I'm ready for laura to be here.

I have so many things on my list of stuff to include on my post that I’m just going to have to forget about some of them. Basically though, the front and center is that I am sick as a dog. It really sucks actually. Like if ever there was a time that it would be really annoying to get sick, it’s when you’re in a foreign country, by yourself, staying in a room with 5 people you don’t know. But last night I was rockin a pretty nice fever for sure. It was the kind where no matter how many blankets I had on me, I was still shivering like crazy while at the same time, sweating like an NBA basketball player. I wasn’t into it. Also, I’ve still got this cough that is driving me insane cause it’s not like there is even anything for me to cough up or anything. It’s just this thing where I get a tickle, then I go into a violent fit of coughing for about 7 coughs and then I can tame it. I’m sure the guy sleeping in the bunk above me last night was loving it cause I was definitely shaking the bed each time it happened. Then there’s the old stopped up nose that everyone loves so much. Gosh, I’ll just say that it was not a good night and though I would much rather be sleeping than writing this right now, I simply cannot fall asleep. Thus, here we are. I DID make sure that I got up every couple hours and drank a lot of water. I hear that is supposed to help you get better? Well I’m definitely not as sick as I was last night but I still definitely have some level of fever and my head aches kinda. And I feel that the nose stoppage and the cough are just gonna hang out for a while. So whatever. Being sick always makes me miss my mom a lot.

As far as the other things that are going on…well it doesn’t really feel like that much else is really going on. The being sick is kinda taking up the whole screen at the moment. However, if I move around to the side and get a good angle on the situation, there are other things going on as well.

So speaking of the guy in the bunk above me; he reminds me a ton of dad. He’s an Australian guy who is about 45-50 and he’s just traveling around for a while looking for good places to hike around northwestern Europe. He seems like a really great guy though and so we’ve talked quite a bit.

The big thing in Scotland this weekend is the European Rugby Championship!! It’s got everywhere just completely booked up and there are groups of people just going around with their team’s flag draped over their shoulders and singing their team’s fight songs. The game is actually in Edinburgh, but because Edinburgh filled up a long time ago, there are a ton of people staying here in Glasgow and just taking a train over today. There are two guys in our room that are doing that. They are ridiculous. They came in at like 2 AM last night fairly drunk and right when they came in, one of them saw that we were sleeping (trying to sleep) and said something like “shhh man they’re sleeping.” Then, they proceeded to sit down cross-legged in the middle of the floor, open up a couple of beers, and have about an hour long conversation in tones that were anything but hushed. I was like, “are you serious?” And they kept apologizing for being so loud but then they wouldn’t talk ANY quieter at all! They were ridiculous. Then when they finally got in bed, one of them was on the phone talking with his fiancé for like another 45 minutes. Then they both snored like…I don’t know. Something that snores a lot. Maybe Caroline’s dad…So anyways, they may have contributed to the sleepless night as well. But it’s all good. Me and the aussie guy got a good laugh out of it this morning so it’s ok.

So Glasgow is a VERY different city from Edinburgh. I don’t think I like it near as much. It has much the same feel as Copenhagen did back when I went there. It just seems like a very worldly city to me…I don’t know. It’s weird though to see kids who are like 13-15 yrs old out drinking and smoking and making real dirty jokes and stuff and have nobody say anything about it. Cause I know that happens back in the states too but when it happens there, the kids get in trouble at least. Like at least it’s not just accepted as ok. And I read a stat yesterday that 1 out of every 3 kids in Glasgow is homosexual. Which is just depressing to me.. I was sitting out on a park bench yesterday though eating some Subway and a couple of 15 yr old guys were sitting near me and we started talking and it was just weird. I felt like I was talking to some guys way older than myself. It was like I got the feeling that even though they were all 15, I was the one who was young and innocent still. Just weird.

It is a very pretty city though. I didn’t really take any pictures of it yesterday though. I just have these three that really don’t show you the beauty of the city anyways but I liked em:
I thought this was awesome. If you'll notice, the sky behind the building is gray and stormy, however the reflection of the sky in the glass on the building is clear and blue. The sky was like split in half.
I don't really understand why people do this kind of graffiti. I mean I love graffiti so it's whatever...I just can't imagine going out and spraying something ridiculous like this and feeling real good about it or anything.

So how in the world is it so cool over here to wear shoes with the little Velcro straps on them? Like those were the shoes that little kids have back in the states so that their parents don’t have to worry about tying their shoes all the time. Here though, there are like these really trendy dudes walking around in cool clothes, a tight hat, scarf, and then some black pleather shoes with the Velcro straps! It’s really very confusing to me.

