Kate’s Rants

after being in a different country, you start noticing the little things that matter.

let’s take public restrooms.

in america, even if you close the door to the stall, people can really still see in. you at least see motion/movement and you try to avert your eyes as much as possible. but when you’re IN the stall, you are totally paranoid that someone might come up to that little crack between the doors and just watch you. or some little kid in the bathroom will look under the door. i HATE that. people should really control their children.

HOWEVER in britian and maybe europe, they build the stalls so that when you close the stall door, there are NO CRACKS. there’s a little overlap of building material to prevent people from looking in. wow. what a little material does for one’s privacy. also the doors go lower to the ground, so even if a little kid wanted to look in, he’d basically have to lay on the ground. which some kids do, but i havent encountered that yet.

BUT! in america we usually have toilet seat covers in public bathrooms. it’s a nice way to prevent disease. we also have rolls of toilet paper.

here in britain, toilet seat covers are (so far) non existant. um helllloooo haven’t they learned that you can contract STD’S through a toilet seat?!?! YES IT’S TRUE. so always use a toilet seat cover. but they don’t have one. well no big deal right? you can just use a few strips of toilet paper. UM NO. they also don’t use the rolls like we do. they use the little sheets. you know. the tiny squares that you have to use a ton of to wipe with. luckily they are always stocked. i have yet to encounter an empty toilet paper despenser, even in the hostel. however, using the little squares to cover a toilet seat every single time is sooooo annoying! i wish they had toilet seat covers. especially when i have to pee really bad.

so recapp:

good things about public restrooms here in britain: the stalls are PRIVATE! no more gross little kids or perverts looking at you on the pot.

bad things about public restrooms here in britain: small sheets of toilet paper and no toilet seat covers.

it’s a toss up, but i perfer privacy to small toilet paper. i like the public restrooms here way more.

oh yeah. they’re also clean. go britain.

bill is the guy who is training me to take over his job. tomorrow is his last day.

he made a friend at the office who’s name is luca. we all eat lunch together. luca is now my friend too.

we talk about food differences a lot. bill is from south carolina, which is obviously still america, but they have a bunch of differences from california. like no mexican food. and they have southern food. like grits.

the first day i had work i packed my lunch: peanut butter and jelly sandwich and an apple, and some pringles. very typical american lunch. here in britain they do not have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. i think peanut butter might even be a fairly recent import. anyway, i had a hard time finding some peanut butter. there was one jar left when i went to the store, and not much room for stock. so i dont think it’s a hot item.

anyway, that first time i met luca, i was eating my sandwich and he said “is that a peanut butter and jelly sandwich???” and started to laugh. and i went “yes!” and then we were all chuckling: luca about how i was eating such an “american” sandwich, and me and bill about how luca thought it was so funny.

yesterday i bought lunch: some sort of pastry type thing filled with some kind of meatish thing (i dont really want to know what it was, but it tasted ok) and it came with “beans and chips”. yes. baked beans and french fries that are those really thick fries: what we typically call “steak fries”. those are chips. and they eat beans and chips like we eat peanut butter and jelly. seriously.

today bill said he wanted to open a southern food restaurant in edinburgh. he started listing foods from his home: fried chicken (mmm), corn bread (mmmm), boiled peanuts (????) and then i said “and grits!” and he went “of course.” i told him my only exposure to grits was watching the movie “my cousin vinny”. (for those who aren’t movie buffs: a new yorker goes to the south to be his cousin’s lawyer. hilarity ensues.) he said he’s never even seen the movie my cousin vinny. so i asked him what a grit was. and he said it’s similar to rice. but it’s corn. anyway. grits: tastes good with stuff on it. (butter/hot sauce/etc. according to bill)

anyway, so the food differences make me laugh. luca (born and raised in edinburgh) does not really like fish and chips. or haggis. there it is.

i, of course, still need to try both. i’ve heard haggis tastes good to most meat-eaters, but just don’t think about what it is while you are eating it. i’m not POSITIVE about what it is, but i know it’s animal bits. meh. hot dogs. that’s all i gotta say.

i’m enjoying trying the food. my favorite british food is the pastys. they are good. and cheap.

once i get more money i’ll have a sit down meal. maybe some bangers and mash. hey, like my dad says “it’s hard to mess up a potato.”

