Day Twelve:

Second day of freshers week and after a sweaty night of dancing I had to just go to the gym and relax in the steam room they have here. There is an app here called "student recommend" and it gives students so many deals including eating free meals at different restaurants:

This meal was so good and I paid approximately £0 for it! 

Today was Chris' 21st birthday and afcourse we wanted to make it a good one so Cooper and I took him to this place to get the above food. It was on us, eventhough it was free. We met up with a couple of people and then took him to Jinty McGintys and we enjoyed one awesome night of Alex the local artist here who can sing just about any song! The pub scene is a lot better than the club scene here because of the live music! 

Day Eleven:

Today I picked up our freshers passes and then got underway with the activities. I cannot begin to explain how many coupons, flyers and random stuff I got. It was as if I was good and everyone campaigning were seaguls on the beach! We went to the beer bar in the GUU and did a quiz about general knowledge, sports and other topics. The only thing is. We don't know much about Scottish knowledge! It was quite funny hearing the actual answers versus ours. The night started our first big event by going to a concert held by Twin Atlantic who were pretty good to be honest! If I could post videos on this blog I would have so much more to show.

When they were done we waited an hour and a half just to see HODOR. Now if you're like me who don't watch Game of Thrones. You will also have no idea who he is. But he is an actor who plays a big role in the series and apparently a DJ as a side job. 

Day Ten:

I am beginning to think that my days aren't exactly matching up with my blog but I will nevertheless continue. I think today was pretty much just a relaxing day and freshers week has begun which means all the freshman have now moved in and to be quite honest it is very hard seeing someone who is 18 move into the same place as you when you are 21. Yikes! It is a Sunday so everyone just took it easy before the big week begins! There is a huge debate going on because of the referendum and so we decided to go to our debate chamber in one of the student unions. It was packed!! And the speakers truly sounded like braveheart when they started saying they want "freedom". It was interesting seeing college students care so much about something that could be a historical moment for their country: 

Day Nine:

Brandon called me about half 10 and told me that we are going to the coast. I am all for spontaneous events such as these but I was still really tired. We were a group of 8 and took a train to a place called Lags. As we were going through the countryside it really started to resemble the Scotland that everyone thinks of. Sheep. Sheep. Green hills. And more sheep. When we got to Lags we decided to have some fish and chips and I thought it was good but everyone else seemed to not like it. Here are a couple of pictures of the coast line and where we walked around: 

Near the middle of this long walkway we saw a massive church built in 1892. The lady inside the church was so friendly and helped us your the church and gave us some information about it. 

These stained glass windows are so vibrant and clear and they say that this church has never been revamped or touched. It's amazing how new it still looks. 

Another awesome thing about Scotland is their double cone ice cream. Pure genius. 

We were all just enjoying the little sun we get and passed out on the lawn while watching a group of 30 wee laddies play football. We also came to the conclusion that no matter where you are kids will be kids and do stupid things. 

Day Eight:

I had to wake up early to get on a bus to Loch Lomond. The school here has a partner program with a local tour group and so I met my tour guide Gary and off we went. It was an hour and a half to the first stop and Gary told us some stories about famous myths of the lake which I quite enjoyed. 

Our second stop for the day was another branch of the Loch:

When we got to our third and final stop, Gary told us a 2nd story about Selkies. They are seals that turn into human and then back into seals. Amazing what people can come up with. Our last stop was Luss and it was a wee village where we witnessed a wedding and just enjoyed the views: 

I slept every opportunity I got while I was on the bus and the day trip was very successful because it really showed me a bit about the countryside of Scotland. 

Day Seven:

Today was just a relaxing day where the sun seemed to have graced our lives with such beauty. Scotland hasn't given us rain yet! Knock on wood. Connor and I ended up just relaxing in the sun at he botanical gardens and falling asleep. Mid afternoon naps are something that needs to be more common. 

I don't necessarily have any pictures for the day because there wasn't much going on. I ended up going to the gym and after that I had a bus your where it took us around downtown and some of the outskirts of glasgow. I saw some interesting modern art buildings and got an espresso which absolutely was the worst thing I've ever had. 

Mattie seems to have caught a cold and I now have it too. I did however try haggis which is a speciality here in glasgow: 

But other than that it was just a sunny afternoon: 

Day Six:

Most of the international orientation is over but I have to be honest registration here isn't all that easy. We have to get individual signatures from each professor if you want to enroll into the class. Today we had a meeting with the Pipes professor and it looks to me like I will be learning bagpipes this quarter! The weather here has been great with sunshine everyday, which is going to make it harder when it just pours down rain constantly. So far I've seen many cats and foxes around the campus and a lot of people out and about. They don't believe in shorts however because even on a hot day like today people are just rolling up their pants. I went to the botanical garden again which seems to be the place everyone goes to take an afternoon nap whenever the sun is out. I got some ice cream that had FLAKE in it which was so good. For those who don't know what flake is, it's a thin straw like chocolate here in the UK. 

At night I got invited to a pizza party with three French people who were so nice! The group got bigger as the night progressed and we ended up at Jinty's McGintys which is a local bar with love music! 

