Sunday, January 27, 2013

Robert Burns Day and Edinburgh 2.0

After an uneventful (and lazy) Thursday, I had a pretty productive Friday. I had my first Organic Chemistry Lecture, turned in my first Organic Chem Lab report for here, met with a wonderful woman about my dad's G.I. Bill, and then met with another wonderful woman about Visa issues.

When I came into the UK on the first of January, I got some serious side-eye from the man who was in charge of letting me into the UK. Since I was in London this past summer for a two-week Study Abroad trip at Oxford, I already had a Student Visitor Visa stamp. And, due to timing, that visa wasn't technically yet expired. So this guy at customs/border patrol wasn't too keen on letting me in at first, because apparently he thought I was up to no good (Honestly, I'm harmless). After some hmm-ing and extensive examination of my University of Glasgow acceptance letter, he begrudgingly let me in (Thank goodness. I was sweating bullets). So, what he said to me as he stamped my passport, and after I emailed with CNU's Study Abroad Advisor (the AMAZING Mandi), I was pretty convinced that I would not be able to exit and reenter the UK while I was here - which means I wouldn't be able to go to Ireland. I was not okay with this, so I made a meeting with a woman from the International team here. She took my passport to her superior, who told her that I should be good - I was signed in with a Student Visitor Visa again and the six month visa started from when I came in on the first.... So! In summary, (we think) I CAN GO TO IRELAND!

Anyway. Friday, the 25th of January, is Robert Burns Day here in Scotland. Robert Burns is a famous poet, and the Scots love him. So, in honor of his birthday, people go crazy and celebrate. Typically, alcohol is a pretty big component. My flat decided to host a party (organized by my amazing flatmate Jennie, who is a goddess for all the chaos this party involved). So, it was a potluck, with everyone bringing some sort of dish. The party ended up having over 30 people, and it got pretty crowded because our flat isn't huge or anything. But, there was a lot of good food (and some bad food... Jennie forced Sarah and I to try haggis..... NEVER AGAIN. IT WAS DISGUSTING. As Sarah put it - imagine going into a barn, and taking a huge wiff of horse/cow smell. Now imagine you could eat that smell. That's haggis. We almost couldn't swallow it.) and some alcohol. Being the non-drinkers I am, I only tried some white wine and then made myself a coconut rum and coke. We met some new people, and talked to a few girls that are in our Principia class with us. It was super fun. Of course, after about four hours, we escaped to my room and watched Doctor Who.

Saturday was incredibly lazy - I literally left my bed like four times. Otherwise, I spent the day relaxing and preparing myself for today.

TODAY Sarah and I went with Student Tours Scotland to Edinburgh (pronounced Edin-burra)! Unlike the first time, we had a tour guide. Gary took us (and about fifty-five others) all around Edinburgh.

We started with some monuments up on top of a grassy hill. Of course, it's Scotland so it was raining and was pretty muddy. No more than ten minutes into our time here, I attempted to make my way down a muddy hill.... It didn't go as planned. I slipped and landed in the mud.. Luckily it was a pretty tame fall, I kind of just sat down and then popped back up. Of course, my butt got all muddy. Luckily, I was wearing leggings under my jeans, or else I would have been a LOT colder.

From there, we went to Edinburgh Castle and got to go inside for about two hours. Since we were with the tour, we didn't have to pay the £16.50 entrance fee - the £15 we paid Gary covered transportation AND entrance to the museum - YAY! It was pretty cool inside, and we spent the better part of two hours wandering around (freezing).

Sarah & I in front of Edinburgh Castle!

Cool backside view of Edinburgh Castle

I love this building... it's so pretty.  If you take a picture of Edinburgh Castle and then turn around, that's where this building is.

Gary took us around the city to see a couple other really cool areas, including some really pretty scenery and architecture. He dropped us off at Princes Street (not Princess, as much as Sarah and I keep calling it....), which is the main shopping strip in Edinburgh, where we had about an hour before we had to be back for the bus. Sarah and I wandered in and out of a few Scotland-themed merchandise stores, before finally purchasing 3 postcards for £1. We didn't really go into any clothing stores, but we had fun nonetheless.

Overall, it was a fantastic day. Despite being damp and chilly from basically 8:30 in the morning to about 7 in the evening, I had a great time. It's less than £13 to get to Edinburgh by train, so Sarah and I are actually planning on going back a third time sometime this semester to wander the side streets. It's a great day trip and the city really is beautiful.

We're so cool. 
Literally. 
We were so cold.


Well, that's it for today! I've finally regained feeling in all of my extremities and ate some dinner; the only task remaining is to brave the giant tangled mess of curls that is my hair... Not looking forward to that.

Alas! Tomorrow, I have class, and I need to go get milk and bread, but otherwise I think I'll stay in and give my knee a break from extensive walking (:





Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Uni Life!

Goodness, it's been a whole week since I updated. I do apologize! I'm not the best at consistency apparently. Here's a breakdown of the past week and a half!

