Orientation

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This week is considered Freshers week (whatever that is) here at the college. I have been attending Orientation sessions with Mr. Jim Wilson (the international advisor) and Ms. Allison Handly (the international exchange coordinator or the Kirsten on the other end as she would say) and getting info about happenings around the campus. There is a lot of good information, but my brain has been on overload combined with jet lag; not a good combination. I have also been doing a lot of walking around trying to orient myself to the area.

I had the opportunity to sit in on a Physical Education class (Practicum-based) yesterday. That was interesting. I learned a lot about the school systems here in Scotland, which are very different from back home. The school that I will be teaching at here is a private school and the kids wear uniforms. The boys wear slacks, shirt and tie, and a sport-coat. The girls wear pretty much the same thing, except they wear skirts (kilts) instead of slacks. The public and private school concepts are very different here. Back home, public schools are strictly non-religious due to the separation of church and state. Here in Scotland the public schools can be religious based or non-religious based.

I purchased tickets for a couple of castle tours, one a week from Saturday, and one in October. I will try to post pictures of my trips for those of you who are art and architecture lovers, or if you just like to look at cool pictures. The architecture here is absolutely beautiful. Most of it is victorian inspired, but some of the older Cathedrals are more gothic.

I will also try to get a group photo sometime of my flat (dorm) mates, along with their names and where they are from and post that as well.

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