On Thursday, after returning back from Lisbon, I made preparations for the Halloween party that would be taking place at the GUU. I was planning on going as Harry Potter, so I ordered a cloak, tie, wand and glasses to complete the look. I was going with Ashlee, who was dressed as Velma from Scooby Doo and Sabrina, who was dressed as Mary Poppins. We met up with some other friends from our block to have a few drinks before heading to the party. When we arrived at the union, it was much more crowded than we had previously expected, so we ended up waiting in the queue for a while before we were able to get in. Once we got in, it was so crowded you could barely move, but we made it to the ... read more

After returning from Northern Ireland, it was a pretty uneventful week. Then, on Thursday, I had what would have been my last day of classes before what is called reading week, where we basically have a week off to work on our papers before they are due. I decided to make the most of my time off by doing some traveling, so I ended up skipping my Thursday lecture in order to start my break a bit early. I would first be traveling to Barcelona to visit the Daeufels, family friends who used to be our neighbors but recently got transferred to Spain. I arrived late Thursday evening and Georgianne took me back to their house after picking me up from the airport. The first thing that I noticed was the warm weather and the palm ... read more

Some highlights of the past week: Monday morning, the Principia Consortium (the program that I am a part of while studying at the University of Glasgow) organized a field trip to the Old Govan Church. It was a very cool building and grounds; we got a personalized tour for our group and got to explore everything. The site has a very interesting history; it has been a church for an incredible amount of time. The current building is the fifth church to be built in this location. Tuesday evening, Sabrina, Henriette, Ashlee and I went to the Royal Theatre to see the opera Cinderella by Rossini. While we were all a bit underwhelmed by the costumes, the general performance was very great and the experience was quite a lot of fun. There were some interesting variations ... read more

Well, today, due to some visa issues with me having a layover in Dublin on the way here, long story short, I had to come back to the UK from a non-UK or Ireland airport. I decided to fly from Dublin to Amsterdam, and then return to Glasgow from there. I ended up having a longer layover than I originally anticipated, so when I arrived in Amsterdam, I took the train to the Amsterdam Centraal station, from which the Anne Frank House was only a twenty minute walk. I walked there (after getting a little lost) and knew I was close when I saw a huge crowd of people. What I was not expecting was a huge line around the block. Not knowing what else to do, I decided to hop into the line and see ... read more

Since leaving off last time, I started the official Fresher's week Monday evening by going to the Twin Atlantic concert at the Queen Margaret Union (QMU) followed by Hot Dub Time Machine at the Glasgow University Union (GUU). The latter was an audiovisual experience led by a DJ who took you through music from the 1950's all the way until 2014. It was an incredibly fun evening, despite the fact that we didn't arrive at the GUU until they had progressed into the late 90's (which, when included with the current era, was arguably the best portion of the night, so there were no regrets about being there late). The room was incredibly crowded and extremely hot, but that didn't stop everyone from dancing and having the time of their lives. Tuesday, I decided to take ... read more