Weekend: Day 2 of 4. "Massive"

Woke up this morning around 10:30, grabbed some breakfast and hit the books before meeting up with the gang and heading to a walking tour of the city at 1 p.m. Our tour guide, David, who was a student at Strathclyde. He was nice. He knew the city pretty well and had good advice. As soon as we started to walk, Will and I were snapping photos like professionals. Every time a cool shot would happen, we would run, take the picture, and then run to catch back up with the group. We looked like total tourists, but I like to think of us as artists completely engaged in the pursuit of photographic perfection. It was actually pretty cool getting to see the city as a tourist; taking lots of pictures was actually pretty fun. Thanks for the genes, mom :)

We toured the City Centre first, which was close to campus with tons of shops, restaurants, pubs, and pretty much everything else anyone would ever need. The architecture was awesome, and most of the landmarks are downtown in Glasgow.











We walked to a subway station and took a train out to the West End next. That part of town is older and isn't nearly as "hustle-bustle" as the middle of town. I liked it a lot. Lots of cool, old buildings, tons of shops, and a million apartments above the shops and restaurants. There were so many cool pictures to be taken. We stopped at an interesting pub for a break to warm up. It was in a former church, which was a really cool building, but I guess they decided to change it into a pub and it worked!











The final stop on the tour was the University of Glasgow, which was seriously mind-blowing. It was like Harry Potter, and we all were wondering why we didn't choose to study abroad there! We figured that it was way more expensive, and it would be a nice place to revisit. It provided the best areas for pictures, and it had an amazing view of the city with the sun setting in the background. Scotland rocks. For real.




The tour wrapped up and our group (plus my flatmate Lars from Norway) found an amazing Italian restaurant where we ate supper. Everyone's food was amazing. I wanted to try it all, but what I got to try was really, really good. I can't wait to go to Italy... Jackson and Will also got a bottle of red wine, which was actually really good! After we stuffed ourselves we walked home so we could upload all of our pictures onto our respective social networks for all to see. Will, Jackson, and a few others went out to celebrate the first hours of Jackson's birthday (on Sunday), but the rest of us wanted a more relaxed night. So we decided to watch a scary movie at the girls' apartment. Perfect. Overall a great day. I'm looking forward to a lot of reading tomorrow, but all is well. We have an impending trip to London to be excited for!

(All of the photos from today's trip can be found on Facebook or in the slide show to the right.)

Weekend: Day 1 of 4. "Ze Poof"

Today I woke up fully rested after a solid NINE hours of sleep. Felt amazing. Made a massive breakfast consisting of a Tornado Joe-style ham, onion, and cheese omlette, a few slices of bacon, peanut butter toast, and apple juice. I debated eating some cereal too, but I was full. It was grand! After that I read for about two hours, then Scott and I went to the gym for an hour. The gym is alright, much smaller than anything at Iowa, but it'll get the job done. I'm joining the basketball club, which meets on Tuesdays, so that will be the start of my European basketball career! After the gym I came home and showered, then walked to the city centre to meet up with my comrades who were out shopping. Meredyth and Sarah brought one of their other flatmates, Vickie from Germany, so it was cool to meet another person! We walked around, looked at some cool clothes, and stopped for lunch at a restaurant called "Dimaggio's," which I think was dedicated to Joe Dimaggio. Interesting. After we shopped we went back to our apartments to make ourselves supper, then we reconvened and went down to a few pubs and hung out. We then ventured to a new club with our Canadian friends where we knew two of the workers, so we got in fo' free! We also joined up with our two French friends, Jean-Christophe and Tim, who are both short and hilarious. It was a pretty fun night; we hit the dance floor and boogied for a few hours. Jean-Christophe has got some pretty awesome/hilarious dance moves, but he's no Andy Meisner.

Tomorrow there is an international student tour of Glasgow, so we'll all be meeting up for that, and I'll finally have a chance to take some pictures. I know you're dying to see some, so they'll be here soon! But for now I'm going to sleep, wake up, eat, and do some reading before the tour. 'Night!

New Record!

7 hours of sleep. I felt great! I knew my sleep cycle was getting closer to normal because I had the familiar feeling of not wanting to get out of my bed for class. You know, when you just want to turn off that stupid alarm and sleep for another three hours? That's the feeling. Fortunately, I got around that and went to my two classes today.

