10 Things I Hate About Scotland
Believe it or not, there are some hated factors about Scotland and Stirling. Nothing major,but these neussances will not be missed once I go back to America in a few weeks. Here are my top ten (and probably only ten...and even then, it was a struggle to come up with all of these because there was so much good) hated things I've experienced or had to deal with in Scotland:
1. The Bloody British Pound // Why? Why? I hate the pound and how expensive everything is here. You can find some things for pretty cheap, especially if you know where to grocery shop or where to get food. But a pound is aproximately $1.30, depending on the day, and those thirty cents extra add up pretty darn quickly.
2. The hills // Stirling is halfway between the low lands and the highlands, but resides within the Ochil Hills, which are pretty much mountains--thus, hills everywhere. Everything is build into or on top of a hill. There are buildings with a back entrance at the top and the front entrance at the bottom, because instead of leveling out the land, construction workers worked with it. If you remember anything about me from here on out, just know that anything involving hills or an obsessive amount of stairs are the devil to me. The. Devil. Especially coming from Illinois where the largest hill you'll find is a ant hill in your backyard.
3. How early everything closes // Grocery stores stay open relatively late, and some fast food places will deliver until 3am, but the malls and other stores close around 5pm. Thursdays is their "late day" where the mall stays open until 8pm. Coming from a college town where everything is always open and running, this was a huge adjustment--imagine going into the city centre (downtown) at 6pm, and it's so quiet you can hear your own echo. Yup, that's become my life.
4. The Trump Questions // If I had a dollar--or rather, a pound--for every time someone asked how I feel about our current administration...
5. The lack of Black hair products // It took me five weeks to find a store with a natural hair section larger than my pinky nail. And even then, most of the products were about seven or more pounds, which is already nine US dollars. Luckily, I did manage to grab a container of coconut oil for about two pounds (only two and a half dollars).
6. The laundry system at the university // Even the program facilitators and interns lament about the laundry system here. It's obnoxious. You have to buy a card for the machines, then put money on said card online, then activate said card, and then you can wash your laundry--and maybe dry it, if the dryer you choose is functioning properly. Let's just say that most of us have opted for sticking our clothes out the window to air dry, and the ones who didn't opt for air drying usually end up doing so anyway.
7. The rain // Although it's not super bothersome, it is kind of sucky. It was nice the first week and a half I was here, then it was rainy and dreary for about two weeks. Mostly, the rain is pretty light, and not constant, but the one day there was a downpour was the day we took a day trip to the beach.
8. The Chinese food // I only ordered it once, and it was forty minutes late and tasted not quite right.
9. The street signs // It's pretty tough navigating these streets when all the street signs are on the sides of buildings rather than standing out on poles. Some streets don't even have signs posted.
10. The short nights // The sun doesn't set until about 10:30 or 11pm, and rises around 3am. There have been nights I've stayed up through all four hours of darkness.
All the best,
Reina
