We still don’t have internet in our flat, but we finally found out why.

When we signed up for our account, I also signed up for a pay-as-you-go phone that I can use locally.  “Apparently” whenever someone signs up for home internet, a credit check is run.  Unfortunately, the sales girl forgot to mention this wee bit of information to us (that’s some Scottish lingo for you!) and since we had just arrived to the UK (and also set up our local bank accounts that day), we didn’t have any past addresses in the UK or any credit established and so our check was declined.  Also unfortunately, we were never advised that the check didn’t go through, so we were waiting for a router to come in the mail – but it was never going to arrive.  We’ve been able to setup a new account with a new company, but they won’t be able to come by and setup the internet in the flat until October 20th (!!!)

Lucky for me, I have become quite resourceful during this tough time, so I’ve been able to turn my crappy local phone into a wifi hotspot so that I can use my iphone for some apps and correspondence that I’m not able to get normally.  It is pretty cheap to “top-up” the data (about $10 for 1GB) which has been just enough to keep me from going totally crazy. Of course, there is wifi at almost every cafe and pub around, but sometimes it is such a hassle to have to leave the flat to send an email or even check the weather! (Did I mention we don’t have a tv either?)

Speaking of the weather, it finally rained! I really feel like Glasgow has this reputation of constant rain so that the tourists stay away – which is fine with me.  It rained last night and this morning quite a bit but then the clouds went away and the sun came out and it’s just beautiful! It’s getting a bit cooler and feeling more like fall but in general it’s not too bad even though we had to turn the radiators on yesterday for an hour or so – the lows at night have been in the 30s!

Here are some other things that I’ve been doing/seeing/eating:

partaking in daily coffee/tea and an “empire biscuit” from Greggs (one of my many new cravings)

Our in-progress model and the whole hot mess of models + undergrad + post grad students with everyone trying to remember where their assigned plot was

Pro library rebuilding posters in the Reid cafeteria

Tom-yum soup, homemade by my flat mate Claudia

Popular local vegan spot that we like (although I haven’t had the food yet), The 78 – they have great live jazz on Sunday nights too which we came back for last night

We have 2 friends who live around the corner from is and these pictures don’t do it justice but we went to the most fantastic international dinner at their flat on Friday with about 15 new friends. Everyone brought something different and we really had representatives from all over the world: India, Spain, Germany, Greece, Poland, another American (who brought tacos…can you imagine my delight??!), Argentina, etc. It was such a fun night and great to have so many friends so close by!

My contribution was Rice Krispie treats by the way – for some reason the Scots only sell bags of mixed pink and white marshmallows but they looked pretty and made for a nice breakfast snack the day after!

View from my kitchen on a morning when it was apparently supposed to be downpouring…all lies..

Views around town on a gorgeous sunny afternoon this past weekend – yes that is a [novelty] NYC taxi that I spotted..guess there’s no escaping them! From what I could tell, it’s available for rentals around town and I think there was a drunk middle-aged group inside which was just embarrassing on so many levels.

(I took those in my living room!)

Also this weekend, we discovered DELICIOUS MEXICAN FOOD near our flat, at The Squid and Whale. I had an amazing burrito that I am still thinking about. YUM.

(Not a great photo but they had really cool graphics inside too)

Other than all of THAT, I’ve just been keeping busy with school and miscellaneous lectures, etc. (and trying not to focus on my internetless struggle)

Today, Renfrew Street (where GSA is) was blocked off as they continue to build scaffolding around the area where the fire was – I took these from the Reid Cafeteria which looks directly at the Mackintosh Building