Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Are those two together??

My week anniversary with Glasgow is tomorrow... and a lot has happened in this past week. The snow has started to melt, students have started to return from winter vacation, and classes have commenced (well, kind of). I'm beginning to get used to Glasgow and their more relaxed way of doing things, but I'm nowhere near fully adjusted yet. It still feels like I'm just on a little European vacation and that I'll be back at BC sometime in the near future.

Saturday we were all going to go out to brunch and then go to the museums. We did wake up a little after noon and went to brunch at our favorite spot by campus, Morton's, which is this cute cafe that we've come to claim as "our spot." After, we walked around and got Scottish cell phones so that we can easily be in contact with one another when we're in Scotland. My phone is a legitimate nugget Nokia -- kind of like the first cell phone I ever had but without the ugly fake denim cover I had in seventh grade. We signed up for super cheap plans where we just pay as we go, which is nice. After that, it was nearly 4 so Heather and I headed back to our dorm to get ready for the night.

After we got ready, we headed to the campus apartments where four of the seven of us live. The two boys made all of the girls a delicious dinner of chicken, pasta, salad, and garlic bread. We ate, drank, and talked for probably 2 hours before we headed to the International Society Ceilidh, a traditional Scottish/Gaelic social dance. We started our night off there, but quickly decided it wasn't the kind of night we were after. It was, after all, a Saturday night and we wanted to party! We headed to Ashton Lane again to the bars in that area, starting with Nude, where we enjoyed some Baby Woo Woo shots. Next we went to Radio, where we experimented with Shake & Bakes and Strawberry Mojitos. After a while at Nude and Radio, all we wanted to do was dance to some good music, so we walked over to Òran Mór, a bar/club that was once a church. We danced for probably three hours (we shut them down!) and until we could no longer walk because our bodies were so tired.



After our wild Saturday night, Sunday consisted mainly of me sleeping until one, laying in bed until four, and finally getting up only to shower and get ready to watch American football at a bar called Campus. After a stressful and exciting week of getting to know Glasgow, it was nice to just sit back, relax, and do something familiar to us as Americans -- watch football (and eat). We had this awesome back room to ourselves where the majority of the group mourned the Patriot's horrible loss. Somewhere in the middle of the game, however, we were joined by two older Glaswegians who were intoxicated beyond belief. One was old and balding and wouldn't stop gyrating to the music and the other was just really drunk. They started talking to the boys in our group about soccer and other stuff until one of the Lauras and I went to the bathroom together, when the non-gyrating one asked Liam if Laura and I were "together," as in a lesbian couple. Laura and I laughed this one off, until the Scottish guy interpreted this to mean that since we're not lesbians, we must be interested in him and tried to KISS ME! I gave him the cheek and ran away, a little scarred.


On Monday I was well rested (even though I should have had nightmares about the guy who tried to kiss me) and was ready to explore Glasgow some more. I didn't have class, so we all met up at Morton's for breakfast and then Heather, Sarah, and I decided to be extreme tourists and take pictures around our beautiful campus. We walked all over the university, taking pictures of the buildings, which were built in the 1800s. Then we walked through Kelvingrove Park to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, where we looked at Scottish Art exhibits for the rest of the afternoon before heading to a coffee shop to relax and reenergize. Later, all seven of us went to dinner with our study abroad coordinator, Kirstin. She gave us a lot of insight into the university, answered any questions we had, and also got us really excited: she's planning tons of trips and excursions for us during our time here!



Today I had my first class -- Organizational Behavior. It was really boring and kind of difficult to find. I was really nervous heading to my first class all alone, especially because I haven't had to do that at BC in a few years. At home, most of my classes are with one of my roommates or with people I've met before. Today I felt like a total loser because I had no idea what I was doing or who to sit with. I'm sure I'll make friends in the classes but the first day is always full of awkwardness. Thankfully the class didn't last very long, so all seven of us met up and decided to go downtown to look around. We finally experimented with the public transportation here and took a bus. It was fairly easy and we got off at the right stop, which was reassuring. We walked around on Buchanan Street, which is an upscale shopping area in Glasgow. We wandered in and out of stores but the main attraction for me was TopShop, a trendy clothing store only found in Europe and the UK. Unfortunately, by the time we reached that end of Buchanan Street, TopShop was closed for the evening! Such a disappointment. Then we all went out to dinner at this Chinese restaurant that had an all you can eat buffet. NEVER AGAIN is all I have to say about that experience. It was absolutely disgusting.

Tomorrow I have three classes: Managerial and Organizational Context, Entrepreneurship, and Exploring Scottish Culture. Hopefully these classes will be far more exciting and far less awkward than my class today. We will find out...

1 comment:

  1. hey lindsey...cindy here! LOVED reading about your adventures!!!! Please keep doing the postings. Very entertaining and I Love knowing you are having fun

    ReplyDelete