the busy scotswoman

Ah. its been a while. I've been in Glasgow just over 3 weeks now, and things are getting busy. I have a handful of papers due in the next couple of weeks, as well as some out trips, club events, hang outs, and at some point, time to journal... b/c I have been lacking some in that department. I've also discovered how tricky it is to keep in touch with so many people (especially when I'm trying to limit my time on the computer). If you've emailed me and I have not replied yet, I apologize.

to make up for lack of posting, I have plenty of pictures.
so many things have happened since I posted last, and it would be impossible to post it all here. but I'll try to mention some of the highlights.

I've joined the Strathclyde chamber choir. University choirs seem to attract the most eclectic group of people, and that is part of the reason that I love being a part of them. Even though it is a completely different group than back in Guelph, it feels like a familiar group; I like that. At my first choir rehearsal, which was not even an hour after my audition, a girl in the choir recognized me from walking in late to a Cognitive Psychology lecture. We now sit together for that class, which is quite nice. Being an exchange student in 3rd year classes poses some difficulties for meeting people, as most of the non-exchange students have established friend groups by this point in their academic career.
(Just a quick note, I was late because that was my first time in the Royal College building, and it quite notorious for being a confusing maze of hallways. I am chronically early for most things. Although at Strathclyde, almost all of my lectures start 10 minutes late. The Scots are relatively laid back.)
During choir rehearsal last week, there was fire in the adjacent building. We were evacuated. Went down eight flights of stairs because the lifts can't be used during a fire alarm. Once outside the building, we watched the smoke fill the sky and the fire engines attempted to surround the building. The rest of our practice was subsequently canceled. If you are interested in further details on the fire, feel free to check out the BBC news article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-16944006

I have also joined several sports clubs including Mountain Biking, Mountaineering, Archery, Fencing and a handful of others. I'm not sure how much I will be in attendance for each, but I am excited for the opportunities they present.

In other exciting news, I climbed a mountain last weekend. Well, just foot climbing, no equipment, but it was notably steep. It is called the Pap of Glencoe; it was 2.5 hours for the ascent, lunch, then 2 hours for the descent. I wore rain pants, welly's, and my super water proof winter jacket, but still got quite soaked. It was generally misty, an hour or so of pouring rain, and then wet snow closer to the top (we didn't climb the very top because it was getting quite snowy and slippery, and we were just novice climbers - so I made the executive decision that further climbing would be foolish. and it worked out well because we made it back to the small town just in time to catch our bus home). Despite the rain, it was a great experience.

this is just a picture taken out the bus window. left glasgow at 7am, arrived at glencoe around 10:30am, hard to sleep on this bus ride because it was so scenic.

  the mountain to be climbed can be seen in the top right of the picture.

"past the bridge, your path will become a narrow rocky stream." it's stayed this way for about an hour. good thing I wore my welly's

 a lovely view of the village of Glencoe. that's where were started (see the red houses? they are in an earlier picture).

 

a brief moment of sunshine. looking at how far we've come (you can see a house in the middle of the right side of the picture.) still got a ways to go... i think we were only an hour in at this point.

some nearby mountains.

 its raining.

 now it is snowing. and here's some wildlife. never got close enough to say hello though. 

and the victory shot. i'm wet, but happy. only minutes later, the sun came out, and the mist cleared for about 15 minutes.

I've recently realized that many of my personality quirks aren't as readily questioned or judged b/c I'm from another country. It's quite a nice safety net, and I feel more comfortable being myself. I also feel more comfortable whipping up strange meals in the kitchen. I've never been questioned as to what I'm eating, but I'm prepared to say it's a Canadian meal (even if it is a bowl of red lentils, brown rice, sweet potato with feta, and slices of green pepper).

I cut my hair on Friday. Nothing drastic, just gave myself bangs again. I'm not 100% pleased with them, but they are actually pretty decent. And only cost me as much as the scissors, which is pretty great.

