The Glasgow Smile

It's been a week since I first came to Scotland!

A lot of the other students in our cohort were surprised that the American kids weren't that dominating or obnoxious, and that we were friendly. Messing with their preconceptions is always fun. Today, a few of us convinced a high school student that in America, water is rationed as a public good, and that American kids are indoctrinated from a very young age that "The government is always right."

Payday was on Friday. They pay the American kids in cash. Woohoo! That's such bad accounting practice. Claire Eckstein would not be happy. SDA would not approve.

Glasgow has this really cool mall slash entertainment center called XSCAPE. Inside is a rock climbing course, an indoor ski slope, an arcade, a movie theater, a roller coaster, bowling, mini golf, fancy restaurants, and shopping venues. It's pretty sweet; I wish the U.S. had something like that. I went rock climbing (my first time!), which was a lot of fun. I definitely want to go in the city sometime.

I learned of this thing called the "Glasgow smile" the other day. Wikipedia defines it as "the practice of cutting a victim's face from the edges of the mouth to the ears: the cut - or its scars - form an 'extension' of what resembles a smile." Anyways, needless to say, we were all pretty scared, but we've been assured that we're in a pretty safe area, and we have little to worry about. Still, some Scottish guys can be aggressive. A few of us were playing frisbee in the park and were joined by some Scottish kids. One of them accidentally threw the frisbee into a guy walking in a group beside us, who proceeded to kick the frisbee. The Scottish guy who mis-threw the frisbee went up and started bumping chests with the other dude, and eventually a few fists were thrown. Silly children.

Time for the lesson of the day.

BRIEF LANGUAGE LESSON: SCOTTISH 101

Glasgow smile = something you don't want to get
NED = Non-Educated Delinquent (think: hicks)
haver = talking rubbish
rubbish = trash
haggis = traditional Scottish meal
em = um
blutered = drunk
tartan = criss-cross pattern found on kilts
second name = last name
aye = yes

The University kids are really chill, and are good hosts too. They give us all the inside info -- what to buy, where to eat, where to go out, etc. -- and even invite us over to their places. I'm in a group with two other Uni (yes, they abbreviate it here) kids, two high school kids, and a Columbia girl, Sue. We work pretty well together, which is good.

Our adviser from Columbia was really nice, and she treated us all to really really good Indian food the other day at this place called Ashoka! The Indian waiter was acting really pushy and was trying to hustle some more money out of us by ordering us extra food before we requested it. Gosh, I miss my mom's home-cooked food.

Tonight I'm going to go to a pub to watch the soccer -- woops, I mean "football" -- match. Soccer is pretty fun to watch, it's a shame that the U.S. is not big on international sports.

Stay safe, children!