Trips & Happenings

How is everyone doing? Hope things are going good. I have been busy like crazy, had a presentation last week, another one on Thursday and another next Tuesday! I decided come whatever, I am blogging tonight, even if I cannot read posts.

I went to Amsterdam during the winter break and boy, was it an adventure! It started with the bus, the buses from my house to the train station stop working at 9.48pm on a week day. We were meeting at the station to take off at 2.00am. I didn’t want to walk alone at mid-night besides, it’s quite far, so I took the bus and beagn the waiting game. I killed time with an apple cider at a pub with like-minded individuals going on the trip.

We finally gathered everyone and set off to board the bus only to discover that it was running late. We were standing in the middle of the expressway in the middle of the night with no shield from the cold! It was 0 degrees! The bus showed up at 3.00am and we set off. I was dozing off after cornering 2 seats for myself in the from of the bus and getting used to the usual chatter among people bound together on a trip when the first wahala started.

I heard WTF? I woke and smelled smoke, and someone went ‘the bus is f****** and the driver is still driving?’ The smoke was so much we could smell it in the bus with all the windows shut against the cold! And the people at the back could see smoke coming from the bus. The driver finally stopped and we were ordered off the bus, it was 4.10am. We had to wait for the police to set up the emergency cones as we were between borders on the Highway and no one was allowed to get into the warmth of the bus. The temperature had further plummeted of course as I was shivering and everyone was complaining. People had to pee but the bus didn’t even have toilet facilities, it was locked, someone said ‘hit the bushes’ but it was ridiculous as we were on a highway, no shoulder on the road to even stay in clusters! We had to make a single file as it was a bridge and the little space on the side of the road was very narrow. I have never heard so many swear words in a single night before.

We got back on the bus around 5.00am when the emergency signs had been erected and proceeded to wait for the replacement bus. It came 3 hours later. Set off again at 8.00am, badly pressed and quite grumpy we were the motley crew . We found a rest stop after 2 hrs and everyone got about their business. Arrived Amsterdam at about 4.00pm. School trips, you gotta love them!

We got to the hotel/hostel only to discover the fool that organised the trip got two rooms only to be co-shared between both sexes! I promptly objected that the smaller room be taken by the girls and I could see the hesitation on the guy’s face, I ignored him, I am a full grown adult and no way would I share a room with over-grown kids still exhibiting traits of youthful exuberance. They are undergrads after all! Still have the boorishness and manners or lack thereof attached to males of that class.

We girls had our way but some unlucky girls had to share the other room with the guys. I told them they could bring their mattress and bunk with us. We rested a bit and met in the lobby for what they called a visit to the ‘coffee house’. Innocent enough until you have been to Amsterdam and discovered that coffee houses do not have the same meaning. These are cafes where marijuana is sold and smoked freely! Innocent me! I have never inhaled so much smoke. It’s everywhere. The laws are not like in the UK or France where smokers go outside, they can stay in the room and do it. I responded with having allergy attacks! So severe my eyes were almost swollen shut!

Another pet peeve of the trip was, the ‘leader’ kept giving information in French, it was so annoying considering that half the people on the trip do not speak it and he manages English quiet well in school environs. As eloquently pointed out by a friend, since the guy had been smoking weed, all his language capabilities had been disconnected, and he can only resort to his native language!

The guys were principally there for the smoke. We meet in the mornings and go to a museum after that everyone is left to their own devices. I like the city away from the smoke and red lights. It’s a bicycle city. There are thousands of them everywhere. My friend almost got hit by a tram too. Between them and cycles, it was all very crazy.

The food is great! I love their Vlaamse fries, so thick and long, just how I like my fries. And the waffles and huge street pizzas, doughnuts etc. The foods are available 24/7 on most of the streets. Even in the 'coffee shops' you have muffins (made with hash), brownie (made with weed) etc proudly displayed in neon signs! They also have fab restaurants. Even the silly hotel we stayed in, the beef of the burger was so huge the bread only covered half of it. Some of them had silly names, space cakes, space brownie, anyway I assume by the time you finish onhe, you will be in space! This aptly named.

I also saw girls (in minuscule undies) in live windows, calling men and the bars are open all days and hours of the week and the girls are there in the windows even during the day. It really is a bustling city. We went to the Marijuana museum, the torture museum and the sex museum. We also saw the floating flower market. I went on the boat round the city too. I have never had so many touristy activities in a single trip!

There were also quirky quotes everywhere such as, 'drink beer and save water, do your part to save the environment' and ' Don't drink and drive, instead, smoke and fly! It was a lesson!

We went to the Anne Frank museum and it was a very sad experience for me because I could not imagine the persecution such a young girl must have faced during the Hitler era. She was just 15 and forced to hide in an upstairs room with her sister and the people in the office downstairs were not even aware of their existence! They were eventually betrayed and sent to the camps where they were killed. The only good moment was seeing a live Oscar won by one of the actresses in the Film based on her life. We were not allowed to take pictures though.

