Two play pies anna unya un ah oh???

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I have never been more disoriented over such a long period of time in my life! When I got to London on the 11th, I set my cell phone 1 hour fast and 1 day early. The first hostel I checked into gave me a coupon for a free beer from 7 - 7:30 at the bar. Well I was finishing up dinner at Leicester Sq and looked at my cell phone to find 19:05 (it only displays military time which adds another dimension to my confusion). I quickly pay, run to the tube, and get off at my stop about 19:15 ACPT (Alex Cell Phone Time). Thinking I’m going to make it, I start briskly walking back to find I’m lost and need to console the map. Finally I get there at 19:32 ACPT panting and holding out my free beer coupon (the lengths I go to for a free beer). The bartender* tells me I have to come back at 7, and I think he means the next day, so I buy a drink. It wasn’t until the next morning when I tried to go to breakfast at 7 ACPT to find it not open because it was actually 6.

I didn’t realize I had the wrong date until days later. I had bought the flight to Edinburgh for the 19th and was lucky to catch that mistake the day before my flight! I was eating dinner with the Noblit’s (old friends of my Grandparents) and noticed the waitress gave us a Mother’s day menu. I saw a sign that said “Mother’s day special March 18th” and said, “I don’t think this is the menu tonight because it’s only the 17th.” We were all confused because it wasn’t even close to Mother’s day in the states, so Mrs. Noblit asked our server about it. Well it turns out Mother’s day here is March 18th and I had a flight out the next day.

Because of that time and date scare, I made sure to double check everything when I got to Edinburgh. I asked the man who checked me in for the time, just to make sure there were no time zones changes. I even triple checked the date and time through different sources last night just in case. Well my flight leaves tomorrow, and on a fluke I decided to take a train to Linlithgow today. When I was trying to figure out what platform to go to at 10:45 ACPT, I noticed the time they had was 11:45. Holding my cell phone in the air, I asked a man working “excuse me, but that clock says 11:45?” He explained that last night was Greenwich Mean Time’s day light savings.

After that lucky discovery, I went to the Linlithgow (pronounced lin lith go) castle. It was a lot cooler than the Edinburgh Castle. Because it’s not tourist season, the town was really quiet and it felt like I was wandering around old ruins. It was kind of scary in some of the dark and quiet corridors.

Last night I hung out with my roommate Xin (pronounced Shin) in the hostel’s bar. We met some locals who gave her a flag and me a scarf (they were Scottish soccer team paraphernalia from the big game that day). One of them had such a thick accent I could not understand a word he said until he started mocking an American accent. Then he wanted me to mock a Scottish accent, and this is what he told me to say phonetically:

Two play pies anna unya un ah oh.

This is seriously what it sounded like! And can you guess what it means? I thought he was pulling my leg, so I asked another guy if he understands me when I say “Two play pies anna unya un ah oh.” He laughed and said “Two plain pies and an onion one as well.”

Oh, yesterday I tried haggis; it’s this mash stuffed in a lamb’s stomach then boiled. It was pretty good, but I kind of want to know what’s in it before I order it again.


*As a funny side story, the bartender was from France, and when I bought the drink, I tipped him 50 pence (about $1). He looked at the coin and said, “Are you trying to tip me?” I replied, “yes” and he said, “that is so sexy” in a very thick French accent. I couldn’t believe a French man said I, disoriented panting American tourist in a travel vest, did something sexy.

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