Second Day in Scotland

On Day 2 of our journey, we woke up bright and early (and by that, I mean at 10 am) and met Anne at the City Chambers. Our other cousins, Catherine and Jim, joined us there for a private tour from Anne.

I couldn't get over how gorgeous the building was! Even though it houses city government, it feels like what we would find at the national Senate or House building...or, maybe even the White House. And the Glasgow City Council has 79 members! We even got to meet one of the former Lord Provosts (the head of City government), Liz Cameron, and we later saw her portrait in the portrait gallery.

Pictures don't even do the City Chambers justice, but here are some anyway:

The finish on his nose is rubbed off because people touch him for good luck upon passing by.

This is where all of the council meetings take place. The head chair (for the Lord Provost) was gifted in the 1800s by Queen Victoria.

After the tour, we headed over to the People's Palace, a museum which contains the history of Glasgow. We got to see a bomb shelter and ration cards (both of which my grandmother experienced during World War II). And we also stopped for a tea in the winter garden.

Since Glasgow was famous for ship-building, the top of the winter garden is designed to look like the hull of a ship.

Then, we visited the street and neighborhood where my grandmother grew up. Her house has long been torn down, but we did get a picture of us with the street name in the background.


We also visited the church where my grandmother was baptized. It's also the same one where my great-grandparents were married. Unfortunately, it was dark when we visited (it gets dark in Glasgow around 3:30 p.m.), so this picture doesn't capture the altar's true beauty, but it's a start.




By then, we had worked up quite an appetite, so we met the rest of my mom's cousins at a restaurant called Metropolitan. It was housed in a venue called Merchant Square, which, from the looks of it, used to be an outdoor market. However, now it's a hip, cozy, enclosed spot that houses several restaurants. Our restaurant in particular was beautiful. There were candles and white lights everywhere, and we got to sit on the balcony overlooking the main part of Merchant Square. The chefs even prepared a special vegan dinner for us.

Totally oblivious to the photo-bombers in back.

But, the greatest part of the evening was just getting to be around my family. I could have listened to stories all day, and it was fascinating to talk about how much we had in common, despite growing up on different continents. My cousins were so incredibly nice, generous and hospitable (not to mention wickedly funny). We swapped stories for hours, and it was truly a wonderful time!

I've only been in Scotland for two days, and already, this trip has been everything I had hoped it would be! It's been incredible so far, and I can only wait for what's to come.

Scotland!

My mother's mom, my grandmother, is from Glasgow, Scotland. She fell in love with my grandfather, an American, when he was stationed overseas during World War II. She moved with him to the United States when he returned from fighting, they got married, had children, and the rest is history, I suppose.

For a long time, I've wanted to surprise my mom with a trip to Scotland to visit family/see the places where her mother grew up and frequented. This past May, after returning from Peru, I was reminded how life is so very short. While stand-up comedian + full-time law student does not spell instant riches, I thought, "why not?" and quickly clicked "purchase" on the British Airways website before allowing a second thought to enter into my brain.

Since I bought our tickets eight months prior our departure, it didn't exactly seem real.

But, after completing my hardest law school semester to date and finishing my last final of the semester, it hit me.

And then the reality of not having done laundry in four weeks, having to cram a lot into a tiny carry-on, and leaving on the same day as my last final (final final, if you will) hit me.

I got it done though (along with all my Christmas shopping and wrapping...and I even managed to clean out my refrigerator so my apartment wouldn't smell to high Heaven when I returned).

My mom and I left from Toronto, so the first part of our journey was to drive there. Then, it was a flight to London (in which I attempted to watch Bridge of Spies at least three times only to fall asleep ten minutes into the movie. No offense, Mr. Hanks), a tiny lay-over at Heathrow and then a quick flight to Glasgow.


Can you tell which one of us is exhausted? I slept my way over the Atlantic, and I'd just like to take a moment to give a big shout-out to neck pillows and the guy with the window seat not getting up once during the flight.

Once we arrived in Glasgow, we checked into our hotel and met up with our cousin, Anne. She works at the Glasgow City Chambers (a truly gorgeous building that will get more attention in later blogs), so we met her there. The City Chambers is located on Georges Square, which was set up for Christmas (more on this later, too), complete with an ice-skating rink and Ferris wheel.