On getting back to school, a lecturer asked what we did for the winter break, I sat in front so I had to respond and told him I went to Amsterdam, his response? Ha you went there to smoke!

So there goes my trip, many more memories but this post is long enough already and I can’t even include the gist about the stalker I have managed to acquire.


The temperature is going up yipeeeeeeeeeee! It will be 15 degrees tomorrow, I will brave it and wear open toed flats, about time. Enjoy the rest of the week. Will be back after heavy school schedule.

Principles of Scottishness!

Hi all. I haven't been following any posts. I know I have a missed a lot! I miss you guys. Like Buttercup said, I have arrived now and I am finally getting my bearings! Let me run you through everything in the next lines.

Leaving
There was a mad traffic on my way to the airport. I thought I would miss my flight. Spent about 3 hrs getting there! I had a lot of mixed feelings saying goodbye to my mum! I sorely miss her.

Arrivals
My flight to Heathrow was smooth. Landed at 5.30AM and my connecting flight to Edinburgh was for 6.50. Almost missed that due to security checks. Had to jump the queue. I explained about my flight and they breezed me through. My brother is on holiday so he was with me. We had a minor ish with the groundnut sha. We poured it in an Eva bottle and it was in my brother's hand luggage. When they checked and saw what it was we were allowed to go! This was 10 mins to take off!

Edinburgh
On the flight, there were only 4 black people including my brother and I. I was terrified. thank God I wasn't by myself. We didn't have any problems though. The school meet & greet that was meeting us came about 1 hr late. We landed around 8.30 and the bus came at 12. My dad called and said we should have taken a taxi to Dundee and we should stop doing Ijebu! That woulda cost about £120!. Taking the bus from school was free. plus £10 for my brother. I told him I would rather wait.

Getting there
The scenery is gorgeous! I love the place. The journey was smooth. Lots to see. I met my faltmates finally and they were nice. My room is lovely. I finished unpacking in less than 1 hr. Thanks to my brother. The Agent cam to meet me to hand over my set of keys and all my flatmates didn't go out. All three were courteous and saw to my comfort.

Day to day
My first 2 days, I didn't see any balck person! I was worried. On getting to the City centre, I saw like 3. Do you know what it's like being the only black person in a like a 100 people gathering? Luckily my brother was always with me so I was fine.
My flat is close to every where so I have everything I need.

I have discovered a shop that sells Plantain and Okro! All the supermarkets here sell Pork. No BEEF SAUSAGES. It was annoying at first sha. But the shop that sells okro sells it. More expensive but at least I can have it now. Tesco, Asda, Lidl, Iceland, Somerfield none had beef sausages.

On the first day of Fresher's week, I saw more Africans. I couldn't believe how glad I was!
The first went by quite fast. It is my second week now. Our internet stopped working about on Wednesday. They just fixed it tonight. Apparently we had reached the limit of our subscription or something like that.

I complained but I was told the person that signed the contract has to complain himself! That is one of my flatmates, finally got him to do it. He is European so we have a mini United Nations going on!

I have registered at the jobshop, applied for my NI no, registerd with a GP etc. Also filled the council tax exemption form.

I do not have a phone yet. I don't know what to get. I have a Lyca mobile but it's not working. I can't make calls on it but I can receive. I can't even top up! Mailed them but they said they will call me on Monday. It's Induction week now so I ma quite busy so the phone is turned off. If they called, I can't retrieve the voicemail. Fired off another e-mail to them. They should call after 5 or during my break.

It was frustrating when the internet wasn't working.

Met a Nigerian lady on PHd today, she gave a pep talk about surviving the LLM. I quickly got her contacts and asked about food and Salons. She gave me contacts. So that is one less thing to worry about! I can't imagine dashing off to London every time I need my hair done or need some serious African food. She did it for SIX months before finding those people!

School
I am thinking of changing my course! I was apprehensive about telling my dad sha, since he is the one paying. He thought it was a good idea. I discovered that I can do a joint LLM for the price of 1. Only downside is, the second semester will be in France. Where I will obtain the second LLM. We will be there for about 5 months and come back to Dundee for dissertation. I am hoping I can change sha. Waiting to hear from my Professor next week. The 1st semester is the same as the course I original planned to study but instaed of staying here for 2nd semester, I get to go to another Uni and bag another degree. I guess I had better start learning French. Although we will be taught in English.

So far, it's been interesting. Everyone wants to get a distinction! You wouldn't believe how ambitious my classmates are. They are from a range of diverse cultures! There is someone form Saudi Arabia, two form Kazakstan, Thailand, Gambia, Tanzania etc. Learning new names everyday and teaching people how not to murder my name. I am loving it all though. But it is hectic. Next week will be easier though.

