I Swear It's Not English!

We have been here a little over a week, and there are still instances when people talk to us and we walk away saying to each other, “Dude, there is no way that's English. I promise it's something else.” We just have to take those moments and laugh! Sometimes the laughter is a confused form as we laugh along side some Scot that just said something that apparently deserved a chuckle. Other times it is when we are walking away in complete confusion as to what just happened. One specific instance occurred as we waited for the bus to arrive. A man walked up and was looking at the time charts with a confused/concerned expression across his face. He then asked Matt and I about a specific number bus and then pointed down the street. I looked at him as he awaited my response and then I said, “I'm sorry, what did you say?” I tried the “please repeat that method” as if I had spaced out and just not heard him, when in all honesty I heard every sound he made. I tried to buy another chance to make something of the mix of syllables that exited his mouth. He then repeated some form of elvish and pointed down the street again.

That was my second try, so I had better make the best of it. I looked down the street as if I had understood anything he just said and then replied, “Yeah maybe, but I'm not sure.” He said that he didn't know either, but he'd give it a try. We wished him good luck and waived to him as he sat down inside the bus and rode away... I still can't tell you exactly what he was asking. Maybe it was something dealing with the bus turning the next corner. Maybe he asked if the bus went to a specific place. I'm not sure, but I hope that he made it wherever he was going. I could go on about a time when Matt and I were in a store and we began a conversation with someone, or the time I rode in an elevator with a man at the train station and he said something about my clothing and smiled. I just smiled back. It makes me wonder if this will improve or if we will have moments like this throughout our stay in Scotland. I wonder if there will be at least on time each day when Matt and I agree that they're speaking Swedish or if we'll begin to pick up on their quickness of speech.

But enough with that... I'm going to use the next couple of paragraphs to tell you guys about whats been going on the past couple of days. After all I feel like thats the reason for this written endeavor. This past Wednesday Matt and I were able to go to our first European football match!! You can only imagine our reactions. If you haven't already looked Matt has put some pictures of the game on his facebook page, so you might want to take a gander. Anyway, I would say that our reactions were a little different. Of course we were both excited about everything that we were seeing. The crowds, the jerseys, the new city. We were having a great time! We had not been into Glasgow before this game, so everything around us was new! We took a train into Glasgow and then basically found our way around the town. It was really fun to see how we navigated around an unfamiliar place, but I feel like we did really well. If nothing else can be said, we found some dinner...a few interesting shops... and thankfully the stadium. The game was incredible! We got to the stadium about an hour early so we went down to the wall bordering the field to watch the players warm up. This next part probably wont matter to many of you, but I will tell you that it was crazy watching players like Ronaldhino, Kaka, Beckham, and our own Demarkus Beasley (an American player) kick around before the game!

It ended in a 2-2 draw, but it was nothing short of exciting! Hearing the crowd react when the Glasgow Rangers (the home team) scored was very cool. And then being able to join in because the first goal was scored by the American player I named earlier, Beasley! Matt and I were jumping and yelling and high-fiving! Basically any way you might see a person act if they had just won the lottery.... we were screaming like idiots, but the great thing about this story is that we were in the midst of thousands of other lottery winners! I must add one more detail. After the crowds had subsided, and the cheers had simmered down, Matt begins yelling out “BEASLEY!...BEASLEY!...BEASLEY!” Naturally I began to follow along.. ha ha. But what completes the chant that Matt started is the amount of people that joined in! I don't know exactly how many people actually joined in at the end, but I know that a majority of our side and definitely our section was cheering right along the chant that my fellow American began. When it died out after about 20 seconds Matt turns to me with the biggest smile on his face. If I didn't know what had just happened I might have thought he'd just won the Cleverest Man Alive Award (which if you didn't know, Matt is in the running for)...but the truth is that I had just witnessed this amazing/hilarious act. Matt turns to me with his smile full and said, “I started that.” I'm telling you, there have not been that many other moments when I knew a person was completely satisfied with a previous action, but I was able to chalk another one on that night after Matt's chant. Our journey home was interesting as well. I will only say a few things. First, we exit the stadium into a herd of people and basically try and fight our way through the crowd that was walking the opposite direction. You ask, “why didn't you find a way around them?” We tried... but let me ask you something in return. Have you ever watched a cyclist ride against the flow of traffic on a one way road? Neither have I, but I imagine something similar to our situation. I am exaggerating a little, but it was definitely a task to walk through the throng of people that we found going to opposite direction.