At noon I was started my weekend by going home and cooking some awesome garlic mozzarella chicken pasta. It was delicious, and after I ate I started my massive reading list for the next week. I have two novels to read, two plays, and a bunch of political stuff. My four days of freedom will be spent reading, but I'm okay with that.

Tonight will be another relaxing night. Our little group is going to go hunt for a sweet place to eat, and then we might watch a movie or just chill at someone's flat. We'll see, but I'm looking forward to relaxing, reading a bit more, and then trying to break my sleeping record! Cheers.

(Working Title)

Wednesday. Woke up at 6:30 a.m. Jet lag. :/ I checked my email and saw that I was approved for all the classes that I had signed up for. One is called "Philosophy and Literature," which is cool because it investigates the philosophical interpretations of many famous philosophers' personal literature. I didn't know Voltaire was a novelist or poet, but my professor spent the first lecture talking all about some of his work. I think I'll enjoy that class. The second class is called "The Glasgow Novel," and it is about reading literature written about or influenced by the city. It will be interesting to learn about the contexts for the stories and many of the secrets of the city's past that has evolved it into the place it is today. My professor is a really nice lady with a pleasant Scottish accent, which I think is awesome. The third class is "Scottish Literature Since the Enlightenment," which is similar to the Glasgow novel in that it gives you a taste of Scottish history and literary theory and style. Should be fun! My last class is "West European Politics," which will be intriguing (aside from the reading). We should have some good discussion, and I've never really learned about how some countries' politics work, so it will be some nice perspective to have. None of my professors' accents are too heavy (one is actually British), so it's nice and easy to understand them. Having a professor read Scottish literature or poetry out loud in a Scottish accent is surprisingly soothing...

After class (from 9 to noon) I met up with four other Americans (Jackson and Will from LSU, Mitch from Clemson, and Meredyth from South Carolina) and Sarah, our Australian 'mate,' as they say. We wandered around the downtown "city centre" and found a cool little pub/restaurant. We all got burgers and fries and were happy to have found a restaurant with ketchup. It's hard to come by here. Those of you that are home, know that it is a luxury. I met a cool guy when I was ordering at the bar. He was a local man from Glasgow, around 65 years old, and he asked me where I was from. I told him I was from the United States, and in his thick Scottish accent he replied, "Noooooo! Woolnt've gest tha'!" Hilarious. We talked about Glasgow and I learned some of his story. He guessed that I was from somewhere near Canada because I guess I use longer O's than most people. Thank you to Minnesota and its wonderful people for their influence on my diction :)

After we ate we walked to our official orientation meeting, where they told us about how to register with the police and the hospital and all that. Boring but necessary. Afterward I went back to my room and did laundry and some reading. Also boring but necessary. At eight I went with my flatmates Scott (England) and Adrian (North Ireland) to a campus pub to watch the Manchester United v. Manchester City football (soccer) match. It was great. Tons of people. Tons of cheering. Awesome match. United scored in extra time to win it. People went nuts. It's a beautiful game. Also tonight was the international student pub night, which is a weekly tour of Glasgow's pubs. We go to a different one every week and get to meet all the international students at Strathclyde. I ran into Javier and the Spanish crew, which was awesome, and I got to meet a lot of new people. A surprising number were from Germany and studying physics. Who knew? Usually the entire gang heads to a club for free, but a few of us decided to call it a night early and rest. So, naturally, here I am writing a new post to my blog. It's a beautiful thing. 'Night!

Australia Day!

Today I went to my first classes, and they were pretty much what I expected. It's fun having professors with accents; I think it helps me pay closer attention. Since I'm not officially registered, I'm just going to the classes so I don't get behind. Because I'm joining some classes halfway through (they run the entire year), my course requirements are simplified! So for the semester I have to write a 2500-3000 word essay for each of my classes, but I only have one final exam. Amazing. I'll be living in the library reading all the time, though, which may not be all bad.

After class was over and I got through the fiasco of applying for classes, Scott and Adrian had a friend bring us out to Tesco, which is kind of like a Wal-mart, so I got to buy a bunch of food and supplies. I can't wait to start cooking more! It was a crazy car ride. Since everything is backwards here (steering wheel is on the opposite side... freaky), I felt like every time we turned we were making a mistake or avoiding a crash. It was weird.