Monday 14 Jan
I went to class, yay! Second class period about The Scottish Enlightenment. We learned about Adam Smith and Philosophy. In our seminar (discussion) afterwards, the three of us from CNU got all fancy and were able to incorporate concepts we learned in Leadership! We told the others about the GLOBE study, and it fit perfectly with the concept that we were looking to - that is, how (if at all) does climate play a role in the development of different cultures? The GLOBE study, if I remember correctly, was looking to see if there were any universal traits that leaders share. So we were able to give a quick example of how different places shared some traits, but differed in others - concluding in the agreement that while climate plays a role, it certainly isn't the only factor involved.

Tuesday 15 Jan
I went to class again, yay! Today was the first class of Black and White Photography. We learned some basics about how to use the film cameras (since I've always been purely digital, this was all pretty new to me) and about the different settings we had to adjust since nothing is automatic. We were given a camera to take with us for the next week, with the task of taking an entire role of film (36 shots) by next class. I really enjoyed this (Unfortunately, my camera's battery died after my first eleven shots, so my instructor just had me go out back behind the building to snap the rest of the roll of film just so I could develop something. From the looks of the negatives, I actually like most of the photos so the battery wasn't too big a deal).

This is very similar to the camera I used:


Wednesday 16 Jan
I had my first Organic Chemistry Lab here on last Wednesday... I was terrified. Along with it being an entirely different setup, atmosphere, and level of difficulty, I unfortunately don't have a lab partner. The way lab works here is different - you only have to do 4 weeks worth of Lab, with each week consisting of two days in Lab. In addition, you can go on alternating weeks or every week for the first four to get it out of the way. I personally have to do alternating weeks because of other course conflicts, and there wasn't anyone else with that same situation, so I am all alone! Luckily, I consider myself rather friendly and was able to sort-of work with another pair that was doing the same experiment. Also, they have (extremely attractive) lab demonstrators that are usually post-graduate students available to help, so that certainly lessened my stress.

Thursday 17 Jan
Second day of Lab! I finished the experiment and got some help from one of the post-grad students on how to interpret the information, since the experiment was on spectroscopy and I have no experience in the area. I think the post-grad student was French, judging by his name, and he was SUPER helpful.

Also, for Lab here, we have to wear lab coats and safety specs. Not aprons and goggles, but a legitimate lab coat and cool glasses. Granted, the latter may not help in terms of splash-resistence, but Glasgow apparently isn't worried about that... I didn't take a picture in my lab coat, but I feel REALLY official wearing it, so I might go do that right now really quick so you can all see the awesome (albeit in a really awkward photo):


Yeah. I pretty much feel like I'm a mad scientist.


Friday 18 Jan
On Friday, I had an hour of Chemistry tutorial (smaller group where one of the professors breaks it down to make sure we all know what's happening), and then that was it! After my class, Sarah and I went and got our phone situation a little more figured out - I now have an actual cell phone here! Still don't quite understand the pricing of texting, but I'm working on it. It's good to have it for emergencies. 

Saturday 19 Jan
On Saturday, Sarah and I went to the library with the intention of getting some reading done... We didn't really get much done, but hey. We tried. Besides, we really don't have all that much to do. It's a welcome change for us. But, we got some books we need for class, and I also got two books on (what else) Harry Potter. There were a lot of books that I encountered while I was at Oxford that I wanted to read, but just didn't have the time, so I found them here and now have two in my room that take a closer look at the series. I'm excited. Afterwards, Sarah and I made more pasta in my kitchen, where we were joined by some of my flatmates. We chatted for quite a while, and they had some advice for traveling, which is always welcome. 

Sunday 20 Jan
Sarah and I decided to get some of our Photography assignment done on Sunday, so we bundled up and set out for Kelvingrove Park (about ten-fifteen minutes away walking). We spent about an hour there, and then started to walk the final fifteen minutes to get to city center to take a few more photos. However, we decided that we were freezing (not a whole lot of rapid movement when you're taking pictures like we were), so we headed back instead to bundle up.

Monday 21 Jan
Similar to last Monday, except today I reached a dreaded moment in my spare time - the end of David Tennant's time on Doctor Who. If you don't watch the show, you probably won't really know why that' s important/painful, but, I'll summarize by saying that it was a very emotional night for me and my heart hurt by the end. I bid a tearful adieu to David Tennant and tried to open my heart to Matt Smith. I'm still working on it... Anyone that knows me knows that I get ridiculously attached to fictional characters, and this is no exception.  Here is (a slightly traumatised) me watching the end of Tennant's time:



Tuesday 22 Jan
Black and White Photography day again! After making the 30 minute trek to class (this course is at the Glasgow School of Art, and thus isn't on main campus), Sarah and I got to learn how to develop film! We began the process and learned how to use the chemicals important to the process, and then developed the roll of film we had shot! We get to do more with it next week - right now all of the images are still on the original roll of film. We learn how to edit/print them next week.

