Journey to Leprachaun Land

I went to Belfast in Northern Ireland for the weekend with my friend AJ to visit my friend Ashleigh who is getting a Master's Degree from Queen's University. I got on a plane at 7am on Saturday and met AJ and Ashleigh in Belfast. Saturday we walked around the city center and went to a movie. We also went to a Belfast Giants hockey game, they played the Edinburgh Capitals. Theo Fleury played for the Belfast Giants for a while.

Ashleigh and I with a Flames fan in Belfast

Ashleigh and I with the Belfast Giants Mascot

 

 

Outside the Canadian Sports Bar in the arena

We saw a lot of people with NHL Jerseys and Team Canada Jerseys at the game. After the game we went to the Canadian themed sports bar in the hockey arena. There were a bunch of jerseys hanging on the walls.

Aj, Ashleigh and I with the U of Lethbridge Pronghorns Jersey

The Blizzard Jersey that was in the bar.

We had a fairly early night on Saturday and on Sunday we walked from Ashleigh's dorm on Queen's Campus to city center. We had lunch and took pictures of beautiful Belfast. AJ and I caught our flight back to Glasgow at 7pm. It was a quick trick, but was a lot of fun!

Belfast City Hall

 

 

Queens Campus

Ashleigh and AJ in Belfast

Oh the weather outside is weather...

This weekend was pretty low key and I read two books  - Insatiable by Meg Cabot, and Tweak by Nic Sheff. Both books were good and it was a nice way to spend the weekend. On Sunday night Julie, Rhonda (my classmate and her mom) and I went out for supper to a pub that was just down the road. It was nice to get out after a weekend of staying in the house.

Monday morning I had an appointment at the bank and FINALLY got an account set up, which means that Julie and I are that much closer to getting internet and phone in our flat. My friend Ashleigh, who is going to Queens in Belfast, came into Glasgow so I met her at the train station and we spent the day exploring in the pouring rain.

Ashleigh and I hiding from the rain in the Botanic Gardens

Someone was nice enough to give this guy a scarf to protect him from the cold

We spent some time in the city center and went to the city chambers office - apparently they have the one of two alabaster staircases in the world, the other one is in the Vatican in Rome.

Inside of City Chambers

 

 

 

Week 1 of Practicum

This has been a very busy week! Monday Julie and I moved into our flat (I will post pictures of it when I get a chance) and we spent the day unpacking, cleaning - it was so dirty, it was quite off-putting. Julie said "I don't think the people who lived here before us cleaned the whole time they lived here". We also went to the store and bought some food, as well as some things that the flat didn't have...like clocks, mirrors and towels. We had a long day of that stuff and Julie's mom, who is here for two weeks, was nice enough to make us supper.

Our first day of work went really well. We walk to work every morning and it only takes about 15 minutes and its mostly uphill (I hate hills). When we got to the Priory Hospital no one seemed to know what we were doing there - I guess we were too early (it was around 830 when we got there, we were supposed to start at 9) so the director of the hospital came to meet us and showed us to the cafeteria where we had coffee and waited for our supervisor. The cafeteria is really fancy, like a restaraunt and the food is quite good and cheap, I spend less than £5 ($8) on lunch for this week. We finally met our supervisor and went on a tour of the place. Its a 42 bed 28 day residential treatment facility for people with eating disorders, addictions and mental health problems and Julie and I should be able to work in each of these areas at least a little bit while we are here.

The first week went well, we are starting to learn our way around the place and we've each only taken a few wrong turns. We got to sit in on group therapy sessions - Julie go to lead one, I get to lead one next week- and did some individual counselling. So far its been really great and I have been enjoying it a lot.

Being in Scotland too is getting better, I am getting used to things more and more - although the other day I did freak out when I saw a car turn left in front of another car and then I realized that was okay cause they drive on the left here. I am learning, slowly.