So we made it through that mess and continued walking towards the road that the subway station was on. As we got a little closer we noticed a line full of people coming from around the corner we were approaching. Matt asked if I thought that line was coming from the subway, and I responded with a hopeful “No.. there's no way.. at least I hope not.” We kinda chuckled and walked a little faster, first to see if this was in fact originating from the station, and second to be able to get back to the line before more people joined it. Well it turned out to be from the station entrance. We quickly turned around and made our way back to the end of the line with a pace something short of jogging. When we took our place in line we guessed it would take at least an hour just to get back to the subway... but with that hour we still had enough time to catch the last train from Glasgow to Paisley. I am so thankful for this line because it gave Matt and I another chance to just talk. We ended up trying to quote the verses that we have been memorizing, as well as the verses that each of us had previously memorized in our S-group with Benjamin. This time was just great to be able to talk about God's Word and some challenges that each of us have been facing. God knows what we need and I am without a doubt that He sent Matt and I together for a reason! We are both very encouraging to one another and I don't think two days go by without one of us telling the other that we're glad the other is here. But now that I got that out of the way I will talk about some other stuff :).
Before we left on Wednesday we were finally able to get our student cards for the university. We went through the whole process of paperwork, talking to some people, and then the infamous picture... Matt got done with everything first and then I made it to the picture portion of the show. Matt says that she will count and tell you to smile on 3. The next sentence I hear is “You should totally make a face at the last second..” To make the story shorter you can see my picture ID on the side there... I had been wearing a hat all day so I have a form of hat hair, but in all honesty it really doesn't matter considering everything else that I have going on around the face/head area right now! Ha ha


Thursday and Friday gave Matt and I chances to just relax. We slept in and then got some stuff done that we needed to get done. Thursday we were able to play soccer for the first time, and I was so ready! I think we were both tired of getting adjusted and wanted to just run around and be crazy! So we did. We had a great time. We went out there with two of our flatmates, Julian and Julian (one from France the other from Spain), our friend Stefan, and a couple other guys from Scotland and Spain. It was great getting out there and kicking around in what felt like (with windchill) low 20's. It was cold! But it was equally fun!

Friday we were able to meet a lot more people when we went to a get together that some other students were having. The funny thing is we are the only Americans here, so everyone wants to meet us. It is really a weird to think that when you introduce yourself the other person says back to you (most of the time with a French accent) “You're the Americans!” It was actually a little overwhelming at times... we basically just talked about ourselves for several hours because everyone would ask questions when they met us... sadly they were a lot of the same questions. We've answered “So...why did you leave America for Scotland?” at least 73 times, and I don't think it will let up any time soon ha ha. Well, at least until we have told everyone the reasons for our choosing Scotland...where we're from and why we chose Scotland... how its different here than where we're from, and then why we chose Scotland.. ha ha! I guess they are confused because most all of the students that are here from Europe came to improve their English, and since we obviously speak it they don't know why would choose Scotland.

There is one more thing I want to cover, and I will cover it fairly quickly. The international students were given the opportunity to go to Edinburgh today, and Matt and I pounced on it for sure! After a 1 ½ hr bus ride, a small nap, and a new high score in Tetris on my phone (one that beat Matt's current high score!! We've been competing) we were finally in Edinburgh!! The journey began with a small plan that I came up with... to give you an idea of the organization of this trip. They gave us little guides to Edinburgh and the time when the bus would leave later that day... the rest was up to us! So yeah, we came up with a pretty sweet game plan and I think at the end of the day the four guys that made up my group were satisfied. We saw the castle, the cathedral, the old town walk, the Scottish Parliament, and then climbed the mountain pictured below! It was amazing! We were so blessed to see God's creation!! and the weather was beautiful! It was a little cold, very windy, and extremely pretty! God is good.

To the right is Edinburgh down below... It was amazing.

Stefan, Matt, myself, and Dennis

We spent the day with our friends Stefan and Dennis. They are from the Netherlands and Denmark respectively. We had a great adventure today! It included Matt and I buying kilts, and myself purchasing a set of mini bagpipes! Matt, Dennis, and Stefan laughed until they cried as they watched me attempt to fill the bag with air. The sad thing was that I could not muster out more than one very oddly sounding note with all the air that I forced into this little bag. What I discovered after a thorough search of my new instrument was a small flap that was taped over the hole entering the bag!!! I had been blowing with all of my might and lung power just to be blocked by this little leather flap that was there for whatever reason! After that discovery I found it much easier to fill the bag and was able to squeak out several notes that belonged to Amazing Grace.
Keep praying for our relationships with our friends and for mine and Matt's relationship with the Lord. We are meeting and praying a couple times a week in the morning and trying to challenge each other as often as we can. Thanks for the support and feel free to leave a comment at the bottom... it's always fun to read. Much love!