Tuesday night was the really exciting time. My flatmate Maria told me about something called a Headphones Disco and one of the Student Unions here, and said that it's something everyone should experience at least once. So, off we went! The way it works, we found out, is that everyone gets a pair of wireless headphones. On said headphones there are two channels, which are being DJ'd on the stage. There is no music playing in the room, just in the headphones. They have disco/strobe/colored lights going crazy, and everyone is dancing and singing their hearts out to the songs that are being played. At any given moment, there are two different songs (and thus, people dancing to one of two different beats) playing, depending on if you are listening to channel A or B. It was so fun to take the headphones off every now and then and just hear people carelessly belting out what was playing. No one was ever really alone in their singing, because other people were listening to the same song, so everyone was carefree and seemed to be having a great time. It got a little crowded and Sarah and I only knew about half of the songs, but it was still an AMAZING experience and so much fun. They played a few songs back to back that were perfect for us (Aerosmith, All Time Low, Journey, etc. They even played the Time Warp at one point. That made my night) and we jammed out. I can't sing to save my life, but that didn't stop me. If they have another one, we are totally going again. Here's Sarah and I about half way through the party:


To end the night with a bang, the last song channel A played was called Doctorin' the Tardis. It took all of two seconds before Sarah and I were screaming our heads off in excitement. The song starts off sounding like the theme song of Doctor Who, and then they add a beat and some words and basically it's the best. Listen to it here if you wish, it's fabulous and I've had it stuck in my head since they played it.


Wednesday 23 Jan
Finally caught up!
Today, I was rudely awoken by a fire drill. I pulled on my CNU hoodie and converse over my pjs, and trekked outside to stand in the cold for twenty minutes before being let back in. BRRR. When I got back inside, I made some tea and crawled back into bed, and proceeded to sleep until noon. Well, sort of. I woke up every half hour or so but I didn't manage to get out of bed until noon. I went with Sarah and we paid Gary (from Student Tours Scotland) for an upcoming tour to Loch Lomond that we're going on, and then had lunch, and then went to class! After class, I put my pjs on and crawled into bed to finish up some logistical stuff, including finishing editing an essay for a Leadership essay contest, filling out and figuring out stuff for CNU's housing lottery (10 or 5 meal plan, ahh!), and then forcing myself to write this! Yay for productivity!

I don't have any classes tomorrow, so I'm going to talk to the International office to see if I can legally go to Ireland or not.. silly Visa confusion.

Now, I'm going to finish up my organic chemistry write up and eat some dinner!

xoxo


Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Weekend Wanderings!

This weekend I went on some really awesome  (and FREE) walking tours of Glasgow. One of my friends here had found the tours, and invited us to join! The company is called Student Tours Scotland (check them out here), and the tours are all lead by a man named Gary. Gary is hilarious, easy to understand, energetic, and knows all the best parts of Glasgow (not to mention, he's a ginger, so that's awesome)! He also hosts tours that (for £15-20) go to places like Edinburgh and Loch Lomond, both of which I'm planning on going on. He has other assorted tours during the week, and I will definitely be looking into them! They're cheaper than any of the other similar tours I've heard of, and Gary is a great tour guide.

On Saturday, the tour was simply around Glasgow. We met at a nearby university and then set out. It was pretty cold, so I was dressed as such - in the end, I was still cold, but only when we stopped walking. Gary took us around the city and down to Buchanan Street, the main shopping area. He gave us some tips about where to shop (and where not to shop), and took us to some cool landmarks. During this walk, Sarah and I spotted another TARDIS and proceeded to smack each other repeatedly in excitement. Of course, Gary noticed our excitement, and promised to help us find more of the TARDISes that are around Glasgow.

Sarah has the one of me in front of this TARDIS... check Facebook for that one! I have to get her photos soon....


Sunday is a similiar story - another tour with Gary! This one was to Merchant Street and the Necropolis. It was freezing, and rainy, but we toughed it out because, Necropolis. Come on. So cool. I bundled up and set out! 

Necropolis!

Gary (in the blue) at the Necropolis

Sarah and I at the Necropolis

As promised, Gary showed us TWO MORE TARDISes on today's walk. That brings our total to 4 out of 6 TARDISes found here in Glasgow... And we haven't even been here a month. I'd call that a success. The final two are apparently impossible to find, but psh. When has that ever stopped me before?

TARDIS 3

TARDIS 4

Also, I realize the problem of having one scarf, one rain jacket, one favorite pair of jeans and one favorite pair of warm walking shoes. I swear, all these photos were taken on different days and I do have other clothes... Well, I have other shirts... :)

Anyway. Gary's tour was fantastic and even though we lost complete feeling in our feet, faces, and legs, it was worth it. After the tour ended, we stopped in a Starbucks (the 'coolbucks' one, as Gary calls it) to warm up before attempting to find Cineworld - one of the movie theatres here. It's the tallest cinema in Europe, I think. We met up with some of my flatmates, and went to see Les Miserables! I'd seen it already, but I didn't care - it's so good! It was great to spend some time with my flatmates, too. After the movie, we walked back together, and I crawled into bed because I was still chilled from earlier. I watched a movie and an episode of Doctor Who, and then decided it was sleepy time.