The Scottish Accent
It is very hard to understand! Most people speak with clear accents though. But when you do meet, the native speakers you say 'pardon' every second. Luckily, I have met only 3 people or so on the member of staff with the accent so it's not bad. Also most of our resources are on the school intranet so not too much interaction with them.

I think I have rambled on long enough! I will get to reading posts once I am through trawling through legalese. I am sooooooo glad to be back here.

Be good all. Oh, and thanks for reading till the end!

Akwaaba!

Hello people, how is it all going? Hope the global recession is not affecting you too much.

The road trip was long. I knew it would be, but I wasn’t expecting it to be roughly about 12 hours! ManCee commented- if my backside would be Luscious enough to withstand the journey, I say YES.

We first had to confirm our tickets and the journey began at 9:00am. The Nigerian/Benin border was quite aggravating. Too many people at the passport queue, it was like everyone was travelling out of the country. I saw modes of transportation I thought only existed in fabled stories.

There isn’t much to see in terms of vegetation. If you were expecting forests sorry to disappoint you. There were lovely palm tree lined roads and stunning beaches in Togo. As in very stunning! We stopped for a rest in Togo. I had to use a convenience built with raffia palms as the walls, cement thingy being the lavatory itself and beach sand as the floor tiles! It was clean thank God! It also cost me 25 Cefas! I don’t know what that translates to in Naira though.

The currency exchanges were quite confusing. Cefas in Togo and Cotonou, then Cedis in Ghana and other currencies in between. One resounding theme about the whole journey was, there is very minimal difference from Nigeria in terms of food, scenery, vegetation, markets etc. Only the languages were different!

On the road, we had whole fried plantains instead of the sliced dodo we do here, fried yam, suya etc. They also do the whole barbecued turkey, chicken, gizzard ensemble that the Northerners and road travellers are famous for.

It was difficult changing Naira to Ghana Cedis as we couldn’t find bureaus changing Naira except for the Mallams at the borders. Luckily we US $ so we had money. Changing from Naira to Cedis is better though since you get better value. Thank God my sister was there she can do numbers like crazy. And she could determine which was which. I think I already mentioned the currencies were confusing. I would have been hopeless if alone!

We got to Ghana around 4:30pm. We even posed and took pictures at the Ghana/Togo border. It took us another 4 hours to enter Accra itself! The driver was quite rough, I still have aches in my joints. Right there and then, my Sis & I decided to fly back. No way were we going through that again!

Getting to the park, we asked for hotels. Luckily I had checked a few Accra hotels online and I had quite a list. The first one we checked out was a disaster! We called a few peeps that had been to Ghana before and they recommended others. The second one we went to was waaayyyyyy over-budget! We finally found a perfect one. It fitted our budget nicely, 2 minutes from the airport, central to everywhere and it even had a Woolworths beside it.

After a nice long shower, we got dressed and hit the town! They have a vibrant night life. We had a really sumptuous dinner at the House of Ovation. Not quite what we expected since the soft-sell mags here always rave about it, but the food was really good. I noticed they eat a lot of pepper, I mean very HOT food. Everything is also smaller. A bottle of Star Lager I saw was like a miniature caricature of the real thing, even smaller than the small bottle in Nigeria. I asked if it was really Star and was told yes. Also their Fanta & Coke came in 300ml bottles. I am used to the 35cl we have.

We had a long stroll and even went for the opening of a new club but they were just ending the ceremony when we got there. We finally got back to the hotel around 2:00am.

Saturday was spent leisurely. Ghanian cab drivers don’t know anywhere. If you have no idea where you are going and no address, you may find yourself being driven around in circles!

This post is getting long so I will summarise the rest.

Bought plenty Woodin Ankara at the market. There were no tickets at the airport to get back to Lagos. All the flights were full booked and the airline offices had closed!

Went online to book tickets we got two seats luckily. How wrong we were. We went to the beach to kill time and enjoy our last hours in Accra. On getting to the airport to make payment for our tickets, we were told our booking had been cancelled and the flight was already full when we made our booking, but it was not reflected on the website. The guy was quite arrogant and by then I was desperate!

We eventually bought tickets for the next flight out. Luckily there were available seats. My sister was ill. A very bad case of flu and sore throat which, I now share. My parents are blaming the road trip.

I was so glad we got those tickets! If we had waited a bit longer we would have been stranded. We had to pay penalty for them, Thank God we had enough money.

With 5 more hours to kill before departure, we just strolled round the mall, bought lunch and went back to the hotel for a shower and a mini rest. They were very nice at the hotel, we explained our situation and they allowed us stay without paying extra. I trust my Naija hotels, No Way!

Everyone kept asking if we were students and we got a lot of numbers, from the forex bureau to the information desk officer at the airport and other tourists who wanted to visit Nigeria. It was all quite amusing.

I had a blast and we are now planning our next trip although, our parents do not want to hear about it. We are definitely going! We MUST book a return ticket first to avoid any stress whatsoever!

Enjoy your week!