Glasgow Adventures!

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The holiday season, for me, began officially on the 4th of December after I sat for the general GRE Exam and found out that I passed! Ashlee, Sabrina, Belinda, Henriette and I went out for a nice dinner at Wetherspoon's Hengler's Circus to celebrate. Afterwards, Ashlee and I decided to go to the 78 for another drink, before retiring to our respective rooms to work on essays and studying for exams. Since I had an exam towards the end of the first week of exams, I decided to wait and travel after my exam so that I could devote more time to studying and writing essays. This worked out quite well, since we were able to do a lot of exploring around Glasgow and partake in some fun holiday activities!

Friday, December 5 - This evening, we decided to walk to George Square to go ice skating. Unfortunately, they were sold out for the evening already by the time that we had arrived, they were sold out. We then walked around the square, enjoying the great Christmas lights and then we turned down another street where they were having a Christmas market which we were able to check out. Despite the fact that we weren't able to ice skate, it turned out to be a great night!

Saturday, December 6 - This was the day that we had the gymnastics world cup! We had bought tickets early on in the semester and the event, at that point, seemed like a really long time away. Yet, it finally came, and it was very exciting! We had our last brunch club meeting at Henriette's since she lives close to the stadium, which was bittersweet because we all have really grown to enjoy our brunches. We then walked to the stadium, snacks from the leftovers from brunch in tow, in order to watch the events. The whole thing was really cool - it featured the top eight male and top eight female gymnasts, who competed against each other for an overall high score. Then, all of the competitors participated in each event so you got a sense of who was the overall best. The gymnasts were amazing, and it was really cool seeing an event like this live! While it took all afternoon for the event to be completed, it moved very well and was very engaging so it didn't feel long at all. We were really glad we went, and it was a fun break from our studies. On our way home, we stopped at a few stores to pick up some Christmas gifts before burying ourselves in our studies once more.

Monday, December 8 - After locking myself in my room all day Sunday to write my 4,000 word essay that was due on Monday, I was able to print it out and turn it in, which meant that I had finished all of the coursework for the Scottish Enlightenment course. Since I had already finished bagpiping the week before, my theatre studies final which was coming up later that week was all I had standing between me and Christmas break. We decided to try and go ice skating again, which worked out really well since it was less crowded on Mondays rather than Fridays, and we were able to get an outstanding student deal! We had a ton of fun, and Ashlee and I (who were not confident in our abilities at all) were able to do pretty well! I was able to be independent on the ice the entire time without falling, which for me was a major accomplishment.

Wednesday, December 10 - This day, Sabrina, Ashlee and I spent the day exploring. We went to the City Chambers of Glasgow to get a tour of the beautiful government building, however due to the fact that we missed the first train by mere seconds, we were a few minutes late to the tour and were unable to join them. We walked around the first floor which is open to the public before doing some shopping and getting lunch. After lunch, we went to Pollok house, which was a private estate that features numerous antiquities on a gorgeous plot of land. It was decorated beautifully for Christmas, so we enjoyed walking around the estate. After heading home, we worked on preparing dinner as we were having a dinner party with some of the friends from the other flats to celebrate Christmas and have a final going away party. The night was a lot of fun, but I ended up leaving pretty early so that I could finish studying for the theatre exam the next day.

Thursday, December 11 - This morning, Ashlee, Sabrina and I got brunch since it was my last day with Ashlee since I would be leaving later that evening and she would already be gone by the time I got back. After brunch, I did some last minute cramming before the exam and got lunch. I completed the exam, which was not as bad as I was afraid it might be. Yet, I really don't have any sense of how I did since the grading here is really different than back home. After the exam, Ashlee had made us carrot cake, so we celebrated with tea and cake. For dinner, my flat and I ordered pizza to celebrate the end of the term and we shared our last meal together, since we would all be traveling at different times and heading home on different days. After dinner, I finished packing for my trip and then headed back upstairs to spend my last few moments with Ashlee. When the cab came, we shared a goodbye embrace, which was the first really hard goodbye that I had to say. We assured ourselves, however, that we will see each other some day soon in the future.

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