Monday, September 15, 2008

I can has mobile?


Today was my first big "errands" day, and I walked up to campus to sign my student loan checks. Today is also the first "chilly" day since I've been here, but again, once you're walking uphill, you get warm quite quickly.

Campus was swarming. Today is the first day of Freshers' Week, which is a UK thing that happens the week before classes start. Predominantly for first year students, it's kind of like orientation in the US, if orientation in the US was loaded up on school-sanctioned booze and free hoodies. I felt a bit like a grandma among all these 17 and 18 year olds.

I then headed to Byres Road, which is one of the main streets in the West End of Glasgow. It's next to the university and just chock full of shops and restaurants and cafes. I found a Carphone Warehouse there and tried not to giggle when I walked in (Carphone Warehouse always reminds me of Extras and I half expected to see Steven Merchant behind the counter; I was almost disappointed I didn't). And I bought my first UK mobile phone.

IT. IS. SO. PRETTY. All silvery and sleek. Hands down the nicest phone I've ever owned. And considered just a cheapy, basic phone. Even the crappiest phones over here are a million times better than most of the nicer U.S. ones. It's not that cheap to make calls on, but it's free when people (even from the States) call me, and it has radio, and it's pretty, and it has a camera, and it's pretty. Did I mention it's pretty? I'm such a sucker for aesthetics.

Speaking of, the pictures I was supposed to take today didn't quite happen. I was so positive I'd charged my camera battery on Thursday night before leaving Maryland, but apparently... I didn't. So I couldn't really take any photos. I shall try again tomorrow though, as I have to go back up to campus to register.

I had my first true issue understanding someone today. The guy who rang me up at Woolworths when I bought a coffee maker and hair dryer kept saying things to me and I kept smiling and nodding. At first I thought he thought I was foreign (well, non-English speaking foreign) and was speaking another language to me. And then I realized it was just Glaswegian. It took three tries for him to get across to me that they charge 3p for bags if you haven't got your own. Smile and nod. Smile and nod.

1 Comments:

At September 16, 2008 at 12:20 AM , Blogger Unknown said...

We had the same problem at a counter in West Virginia, remember? Dad

 

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