Fresher's Week, Callander/Killin & First Day of Classes

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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 the day off to recover from the previous night. Wednesday morning, the College of Arts hosted a welcome brunch for the international students where we were able to meet students from the university and pair up in a "buddy" system where they were able to answer more specific questions about the coursework within the College of Arts as well as additional queries about being a student at Glasgow in general. It was a really nice event, and a cool opportunity to meet other international students as well as students from the uni. Later that evening, the Glasgow University Sports Union hosted their 'Into the Wild' party at the GUU, which was quite a wild event, to say the least. Like many of the other events, it was extremely hot and crowded, but a lot of fun. Scott, a friend who is a fresher from Glasgow, and I dressed up as a cheetah and a tree frog, respectively. By the end of the night (well, morning), however, most of the makeup had come off.

Thursday, I had an orientation meeting at the National Piping Center, where I will be taking my bagpiping course. The national center has a relationship with the uni that allows study abroad students to take a course where we have an individual lesson in addition to a group lecture where we study the historical context of the bagpipes within Scotland. We had a tour of the building and signed up for our individual lessons. Friday was another quiet day.

Saturday morning, I took my final tour (for now) with Student Tours Scotland, and we spent the day in Callander and Killin. After about two and a half hours, we arrived at our first stop where we had the opportunity to walk around the town which was situated on a very nice stream. We climbed on the rocks around it, and explored an "island" that had a small cemetery before getting back on the bus to head to our next stop. After disembarking the bus, I grabbed a quick lunch before exploring the town a bit. We then reconvened and went on a hike up a hill and into the natural landscape of the area, which was incredibly beautiful. On our way back, the group I was in managed to get a bit lost but we were still able to make it back to the bus on time, which was very good. Upon arrival in Glasgow, I made myself dinner before going back out to the GUU for one last night out of Fresher's week. They were having Basshunter there and having a 90's party, but the DJ didn't play any 90's music at all and mainly played a lot of dubstep that all sounded the same. Needless to say, it was a bit disappointing so I left quite early.

Sunday, I enjoyed what was left of my summer break by sleeping in and getting a head start on my reading assignment for my Scottish Enlightenment course as well as catching up on laundry and grocery shopping.

Monday morning was the first day of school. I decided to try and get in a rhythm of working out, so I started the morning by attending a total body fitness class. I had every intention of staying for the next class, but was so tired and sore that I decided to go back to my flat instead. Luckily, my first class wasn't until noon so I was able to take a refreshing nap before getting ready for the day. My first lecture was my Scottish Enlightenment course, which was designed specifically for American students looking to transfer honors credit back to their home universities. The program is called the Principia Consortium, and they had a luncheon for us after the course so we could get to know each other and the faculty better. I will typically have a seminar after the course, but that doesn't start until the second week. During my free time between classes, I stopped at the GUU to pick up my membership card, which means that I officially am a member of the union. The next lecture was theatre studies, where we got to meet the professor and went over the course document. The class was larger than any I had at NCC, but not as large as I was anticipating. Both of the professors seemed very friendly (and easy to understand)! I then went to two dance classes at Dance Glasgow, a studio I found near the uni. The classes were very good and I was able to get a month pass, which should enable me to save money on the classes if I go to enough (which I plan to). All in all, it was a busy but fun day (and week), and after being gone from home so long, it actually feels good to get back into the rhythm of school.

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