I make goals weekly. I am a goal oriented person, and making goals regularly helps me keep perspective, and motivates me. Although, I often make ridiculous goals, or so many that it is hard to accomplish them all - which can be negative the whole motivation thing. Anyhow, one of my goals for this week was to find a piano that I can have access to play. I am quite pleased to say that this has been accomplished - although I have not had the opportunity to play it yet, the arrangement is pending.

On Friday night, my two flatmates from Luthiania hosted a Luthianian dinner party. We feasted on Šaltibarščiai (beet root soup), boiled potatoes (they likely have a lithuanian name, but i don't remember what it is). Both tasted really wonderful. I wish I took pictures of the soup. It was practically fuchsia. And then we had what I think was called Žagarėliai for dessert. Deep fried twisted pastries dusted with icing sugar. Quite tasty, but I ate far too many of those. I was still full when I got up in the morning.


Yesterday, (Saturday) I went to Stirling castle with the photography club. I'm not actually a part of this club, but the International Student Society trip was sold out, and this one was far more laid back. The pictures really speak for themselves here, so I won't say much more (and I figured out how to do the captions properly). I will say that my feet were quite tired from walking all day. Also, I was quite tired myself; I started this blog entry last night, but I ended up going to bed.

here be Stirling

i very quickly fell in love with this town.

this got me very excited because we had just learned about these in my "Youth in Post-War Britain" class.

this is called the "Church of the Holy Rude"

i got really excited for this too. i have a minor obsession with alleyways.

found a playground. and spent some time playing on the equipment. typical.

again. i really like alleyways. this one was even labelled as such.

waiting with my French-German traveling companion at the castle esplinade for the rest of our group to show up. they ended up being half an hour late. we enjoyed the scenery for a bit, and then started to explore the castle without them.

here's some castle.

i can't remember what this was called, but there was plenty of frolicking and running at top it.

and climbing to get up it

i like climbing up rocks.

the view from the top.

here's a cannon.

inside of the chapel.

"the great kitchen". they've got many statues baking fake food.

that's the Wallace Monument on that hill.

i'm quite fond of this picture. for some reason, it makes me think of a Rene Magritte painting. even though it isn't surrealism, and is a quite real photograph.

I'm still looking into volunteering options. Maybe that will be a goal for this week. I'm also considering the possibility of working, since I am allowed 20hrs/week with my Visa, but I'm not sure if I will pursue this.

Oh, I'm quite proud of myself for this: not only did I do a significant amount of prepwork before my Tuesday lecture on time perception (so incredibly interesting), I made careful note of two questions, and made sure that I pushed myself to talk to the professor following the lecture. This is something I've often intended to do, but never actually had the guts or stamina to push myself to do. Hopefully it will become a habit. Maybe I'll be a good student yet.

Speaking of being a good student, I've just been studying in the library, but had to leave to get some food for a snack break. While writing this portion, I'm sitting in a cafe below the library (one is not allowed to eat in the library here... I think I will value that freedom more when I return to Guelph). I walked a couple of blocks to the grocery store and got some snacking food (well, snacking food for me... whole wheat rolls and fruit). I also found a Nestle chocolate-free candy bar called "Caramac". I'm eating it right now. It's actually kind of disgusting. I won't be making a habit of buying these.

I think I'll finish this soon, I need to get cracking on that paper before the library closes.

Now I am back in my flat.
Here's a brief walking tour of Glasgow.

for the "Dr. Who" fans, these public call boxes are quite common here.

this one in front of a church.

some buildings.

this is how street names are denoted.

this is the road leading up to my acomodation.

Rottenrow East.

and Thomas Campbell Court. D-block. this building is my hall.

Tomorrow will involve studying in the morning in the Michell Public Library, my lecture has been cancelled, then I think I'll go study at Glasgow Uni's library, then dinner at Kersland, and if all that studying pays off and my paper is finished, I'll hopefully be joining the Kersland crew in going to an open mic night at a coffee house. We'll see though.

I meant to draft this paper before I sleep, but time is moving faster than I'd like. At least I have finally blogged. I need to sleep soon.

Please continue to write when you get a chance. Even when I don't respond very promptly, I still very much appreciate hearing from home.