A Canadian Thanksgiving in Glasgow

I was going to name this blog "A Glaswegian Thanksgiving" but that would be no Thanksgiving at all...anyways.

Ashleigh came from Belfast on Thursday to spend the Thanksgiving weekend with AJ, Julie and I. We had a pretty relaxing weekend. Ashleigh didn't get in until later on Thursday night so we spent the night at my flat eating pizza and visiting. I stayed up way to late to watch the Calgary Flames season opener - I was very tired and very sad by the time the game was over, although I did nap between periods. Friday Ashleigh and I went into city center and did some shopping -I was trying to put together Halloween costumes for Christy and I, as she is coming up from Cannock for Halloween and we are being Mounties. I found some pretty good stuff at a store here called Primark - its all super cheap clothes in a variety of sizes and styles.

Some local entertainment in City Center

Friday night the 4 of us went to the Queen Margaret Union (QMU) for a cheesy pop night, (which we fondly refer to as Cozy Beat) where they play a lot of 80s and 90s music. The QMU has this special drink called "Pints of Magic" which are 1/2 blue raspberry cooler, 1/2 cider and quite delicious.

AJ and I with the first of many pints of magic. They should be called pints of hangover.

Pints of Magic

Ashleigh and Julie at Cozy Beat!

Saturday was a very lazy day at my flat. Ashleigh roasted a pumpkin for pumpkin pie on Sunday. We spent the day inside, watching DVDs as the weather wasn't very nice. Saturday night we went out for supper at a burger place down the road, called Ketchup. They have many different kinds of burgers - Ostrich, Venison, Lamb, Crocodile and of course, Beef (with the option of getting Kobe beef for an extra £10). After supper we went down the road to a club called The Shed and spent the night dancing and telling people we were Canadian. After we left the club we went to a local chippy to get chips and cheese. AJ met a friend who wanted to talk to him about Doug Gilmore once he found out AJ is Canadian.

Sunday afternoon came early and AJ helped me apply to some grad schools out here (Glasgow Uni and Edinburgh Uni, both for Social Work) and then Ashleigh and I got to work in the kitchen. Despite what little we had for kitchen supplies (1 frying pan, 2 pots, no whisks) I think we did a pretty good job. We wound up with a feast of: mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffed chicken breast, more stuffing, salad, buns, cranberry sauce and 100% made from scratch pumpkin pie.

Our Thanksgiving Feast

Nom Nom Nom

Homemade Punkin Pie. Whipped cream makes everything better.

Monday came very quickly, Ashleigh had to go back to Belfast, AJ had to go to class, but lucky Julie and I got Monday off in honor of the Canadian holiday but it did take some convincing. Our supervisor kept telling us that there was no such thing as Canadian holidays and that Tuesday was a holiday on Mars and we could take that off if we wanted to too. After pulling up an article on Wikipedia about Thanksgiving he finally conceded and we got it off.

Its week... 6? of my internship and I can't believe how quickly time is moving. It seems like I just got here and now I'm already trying to make plans to make it back home. I have recently booked weekend trips to Belfast, London, Rome, which are coming up in the next few weeks, so there will be lots to post about those I am sure. Ashleigh and I also used our time together this weekend to sort our Eastern Europe trip - we are going to Prague, Berlin and Krakow.  Should be a great time and I am looking forward to it!