Sarah found this - it is the 'tallest cinema complex in the world'! Fancy!

Okay! I have to actually be a big girl now and get dressed, etc. I have my first Organic Chemistry Lab this afternoon, and I am petrified. The experiment itself doesn't sound to bad, I am just nervous because the laboratory setup and workings is different.... Ikes!

Wish me luck...



Friday, January 11, 2013

Classes, the TARDIS, and Dancing - Oh My!

Howdy! Sorry for the long time between posts. Not much really happened after the initial rush of settling in and Orientation, so I figured that I would wait until the end of the week and have a pretty good sized post rather than like three teensy ones.  Right now, I'm curled up on my bed in my pjs, listening to Nancy Griffith and drinking tea. Taking some meds soon because my knee is killing me from all the walking (so many hills!) and the added fun of tonight - we'll get to that.

Since my last post, I've attended my first few classes, slept, shivered, watched Doctor Who, found a wanna-be TARDIS, explored the Botanical Gardens, got myself a legit lab coat, did some window-shopping, and then finally (along with the TARDIS, this would be the highlight of my week) attended a Ceilidh (that was the event tonight). Now, detail time! :)

Not all of my classes met this week, but I did have my first class of The Scottish Enlightenment and Exploring Scottish Culture, and an introduction session with the man in charge of my Organic Chemistry classes. Scot Enlight and Scot Culture share a lecture professor (I really like him, so good!) half of the time, but I have a few different lecturers depending on the day, so that will be interesting. Like guest speakers, sort of. I didn't have any actual Organic Chem lectures this week; they don't start until the third week, actually! Further, since my Black and White Photography class doesn't start until next Tuesday, this week was pretty chill, class-wise. It was good to kind of get more information on how the actual classes will progress, and I enjoyed all the classes. I'm really excited for all of them!

In my session with my Organic Chem professor (? not sure exactly what to call him. I don't know if they're called professors here), we got some supplies for lab - including a legit to boot LAB COAT. Not one of those boring smock-like lab aprons, but a legit coat. it's knee length, and has sleeves and everything. I'm excited to look super professional. I also got, with the coat, lab glasses. Not goggles, glasses. Apparently they don't use goggles here... Whatever! He gave me special lab glasses since I already wear glasses, too, so that's also great.

Apart from classes, Sarah and I vowed to not let ourselves sit inside all day. So, our mission this past Thursday was to start exploring and attempt to find the TARDIS. Now, if you don't know what a TARDIS is, no worries. I've gotcha. The TARDIS is from the BBC series Doctor Who, and it is the time-traveling spaceship that the Doctor travels in. It's bigger on the inside, and is basically the coolest thing ever. It takes the appearance of a blue police box. So far, Sarah and I had only found a police box in the museum we went to in Edinburgh. But that wasn't good enough. We want to find the TARDIS. So, we did some researching and found some places in Glasgow where it had been sighted. I talked to one of the construction guys working in my flat (update - we didn't have hot water for five days, and our heat stopped working like three days ago... BUT everything is better now and I'm warm again for the first time in almost a week. YAY.) and a new friend that lives in my flat, and they told me that there was one near the Botanical Gardens - about a thirty minute walk away from where I live. So, that's where Sarah and I sent off to on Thursday. Basically, we succeeded. However, it's not the actual TARDIS because of the obnoxious red panel, but hey. We still geeked out and took way too many photos. Here are two of them:



also, this is what the actual TARDIS looks like:


So close. Either way, it was basically awesome. After we took photos, we went into the Botanical Gardens for a little while and explored briefly. However, it was cold and the Gardens were actually closing really soon after we got there, so we planned to come back at a later date. We spent some time playing on the playground within the Gardens (acting like the five year olds we truly are), and then trekked back. That night, I watched Perks of Being a Wallflower, a book I read over Christmas break and a movie I've been wanting to see since I heard they were making it. It's different, but I adored it. It really made me think, and be thankful for the amazing life I lead and the amazing friends and family I have. Also, Emma Watson speaking in an American accent was really cool too. Props to her!

Today was exciting. After my meeting for Organic Chemistry, Sarah and I walked down to the city center shopping area. We wanted to do some window-shopping, and also get a feel for where we have to walk to for our Black and White Photography class. It took us about a half an hour to walk down there, so that was good to know for time-keeping purposes. We browsed Primark (basically a cheaper Forever 21, so I was in heaven) and TK Maxx (...... more commonly known as TJ Maxx in the US, and is basically a Marshalls). We were really good in Primark, and didn't buy a single thing. We were also good in TK Maxx, but I bought myself a reusable water bottle and a laundry bag thingie, two essentials I had been looking for and got for good prices.

