On Thursday night, Robin dropped me off in Glasgow so i could spend the weekend hanging out with Mary at the Glasgow School of Art. (Oh, girls with Scottish accents are dope) I was damn excited to see Mary because i knew this would be a couple days where i could just bum out and do whatever. Her roommates and friends were pretty cool and i guess my perception of an “art school” was a little different (i was expecting everyone to be an “artiste”). And just about everyone was from the US which was comforting in a way. That very first night we went out to a bar called Revolution with tacky sickle and hammer Communist motifs and stars and a refrigerator with Che Guevara frosted into the glass (“revolution” Get it? Aaaaaah). It was okay but a tad too New York-y for a bar in the middle of Scotland. Afterwards we went to The Vic, a club for the Glasgow students that had.....hip hop.....good hip hop. Wow. I was in heaven. Beer was cheap, cigarettes were allowed indoors, the music was really really good, there was room to dance.....what more did i really need? Needless to say, it was fun fun fun and much needed. Let me say this, English/Scottish/white people cannot dance. Not a pinch. I’ve never seen such a large room filled to the brim with bad dancers, heck, even the girls could barely move. Ha.



Anyhow, Friday and Saturday were exploring days. Me, Mary and Mimi (one of Mary’s roommates) tried to go see the Necropolis (essentially a giant big graveyard) in Glasgow but it was closed so we explored the church and the museum. It was a small religious museum and it was small but filled with interesting things, it also had the original of a Dali painting of Jesus on the cross that is really dope. Saturday, we took the bus to Edinburgh and walked around all over the place to look at sites like Edinburgh Castle, the Scottish Crown Jewels (including the “Stone of Destiny” which was basically a very underwhelming chunk of rock. Whee), part of what was supposed to be a copy of the Parthenon (but it ran out of funding and now it’s just a couple of big Roman columns), the tomb of philosopher David Hume and the nearby pubs and streets. It was a long day of walking but it was pretty fun to just wander around looking at things. Mimi and Mary are definitely very exploratory so i just followed around and tried not to trip or fall down. I was surprised by the amount of culture bursting out of both cities. Edinburgh is a very architecturally diverse city and Glasgow is a more low key but they are both very interesting places. Oh, we went to a plaid factory complete with working looms. “Tartan is the new black.”



Oh, also saw a British movie on Friday night called Gosford Park (with an all star cast of English actors, plus Ryan Phillippe). It was a really good movie and incredibly funny but in a very British way. British humor is great, it’s more much more subtle and cutting than what Americans generally laugh at. Sarcasm is lost in America but the British dig it. I doubt the movie will ever make it to the states but it was really good.



We cooked dinner on Sunday and went to a really small pub at night to watch The Simpsons. The pub was dank, dark, mildewy and smoky but i liked it alot and we sat around playing with candle wax (the only source of illumination) and talking for a few hours. To cap the night we played the British version of Taboo, called Articulate (but there were no taboo words, just really really hard to describe things) and this other game i’ll have to show you guys. Oh, and FMK was spread once again. Since we didn’t know a whole lot of the same people, we eventually used celebrities and stuff and that was really funny. (Think “Gandhi, the Pope, Billy Graham” or “Barbra Streisand, Martha Stewart, Connie Cheung”) All of Mary’s roommates love Benicio Del Toro. I was subjected to many “Benicio in ballhuggers” and “Benicio in leather chaps” conversations.



To end this too long blog, the week was really good and it was refreshing to be out of England and to get a taste of the road and especially great to be in an environment with people around my age. I had a dope time in Glasgow and i was sad to leave but i know that in a week i’m out of the UK so i’ll suck it up.