Today we went to our last Rangers game. It was a cup game against Peterhead and they actually did much much better than they did the last time, winning 3-0! We met up with David's friend Drew and a few others before the game to grab a drink and then walk down to the subway to head over to Ibrox.
We were farther in the corner with our seats, but we were on the front row, so we were able to lean on it and it made sitting in the hard seats a little less uncomfortable (no soccer stadium has excellent seats I've decided).
After the game, where most people leave early, we decided to sit for a little bit to let the subway line go down. We sat and then wandered the team store before heading down. The nice thing was that we got on the line immediately and were actually able to sit! Drew had invited us for drinks after the game, but we'd declined and ironically ended up at the train station at the exact same time.
It was a pretty relaxed day and we enjoyed getting out.
Monday, August 3rd
Today we had decided to relax a little bit and then drive up to see Sam's brothers, George and Robbie, one last time. We had finally received our tree from home about a week ago, a few days after Eileen's wedding, but we hadn't really had time to get everyone's thumb prints! So we were kind of on a mission this week to get everyone we needed to before we had to leave.
We went to the mall to wander for a bit looking for souvenirs and then drove up to George's house first. It was good to see George, Janet, and Lewis one last time before we needed to leave. Their puppy Penny was in a more active mood and she was so adorable! We got everyone's thumb prints and then needed to head over to Robbie's.
We'd never been to Robbie's house before and it was quite nice! We got them to all do their thumb prints and then visited for a while. Caroline teaches the equivalent to 5th grade here in the US, there. We were talking about numbers of students and even decided we might set up a pen pal program between our two classes this year!
After we left, we decided to run over to Ian's house - who I'd also not met yet - to get his thumb print so that we wouldn't have to take our tree out on Saturday to catch everyone. It was quite late and I felt bad, but everyone was awake and we were able to tick off another friend that we needed to get thumb prints for.
Tuesday, August 4th
Originally we'd decided to do nothing today as Sam had a few appointments at the hospital, but we ended up going back to the Rangers store. David had had his eye on a coaching jacket and wanted to go back to check it out as they were having a pretty good sale at the time. It took a while to decide but he finally did and Sam and Linda ended up buying it for him. We had told them no, but they were not budging and it was very generous of them. Because David had gotten something they insisted that I do too.
It took forever to actually decide on what I wanted. Everything I had wanted just wouldn't fit my hips! I finally got a fleece sweater, it's quite nice and very warm and will be great for layering or just hanging out around the house in :)
We went home and hung out for most of the night, there wasn't much we needed to do anyway except hope that more of David's friends would drop by to stamp our tree.
Wednesday, August 5th
Today we didn't really do anything. Sam had more hospital appointments today so David and I just kinda hung out around the house. I wanted to take today to show you some of the funny size differences here in Scotland vs the US. This will be my last Scotland vs US post!
Food
I get that in Scotland most people don't have these gigantic fridges like we do here, but their food seems to suggest that they should never eat more than a cup of anything! Here are a few prime examples.
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| I'd never actually seen these kind of peaches, they were fascinating to me! |
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| How does anyone make loads of cookies with this few chocolate chips?? |
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| Like I said, I'd been craving chips and salsa the WHOLE time we were there and this was as good as I could get when it came to size of the salsa jar. It fits in my hand people! That's not near enough salsa to keep any salsa loving person happy! |
Ok, here is the kicker, I love my McDonald's large Diet Cokes. I don't know what it is, but I do. They are just super refreshing and yummy and for a dollar you can't beat them! Seriously! Especially if you're my mom and you're in McDonald's and you can refill it (I don't know how she drinks hers down that quickly). I wanted to test out the idea and see if it was McDonald's in general or if it was just my Tooele one. So we stopped by McDonald's and I ordered a large Diet Coke. Needless to say, this was NOT what I was expecting (and they were not $1 either!).
