Last Saturday I went on the University of Glasgow international society weekend trip to the Highlands. On the way we stopped at Perth, Pitlochry where we saw a fish ladder and dam, and Aviemore, which was a cute ski village on one street. We finally arrived at the hostel in Inverness and I was quite impressed with how nice it was. It reminded me of when I went to girl guide camp, music camp, or Camp Kearney when I was younger. After getting settled into the hostel, we then had some free time in the city. We walked around the streets and saw the castle, which was a let down. It hardly looked like a castle and was the courthouse instead. After walking around and having some free time in the hostel, we then had dinner in the hostel, which the international society provided and made for us. Later on, everyone came down to the common room and played games, partied and hung out all night getting to know other exchange students.
On Sunday we went to Loch Ness. We first stopped at Drumnadrochit where the Nessy monument at Monster Centre and the monster exhibition was. Everyone immediately went to the gift shop to get some Loch Ness souvenirs – I myself got a cute, soft stuffed animal of Nessie since I don’t have any stuffed animals here in Glasgow. We then continued onto Loch Ness and saw the Urquhart Castle. We were able to explore the inside of the castle and we watched a video about the history of it. After Loch Ness, we then made our way to Fort Augustus/Fort William for lunch. A group of us went in a pub to have a nice lunch and we thought we had time because we had an hour and 15 minutes. It ended up that they totally forgot about Janine’s and my orders and I finally got my food 12 minutes before we were supposed to be on the bus. I had to scarf down the food SUPER fast, which was a big struggle for me! Janine didn’t even get her food, so we had to rush to a grocery store to get her some after she got her money back. After frantically getting back to the bus we then continued on and eventually stopped at Glencoe to see the 3 sisters, which are 3 mountains that looked similar all beside each other. The view was spectacular and we even saw hikers coming back with their crazy hiking equipment, which made me want to hike on the trail just a little ways. Sadly we were only there for a photo stop and we had to get back on the bus to continue on our way home. The only other two times we stopped was for another photo stop to see Loch Tulla and a toilet stop. All in all it was a very good weekend with amazing scenery and many great people to hang out with! Luckily we get to see Loch Ness, Inverness, and Glencoe again when we go on the Isle of Skye trip in April!
This past weekend one of my flat mates saw a huge cockroach in one of our toilet rooms. GROSS. She said it was at least 2 inches long. We haven’t used that toilet room since but thankfully we have two! An exterminator came today. He went right into the toilet room prepared with his flashlight, closed the door behind him, and looked everywhere in there for that cockroach. He couldn’t find it. He then went to our kitchen and pulled our fridge and stove out from the wall. He found 2 cockroaches. I haven’t been more disgusted in my life in a place I’ve lived in. I’m wearing shoes everywhere I go and whenever I go to the washroom, I check the entire floor, walls, AND ceiling before I go in there. To be honest, I do that wherever I go in my flat now. I’ve developed paranoia of cockroaches. The exterminator put down poison and traps, which will hopefully get rid of them. He seemed to think that it shouldn’t be a big deal because he has seen A LOT worse. I’ve never even seen a cockroach and I want it to stay that way. We’ll see what happens to them in the next few weeks.