TRUE THAT.

ok i know it’s been forever and everyone was wondering if i was ever going to get a permanent job. so was i. i was getting worried too.

but no more worries! i landed a job. i work for the home care center for city council (i think….) and pretty much do office things: lots of data entry in excel, lots of emails, lots of printing out the emails… stuff like that.

it doesnt sound like the coolest job around, but i can wear jeans if i want, and pretty much work whenever as long as i make my hours for the week.

the job is pretty much making appointments for people to go take care of old or disabled people who can’t take care of themselves. so its kindof social work. it’s ok. i’m not talking to any of the clients though, so i just sit at a computer pretty much all day. eh.

but whatever. it pays the bills and then some, so i’m happy with that.

yay! i have a job! horray!

the only pretty sucky thing is that it’s like a 20 minute bus ride out of the city, so i need to buy a bus pass. hopefully i can do that at some point this week.

other than that, not much is happening.

actually, we get to move hopefully by saturday! that’s pretty exciting. i can’t wait to stop living out of a suitcase. i’ll miss it here because we met some cool people, and there’s always someone to talk to, but i suppose we’re just down the street and we can just pop in and say hello whenever.

welllll that’s all i’ve got for now.

oh this is for my mom:
so far we’ve been eating quesadillas, grilled cheese sandwhiches, pringles, hot chocolate, soup, and pasta. we go grocery shopping and make our own food. if i eat out, i usually get a “pasty” which is a pastry filled with something: usually it’s like a portable pot pie. it’s pretty good. brianne and i ate out a couple of times. once i got a burger, and the other time i got curry and chips. (chips as in french fries.) THAT was amazing good stuff.

it’s been raining since i woke up this morning. just a constant, steady rain. not a sprinkle. not a downpour. just rain.

we had plans to go on a really long walk called the “water of leith” walk but since it’s raining it’s not exactly the perfect walking weather.

so i’ve just been hanging out in the lobby of the hostel, reading the paper, doing suduko (which i’ve never done before and it’s harder than i thought) and watching people come in and out of the rain.

i better get used to this weather though. it’s bound to be just the beginning.

yep! we went to a ska show! and it was fantastic. everyone danced or bobbed their head, but brianne and i were right in the middle of the crazies dancing. the band was a 10 piece ska band called Bombskare. they were really fun! most of the time i couldn’t understand what they were saying or anything, but it was still fun. good tunes. they did some weird stuff too, like covers and sang the inspector gadget song. haha. it was awesome.

it was SO HOT in the room though. i guess it was a club, and had a bar and stuff. the dance floor was a decent size for the crowd we had, and dance we did.

well, if you can call it dancing. mostly people just jump and skip around and look like they are doing the hokey pokey really fast. well that’s what i do. and lots of others around me. but hey, no rhythm, no worries. everyone was just having a good time.

also, before the band started there was a pretty terrible DJ doing his thing. he had some reggae going which was cool, and then randomly he played some oldies, and then hip hop….. it was weird. and he played a lot of slow songs that you can’t ska-dance to. ska dancing is fast. you just can’t do it slow. i tried.

anyways, there were only like 10 people “dancing” when the DJ was on, and there was a guy with the same shoes as ME! so i ran over to him and put my foot next to his. he looked at me quizzically, and i pointed to our shoes, and he got all excited and gave me a high five. haha. good times.

another highlight of the dancing was right at the end of the band’s set, a group of 3 people started a train thingy, and i joined it and brianne went behind me, and she said more people joined in after her. awesome. we danced around the whole floor. it was way cool.

