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! 

Day Nine:

Today was officially our last day of our Europe trip. Tomorrow we are just going to be on the train from 8am till 9:30pm from Venice to Kaserslautern. We all leave for Scotland the day after tomorrow. 

After a freezing, and I mean freezing night of trying to sleep we put on our jeans and jackets and when we finally got outside we realized it was boiling hot. Venice you are weird I'll tell ya that much. We went to breakfast where apparently I traveled half way around the world just to get rid of the mosquitos in Chicago to have this happen: 

We decided to your Venice seeing that it is an island and we can walk just about anywhere. We saw a couple of churches but unfortunately I was wearing a tank too and we all were wearing shorts so we couldn't go in them. We did manage to sneak some pictures however: 

Other than this church we basically just looked at them from the outside and catching the most common pictures of Venice: 

This last picture is something I've seen before many places around Europe where a couple will take a lock and lock it around a bridge and throw the key away representing their love for one another to never go away:

Our view from our hotel window wasn't too bad, besides the fact that every canal in Venice looked like this one:

We got really tired and decided to take a mid afternoon nap and why not next to a place that looked like this:

We figured that it would be our last night of our trip so we decided to spend a little extra on dinner. We were NOT dissapointed at all! Plus we had gelato after but when in Italy, have some spaghetti: 

All and all this trip has been amazing and we are so incredibly blessed to have had this opportunity. The guys I have been with, Alex, Brandon and Calvin are incredible! I am so thankful for meeting them. We thank you God for everything you have done and for keeping us safe! Next stop on my list is University of Glasgow, Scotland! 

Day Eight:

Belluno goes down as one of my favorite places in the world! It was a hard goodbye: 

But just when I thought we were leaving there had to be one more memory that I won't be able to forget about this place. The toilet. Yup. The long drop, piss pot, lu, bathroom, washroom, water closet or whichever way you know it by. It wasn't what you are thinking of I can guarantee that: 

A hole in the ground is what I would like to name this one. And if you are wondering if this is a urinal, it's not.

This was at the restaurant we are at before we got on the train, which is a great segway into my next topic. Food. I know I know ew gross well sorry but im trying to stay as chronological as I can. I ordered a panini and got a BUS instead: 

That is the actually panini next to my hand. 

Ciao Belluno Gratsi! 

Only a two hour train to Venice, where the scenery was completely different: 

More tourist than actual buildings in this case. Ofcourse being in a place where the roads are canals isn't such a bad thing to experience. I've been to Venice before but it was on the opposite end so this is all new to me, but still the same with how many tourist there are.

It got quiter and less crowded the more we walked towards our hotel which is close to the coast. We had 3 helpings of gelato and pizza for dinner. When in Rome... I mean Venice: 

There was a big storm brewing and we got done with dinner before it came. 

We also figured we would catch the sunset but didn't quite make it to the end of the walkway. 

This was the actual colour of the sky before the sun set. The two things that already started to annoy me was the amount of Americans and the amount of Haglers (People trying to sell you stuff). I have nothing against Americans but I didn't come to Italy to talk to the people I live with constantly. Tomorrow we will walk through San Polo and San Marco trying to cover as much as the island as possible.