After we got back from our wanderings, we had about two hours until we had another engagement. I found out that heating and hot water was restored in my flat (THANK GOODNESS), so I spent the better part of one of those hours in a blazing hot shower. It was fabulous. Then, we had a party to go to! Hosted by the Glasgow Union's International Society was a Ceilidh (pronounced basically like the name "Kayleigh" or "Kaylee", don't ask me how). Ceilidh is a traditional Scottish dance, and lots of fun. Picture probably over 200 people crammed into a small 'Debate Chamber Hall' with two men on stage with instruments and a microphone, and that's how the evening looked.

Here's a shot of the empty Debate Chamber Hall. It has two levels, with the bottom level being the dancing floor. it's a little larger than it appears, due to the weird angle, but you get the gist.

The men on stage told us, step by step, how to do each dance, and then played the music while we all danced (aka embarrassed ourselves, sometimes). It was all in good fun, and it was actually quite easy. The only dancing experience I really have is the one time I went Texas line dancing at a place called 'Little Bit of Texas' back in El Paso, but the experiences are quite comparable. Instead of being forced to pretend that I have free-style dancing talent, they told me what to do! It was glorious.

This photo isn't from our Ceilidh specifically, and ours was a lot more crowded, but, again, you get the gist.

Sarah and I partnered together often, but we did participate in the dances where one or both of us had to 'travel' and change partners. It was so exhausting and a lot of pretending to understand until you picked it up, but it was so fun. Every now and then we would be able to see someone who looked like they knew what they were doing, and we were able to copy them if we got lost. We actually did quite well! I'm very proud of us. I'd post the picture of the two of us after, but Sarah has my camera. She might post it with her blog, and either way, I'll post it here after I get it back from her.

(UPDATE, here it is:)



It was incredibly fun, and the only downside is my right knee (which has been known to give me problems) is achy and hurts a bit. Nothing terrible, and nothing I can't handle. Totally worth it.


Tomorrow at eleven, we're meeting some of the friends we met at the social event during orientation, and who we spent some of tonight with. We'll walk a little and eat lunch out together, and then at one, there is apparently a walking tour of Glasgow that we're going on together. Sounds like fun! Can't wait to see more of the city, with an official guide who can tell us what we're looking at! Sunday, Sarah and I are going with some of my flatmates to see Les Miserables in the theatre. I saw it with Mommy before I left, but it was so good that I'll see it again! :)

Now, time to take some meds for my knee, and get some sleep soon.
Adios!




Sunday, January 6, 2013

Sleepy Sunday

Today was pretty chill. Sarah and I didn't really head out until about 12:30. There was nothing in particular we needed to do, so we had just planned on wandering and trying to find classrooms, and then going to Kelvingrove park.

My day started with a half-shower.... for some reason, my flat (apartment) didn't have hot water today (it's not looking good for tomorrow either, so wish me luck). So, I basically danced in and out of cold water for the sake of cleanliness. Super fun. Then I had my first encounter with a french press! I need coffee to survive, and there aren't any coffee pots in the flat. So, french press! My attempt was pretty successful, and I now can have coffee! Yay!

Sarah and I wandered around the Glasgow campus for a while, attempting to find where our classes might be... We weren't very successful in that we didn't actually find a single one, but we got a feel for things and we think we found where most of the buildings are....  Fingers crossed. We wandered until we were a little turned around, but still pretty confident that we could find our way back. We found a little trail that looked nice, and carefully made our way along it. I say carefully because the ground was covered in leaves and they were all soaked. So, slippery and muddy trail, but really not all that bad.




It was really pretty, and ended up putting us out by the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum! Surprisingly, it was open! We had figured it would be closed since it was Sunday, but we lucked out. We spent about an hour wandering, and ran into one of the friends we had made a few days prior. She's from Germany! She joined us for the rest of our museum wanderings. At 3, there was an organ recital - it was sooooo cool. I never realized how complex an organ is to play...





After the museum, the three of us headed back out into the Scottish weather to walk back to our temporary homes. After we parted, I spent the rest of the evening attempting to catch up to Sarah on Doctor Who. I watched four whole episodes, each ripping my heart out more than the last. I talked to Garret, Olivia, and Allison a little over Facebook chat (I miss you guyssss) and then spent over an hour attempting to put my class times into my iCal (my MacBook's calendar). It took forever due to the chaos that is organic chemistry... unlike at CNU, each week is a little different for me here. I got so confused trying to input the times, but I think I figured it out. Hopefully.

Now, I'm off to bed! My only class tomorrow is at noon, but I'd like to be up by ten... we'll see how that goes.

Cheers!

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Edinburgh Explorations / We're Big Girls Now

This feels like it's going to be a long one... Two longish ones in a row; sorry, I like to talk a lot, and Scotland is exciting.

Today (Well, yesterday - Saturday), I got up bright and early (aka at 9) to get on a bus to Edinburgh, capital of Scotland! It was about an hour long ride there, followed by about an hour (maybe? I lost track of time) in the bus after getting there as a very nice Edinburgh resident narrated a bus tour around the city. She told us about some history of the city, as well as information on some of the landmarks we passed. Two of the main streets we drove down were Princes Street (largely shopping) and the Royal Mile. After the bus tour, we were unleashed upon Edinburgh! We were given about four hours to roam the city on our own.