Anne took us to an excellent little place (or, as they say in Scotland, a "wee place") called the 13th Note. It felt more like a pub, but it had a full menu. It was here that I fell in love with vegan haggis. I always thought my soul mate would come in human form, but now I'm not so sure.

 



We shared wine and laughs with Anne before cabbing it back to our hotel fairly early.



Our room was pretty basic (but for $40 in the biggest city in Scotland, I really couldn't complain), but the location was great, and the beds were comfy.


A successful first day!

Thanksgiving

I started off my Thanksgiving by going live on Super Talk 1570 AM. My friend, Rusty, a producer and on-air talent, invited me on Super Talk's morning show so they could do a vegan Thanksgiving taste test.

I'm always eager to share tofurkey with people, and I appreciated the opportunity to speak about having a cruelty-free Thanksgiving by leaving animal products off the plate.

Ready to go live!

Rusty's first bite of tofurkey.

For the show, I made tofurkey, crispy green beans, mashed potatoes, and stuffing.

I am happy to report that Rusty really dug the food!

We chatted on air for a while and took some calls from listeners (who were quite supportive).

Thanks so much to Rusty and Super Talk for having me!

I spent the rest of Thanksgiving with my mom and Dan.

We're officially in 'I hate the cold so I insist on wearing a jacket indoors at all times' season.

Oh, and this cute boy, too:

Our annual Thanksgiving staring contest.

We made the typical Thanksgiving fare (green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, stuffing, roasted asparagus and brussels sprouts, rolls, and cranberry sauce), which started as this:



And ended as this:


We also tried Field Roast for the first time, I absolutely loved it and found it to be pre-spiced to perfection. Plus, I liked the texture, which was firmer than tofu and felt more like tempeh when I bit into it.

For dessert, we had pumpkin pie and Dan's specialty: vegan ice cream chocolate pie. Basically, he makes the crust from crushed Oreo's, fills the thing with chocolate ice cream, and then tops it with chocolate sauce and pieces of dark chocolate. I'm pretty sure I went into a food coma after consuming it. Oh, but what a sweet food coma it was.

Halloween

On Friday, I went to a Halloween party. Halloween is my favorite holiday, so I really have no excuses for why I didn't have a costume ready to go until the last minute. Something about working, going to law school full-time, and traveling across the country to tell jokes every weekend tended to get in the way.

So, I pulled together what I could and came up with Rosie, the Riveter. Original, I know.



Turns out some other people had the same idea. As I opened the door to the party, I was greeted by these two:



Before the party, Dan and Meg came over to get ready.

Who's attractive?

Dan glued famous Supreme Court cases to himself and went as Bear-ly Legal, a big hit at the law school party.

The party was a lot of fun, and the people there definitely put in way more effort than I did (I'm looking at you, burrito and Power Puff Girls costumes).

No idea who this dude is.

The day after the party, we pulled our hungover selves together and went to an MSU football game. I figured after going to school there for three years, I might as well squeeze in one, right?

To be honest, I don't even know who the Spartans played. I just know that there was a torrential downpour that was so not fun. I also know that one of the fans sitting next to me almost popped a blood vessel from screaming so loudly at the referee.

Turns out sunglasses also double as rain goggles.

Some other things I know: 

-I know I was more interested in the band's halftime show than in the game.

-I know I was significantly happier once it stopped raining.

-I can confidently say I now know what a down is.

-I know what to do when someone screams "go green!" in my face (apparently, I am to yell "go white!" with an equal amount of enthusiasm).

-And lastly, I know that I never want to attend another sporting event where my head gets pelted with water again.

Chicago Diner and Walk for Farmed Animals

I had a great weekend! I performed at Wisecrackers in Merrillville, Indiana. And I convinced Dan to meet up with me in Chicago. As soon as I picked him up at the train station, we immediately went to the Chicago Diner (AKA my happy place).

There, I had the vegan macaroni and cheese, and the mock chicken Caesar. Both were amazing!

Dan got the onion ring burger, and you know I had to "try" at least half of those fries.

On Sunday, we headed to Grand Rapids (where we met up with my friend, Alicia) to participate in the Walk for Farmed Animals fundraiser for Farm Sanctuary. If you're not familiar with Farm Sanctuary, I encourage you to visit: farmsanctuary.org. They do absolutely incredible work!




It was so inspiring to be around so many other local activists. And it was a perfect day weather-wise to walk downtown Grand Rapids. I even won a Farm Sanctuary cup at the raffle and got to try some amazing vegan desserts.