Belated Scotsgiving!

Forgive me, I have been trying to figure out exactly how to do my homework lately. For instance, I have a 2,000 word paper for my E-Marketing class at the syllabus only explains that I must use course concepts... so it's been difficult to discern exactly where to begin. I've also been struggling to do my assigned lecture readings, since they come up on the lecture slides but there is no reading schedule to be found anywhere in my syllabus for the module.

Regardless, we went ahead and celebrated Thanksgiving!
The Swedes and the Finns were game, even though they'd never had a Thanksgiving before. From that angle, it's a little silly to try and explain what the point of the holiday is. At the end of the day I'm satisfied with: it's the day you eat as much as you can with a big group of people that you like hanging out with!

On a student's budget it proved more than challenging to have a Thanksgiving spread. Instead, we brought our own meals and shared anything left over. Kind of a hodge-podge of dishes, and not some that I've seen at many of my family Thanksgivings, but the sight of a full table and happy faces was really what I was after anyway. The non-Canadians were good sports about it, and we felt like we had been properly celebrated.

PS. These are Nina's disgusting candies from Finland. In Finland they love to eat things that taste horrible. They taste like salt and black licorice, and they love them so much that Esko dissolved some into his vodka so that it tasted just like them!

Ceilidh at GCU

There was an event held tonight for international students at GCU, so Taylor, Shayna, Holly, and our flatmates Gabi, Antje, Raul and Andres went to investigate the "free dinner" we had heard about. The event only cost us £3 each, and upon our arrival we were greeted by an open bar serving wine and juice. The evening began with us finding some seats, having a drink, and then being taught a "traditional" Scottish dance. After the instructions for the dance were given to whoever wanted to try learning, an accordion and drum kit would play recognizable songs like "Loch Lomond," "My Bonnie," and some of the Braveheart theme. That pretty much sums up the evening, a great price and an opportunity to get to know other international students - some even chose to dress in their country's traditional wear: kimonos, saris, etc... it was very cool. For such little money we were given a place to meet each other and get to know one another, as well as something to learn all together (the ceilidh dances are apparently super participatory, with tons of jumping and skipping and things). But I have to say the best deal was definitely the free wine, dinner, and desserts. For dinner we were served burgers with a side of haggis, neeps & tatties. The open bar also offered plates of chocolate coconut bars and some maple fudge - after my own heart.

Classes have been on for only two weeks now and I haven't put more than two hours into one. The process of organizing a timetable seems almost impossible, and the communication at GCU seems to be one of their top struggles. So I've gotten frustrated with the administration several times now, which is making me a little more tense about our trip to Paris tomorrow. Also, trying to tailor my plans to accommodate the exchange rate that brought all my savings from both summer jobs to less than the value of my one semester at Brock - even though Glasgow is a pretty cheap place to live, everywhere in the UK is more expensive than Canada.


So, this Paris trip is going to have to be creatively tailored to a low-budget tour. We luckily planned our trip on the first weekend of the month, the Sunday of which is apparently a free-entry day to many of the most popular sites in Paris. Some Googling will find us other attractions in the city that won't cost us a thing, and we've got a kitchenette in our hostel (so I'm told - we'll see).

Getting My Footing

Almost three weeks in Scotland! I'm finally feeling like I'm getting my feet under me. I've got a pretty good group of friends, all of us international students experiencing Glasgow together. Last night we all got together for dinner to celebrate Taylor's birthday away from home. I've figured out where to buy the cheapest groceries, best times to have my meals, and have even got two trips planned. Our flat is almost full, we've still got one empty room and not one single Scottish roommate. We are a completely international flat: Canada, USA, Spain, Brazil, and Colombia! As you can imagine there's a lot of Spanish flying around as well as English.

Our building's fire detection system went haywire three days ago and provided us with a relentless high-pitched peep that went on and on for 48 hours (much to the amusement of the Caley Court security office apparently), until Holly and I went to the Accomodations Office and played them a recording of the sound! Right away the amazing and beautiful Robert Stevenson saved us by calling someone to come and at least shut the system off until it can get fixed. So, no more incessant whine, but we are without a fire alarm system in the whole building. I shut my heater off, because it smells like the wrong end of a very very old hair dryer.

Laundry is quite an ordeal in Caley Court. It's £1.60 per forty-minute wash load, and 20p for every 12 minutes in the dryer. The dryer I unfortunately chose today wasn't emitting any heat, so after I waited my 36 minutes and found my clothes cold and damp, it was another 24 in a different machine before I could go home and eat dinner! Experiencing rez life all over again at least makes me appreciate my cozy 2 bedroom apartment back home.

As fascinating as I'm sure hearing about my laundry room escapades must be, I'm actually very excited to finally be finding my center here. Mostly I can't wait to get started travelling, with only three classes to contend with at GCU. Next Friday I'm off to Paris with Holly, Shayna and Taylor for two days - lots to see and fit in before our flight home on the Sunday! I also bought a UK Railcard yesterday to save 1/3 of any train ticket to travel the UK. In November we're going to take a train to London to see the Harry Potter set at Leavesden Studios (I lose myself at movie studios... Paramount in LA was a dream come true) and probably spend the weekend seeing the sights. I hope to get up to Stirling and Falkirk in not too long, and can't wait to start planning our trip to Ireland! Things are starting to feel more like the way I thought this exchange would be like.