Sarah and I set off with the main goal of finding The Elephant House - "the birthplace of Harry Potter" - more on this later. Anyway, we asked the tour guide how to get back there, and she very nicely told us! So, we set off, excited and chilly. We followed her instructions, and found some really pretty scenery, but we failed to find The Elephant House. But, we instead stumbled upon Edinburgh Castle. SO PRETTY. We didn't go inside, just took some pictures of the Scottish scenery, and a nice woman snapped a keeper of us:  (sorry to those of you who read both Sarah's and mine... I have a feeling we're going to overlap quite a bit....)


We carried on our way and stumbled across a street performer. Basically, he's my new favorite person. He was very energetic and charismatic, and since Sarah loves me and understand my obsession with magic/live performances in general, we stopped to watch his act. We didn't realize it would last an entire hour, but I think it was worth it... Thanks for putting up with me, Sarah :)




You can check out a video of one of his performances here if you are so inclined - he is a character, indeed. The video is kind of terrible quality, but you get the gist. The video is of his final act. After he finished, Sarah and I hung around briefly, and ended up going to the cafĂ© right on that street where he performed (just to the right of where the picture ends) to talk to him for a little. It sounds sketchy, I know, but it wasn't, I swear. He was also American (or Canadian, he had a bit of an accent) and a friend of his was there too. He was really nice, and offered to buy us coffee since we stayed and watched the whole show. We politely declined, but still sat and chatted to him and his friend for a few minutes (turns out that his wife is a professor at the University of Glasgow!). We mentioned that we had been attempting to find The Elephant House, and his friend scoffed. He told us that J.K. Rowling wrote maybe a couple pages one time in that shop, and that the establishment had been cashing in on it ever since. He suggested that we also go to a place called Spoon. Apparently, J.K. Rowling was a habitual customer here, and spent much more time penning the series at this locale. Good to know! They told us how to get to The Elephant House as well as how to get to Spoon, and even how to make our way back to the bus station. Nice guys. The performer - Todd Various - even gave us a copy of his show performance DVD for free!

We bid them adieu, and then set off on their directions to feed our Harry Potter obsession. They were spot on, and we quickly found our destination:



We also found the street that the tour guide mentioned as being the inspiration for Diagon Alley in Harry Potter and wandered up it. It was so cool!


We stopped across the street from The Elephant House for Doner Kebabs and hot chocolate/tea, then out we went again! On our way to find Spoon, we found the National Museum of Scotland. We decided that we would venture to find Spoon the next time we went to Edinburgh, and instead spent about an hour wandering through the museum. We were quite excited...

LLAMA.


We're special...


Dolly! (annoying light...)


POLICE BOX. 
not the TARDIS exactly, but we were still freakishly excited.

We tried calling the Doctor, 
but he must be busy elsewhere because we failed to reach him...


We tried to stop into the Greyfriars Cemetery (really old and the most haunted cemetery! also a source of inspiration for J.K. Rowling. You can find now-famous names such as McGonagall and Tom Riddle in this cemetery), but it was locked up.... we will explore that further upon our next visit. Instead, we walked back to where the bus was parked (with fifteen minutes to spare, thank you very much) and went into the cemetery right next to the bus stop. Creepy but so pretty.

Here's Sarah in a doorway in the cemetery. 
It was still darkening outside at this point. Within five minutes, it was sooo much darker.


We also got some gorgeous photos of Edinburgh while we were walking back. Everything is just so pretty here...




On the bus ride back to Glasgow, Sarah and I used each other as pillows as we slept the majority of the hour ride back. From there, we each went into our own room to regroup, then ventured back out to do some grocery shopping. Neither of us were hungry (apparently the donor kebabs we had for lunch were super filling), but we knew we needed to eat. So, we used our weird 'buy two things at each store' method to buy the least expensive products, and made our way back to our rooms with some penne pasta, pasta sauce, raw hamburger, ciabatta bread, and some nice pizza-like things that you stick in the oven (the latter two for a different meal some other night). Since we aren't the "let's get drunk" type, we don't really plan on drinking all that much while here, but we figured a little bit of rum & coke with our pasta would be yummy. So, I also picked up a 2L bottle of Coke and a bottle of coconut rum. I kept asking Sarah if she was sure I was allowed to buy it; I was convinced I'd be thrown out the door. But, legal drinking age here is 18 and I am going to be 20 in two months, so we are indeed legal! 100% sure! I am just crazy (The cashier didn't even ask for my ID... I was actually a bit put out over this fact. Card me, darn it! It's an experience!). Anywho, we went back to Sarah's kitchen and began our cooking ordeal. Everything went really well and we have leftovers to last us like two more meals each... that's six meals from one evening of cooking. We're pretty proud of ourselves. Also, between the pizza things and ciabatta bread, and the sandwich fixings we already have, we are set for quite a while on food... I for one feel like a big kid, feeding myself.  Here is a snapshot of our beautiful pasta, complete with meat sauce and rum & coke:


That's right. Be jealous of our awesomeness. 

