Snowy Castles & Haggis

Orientation was this week- and I've gotta say, it was a little bizarre actually being an 'international student' myself. International students are always the people coming to my school, those who are NOT from the US.

But here- I'm an American International! 

Orientation is basically the same wherever you happen to be in the world, you get a lot of information- in a very small block of time! So they covered all the basics: Student Support, the Library (there are PIANOS on the 4th floor!? I'm pretty excited about that), Sport & Recreation Services (aka, the Gym) and Student Unions.

Actually, there is one bit there not the same at all- unions. At the University of Glasgow, there are two student unions: Glasgow University Union (GUU) and Queen Margaret Union (QM). As far as I can tell, they bascially do the same things- social events for students like club and trivia nights, discounts at certain places- and they are free! So now comes the question of which one to join, and does it matter? Well apparently it does matter to just be in one- which one, eh seems rather arbitrary. So I'm going for the QM, we'll see how that goes!

University of Glasgow in the snow! So Beautiful

Last Friday night, I also had my second run-in with Haggis- in fact, it was a haggis party. What's haggis?? You really don't want to know is the basic answer to that. Let's just say it involves at lot of sheep parts... but despite that rather gross association, it's pretty good! I had it first in Edinburgh, just a bite off of a friend's haggis & chips (fries for you Americans), and then this Friday again. They were both pretty good, but I liked the second, homemade one better. Looking more appetizing probably helped there as well. So I have been Britishized- having tried both fish & chips and haggis!

There are loads of international students here, and so I have the fantastic opportunity to literally meet people from around the globe. So far the list o' countries of students here is:
Scotland (duh.)
Norway
Finland
Poland
Estonia
Netherlands
France
Belgium
Germany
Itlay
Canada
China
Hong-Kong
Japan
Australia
Ireland
England
Pakistan
Turkey
Singapore 
USA

And I'm sure there is more! That's what makes everything so interesting! You get to constantly talk with people from different cultures. That was perhaps one of my favorite experiences of the week- going over to a flat and being the only American, surrounded by others! Memorizing everyone's names on the other hand is going to take a bit of practice... assuming I can pronounce their names.

While my Canadian roommate and I missed the bus tour of Glasgow (oops.), we explored the city some more on our own taking the Underground/Subway into the city center. This is another thing I love about Europe- PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION!!! Why isn't it this good in the US?? I can get around so easy using trains, subways and buses, and it's all pretty cheap too. Ah well, thoughts for the future. If we could only invent teleporting, we wouldn't have this issue (c'mon people, it's 2011! this should have been done by now!).

So we meandered around the city a bit getting some errands done and getting a bit lost, but it was all part of the adventure. We ended up buying groceries there to take back to our flat- you want cheap groceries, TESCO is your best friend. You can pretty much get anything there really cheaply I've discovered! 

Glasgow, unlike Edinburgh, is built like a grid, so finding your way back is pretty easy- though it may mean climbing a 60˚ hill (how do cars park on that??). The city also lights up a night- literally, there are beautiful lights strung everywhere.

This is getting to be a rather long post, so the last bit I'll mention is the snow!! Friday night and Saturday we got some beautiful snowfall, about an inch! This made going back to Edinburgh for a day trip amazing- the castle was absolutely gorgeous (I'll be putting up pictures on McDaniel's Flickr)! Snow seems to make everything prettier. We got to see the Elephant house where JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter, had lunch in a delicious place called 'Chocolate Soup' (first real soup and delicious fresh-made bread, THEN a hot café mocha- yum), took castle pictures and then finished up by briefly touring the National Galleries of Scotland which are full of famous artwork.

Edinburgh Castle in the snow!

The gates of Holyrood House in Edinburgh (which means Holy Cross House)

Outside Holyrood House

Jumping pictures!! Me in front of Edinburgh Castle

The only problem with snow and Glasgow, is that it eventually turns to sleet and slush. And then freezes... so this morning walking about was a bit tricky. I think the beauty was worth it though.