There was also an interesting band that was playing there soon so I might go see them:

Day Five:

Woke up to my alarm and had absolutely no idea where I was! Thought I was in a hostel in Europe backpacking again but rembered that I was in Glasgow and I had about 10 minutes to hike up the hill to our second day of orientation. This day  basicaly didn't have much going on other than a morning information service that was 3 hours long! We did hear some bagpipes tho because a guy came in and played some for us. But honestly the best part of the 3 hours was that they played a YouTube video. And not just anyone. They played the 11 Scottish Elevator video which I've constantly been showing everyone and my family way before I was coming to Scotland. 

I walked back and talked to a guy about croquet that they played on the commonwealth bowling grounds: 

I didn't take a lot of pictures today and I should have because right after this I saw a guy training his 3 dogs. And they were so obedient that a crowd of people started to form and wath this guy train his dogs. 

I met up with Emily, Mattes, Sydney and Harper and grabbed lunch at Ketchup; a local place where you can buy 2 burgers for the prices of one, and oh my gosh were they good! 

The people here are really friendly and willing to help! Before dinner I stopped by a bike station and ended up getting a cheap bike which will come in handy to get around: 

The night turned into a Hilarious event. We went to a comedy club and the people were so forward with their jokes that we didn't really know what to do. Laugh or just be quiet. Also they had very thick Glaswegian ascent which didn't help the situation. We met a couple of German girls and they came with us. They didn't think the people were funny. 

Day Four:

First day of orientation this should be fun. Time to meet more international students. We had to grab our ID's and student cards and then proceeded with the day events which was what I would call a Succesful Univentful Day, or SUD... Yes I just made that up. But basically we got some packets with events that will be happening the rest of the week and then in the middle of the day we got a walking your of our new Uni. We saw some of our fellow international students' halls and I'm sorry but what exactly am I suppose to do with this door? The handle is at my knee cap:

Rule number 27: enjoy the little things. There are 3 social events during the week and mine was tonight so we went to a Scottish Ceilidh - pronounced "Keili" which basicaly swing dancing. It was a great way to meet people and the funny thing I noticed about it was that they handed out a free glass or wine or a beer to everyone when you first walk in. Way different that at DU. Then again everyone here is older than 18.

Currently we have a group chat on Viber and some of the people we have met are awesome! American, German, Canadian, French and Netherlands: 

Syd and Noelle: Indiana 

Calvin - aka djmcnallypraize: Texas but goes to DU 

We then all went out for the night and it was fun hearing everyone's story from different parts of the world! 

Day Three:

Last day before orientation starts, so it was nice sleeping in. The weather here has been great and no rain so far. I went to the gym to see if I could get my membership card but the lady let me in regardless. It felt so good being back! 

After the gym made myself some lunch and then went looking for a phone store but got distracted when I ran into Calvin and a group of girls from Indiana we met the previous day. We got a beer and watched Tom and Jerry! Afterwards we went to the botanical garden and decided to just camp out: 

Got some pasta and eggs cooked for me by the girls and then we went to Colper's bar to watch the football! Germany vs Scotland! The atmosphere was unreal:

When we got done with a sad 2-1 loss for Scotland a bunch of DU students went to a bar with live music and it was so amazing: 

I'm sure we will be spending a lot of time at this bar! 

Day Two:

So seeing that only the international students move in during this time the dorms seem rather empty. Not to mention my dorm is more confusing than Jmac! And the heat is turned up all the way! I went to get myself groceries and some pots and pans. When I walked into the store I immediately noticed all the candy I use to eat back home in South Africa and afcourse with all great things something has to come and ruin it: 

For those of you who don't know what this is, I am so happy for you. This paste you put on toast and crackers has haunted me my whole life and I absolutely dispize it! 

When I got all my stuff settled I had some breakfast, showered and then went walking around the area to get aquanted. The only thing about these showers is that you have turn a nob, then a lever and then push a button. Wayyyy to confusing for people waking up and still being tired. 

Calvin, Brandon and I went to scout out the Uni. We weren't dissapointed: 

Yes you saw correctly that our library is skyscraper. The uni really gives me a sense of DU, however these buildings weren't built to look like they were from the 1800's they actual are that old, if not older. 

A couple of things I've learnt so far is that we will be walking A LOT! Some dorms are 30 minutes away from campus, and mine is 45 minutes away from that dorm. And it's not all flat road, there are mini hills too! No complaints a little extra workout never hurt anybody! 

Day One:

So today marks the first day of actually being in Glasgow, Scotland. The flight in wasn't bad from Germany and met some nice people on the plane. I can't really begin to explain how different the accent is here! When you hear two Scotts conversing I don't have a clue what they are saying. When they talk directly to me however, it gets easier to understand. It's just going to take time getting use too it. Brandon and I got off the plane and waited for our luggage for quite some while and while I went to the lu I noticed a genius invention: 

So this is a 3 in one hand washer. If you place your hand infront of it, water comes out; place your hand a little further under it and soap comes out; and then the genius part is when you seperate your hands air dries them for ya from the sides! 

Now I am sure there are going to be a lot of different things I will pick up as I proceed in my days, but today the thing that stood out okay was the word "yous". Now to put it in retrorespect, this is the same as saying you guys, or more than one person. For example: What are yous doing later? 

This is going to be fun! 

I caught a glimpse of the main campus as I was walking by: 

My living situation right now is a single room with two beds because my roomate hasn't arrived yet. Feels like I'm a freshman all over again. I also realized that the £ has so many coins, and not a lot of small bills. Pretty tired from two days of travel so I'll see ya later beautiful world!