Overall, great day. I'm now up ridiculously late, but it's okay because, other than blogging, I was organizing my new room and talking to roomie (Kirsty). (Oh yeah! I switched rooms and roommates yesterday - there was a logistical error so I moved to help fix that. I now live in the building two doors down from my first one. My new roomie is really nice, and is from Australia! Yay for meeting new people!) We've been talking about everything from gun control to Harry Potter. It was nice to get to know her more; this will be a fun semester. 

I skyped Mommy for a little bit earlier, and that was really good too. Hopefully will get to skype with Mom and Dad before the weekend ends. No plans tomorrow really; Sarah and I are most likely going to wander the park near campus and find where our classes are. Things tend to be closed on Sunday here, so probably no shopping. Besides, we are probably set.


Okay, I really should go to bed now. Roomie just did, and it's almost half past 3 in the morning... Oops. 
Goodnight!

Orientation!

Hello!

Sorry for the delay in updating, it's been crazy busy. I'm still feeling a little homesick and get overwhelmed occasionally about the whole ordeal, but I'm feeling better. Now that I have some food (aka bread, peanut butter [sort of], nutella and some deli chicken...) to eat in the kitchen, have wandered around, and met some more people, it is a little less overwhelming.

Orientation was the third and forth of January, and Sarah and I were super thankful to have somewhere we needed to be. We didn't know what to do with all of our free time and it was not helping that we were totally new to the area. Day one of orientation basically consisted of herding all of the Study Abroad students into a big lecture hall and talking to us about the university for a few hours. They told us about different programs that are available to us from the university. After that, we had a really short break and then a free bus tour of Glasgow! It was a good feeling when Sarah and I recognized some of the streets that the bus took us through (from our previous wanderings). The bus took us farther than we had walked, of course, so it helped us to get more of a feel for Glasgow. Overall it was very informative day, and it relieved much of our stress to understand the area a bit more.

Day two of orientation was shorter, and basically centered on class information - so basically the really important stuff I'd been wondering about. They talked to us about some logistical stuff relating to tuition, but I'm still not completely sure what's happening. I know that I'm supposed to wait until accommodation is paid to pay tuition since I'm using the GI bill......? One of the women in charge of us recognized my name when we were picking up tickets and specifically knew that the GI related to me, but I didn't have the chance to talk to here one-on-one to figure things out... I sent her an email right after that day's orientation finished, so fingers crossed I can figure that out ASAP. Anyway, moving on. After the information sesh, there was a quick break and then a 'Supermarket' session where representatives from each department at Glasgow gathered and we could go talk to the people in charge of the classes we planned on taking. In terms of 'getting the classes we want', CNU (my home university) contacted Glasgow a few months back with a list of classes I was interested in, and I was either approved or not approved for the classes based on if there was room in the roster or not. I was approved for all of my classes (except one, but I found replacements for it so it's okay), but we didn't really know what that meant. Apparently, it means we're good and can enroll in the class. Anyway, the only class Sarah and I needed to talk to the representative about was technically the Black and White Photography class we wanted, because there was limited spaces in the class and we needed to get on that list before spaces ran out! We were third in line and all good! We also hung around and talked to the representatives for our other classes, just to check in. Good thing too, it helped clear a lot up and gave me info on times and content of the classes. After all is said and done, I will be taking:

*The Scottish Enlightenment (counts as an Honors course, and I'm required to take this one since I'm attending Glasgow through the Principia Consortium program)
*Organic Chemistry 2 (this will be ... interesting)
*Black and White Photography
*Exploring Scottish Culture

Yay! Still figuring out what that means in terms of time and scheduling, because classes here are kind of bizarre. The Exploring Scottish Culture class is two hours once every other week... and my Orgo class' schedule basically changes by week and Labs are over two days... It will be such a different experience but I'm totally excited.

That's all for now, Sarah and I are gonna make spaghetti and then I will work on posting pictures and then writing the post about today's adventures in Edinburgh!

xoxo
B





Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Day 2: Wanderings and New People

I'm a little less motivated since I just cranked out my first blog post, but I will try my best to make this a good one before I head to bed :)

Simply put, today was better than yesterday. I woke up at 8:55 on the dot without my alarm, but waited until like 9:15 to actually get up. I showered, and then headed out with my roommate Audra to grab Sarah and to meet some of Audra's friends from her home university. We also picked up two other study abroaders - every one is really nice and I'm so glad to know some people now. We walked a little to a coffee shop named Offshore - it was really cute and had comfy seating. We had some easy breakfast food and I tried a mint hot chocolate - delish. The pricing for a bagel and the hot cocoa was a little less than £6, (that's about $9) so not super cheap, but not terrible either.

