Scottish weather
Every conversation I have with a Scottish person I have just met goes like this:
- Scottish Person: (asks some question, like the time or when the bus is due)
- Me: (answer question - SP notices I have an American accent)
- SP: So are you here on holiday?
- Me: No. I married a guy here.
- SP: So how do you like it here?
- Me: It's nice. I like it. (Despite my issues with Scotland, that is the truth, and even if it wasn't I don't like to start conversations dissing someone's country.)
- SP: Except for the weather, right?
- Me: It's not so bad. I'm from Minnesota. That's like the Siberia of the US.
And then the Scottish person smiles or whatever and we continue from there.
Okay, so today I got to experience first hand the true weirdness of Scottish weather. I went to Tesco (the grocery store near our house). It is about half a mile away. When I walked to the store, it was sunny and pretty nice. I went in and bought mustard and crackers and some food to review later. I also got a mango that was very tasty because it was on the clearance rack because it was on the edge of overripe.
Anyway, I finished my shopping and paid my money and put the heavy stuff in my backpack and headed out. As I stepped out the door, it was pouring rain. And not just normal rain. Freezing rain. Half the sky was dark and cloudy, and the other half was still bright and sunny. And the cloudy half was peeing on me.
I walked across the parking lot, towards the road I take to start home. By the time I got across the lot and around the corner and onto the road, the rain was starting to let up. By the time I got halfway down that road, it was downright warm. At least on my right side, facing the sun. On the left it was still a bit chilly. I was starting to think I would need to unzip my coat when I rounded the corner onto the street that leads to my house.
The sun was to my back and I could still feel the warmth on the back of my neck. The front of my head, however, was suddenly being pelted with tapioca-sized hail. I was nearing home so I continued on. The further I went, the bigger the hail got. When I finally reached home, it was pea-sized and starting to really sting. I finally got in the house. I ate my mango and watched part of Mythbusters.
And now it looks like it's getting sunny again.
As a completely unrelated side note, I have job interviews tomorrow and next wednesday. I don't even want to go to the interview tomorrow, but I'd really like the job I'm interviewing for next week. It's to do data gathering and processing for neurology research with the University of Edinburgh. I think it would be good.
Alana
