The Longest Day Ever

Hey,

So let's start at the very beginning, it's a very good place to start... (The Sound of Music anyone?). I am in Glasgow, Scotland at the University of Glasgow for Teacher's College, in which I am hoping to end up as a secondary school teacher in Biology and General Sciences. I applied through an educational agent, called Teach (which I would NOT recommend), but alas it ended up being positive as I met a bunch of fellow Canadians traveling with me through Teach. I don't know how I would have made it through these first couple of days without the friendship of these wonderful people!

We arrived in Glasgow around 8am yesterday (3am Canadian time). Our bags came right away and we shared taxis to our halls of residence. Most of us are in the same residence, Maclay. Maclay is split up into a bunch of different buildings, and we were doled out into various buildings. I hauled my extremely heavy suitcase up two flights of stairs and made it to my room. Now, I had looked at the virtual tour of my post-grad rez beforehand, but I had the biggest shock of my life when I opened the front door. There was just a hallway, and an extreme smell of asian cooking (not to be racist - as my background is asian). I ventured into the hallway, dragging my suitcase and looked at each gray door lining it. There appeared to be numbers on most, and I realized I had room 3 (of 5). I unlocked room 3 and found quite a nice room (I'll add pictures later). It has a single bed, huge desk, lots of wardrobe space, bookshelves, my own bathroom (toilet, sink and shower) and two chairs. Happy with my room I decided to find the common room/kitchen. It clearly was being used, with dirty dishes and the smell of food lingering (which still is the case today). I met one of my flatmates who I could hear watching tv inside her room, and she seemed nice but distant. She's moving out in 2 weeks as she has finished her course. (I later met my other flatmates who briefly introduced themselves before shutting themselves back into their rooms). Alas, it does not look like i'll be making friends with them.

The Canadian students then all ventured onto campus to meet with some faculty. We received some general information and then one of our professors took us on a walking tour of the campus and a bit of the city. It was really great, and we were shown around the small subway as well (known as the Clockwork Orange- due to two circles running opposite each other). We walked all day and were zombies for most of it! No sleep on the plane = major jet lag. Also included in our day was a bus trip to ASDA ( sort of like a Wal-Mart). Let's just say it was a long trip haha and we finally made it home with some household items and bedding.

Then we attempted to stay awake so as to stay on Glasgow time. I suggested a dance party, but it didn't fly too well (I wonder why?) haha. I finally got my internet set up and skyped my appa and decided to call it a night.

Overall, i'd say that Glasgow is a nice city with mostly friendly people. The accent isn't too hard to understand so far, with a few exceptions for certain words. I met a few Scottish students in my program today and they were really friendly and wanted to talk after hearing my Canadian accent.

I was feeling overwhelmed yesterday, but I think this is going to turn out just fine! I'm excited for school and to get rid of my jet lag! I'd better head to sleep because I need to wake up early for Registration tomorrow.


-Anusha