Blogs from Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 34

I am gaining a better understanding of how the grade levels work. The school systems are divided into two schools, a Junior School and a Senior School. The Junior Schools generally contain eight grade levels, with the exception of the particular school I am working at. Their eighth level is actually part of the Senior School. The Junior School contains the following grade levels, Kindergarten which begins at age 3, Junior 1, Junior 2, Junior 3, Junior 4, Junior 5, Junior 6, and Junior 7. The school I am at, the Juniors stop at Junior 6. The Junior 7 is at the Senior School, and is referred to as Transitus, rather than Junior 7. The Senior School generally contains six grade levels, Secondary 1 through 6. They refer to the students as 1st year, 2nd year, ... read more

After a week in London, we were ready for a change of pace and took a short flight up to Scotland, where we stayed with Craig's family's house near Glasgow. It was great staying with them and having some time to relax and explore the area. Craig's family was incredibly warm and welcoming; cooking fantastic meals (including the infamous hagis), ferrying us around town, introducing us to some of the finest Scottish Whisky. On Saturday, Craig's dad led us on an amazing "walk" (hike) up some peaks in the beautiful area of Glen Coe, a few hours north of Glasgow. The scenery was amazing - much more dramatic than I expected 4,000' mountains to be - and very green, reminding me of New Zealand at times. But because there are no trees, you're rewarded with amazing ... read more

Jeanette and I were supposed to go out to a club that we have free tickets for this past Friday. That didn’t go down as planned. Instead, we went and got a bottle of wine, sat in her room and went from silly to reflective and then to sleep. People back home should know that I’ve been drinking a lot of wine as of late. I think we are supposed to go down to the local store tonight to stock up during the wine sale. So as you’ve guessed by now we didn’t party at all this weekend and stayed in on Friday but went shopping on Saturday. I’ve been wearing my Japanese boots here to my placements and as nice as they look, they are extremely uncomfortable here for tramping around on the streets of ... read more

I'm now comfortably settled into my flat!! I have a guy from China, 2 guys from Scotland, a girl from Spain, a girl from Botswana, and a girl from The Phillipines. We all seem to click pretty well together, so life should be good. The Spanish girl Christina, and the Chinese guy Jet are very good cooks... we have all made a few things to share with eachother. I made Gold Star chilli dip... which everyone LOVED of course. Christina made some Sangria, which was OUTSTANDING.. and with the help of some other Spanish girls, Potato Omellettes, which were equal in quality!! I will have to get the recipe for that. Jet made some Shanghai Fried Rice... AMAZING stuff!! The difference in ethnic foods in our flat is pretty funny. Rice, pasta, olive oil, sunflower oil, ... read more

I have five room or flat mates. We each have our own bedroom, but share a bathroom and kitchen/living room. Three of the girls are Asian exchange students, Fang Yu (fun-g yee), Su Feng, and Tracey. Two of them are from Singapore and the third one is from Malaysia, but studies in Singapore. One of the other girls, Manny is an exchange student from Salt Lake City, Utah. Her sister Kate was here visiting for the week. The other girl that lives in our flat is Ciara (Key-ra) who is from Glasgow and is quite young. Once in I had to walk down to the other end of the hall to tell all the rude, loud, and obnoxious guys she had over in the living area at 11:30 at night to quiet down and have some ... read more