Dublin or bust!

Well as of this morning I have officially booked my flight to Dublin for St. Patricks Day! We have a nice big group of people going so we should have a lot of fun. I'm still amazed at the prices for some of these things. We went through RyanAir...my roundtrip ticket is 20 pounds ($30)!!! They added a nice fee for paying with my debit card which was almost as much as my ticket! But still, less than 30 pounds to fly roundtrip to Dublin is pretty insane. The only bad thing is that there are only 2 flights that day, one at 6:30am and the other at 10pm, so of course we had to book the 6:30am. And the airport is a little ways away, so we have to jump on a bus at 4:30, ride out to the airport, check in, find our flight, and jump on. That will take at least 4 coffees to get me there haha. But it will be a lot of fun. We're coming back the next day at 12:30, then sleeping for a loooooong time. I'm excited for this trip...and I can't wait to see what Dublin will be like on St. Pattys Day!
Well I've been here for a little while now, so I figured I'd give my thoughts so far. Things have definitely settled in and I feel like I've gotten a nice picture of Scotland. To be honest, the city has been a little bit of a letdown. If I could do it again I would try to find a place in Edinburgh or Stirling. Part of it is because I'm just not a big city person, but another thing is the lack of places to go and see around here. The city is great and there's plenty of stuff to do, but there's no castle like in other cities, no monuments, no rolling hills or highlands around us. It's just a huge city. And it's kinda dirty too. Being the big industrial city that Glasgow used to be, you can still see the remnants of coal use. The Royal Infirmary and one of the churches were stained black because of coal, and when they began to clean up the city they decided to leave those buildings as reminders of part of Glasgow's past. But in all the city isn't exactly what I thought it would be, although still fun. Now for the people. The people here are very friendly, but also very different. It is a completely different culture, and it's been fun to be immersed in it. But there are a few things which I know I will leave behind and be glad to leave behind. For one, cussing over here is simply part of their everyday language...I'm not used to that, at least not how it is over here. And specifically, the F word is used a lot. They just don't see it the same way we do, they don't view it as the big bad word that we see it. I think that's also me coming from the South. I'm just not used to these kinds of things, and it bothers me a little bit. But I also understand that it's just different for them. But that is one thing I'll be glad to leave behind. Another is smoking. It seems like everyone and their brother smokes. I've almost gotten used to cigarette smoke simply because it's everywhere. I think if you don't smoke you are very out of the ordinary. And don't worry mom, I never picked up cigarettes back home, and I won't here either haha. And of course the Scots love their drinking. It's different with that too over here, but in a good way. We have put such a negative label on drinking that so many people want to do it before they are legally allowed to. Here it is simply part of the culture, so no one sees it as the thing that they can't have. I personally think it's good that way. People want what they can't have, and with the label we have placed on drinking in America, I think it leads to abuse. Here it's culture, and always has been. So the city is a ton of fun, but overall a little bit of a letdown. The people are awesome, very friendly, very kind, but there are definitely some habits I won't be embracing and will be glad to leave behind.