We (all 8 of us) spent the day wandering around Gibson street, and then we ventured further - out to Buchanan street, a shopping area. It's about a two mile walk, so it should have taken us about a half an hour.. it took us longer than that. We got a little turned around, and made a few stops along the way (including a nice chat with an older Scottish man - he kept asking us questions about important people that we didn't now.. then he said Al Gore and we got really excited because we know him! yeah! He chuckled at that). It was drizzly and occasionally slightly windy, but not too bad at all. I was a good temperature with my long sleeved sweater, CNU sweatshirt, and light rain jacket - after the morning, I even had to stick my sweatshirt in my backpack. When we finally got to the beginning of the shopping area, we hit up a couple of shops in search of shower shoes and towels, but no luck. We made it to Buchanan Galleries (the mall) and were successful there :) We stopped at the food court in the mall for lunch, and did some minor shopping for the essentials, then decided to head back. We had dinner at a really nice (but still cheap - around £5 a person entrees) Spanish (not Mexican) restaurant, and then sat in a pub for a little and chatted/struggled to get SIM cards to work. We then decided to part for the night for some down time, and so here I am, blogging and social media-ing! I'm now gonna take a quick shower, and then head to bed. Orientation starts tomorrow, so we all want to be well-rested.

More on our adventures soon! Nothing too crazy has happened yet, sorry to be a let down.. We'll look for more exciting outings in the future :)

xoxo
B.

Hello! / Glasgow Arrival

Hi, I'm Becca. This blog will chronicle my adventures as I spend a semester studying abroad at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. It's quite a distance from my beloved Christopher Newport University, but there are adventures to be had, sights to see, and places to get lost in. My suitemate of two years, Sarah, is joining me on this crazy adventure, so you should also check out Sarah's blog and her vlog. I might also start a vlog. I haven't decided. I'll keep you updated, of course :)


The journey began with me leaving my family in El Paso, Texas at five a.m. December 31st. It was a rough departure, but not necessarily unusual, because I have to fly to CNU every semester. So, as much as I hated leaving them, I was still within things I was sort of familiar with. My first stop after leaving El Paso was Houston. Funnily enough, while I was on layover in Houston, my dearest Sarah found me at the terminal (no that wasn't planned, of course not...) and then after a two hour delay aboard the plane (AC malfunction... not pleased. But, I spent the time watching Katy Perry: Part of Me, so time well spent!), we were off to Newark, NJ and then our overnight flight to Glasgow! We crossed like five time zones during this flight, and our flight attendants were all super excited about it. They passed out little 'Happy New Years!' crowns and noise makers; it was fantastic.

Once we arrived in Glasgow at 7ish in the morning, things went pretty smoothly. We were excited and tired and a little chilly, but all in all, not too bad. We giggled like idiots every time someone spoke with their fantastic accents, and then made our way out of the airport to take our first steps outside in Glasgow. There was a taxi service right outside the airport, so we waited for a cab and then (after a little accent-/we-don't-know-where-we're-going -caused) confusion, we were off! We got our keys from the Main Gatehouse, and then headed up the street to our flats. 

Yes. Up the street. More accurately, up the hill. Dragging almost 50-pound suitcases, carry-ons, and our backpacks in the dark, cold, drizzling Scottish morning. It really wasn't that bad, it just made us very aware of how good of shape we will likely be in by the time we leave. Sarah and I live a couple flats away from each other, so we parted to lug our suitcases to our rooms. I lugged that suitcase up five flights of stairs. Who needs elevators? Not our flats, apparently. My roommate was asleep in our room, but was really sweet about it and just fell back asleep. She woke up a little later and we chatted. She's also study abroad, from Berry University. Super nice, and talking to her made me feel a little better since I was on the brink of a fun anxiety episode. So, after a minor (erm, maybe not so minor) breakdown and freakout involving lack of cell phones and internet difficulties, Sarah and I managed to find each other again and head out for a little exploring. We were both super hot after lugging our stuff upstairs, so we both underestimated the weather... We were a tad chilly, but it was worth it. We saw some of the campus, and oh my goodness it is gorgeous. We were excited to see more, but first, a quick trip to a convenience store we found. We have to feed ourselves entirely while here at Glasgow, so we wanted to look into some options. We didn't actually buy much to help with that, but we got some water and cereal to start out with. Since it was New Years Day, pretty much everything but this convenience store was closed. That only added to our stress (All we wanted was food and towels, but nooooooo), so we decided it was naptime.

We parted again (with promises to keep Facebook chat open) and I took a two hour nap that turned into a four hour nap... not even sorry. My roommate was out with other friends from her University, so I when I woke up, I decided to unpack. I was feeling really anxious and homesick, so organizing my stuff sounded like a good distraction. Then, Sarah came over and we watched an episode of Doctor Who (which was fantastic and sassy and oh I love Ten), and then did extensive googling to began planning for the next day. We figured having something to do would help us with our homesickness. 

After Sarah left at around 8:30, I skyped with mi familia for almost two hours. I got a little teary, but it was really good to talk to them. Then, I showered, and passed out until the next morning at 9, with plans for brunch with Sarah, my roommate, and my roomie's friends and then an adventure to buy towels and other essentials!