Corinne's Blog

If all goes well today I will be boarding a plane to Northern Ireland tomorrow morning to join Craig with a temporary passport from the Edinburgh Consulate.I will then on Saturday be on a plane back home to Chicago then on a bus to Minneapolis to be in Minnesota by Sunday night.

My passport went missing a little while ago when I lost track of it while traveling back and forth from Edinburgh Scotland to Dundee Scotland. When I was going to go to a nightclub called Fat Sam’s I first noticed it was missing. At the time I searched Craig’s flat until there was no where that hadn’t been searched, and then we searched again. Craig and I concluded that the passport had probably been left in Edinburgh with a lot of other things i’d left behind including my primary pairs of jeans. When we made arrangements to  come back we had in mind that the passport was in Edinburgh. It was to our surprise to get here yesterday expecting to get a flight today to find that there was no passport anywhere to be found. I concluded that it fell out of my bag somewhere and after mad searching for it here in Edinburgh we decided to report it missing.  The only solution was that I could go out to the United States of America Embassy or consulate and prove my citizenship for a temporary passport. Sadly the flight I was going to be taking to belfast left before the consulate here in Edinburgh opened.

We had to change our plans so that I could walk into the U.S. consulate to get a temporary passport. My current flight back home is from Belfast Ireland on Saturday and I can’t get to that flight unless I get to Belfast Ireland itself first. Craig had to change the booking for my ticket for the  flight till tomorrow which buys me an extra day to get my passport, Craig kept his ticket and continued on to Ireland today because it was pointless for us both to get new tickets when it was only me that was needed at the US consulate.That makes me sad because it makes me lose one day of vacation with Craig.

Craig and I were scheduled to head to Belfast together this morning to have a small vacation together before Craig saw me off back to America. But since I only had my primary ID being my passport and since that is the only Identification accepted Internationally, without my passport I would not be able to board my normally scheduled flight to Belfast that left this morning. So today with help from my mother and my employer Jerry who has a copy of my passport. I hope I will be able to walk into the consulate and after having my passport copy faxed over, recieve a temporary passport. The consulate has no choice but to send me back to the United States of America, because I am an US citizen. The only thing that we are now worried about is time. If the Edinburgh consulate cannot provide me with a temporary passport by tomorrow I will miss my flight to belfast and I will therefore miss my flight back to the United States on Saturday which will mean that I will have to buy another 300$ ticket back to the US in about 2 to 3 weeks. And be stuck (not fully to my dismay) in Scotland for another few weeks, missing school and all that jazz.

I know personally I will not be able to afford a ticket because my bank account has been frozen since I came to Scotland for reasons unknown, I know that my mom can’t afford one either. Regardless I know that my mom will do all she can to get me back into the country. I love that I can trust that she has my back. Right now I’m just hoping that all goes well when i head out to the consulate in a few minutes and that my passport is faxed in good time. Currently it is around 2am in Minnesota and nothing will be open. My mother is also going to fax my birth certificate over to the people in the consulate as secondary proof of my citizenship.

Craig said he was afraid of me being banned from Scotland because I lost my passport. I know that that’s will not happen because only criminals get banned from countries and I’ve done no wrong. I know I will for sure miss him today. And I feel better knowing that if this doesn’t work out that I’ll have him back to me on Monday.

Hopefully all the time issues work out…so that’s what’s going on…I’m off to walk tot he consulate…Pray for me!

Today Craig and I went to a pizza hut buffet for lunch. Craig had seen a forum that said that at pizza hut some guys had eaten 30 to 108 pieces of pizza during their pizza buffet experiences. Craig’s goal was to get to 25 slices during our stay and he’d been planning it for sometime…since yesterday when he read the forum. I was going to eat as much as I could because I felt bad when we went to jimmy chungs and I ended up eating very little of anything.

When we arrived I ended up turning it into a competition of sorts. I opened a little black book that Craig had given me and i wrote on top of one page “Craig’s Pizza Hut Pizza Tally” and on the adjactent page I wrote “Corinne’s Pizza Hut Pizza Tally” under both I also wrote “drinks”.

Whenever we finished a slice of pizza or a pint of bottomless pepsi we would put a tick down. I thought for sure that Craig would win because he was a lot more motivated about eating and after my fourth piece I felt my stomach catching up with me. It was Craig’s determination to stay one ahead of me that kept me going. I knew that if I could get Craig to slow down and take his limit that I could get him to fall and lose his consentration of the food itself.

After my 9th slice Craig was ahead by 2 and I was waining on the edge of stopping. On my next plate up I got 5 pieces instead of the four that Craig had been getting. I knew that if I stayed seated I could eat more than Craig. at Craig’s 10th piece I could see that he was getting sick. I’d gotten sick a bit before that.
I knew that if I tied Craig at 12 pieces that I would have a small chance in beating him. Craig was on his 12th piece and I tied him and he said something that changed my mind for good. I don’t remember exactly what it was but I do know that it involved Americans and their eating habits. I think it was ” If you eat anymore you’ll prove the rumors about Americans and their eating habits” That’s when I was out to beat him for good…forget being lady like…I ate 16 whole pizza slices and finished 3 pints of pepsi when Craig only had 12 slices with 4 pints of pepsi…I won.