Greetings from Glasgow

Hello everyone! I said that I would start a blog while I was in Glasgow and after two weeks of being here I have finally gotten around to it! I guess I should start at the beginning of my adventure…



August 26th- Mom and I got on the plane in Calgary, which was delayed by 2 hours (is there ever a flight that is on time?). We sat next to a lovely English woman who was very…vocal…about her dislike of everything on the flight, so even when the movies weren’t playing we had some free entertainment. Arrived in Glasgow around 730am, left our bags at the airport and went exploring as we couldn’t check into our ‘hotel’ for a few hours. We went to a local mall and spent some time (and some money) wandering around, looking in stores and getting me a cell phone. Eventually we were able to check into our ‘hotel’ (which is more of a flat) and we napped, but not for too long cause we wanted to fend off the jetlag. We spent our first evening exploring the neighbourhood we were staying in (hillhead), and we ate a nice Italian supper at a restaurant called Tony Macaroni.

This is mom cooking in our 'hotel' flat kitchen. Not very big!

August 27th - For our second day we needed to be in another part of the city(shawlands) for a flat viewing, so we hopped on the bus and hoped for the best. It took us 45 minutes to get to the right area, but we made it in once piece. After looking at the flat and walking around the neighbourhood we got on another bus back to the end of the city we were staying in. The trip back to our hotel was much more interesting however, than our trip to shawlands. The bus was only running on a partial route, so the bus stopped somewhere in the city center and the bus driver told us we had to get off as that was the end of his route. So we were in the middle of a giant city, with no clue how to get back to our hotel. Being the adventurous Canadians we are, we just started walking and wound up near the University of Glasgow and the Kelvington Art Gallery and Museum. Good news is after many hours of walking, and a detour into the Art Gallery and onto the university campus we made it back to our hotel safe and sound.

City Center

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The Kelvingrove

University of Glasgow

August 28th - Third day we had to be at another flat viewing in Shawlands, so we chose to take the subway instead of just the bus as it would be quicker. The subway was much easier to figure out than the bus system. After the viewing we went back to city center and wandered about there looking at the statues and the shops. It was a pretty relaxing day compared to the chaos of the day before.



August 29th - Fourth day in Glasgow we ventured to Edinburgh by train. The train ride was quick, and I slept through most of the 45 minute journey. Once in Edinburgh we got onto a giant, double decker tour bus and went up to the Edinburgh castle – there were many interesting things to see here like the prison, crown jewels, royal apartments. We saw many other things in Edinburgh as well, we could have spent another whole day there if we had time. This was the only day that there was poor weather while mom was here with me – it was freezing! By the end of the day though, it had started to warm up.

Me with Edinburgh Castle in the backgroud

August 30th – Fifth day in Glasgow. Had to go back to Shawlands to fill out paperwork to get a flat, went up to the Priory Hospital where I am doing my internship and met some of the people I am going to be working with. Mom and I went to the Glasgow Cathedral and the Necropolis, which she made me walk through at dusk and I was very creeped out. We saw the oldest house in Glasgow, which was build in the 15th century.



August 31st – This was a pretty uneventful day – mom and I went to the city center and and took pictures of statues and monuments.



September 1st – Day seven in Glasgow mom and I went on a tour to Loch Lomond, Glen Coe and Loch Ness. We got on our tour bus at 8am and there was only one other couple on the tour with us, so there was a lot of room on the bus. The tour went through the highlands, which were beautiful (and looked quite similar to southern Manitoba). I didn’t see the Loch Ness Monster, but I did see some Highland cattle – they are so furry!

Mom and I in Glencoe.

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Nessie and I

Urquart Castle

September 2nd – Week 2 of Scotland mom and I took the train to the south of Scotland to the Culzean castle near Ayr. The weather was beautiful and there were palm trees growing in this region. There was a lot of walking to see the castle, as it is in a huge national park and was quite a trek to get to. We stopped in a little shop in a town near the castle to ask how to get there and the two people who we asked were both surprised when we said we were walking, not driving. After walking into the park and around the park and back out of the park it was quite evident that it would have been a good idea to drive.

Mom in front of Culzean Castle

Culzean Castle

September 3rd – Mom’s last day in Scotland with me. We had a fairly nice, relaxing day. We went to the Botanical Gardens, which was right across the street from where we were staying. The flowers were beautiful and there were some lovely statues as well. We went down to the city center to do some souvenir shopping and mom tried haggis. I had a bite of hers and wasn’t a big fan – it had the texture of toothpaste, but was far too salty.



That was my time with my mom in Scotland – it was quite a lot of fun, and I am really glad my mom came. It was nice to have someone to spend time with and to do all the touristy things with. I know this probably seems like a really long entry, but we did far more then what I’ve said here. This is the condensed version!