On Friday we went to the People's Palace (a museum). On the way there we passed by the tail end of a children's 2k race. At the very back we spotted it, a clown in full make-up. He was chasing after the children yelling "I'm gonna get you!" to make them run faster. Can you imagine being chased by a clown during a race. What is so many people's greatest fear came to life for those poor slow-pokes in the back. The People's Palace itself was fun. It was a look at Scottish life throughout the past couple of centuries. They had exhibits on the wars and their impact on Scotland, growing up in Scotland, different inventions from Scotland, etc. It was very interactive, but a lot of fun to look around. Attached to the museum is the Winter Garden. An enclosed garden that was beautiful.
On Saturday I got the key to my flat. My mom and I stopped in and looked around. It's nothing like American dorms, even the suites. It can be thought of as the hall of an apartment building, everyone has their own apartment. There is a common space, but it is a completely separate room with it's own door, so there is very little sense of community. Every door is a fire door so it is supposed to stay closed. I don't know how strict this rule is, but door stops anyone? (I haven't even seen one of my flat mates yet!) As exciting as it was to get my key, we decided against moving in that day and went back to the hotel to relax.
Sunday morning we decided to attend the service at the Glasgow Cathedral. The Church was so beautiful it was easy to ignore the fact that the sermon had a very strong "give-us-money" undertone. After the service and a quick visit to St. Mungo's Museum, we wandered back to the City Center to buy some necessities for my room and flat. What we didn't realize, however, was how absurdly heavy these "necessities" were. Has anyone tried to carry a pack of paper before along with groceries? Well my mom did, and let me tell you, she was not happy about it. Along with that, why does no one sell forks? We found a pack of four spoons at the dollar store and a bag of plastic knives at some little market, but where have all the forks gone? I guess I'll have to get take-out at some point and ask for extra cutlery.
So after a stressful and emotional moving in process, my mom was on her way, and I am on my own.
This morning I met up with Megan and we walked over to the orientation together. We were quickly separated as the 200-something of us were divided into smaller groups for some awesome group bonding. After our break for lunch, I of course got lost trying to find my way back to the orientation building. I thought I'd be clever and walk through the giant quad of the main building. I got into the quad, and then spent a fair amount of time trying to find my way out. I wandered into numerous departments and I'm pretty sure I opened the door to a wedding (music playing, chick in white dress, etc.). Eventually I found my way out of Hogwarts and onto the main street and to the orientation building.
The second half of the orientation program today was about signing up for classes. Now I thought Goucher used to have a bad system (waiting in line at 4 am in the rain), Glasgow's is worse. First we had to put down some classes on the application so we could have some pre-approved choices all lined up for us. After requesting these classes we got an email saying that we were approved for these classes. Tomorrow we have to go to an info session with representatives from the departments to double check that we can take the classes we want to take. Then the professors tell us how to actually enroll in these classes. Then depending on what we're told, we have to go back to another enrollment session and actually put our name down on the list. Then once we've done this we have to go onto a website and verify that the classes there match what we're planning on taking. Then we have to fill out this yellow form listing our class choices so that the international student office can double check this website and make sure the classes match up....So that should be fun.
Tonight for dinner I went to an Indian place with Megan and Aldonza. Megan is from Nebraska and Aldonza is from Mexico City. The waiter guy was super awkward, so I taught Aldonza the "awkward turtle" and other fun awkwardities.
I now know that I should update this more regularly so as to avoid 4 days of information. Pictures would have made this entry officially skim-worthy (if it's not already) so check my facebook at some point for more pictures.
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