We took a long walk to burn off the calories now I’m sitting in on one of Craig lectures. I don’t think I’m going to be hungry for quite some time now.

Over that past month and a half I’ve had a chance to pick many desserts, These are just a few I enjoyed:

Jimmy Chungs: Soft Serve Ice Cream, Mango Pudding and cake.

Jimmy Chung’s Dessert

Taza’s Lemon Cheesecake, Rice Pudding and Indian Ice Cream.

Taza’s Dessert

And looking back I’d like to list some of the things I’ve had an opportunity to Eat in the last month and a half.

1. I’ve Eaten at  fine/not so fine restaurants such as:

-Tonic: Home of great Milk shakes and the best Burgers…ever! 141 Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4DPTel: 01382 226103

Tonic Burger

- Burger King

Burger King Food

-KFC

KFC

- Greggs: Brilliant and I’m upset that America doesn’t have it.

Greggs

-The Pancake Place: Was a bit over priced but was good

The Pancake Place (Highland Pancake) @ bottom and (American) up top.

-Da Vinci’s Pizza: 1 whole pizza with a ton of toppings for a about 5 dollars…and 2 big pizzas for 10 awesome!

Yum Da Vinci’s Pizza

-Anima Italian Soul Food

Anima Pizza

-L’Alba D’oro   :  The Best Haggis Supper in the UK I’ve tasted so far

Haggis Supper from L-Alba D’oro

- Taza Indian Buffet Restaurant

Taza Indian Food

-Jimmy Chungs

Jimmy Chung’s Chinese food

Today I was woken up by the knock of Craig’s landlord going from room to room for some reason. Scary as it was Craig’s door was unlocked and I was laying on his floor in a sleeping bag practically right in front of the unlocked door. I’m not sure that my staying with Craig over the last month has been the most legal of acts in his flat situation. But I am nervous to bump into his landlord every time I walk out into the hallways. I know that Craig’s neighbors know that I’m staying with him, or I assume that they know because Craig has ‘brought in’ food to me on more than one occasion. This morning though Craig’s landlord was going door to door knocking and asking something and he has yet to get to this room…How will i explain my presents in Craig’s room at 9am…or at 10 am or any other time? I was thinking the whole ‘This is my boyfriend I spent the night’ thing might work if I was to bend the truth…I don’t think Craig’s landlord is one to ask too many questions anyway. But I’m still on edge about being in this flat 24/7 and having people see me. Back home a person is allowed to stay in a dorm/apt with a student as long as they want as long as the student’s roommate agrees to the arrangement. I wonder if things are different here.

Packing up all my things and putting them into the closet this morning was kind of scary like when Craig’s flat cleaning lady had to come to clean the bathroom.

idk…It’s like since I left Belfast I feel like everyone is out to get me. Since I have to leave by the end of January I feel like everyone now that the end is coming is out to get me more than ever. Plus I’m kind of freaking out because I can’t find my passport :(. Hopefully the landlord isn’t looking for non authorized guests and my waking Craig up this morning wasn’t in vain.

I’ll be back home next Saturday and as I know my time here is running out. Craig and i have both grown closer but i have discovered my future enemy….the xbox360.

Even though I have fun playing with it, I know when it is appropriate to stop playing and to actually interact with real people. Craig on the other hand, when talked to while playing the single player fallout 3 game gets all whiny and even pouts and has a little hand temper tantrum. I think I’ll be happy when i can talk to Craig on the phone and not have to deal with the dazed ignoring personality which becomes him as he plays. I like Craig and i like that he is good at gaming and is willing to teach me in multi-player games…but I think it is extremely antisocial to play a single player game when a person is trying to have a conversation with you. That’s the one thing that I get annoyed about.

I understand that Craig could easily say that I always begin talking to him after he begins playing, but I think he shouldn’t be getting on fallout 3 unless he knows that I am done talking to him. It’s not like WoW where i know that the game goes on when he leaves…xboxgames do not continue without a player. They stop, and my time here is running out.

I’m a little pissy right now because earlier I wanted to ask Craig a question and he stomped his feet and whined about how he was playing…HE WAS REALLY RUDE TO ME and i actually felt hurt by his actions. I want to eat something but Craig doesn’t want to go into the kitchen in order to avoid his flatmates…I want to play a card game, but Craig isn’t the card playing type. And I want Craig to acknowledge that I am here and might want to do something other than just watching him play…but the likelihood of me getting this gamer back into the game of living real life with me…is very little.