - made eye contact with one another and checked each other out. i don't want to sound too self-confident here (G-d forbid), but when i was living in Toronto, i could feel dudes cruising me.
In Glasgow, however, you could be a certified model and the men here would STILL not check you out. Walking around this city, i have seen absolutely stunning women and the men surrounding them completely ignoring them.
Maybe the men here fall into my camp: wherein if you dig someone, you completely ignore them out of fear? i'm not sure.
Nonetheless, it has done nothing for my ego - except maybe deflat it a little.
Another difference that stands out (other than flats being freezing and dudes ignoring women) is coffee. Going into a cafe and asking for a cup of coffee can be a fucking ordeal.
me: 1 large coffee to go, please
coffee guy: ...
me: ...
coffee guy: did you want an Americano?
me: ummm...no, just a coffee, please
coffee guy: do you mean a latte?
me: ok, just an Americano then
coffee guy: white or black?
What the fuck?!
Oh, Tim Hortons, provider of the crap coffee i crave, i love you!
p.s. In the hour it took me to type this long-winded and not-very-insightful post, the weather has gone from warm and sunny to wet with rain and hail. Rock on, Glasgow!
1 comment:
That sounds like where I live--Seattle. So used to having to order coffee correctly (i.e. black drip coffee for simple cup of coffee, then all of that fancy coffee)
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