Since yesterday was Australia Day (which is just a holiday for the sake of having a day off, according to my Australian friend, Sarah), the student union had a huge party with a dj on one floor, a surfing simulator on another floor, and an AC/DC cover band on another! I had no idea AC/DC was from Australia... Kind of embarrassing. It was crazy how the union had bars and clubs like downtown Iowa City. We had a bunch of fun talking and dancing, and called it a night after everyone was dead tired. It's late and I have class at 9:00 tomorrow morning... Such is the college life!

Jet lag and Robert Burns

Monday started off at 5:30 a.m. when I woke up. I was amazed. I felt so tired Sunday night I was sure I would sleep for a long time, but my body decided against that. I tried falling back asleep, but it was literally impossible. Even the calm, soothing music of Norah Jones couldn't relax me back to sleep. This jet lag thing is getting old... So I got out of bed around 7 and jumped in the shower. I ate some clementines, a banana, some trail mix, and a few dried cherries and waited for a meeting at 9:15. The meeting was good; they informed us about what we should be doing for the first week, which sounds like a lot of running around and getting signed up for classes. It will be nice to have something productive to do! This was the meeting for all non-European exchange students, so there were a lot of Americans there, which was cool, but I like meeting international students more :P I met a guy named Bo from South Carolina and sat next to Antoni from New Zealand.

After the meeting I tried finding the professors to have my classes approved but had no luck, so I went and bought some food at a local market. It was cool; I bought pasta, rice, chicken, ham, turkey, bread, a cereal called "Shreddies" that is like Chex, milk, juice, and a few other things. It's cool cooking for ourselves. I like it already. I mean, Burge is great and all, but... well, yeah. Some other things like plates and silverware will have to wait until tomorrow because Scott said one of his friends would drive us out to a Wal-mart-esque place, which should be interesting.

The highlight of Monday was that night when the international office put on a huge party to celebrate Robert Burns Day. I hadn't heard of him, but Robert Burns is the most famous Scottish poet. He's considered the Shakespeare of Scotland, so we went to the student union for a meal at 7. When I walked in the door I found an American girl and an Australian girl that I met at the bookstore in the morning, so I sat at their table. There were a few guys from Louisiana, a girl from North Carolina, and two guys from Scotland. One Scottish guy was wearing the entire traditional outfit with the kilt, belt, pouch, and nothing underneath, of course. There were more kilts in the room than I had ever seen before. It was beautiful. The meal started with traditional Scottish broth and bread, followed by haggis, 'neeps (carrots), and 'tatties (potatoes). I knew what haggis was made from, but I really didn't care :) It was still really good! We ended with coffee and then headed upstairs for the dance. It was madness. The band was awesome. They played fast-paced Scottish music and taught us about 10 different dances. Each dance had the common theme of throwing, spinning, and confusing your partner. It was a ton of fun. At the dance we met eight girls from Canada who were pretty cool and loved the dancing. After two hours the band called it a night and our ever-growing group called it a night. We walked back to Birkbeck Court (where we're all staying) and said goodnight. Tuesday is Australia Day, I guess. So we'll be celebrating that with Sarah (the girl from Australia). Should be a grand time! What a day... Robert Burns knows how to throw a party. But now, sleep.

Moving In!

Finally! The day has arrived and we get to stop living out of our luggage and get our rooms at the University. It turns out that Antoni from New Zealand was staying at our hostel also, so we woke up and met him for breakfast. While we were eating I was telling the guys that another girl from Iowa was in Glasgow but I didn't know where she was, and after I said that a girl walked up to our table and said, "Hi, I'm Taylor. The other girl from Iowa!" It was hilarious and awkward. I must have been talking loudly...

At 10:30 Javier, Taylor, and I made the trek to campus. It was about 15 blocks of walking and there were a few hills. With luggage they were a pain, but in no time we were getting our keys and walking to our flats!

