I have to say I loved the people in Liverpool. They were even more friendly than locals in Glasgow. One chap in a large dump truck pretended – at the new looking traffic lights which we didn’t fully understand – to run us over in a funny good natured way, another left a shop as we were entering and joked it was closed, another saw we were tourists looking for food and came up to us and started recommending restaurants we might like. Banter. This was all much nicer than it sounds in print – Liverpool seemed like a really friendly, fun place to live.

I learned a lesson though: Italians have very strong opinions about cathedrals. I thought the Anglican cathedral in Liverpool was pretty impressive but I suppose there are many impressive cathedrals in Italy I liked it though, and I thought the Italians were pretty cool too.

What a day its been… This weekend we have a 150 person trip to Carbisdale. There is a rule that one day before a trip something should happen totally outwith our control eg ferries cancelled, accommodation moves, who knows what.

Well this morning was no exception. The caterers told us they couldn’t give the packed lunches we’d discussed, so we had to make other arrangements, which was quite exciting. That happened though, and the trip is actually even better now as a result, with far better stopovers on the way to the castle and the way back.

Then in the afternoon someone threatened to sue me for an (alleged) oversight by a volunteer which was nice, hasn’t happened for a long time, makes me feel important. So I was given that to sort out.

But on the plus side we had the first ever coffee afternoon in the williams room. This I want to retire into…just a small group, one on one conversations, international banter. Great fun.

We also have a few minor little things to sort out – clashes, politics, and day to day organisation.

Days like this can seem a bit vexing at the time but I’m starting to wonder where I’d be without them. I’m almost starting to enjoy the adrenaline. Almost.

Still this whole thing is not a full time job. There are a thousand things I’d love to do – but I also have a full time job. So if something doesn’t go quite to plan it helps to take a deep breath and say ‘we cant do everything’.

Its even nicer when you’re taking that deep breath on a beautiful mountain with international friends or even at the coffee afternoon or pub nights with the same wonderful folks.

I hope you’ve had a good one. And actually, if you’re leaving after this term I hope you had a good impression of Scotland. I really hope you had an amazing time here. Dont leave without saying goodbye

As far as isoc is concerned we tried a few new things this year and it would be good to hear back from you on how those were…and some things we tried again that we haven’t tried for a while. I wont put a poll up as thats just democracy gone mad (eg capacity of coffee afternoon =30, capacity of world record ceilidh = 1000, so which is going to win a poll ;p) but would love to hear your feedback in words

Things we tried for the first time this year:

World Record Ceilidh (supporting charity)

United Nations Club Night @ Sub City (joint with other international societies including but not limited to the polish, belgian, greek, french….ok, really sorry if I forgot someone its quite late at night )

Little events: Ice skating, laser quest (really really wish I could have gone to this. Next year, committee team…), theatre trips

Discounts at shops (did you use them? Please say yes or no Did the shop process them properly? Some reports of some staff at shops not knowing, have mailed the shop concerned and spoken to them in person)

Culture Evening joint with Chiense Society

Things we haven’t tried for a little while but did this year:
Loch Lomond Highland Games Trip (we talked about doing this again next term – would anyone be interested? We would also go to some new places next term too, committee has discussed a couple of highland places, Arran and Skye)

Uh…must be more…this blog…? Ok thats scraping the barrel.

Regular things:

Oban

Pub Nights, Coffee Afternoons, Movie Nights

If you are staying next term I have to tell you there is some amazing stuff to come. I mean. Really. We have some awesome things planned for you. We’re not out of energy and we’re not out of ideas. Its going to be great, with some incredible trips in the early stages of organisation already, a joint Global Village event (you have got to see this to believe it its tremendous), and lots more new ideas….whoosh…words fail me….

Anyway, thanks to the committee for doing all this. Its been these guys who have done an amazing amount of leg work! I can’t claim any credit, all I do is blog. But they all just wanna make sure you guys have fun, so tgggggggghhhhhhhhh give them a hug!

Sometimes when I meet someone I say something like ‘Are you Spanish?’. To me this is almost a complement, however to the person listening they frequently respond ‘Is my accent so bad?’.

But here’s the thing. Theoretically, I have a Scottish accent. So when I speak English I speak with that accent. Sometimes I’m in England for my phd, and I don’t try to speak with an English accent (although I do a good one. Go on ask me, ask me, ask me…) I speak with a Scottish one. In fact sometimes I exaggerate it just to be twisted. As long as someones pronouncing the words right whats wrong with an accent? I’m supposedly learning French and I’d love to speak it properly, but I wouldn’t want to do it without my own accent.

So heres to accents, wear yours with pride!

I’m so flipping modern it scares me

1) Be impeached. I have no idea what this means but it sounds exciting.

2) Gush about some exciting events that everyone is sick of hearing me talk about

3) Worry people in the committee about what I might have written

4) Post at least five times thus exceeding my initial expectations of how interesting I am

5) Use the word blog in conversation

So heres some random things that have happened to ISoc in the last wee while:

- We’ve been dealing with mysterious deposits of large sums of money in our account, from the government. Our new treasurer, Hojjat Heydari, has been investigating why the money was put there (it was not asked for!) and will report soon, however he assures me that the explanation is likely to be hilarious. If anyone is using us as the world’s most financially volatile money launderer please let me know.

- We went to the most amazing hostel ever and left it in a significantly worse state. Despite that they thanked us for coming and invited us to come again next term. I couldn’t believe it. We’ll see…

- I got three pages of emails in one day due to technical reasons. The technical reason being my inability to operate a Computer.

- I got on the front page of the glasgow uni guardian for the third time. But for something good this time. (abseiling…). I am now a z-list celebrity, but its better than nothing.

Eventually I’ll think of something to blog about. Any ideas?

Without our volunteers these trips would not run, and they would not be nearly as fun. When transporting and accommodating large amounts of people you sometimes do encounter some problems but for every problem encountered their experience and work beforehand prevented another ten problems from occurring. Their passion and hard work helps over come any problems which are encountered. Buy these people a drink.

Recently we had an amazing trip to Loch Lomond. My feeling is that everyone did have a great time on this trip. Behind the scenes though the volunteers were stretched even further than ever. A minority of people did cause significant work and volunteers were known to do things like clean vomit and when red wine was spilt over about seven couches they worked through the night and early morning to resolve it, some getting as little as four hours sleep.

They do it because they want to do it and they want you to have the most fantastic time in your international adventure. A minority of people however haven’t treated them as their deeds deserve. I think the majority of people would agree that given all the hard work they do put in, we should be patient and helpful towards them whenever we can and where that hasn’t happened we should apologise. I invite all the members of the society to thank and encourage our volunteers, including our committee members, out of genuine feeling as well as consideration for potential future trips.