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| That is the difference, ladies and gentlemen, between a small and a large. My large was HALF the size of my larges back home. |
Thursday, August 6th
Today we decided to see some of the cool things that are actually in Glasgow. I've been almost everywhere else, but actually exploring the sites of Glasgow was something we hadn't done yet. Sam and Linda decided to take us to the Kelvingrove Galleries (it is a lot like a museum). This was unlike any museum I had ever been in however. This museum had EVERYTHING from animals to Ancient Egypt to the Rain Forest to art and everything inbetween!
They had two TV screens that you could watch everything that the organist was doing from. It was really really cool! There was another performance by a young group at 2 so we decided to wander around the museum and check things out.
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| As unhappy as David looks, I needed him to stand next to this to show the size! |
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| These were weird... |
When the time got closer, we headed down to watch the young group of kids playing. There is a special name for their music and group...but I honestly couldn't spell it if I tried. They were good, but they were lacking some more oompf to their sound sadly!
After we left the museum we went home to kind of rest and get ready to go out for dinner. Sam and Linda treated us dinner at the Burnbrae Inn. They all had fish and chips and I had a burger...I know, I'm a sucker for burgers...I don't honestly know why! It was very very nice food and we enjoyed getting out to spend some time with his parents. Overall it was a great day!
Friday, August 7th
Tonight was our final night to really do anything with other family members. We had planned a night in with David's Granny Pat and Linda's brother and his wife, Stephen and Carol. I attempted to make truffles and we cooked a TON of food! Eileen and Paul came over as well and we all got to talk and hang out. The guys played darts and we ate tons of food!
Stephen and Carol were very nice and gave us a very sweet gift, a little wood carving that has a sweet saying on it about life. It was very nice to get to meet more of David's family and just see what his life was like growing up with all these amazing people.
We enjoyed the food and had so many different varieties of everything that there was always something for everyone. It was a good day overall, and it was nice to meet some more of David's family, sadly right before we were scheduled to leave, but still!
Saturday, August 8th
So the first night that David went out with his friends, we both kinda assumed that it would be just a guys night out! Apparently everyone was disappointed that I wasn't with him that time, so we planned one more night out before we left. This time I was coming :)
We went down to O'Neal's in Merchant City in Glasgow early to watch one of the soccer games that was on. It was ridiculously crowded! There were no seats and we began to worry about what that would mean when everyone who said they'd be there showed up. All of a sudden this lady grabbed me and I was about to be like, uh excuse me?! when she was like, we're leaving, would you like our seats? It wasn't ideal seating for the TV screen, but it was a table and we took it. Everyone kept buying us drinks, which was nice, but I tried to stick to Diet Coke and water and one of David's friends said jokingly later, are you pregnant? HA! Not a chance haha. I just have yet to find a Scottish beer that I prefer and I hate the way that mixed drinks make my mouth taste.
I was able to meet so many more people as the night progressed, but this time, it was the other way around. None of the guys brought their girlfriends/wives out because they didn't think I'd be coming out! Luckily some of them were scheduled to come out later (around 10) but I was totally crashing the boy party until that time.
It was fun getting to know more of David's friends from his childhood and the only complaint I had all night was that it was really really loud. Eventually I was starving because we'd had dinner around 4, but the kitchen was closed. I asked if we could leave, and it was really hard for all of the guys. I will never underestimate the things that David has given up to live with me in America. His friends are a huge part of his life and I feel awful that he can't see them as much as he'd prefer. Luckily, most of everyone else was about to head out as well. Andrew, Drew, and Ian tagged along with us and we went in search of food.
Let me tell you! Walking the streets of Glasgow with 4 men who are slightly intoxicated is not my idea of an adventure, especially because I had no sense of direction at all! It took us at least 20 minutes to find food and then another 20 to find a taxi. We made it home and dropped in to bed around 1:45 (even though we left the pub around 11:30). Regardless it was a great night out!
