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!