I live in Birkbeck Court, Block 4, Flat C, Room 6, which is literally right across the street from the library, which is a pretty cool building. I'll be spending some time there for sure. I walked into the flat, found my room, and while I was unpacking one of my flatmates walked in. His name is Jing and he is a computer science student from China. He is soft-spoken, cooks crazy Chinese meals, and studies a lot. The other flatmates are Scott from England, Adrian from Northern Ireland, and Lars from Norway. They're all nice guys, which is great. Lars is kind of like Jing and keeps to himself, but Adrian and Scott are more talkative and outgoing. We had some good conversations just about differences and similarities between our countries' politics, sports, and culture, which was really sweet. It's cool how people here like to talk about politics and things but not get into arguments and all that like in the United States. Mostly we just share our thoughts and opinions, but everyone is willing to hear everyone's piece. I get asked about President Obama and the economy and whatnot quite often, and that's also a fun conversation to have with people.

After I got all settled in I went out to eat at a pub with Javier, one of his flatmates (Andrew from Scotland), Marina, and Marta (another girl from Spain). I had a "traditional Scottish pie," which was like a chicken pot pie, only with sausage on the inside. It was pretty good and cheap, which is important. Later that night we got back together at Antonio's apartment for yet another going away party for Daniel (from Germany). I didn't stay very long and left to go sleep around 10:30.

The jet lag finally caught up with me, so I was feeling extremely tired and crashed on my bed. The first three days in Glasgow were over, and the city surely didn't disappoint. I can't wait to see what the next months have in store!

Saturday.

Woke up around 9:30 to grab breakfast today, which was nice to get some food in my stomach. I was dead tired from our night last night plus having jet lag set in. I met a funny man named Robert in the elevator ("lift," as the locals say) who was traveling through Scotland. He was from a small town in the highlands and constantly wore a kilt and a tartan pattern Scottish hat. He instantly guessed that I was from Iowa, which was hilarious, but he had some good advice about what and where to visit in Glasgow. I sat and ate my cereal and toast with a couple from Australia who were on summer break (it's backwards there, you know, other side of the world and all). They had been traveling for almost a month and were planning to visit 15 different countries! Madness. After breakfast I went back to the room, took a shower, and then relaxed until Javier woke up.

Javier and I had to explore downtown Glasgow for a few hours to find some supplies. I had to buy a phone and he needed a few other things. We walked to a mall (they call them "squares" here) called Princes Square, which was a crazy cool building. It had four floors, awesome staircases, and a sweet glass ceiling. I'll have to work on taking pictures... I haven't had time! We ate at an Italian restaurant and it was excellent! I can't wait to go to Italy...

We walked back to the hostel and took a nap until around 7, then we met up with Javier's friend Marina to go get fish and chips. It was interesting. A block of fried fish on top of a mound of fries. It was good but definitely needed ketchup. After that we met up with a girl from Greece, a couple from Sweden, and a guy named Antoni from New Zealand and walked to another apartment party put on by Antonio and a few other Spanish people from the other night. It was nice to meet more people and practice my very limited Spanish, but we called it an early night and went back to the hostel to sleep. It was an eventful day but I think this jet lag is going to catch up with me quickly...

SCOTLAND.

I finally made it! I flew into Amsterdam yesterday morning at 7 a.m. local time after the 8-hour plane ride from Minneapolis. The plane I flew in was absolutely massive! Possibly the largest I've ever been on. There were 45 rows with 2 seats on either side of the rows of 4 seats in the middle of the plane. The man I was sitting next to decided to move to one of the many open seats to give us both more room to sit, which was nice. The flight was calm and uneventful; I watched 500 Days of Summer and most of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on my seat's personal little screen system. The most exciting part of the flight was when we were flying over Ireland and I could see all the cities lit up in the night. It was awesome and exciting knowing that I was finally arriving! Finally we landed in Amsterdam, and after waiting in the airport for about 3 hours I finally flew to foggy, rainy Glasgow and arrived at my hostel at 11:30. I checked in, found my room, and promptly fell asleep on the nearest bed. 3 hours later I woke up and one of my roommates was walking in the door. Still a bit sleepy, I said hello and got to know him. His name is Javier and he is from Seville, Spain. My first friend abroad! He's studying architecture at Strathclyde for the spring semester, so we'll probably see each other around campus. He had been in town since Tuesday, so he has been meeting people and having a blast all week. We decided to walk around downtown Glasgow to find somewhere to eat supper, and I wanted to find a Scottish pub. We wandered into one and realized (after we ordered) that it was a karaoke pub, so we had constant entertainment while we ate our burgers and "chips." We chatted some more and Javier invited me to a party he heard about from his friend, Antonio. I figured there was no better way to meet a lot of people, so I tagged along. The party was in the Strathclyde dorms and it was a going-away party for a few girls from Spain that Antonio knew. We got there around 9 and eventually about 35 people showed up, which was pretty crowded in the small flat! Lots of different countries were represented at the party; it was awesome! England, France, Northern Ireland, Slovakia, Germany, and Denmark, just to name a few. After a few hours at the apartment we headed downtown to a club for a few hours of dancing, which was great, and then Javier and I headed home to our hostel and crashed to sleep for the night.