Sunday, August 9th
So today was our last true day out with everyone and there were still a few key figures who had not had the chance to get their thumb prints on our tree! We made arrangements to go out and get them from them at their houses and David's parents graciously obliged driving us. We were able to chat with everyone and say our final goodbyes before we headed home.
When we got back, we figured we'd just get packing out of the way since I hate it and David wasn't feeling like packing at all. I packed first and was able to get just about everything in my case, luckily!
After packing, we had made plans to have a final chippy for dinner with Eileen, Paul, Sam, and Linda and watch the Disney movie Brave - because none of them had seen it (even though it's all set in Scotland)!!!
I decided to go all out and ordered a sausage supper with a half pizza that I shared with Linda. I figured if I were going to go out, it better be with a bang (or a massive stomach, who knows). Everyone thoroughly loved Brave - even the guys who were skeptical. I love Brave, but I love Disney in general.
It was a really hard night afterwards, just because this would be our final goodbye to Paul and Eileen. It really began to feel real that night. After we said goodbye I tried Skyping my mom and she told me just to cry and get it all out. I am very much still torn between countries, and think it's probably the hardest part about being married to someone from another country. David and I went to bed rather early so that we could get up early and start our long journey back home.
Monday, August 10th
Today we got up around 5 am so that we could get last minute items packed and ready to head to the airport for 6:30.
It was a very hard goodbye to say to David's parents. Not something either of us was truly prepared for.
After saying goodbye, we headed in to the airport to check our bags. We found out that our carry ons were too heavy and started transferring everything to the main bags, but then we were told that we could check our carry ons for free because the flights were all so booked, so I don't understand why the attendant made us transfer things anyway.
Anyway, we boarded our flight to Amsterdam which was quite short actually, and it was a nice flight. Everything was spoken in Dutch and English which was different to listen to. When we arrived in the Amsterdam airport I was shocked at just how big it was! We had to taxi in on the plane for about 8 minutes! Once we landed we noticed that we were supposed to be in gate D1 which was right by where we had come off our previous plane! We felt lucky and went to the bathroom and got treats.
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| Ok, I get it, not the best example, but I felt like everything was fascinating to read in Dutch. |
Needless to say we had to literally run as quick as we could - it took us at least 10 minutes to get to the gate and we were nearly late. We jumped in line and when we got to the front, were greeted with the news that our tickets were not allowing us to board the plane and we'd have to get in another line that people had been told the same thing - with no clue why we weren't allowed to board.
Eventually we were allowed to board but it was easily quarter after 1 when we took off - 15 minutes later than we were supposed to. I will never fly through the Amsterdam airport again, that was an absolute nightmare!
Our flight from Amsterdam to Minneapolis was actually really nice - we were fed very, very well! First we got peanuts/pretzels and a drink. then we got dinner, then we got a snack box, then we got a calzone and ice cream, and finally more peanuts/pretzels!! I was able to watch quite a few movies I'd been intrigued with and got to see the coolest thing when we were over Hudson Bay.
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| Ice crystals on my window don't let you see the ice islands very well, but they're so cool! |
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| Look at all that ice! |
Unfortunately the moment I got on the flight my head started to pound...a stupid migraine was coming on. I took an excredrin and tried to sleep, something I can't do on planes. This flight seemed to last forever and was the first one that I had to sit next to someone who wasn't David (he was the window, I was the middle seat). The poor guy on the aisle was driving me crazy too because he kept fidgeting.
We landed in Salt Lake around 7:10 pm (2 am Scotland time) and grabbed our bags. My mom was there to pick us up and we dropped David off with the bags at home and she and I went out to grab dinner.
It was a really long day, one that I was up for a total 24+ hours. Not what I was hoping for, but it is what it is. I slept really well...until 2 am. Then I was awake, and luckily was able to get back to sleep!
Our trip to Scotland was one I will always remember, and while it will be a while before we can get back again, I look forward to the day that we get to go back! Thank you to all the friends and family members who were so kind and generous on our visit, you are all amazing people and I'm so lucky to have gotten to meet you!
Till we meet again!
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