I'll start with an interesting little story from yesterday: when I was checking in to the hostel and the young man behind the desk found out I was from Canada he asked me which hockey team I support.  Let me add that his accent sounds maybe Eastern European.  I told him I'm a Canucks/Leafs fan, and he said it was too bad about the Canucks last year, but what with the new coach and all....  I said "You follow Canadian hockey?!?"  And he said "Yeah, I'm a Canadiens fan."  Hockey - the universal language.

I managed to stay up until 7:00 last night.  My roommates were two young girls, one 17 year old from England (Kirsty) and one slightly older from California (Lorna).  The Americans' parents are English and the girls' moms used to work together.  I told them not to worry about making noise when they came in as I had earplugs and they couldn't wake me if they tried.  They told me not to worry, as they weren't party girls, and sure enough when I woke up at 10:30 to use the bathroom they were both sound asleep.

Got up around 8:00, stripped the bed and packed everything down those 53 steps, dropped my backpack in to storage again, then realized I left my towel in the room.  Back up I went. Tonight I'm in another 4 bed dorm, so far just with a German lady in her 50's named Stephanie. She loves bagpipes, and it's a good thing because our room faces the park and we can definitely hear them!  I am now on the 3rd (4th) floor, which has added a bunch of steps to make it somewhere in the mid 70's if I forget something.  And the kitchen is in the basement which means from there to my room is 91 steps.  I think I can eat whatever I want here because I'll work it all off quick at this rate!

I took the bus out to Paisley this morning, which is about a 1/2 hour ride.  Met a sweet older man at the Paisley Abbey family history centre.  The Abbey is stunning by the way!  He bought me a cup of tea, gave me some advice on my search and generally chatted. He then sent me off to the archives at the local library where I spent several hours happily researching.  I found a few obituaries, but they weren't all that common in the 1800's.  They then recommended I check out the Mitchell library in Glasgow for further research (tax rolls - sounds exciting!).  As I was leaving it started pouring so I ducked in to a shopping centre and grabbed a hot chocolate.  By then it was just sprinkling so I walked back to the town centre and caught the bus back to Glasgow.  I'm starting to get to know the area, though I have to admit, I waited for the bus on the wrong side of the road this morning!

Here is the view out of my new room:

God, it sounds like someone is practicing the bass drum in the conference room right over my head as I sit in the lounge. Time to go!