Another thing that is very noticeable about the style of dress here is that people are far more bold with their sunglasses choices. Like back at home, there are sunglasses that me, alex, and danny will steal from the girls and wear around as a joke for a few hours. But here, it’s like they just take it to even the next level and so you see these guys walking around in these huge, intense, sorority-girl shades and it’s just like, “what the heck? How did that get cool?” However, word on the street is that European style is always just one step ahead of American style. So alex and danny, we may get to start really wearing those shades that we so love.

So this hostel that I’m staying in here in Glasgow is huge. It’s like 10 stories tall and has probably 25-30 rooms on each floor. I am on the 6th floor in a 4-man room for just guys. It’s not bad really at all. The awesome thing about it is that the beds are really long so my feet actually don’t dangle off the end of the bed like they usually do. One thing though that is really weird about it is that it has 2 elevators. Now that isn’t the weird part though. The weird part is that, even though there are two, they work like just one big one. Like they always stick together. Such as, I will go out of my room and hit the button for the down elevator, and whenever it gets there, BOTH elevators will open up! And sometimes, I’ll be going down in one elevator and we’ll have to make a stop on a floor so that someone can get into the other elevator. It’s really weird and I just really don’t see the point.

So I was feelin kinda spicy this morning, so when I took my shower, I decided to spice it up a bit. I took my shower, the whole time, pretending that my right arm was paralyzed. I know that makes me more than weird…but sometimes I just like to change things up.

Another observation that I made yesterday was regarding one of my top 5 favorite sauces (don’t worry, I don’t really have a top 5 for sauces): ketchup. I was eating my burger at burger king (I’m really getting out there and trying some crazy foods) and I realized that I think there are 4 different levels of ketchup that can be present on a burger. There can be too much, just enough, too little, or none at all. The interesting thing about these four levels is that two of them are actually acceptable. “Too much” was, at first, hard for me to believe because I have always operated under the assumption that you could never have too much ketchup. However, in my head, I pictured myself just adding more and more and more ketchup to my burger and there was definitely a point when it got disgusting. Then of course “just enough” is the premium level. I don’t know how to quantify how much “just enough” means other than to just say that you’ll know when you are in the situation and you’re ketchuping (word?) your burger. Then there’s “too little”. This is my least favorite level because it’s the level that just gives you a taste of what you love so much but then leaves you wanting more. No one likes to be left wanting. Then, the shocking one is that the “none at all” level is actually acceptable. For some reason, even though I absolutely love ketchup and definitely prefer it’s presence, I find it very easy to still enjoy a burger even if there is no ketchup on it. There must seriously be none though. If there’s even a bit, it falls into the “too little” category which I hate. And that was a really long discussion about ketchup…sorry.

So I’ve decided that, if you are good at an instrument or have a talent that is fun to watch, you could make quite a bit of money as a street performer. Like seriously, there was a guy doing magic tricks on the street in Glasgow yesterday and at the end of his little show, he put out his hat for “tips” or “donations” (whatever you want to call them) and he seriously probably got well over 100 pounds. That’s like 170 US dollars for like 45 minutes of work. That’s pretty good. So I mean if he does a few shows like that per day, he could really make a good living. Also, sometimes I’ll walk by these guys playing their guitars and singing on the streets and I’ll look down into their open guitar case and there will be like 50 – 100 pounds sitting in there. I mean that’s not bad at all for just going out and playing your guitar on the street for a few hours. And some of them are really good but others just play songs that people will recognize and know. So I figure that my next trip overseas like this, I will just bring my guitar, make sure I know some songs that people know and love, and I’ll try to pay for my trip by playing a couple hours a day. I mean I know I’m not like awesome but I can definitely learn and play songs and unless people have just been too nice to tell me that I can’t, I think I can carry a tune pretty well. My favorite song that I’ve heard played is still the song from jungle book…by far.

Ok so why is it so fun to throw a stone into the water? It really doesn’t make any sense. But it really is fun I feel like. I mean I know that yesterday when I was waiting to be able to check into my hostel, I was bored for like an hour so I was just walking down the side of the big river here, and there were three separate times when I, without thinking, would wander off the path, search for a rock in the grass or by the street or something, and then once I found one, I’d just chuck it into the water. It’s strangely satisfying…

Another thing, I went into an Urban Outfitters yesterday and there was some art on display that made me really want to get back into stenciling. Here are some of this guy’s paintings that he was selling for like 150 to 300 pounds each:
I'm just saying...I mean I feel like if he can sell this stuff for that much, I should be able to sell something for at least a little bit...who knows. Apparently though, he's got his stuff in stores all over the place.

OK well I'm gonna go blow my nose, possibly take some medicine, and try to sleep again.

Rod-tastic