i also kept going out of the room because i was sweating so much, and during one of these intervals a girl came up to me and just started talking! she said her feet hurt a lot, and then showed me her shoes which were REALLY high. maybe 4 inches. crazy. and then she said “you’re one of the nicest people i’ve met all night!” and then bought me a drink. haha. oh scotland.

anyway, i hope to go to more shows like this one. it was one of the best i’ve ever been to. yay!

hey, how’d you like that title? eh? eh? pretty long!

so i just had an interview. or a non-interview. the man who interviewed me kept saying “this is not an interview”. then proceeded to ask me interview questions. crazy scots.

anyway, the position is for the city council road services department. i’d be writing a bunch of reports about complaints that people have made about the roads.

it sounds utterly boring and mundane.

but if i get it, then i’ll take it. i care not. i just wish my skills were being used. they are NOT being used. i’m a people-person being stuck in a corner to write reports? what in the world.

and the guys in the interview wanted to know about my customer service experience. as if i’d be dealing with people. and then they went on to tell me i would probably not deal with anyone.

i do not understand.

so that’s that. the non-interview lasted about 15 minutes. i got all nice and dressed up, walked over to the place, and talked for 10 minutes, and then was walked out. exciting stuff.

now i have a whole day ahead of me to do WHATEVER. i’m getting a tad bit worried about the job situation. office team is not doing as well as i thought they were. i think i’ll call them and see if they have anything else long term.

in any case. i switched beds today so i get to have a bottom bunk now for the rest of my time here about a week….) which is cool i guess.

i can’t wait to move into my flat! i can’t wait to have a job! i can’t wait to settle in! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

the end.

this is wayyyyy too soon to be posting this, but i’m really excited so i have to post it!

sooo i think i mentioned that yesterday we met a guy who’s doing BUNAC too and is going to travel for 5 years. and he’s going to ireland after scotland to work there for 4 months.

this confused me. i thought you had to enter the country no more than 6 months after you graduated. but apparently not? (i’m going to check on that tomorrow…)

BUT if that’s the case, and i CAN go work in ireland for 4 months after britain, then i’m thinking…… I SHOULD TOTALLY DO IT. i only live once and man oh man it would be fun.

plus brad has expressed interest in working abroad, but there were too many money issues (spending all his money travelling with me, THEN trying to live in a different country…. just wouldn’t work…).

so now, if i can do this, then brad can come over and work in ireland too! and brianne’s gonna do it too! and then brad can save up money for travelling and so can i, and we can go travel!

ok so this is a very sketchy plan, but oh my goodness it would be so much fun and i want to do it really bad. i’m trying to delay “real life” as long as possible. except this is real. yayyyyyy.

i’m going to check tomorrow to see if this is possible. i’m so excited. ahhh!

so yesterday was “international talk like a pirate day”. which of course the crazies at the hostel knew and of course brianne’s mom had emailed her about it. so we knew alllll about this day. and we heard through the grapevine that there was going to be a pirate party in the dining room/ lounge area in the evening to say goodbye to someone who was going back home.

so neither brianne nor i had to work, and we did our little walking tour and got poured on. then we just kinda hung out. brianne braved the weather and went back out in her endless pursuit for black shoes and pants, and i stayed inside to read.

when she got back we went over to the BUNAC office to see if we had any mail and brianne wanted to use the computer. i had about 6 letters from various hotels, basically all of them saying “thanks for your application but we’re not hiring at the moment”. so boo on them. but then a lady from Office Team called me to tell me i have an interview on thursday for a more long-term position. i’ll post more about the position (details about WHAT the job is, etc) once i have the interview and know more about it. i really have no idea what i’m going in for, but i don’t care. a job is a job at this point. i’ll take what i can get.

anyway, while we were in the office, we met a guy from michigan who is travelling for 5 YEARS! crazy! he’s doing this, then he said he’s going over to ireland for the 4 month program. that confused us, because we thought you had to enter the country before 6 months after you graduated from college, which is why we were unable to do it. but he assured us this was not the case. so brianne got all excited and now wants to work in ireland after scotland. i considered it, but i think i’m sticking with my current plans.