It was an adventurous first 12 hours in Scotland, but I am having a great time already. People are friendly and the city is active. I can't wait to move in, meet my roommates, and start classes! Although the dorm I'm living in has the reputation of Burge (you Iowa kids know what I'm talking about), I still think it will be a great semester! That was day one. We'll see what day two has in store tomorrow!

Packed.

It's amazing to me how much stuff can be crammed into a piece of luggage. Seriously. The last two days have been spent laying out my clothes and supplies for this adventure to Europe, and I planned to take enough things for about two weeks of living. It was relatively easy to pick and choose what to take, but it took my mom and me about 5 hours to organize everything to fit perfectly into my one checked bag. Amazing.

So. I'm packed (aside from toiletries and my backpack). All that's left to do is sleep and say goodbye to my bro and sis in the mañana. Technically, I'm just leaving to go to school, but why do "study abroad" goodbyes seem so hard? I've been having people wishing me good luck and good wishes, and it's just harder to say "bye" to friends and family this time. I'm really grateful for the support group I have. Seriously.

Next is to sleep, which is proving to be a bit difficult. The butterflies are fluttering and the adrenaline is kicking in. It's time to go; I've just got to find a way to get the next 12 hours and 45 minutes to go by...

17 Days...

It's 10:30 p.m. on Monday, January 4, 2010. I am currently relaxing on Christmas break and waiting for the next seventeen days to (quickly) go by. After those days I'll be on a 16-hour plane ride across the Atlantic headed for Glasgow, Scotland. With so little to do in snowy Northwest Iowa, I thought I'd start my blog for the upcoming semester. Keeping a blog was recommended to me by the study abroad office at college, and I've always wanted to try it. Since studying abroad was the inspiration for this blog, I'll tell the story of how I came to be waiting for seventeen days to fly by so I could head overseas...

To fill my non-lab science general ed requirement, I chose to take "Introduction to Environmental Science" and to my surprise, my friend Cassandra was in the same class. One sunny October afternoon, Cassandra and I were doing some last-minute studying for a test on the pentacrest just outside of Macbride Hall. With such nice weather and endless opportunities for people-watching, studying was difficult. Eventually our conversation became about our plans for the spring, and Cassandra told me she was studying abroad in Spain. I told her that I considered studying abroad the previous year but kind of forgot about it. She asked me which classes I was taking, and I was planning to start taking more English classes for my major and maybe a few electives to explore other majors, so Cassandra asked, "Why don't you study abroad?" Surprised, I didn't know what to think. I didn't think it was possible, but she told me to just go ask about it at the study abroad office. After class we walked to the office since she had to meet with her adviser anyway, and I asked an adviser about studying abroad in the spring. I wanted to go to a university in Great Britain and totally be immersed in that university. My idea of studying abroad is when an American student goes and lives in the foreign university's dorms with a bunch of international students. The University of Iowa Great Britain exchange programs were suggested to me because they were a complete exchange program cheap for Iowa residents. The study abroad staff helped me find options and explained the details, and I had a few days to decide on a program. After narrowing down the four options and selecting the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, all that was left to do was apply. I had a week to get my application finished, apply for a passport, and get letters of recommendation, so it was crazy and hectic for a bit, but getting accepted to the program and now anticipating my flight and adventures in Europe are completely worth it.

Ten days after getting the idea to study abroad, I finished my application. A month after turning in my application, I got accepted into the program. Another month after that, I'm waiting to go to Scotland. I can still hardly believe it and my excitement level is becoming unbearable. With only a few more supplies to buy, all that is left to do is wait...

17 days...