then we went out to dinner because we havent gone out for a sit-down dinner yet. we went to this little place around the corner from our hostel that someone recommended to us. we can get “a burger and a beer” for 3.50. well when we got there, the girl said we should get curry instead because the burgers weren’t that good. and a “beer” is more like a pint, and you can get a pint of whatever. so i got a pint of cider. ohhhh it was good. and the curry was awesome! curry and chips, who woulda thought? but it’s tasty. so, got a job. had a great dinner. now it was time for piraty things.

we came into the lobby and wendy, a girl who works at the hostel and stays in our room, was making pirate name tags for everyone. (they had a website up that generated your “pirate name” when you plugged in your real name.) i forget what my name was, and i stuck the tag on my pants and it fell of when we went to the store to get snacks. so i got a new one, and it was something-the-fruit. i have no idea. crazy pirates.

we hung out in the dining room waiting for people to be piratey. they came in bits, and the “clique” were all dressed up in pirate gear, but brianne and i were too shy to bust out our outfits. (i’m sure we could have whipped something up with scarves, etc. but alas, we did not!) this one guy made everyone paper pirate hats so we at least had those. then we sat around and chatted with people and listened to various “arrrrr’s” and “arrrrrghs”. quite entertaining.

THEN this one guy (who was dressed up in tight pleather pants, a striped shirt, a crazy 80s style rocker wig, a bandana, an eye patch, and a fake gold tooth with a scull and crossbones on it) said to one girl “hey, you should organize a treasure hunt! arrrrrr!” and she did! so about 30 mins later, we were all running around the hostel at midnight looking for clues and the “treasure”. it ended back where we started (in the dining room) with a note in a bottle that someone needed to smash in order to get it out. when someone yelled out the “magic word” written on the note, they recieved the treasure. (the winning team recieved a poster of the phantom of the opera from the wall, a piece of broken plate, and a recycled book from the bookshelf. and the grand prize was ryan, the 80’s rocker pirate with the pleather pants!)

it was awesome good fun. i only wish i knew these people a tiny bit better so i could have dressed up and “arrrrr”ed along with them. maybe for halloween we’ll go a little crazy. (of course by then bri and i will have moved into our flat…. but hopefully we’ll keep some ties.)

so international talk like a pirate day: a success!

the title of this post has a few meanings.

1) if you’re going to read my blog, please sit down and enjoy it. don’t skim. i hate when people skim. if you skim then you’re missing the best parts of my words. also, you get confused and post silly questions. questions that would be answered if you would sit down and read ALL of the posts. because the way i write, i continually refer to old posts and things i’ve said. it’s like a story. so sit down and soak it up.

2) brianne and i went on a walking tour of Edinburgh today. (it was free.) so hey, we don’t know about the history of this fantastic city we’re living in for 6 months, so we better find out some stuff before it’s too late. so we went to the haggis tour office (conveniently located across the street from our hostel) at 10:30am. we walked down the royal mile to holyrood palace, and then back up the royal mile, stopping at various points along the way so our guide could tell us interesting facts. we then went down a side street and looped around back up the royal mile. (lots of hill-walking) around the time we went down the side street, it started to rain. just sprinkling. our guide said “oh, it’s starting to get a bit scottish!” eventually it began to pour. i was really glad i brought along my umbrella, but i was wearing jeans and my vans which were not exactly the perfect rain clothes. sooooo bri and i got pretty wet. i busted out my umbrella mainly to protect my expensive camera. so the rest of me was sacrificed.

well. that was this morning. we had plans to go on the walking tour of princes gardens, but we didn’t really want to hang out in the rain anymore so we came back to the hostel. and of course now it’s sunny again. fabulous.

so we soaked up some water and some scottish history! what a day! and it’s only 12:30! wooo!