National Symbols of Scotland

Hello! It's nice to be back on track with my blogging for the time being (there may be another delay this weekend when we go on our IFSA paid/planned trip to the Argyll forest).  Today was a pretty uneventful day.  I went to my seminar this morning (for my EUC class).  It was pretty interesting.  We just discussed the film that we're currently studying (Germany, Year Zero directed by Roberto Rossellini if you're interested).  The Phd student who led it was awkward again and I sat through my first Scottish class presentation.  In this class we have to do a class presentation on a selected movie clip.  The first girl went today.  It was interesting to say the least.  She didn't stand up, she didn't have an introduction, she played the PowerPoint (which had way to much text) on her computer, and she babbled.  Everyone seemed to think this was pretty standard.  At Butler, this girl would have been crucified (especially in the Communication Studies department).  Now, I figure I have 2 options for my presentation.  One,  I can go all out American style and do exactly what I want to do, how I want to do it or two, I can tone it down...way down.  My presentation isn't for another month, so I have some time to observe some other presentations and see how others do their's.

Then, I had my 2 hour lecture for LEI with Snape.  It was just as boring as I thought it would be.  People got up and left just like they did last time.  I think this is going to be the slowly diminishing class.  Probably by the time it's the last lecture there will only be a handful of people still coming to class.

Well, since I had a pretty uneventful day (My friends and I did go back to our fried pizza place for dinner tonight.  It was just as good as I remembered.)  I'm going to explain the national symbols of Scotland.  Now, before you think this is going to be really boring, let me just explain that most Scottish love one thing above everything else (kilts and rugby included); battles in which they won (hints the love for William Wallace aka Braveheart.  Not to bash the Scottish or anything, but these battles that they won back in the day are few and far between.). This means that pretty much every symbol (except for the national animal, but I'll explain that later) revolves around a Scottish victory.

So, the first symbol is the national plant of Scotland; thistle.

Here is some authentic Scottish thistle fresh off of Google.  

Here is the legend of the thistle (there isn't any actual historical evidence that this story is real, but hey it's a nice story).  The story goes that a Scottish army was asleep in a castle that was surrounded my thistle.  The Vikings were fast approaching their castle, when the army came across this field of thistle.  Since the Vikings were barefoot, they had to walk through the field of thistle to reach the castle of sleeping Scotsman.  The cries of the Vikings stepping on the thorny plant woke up the Scottish army inside the castle and they were able to prepare themselves for the attack of the coming Vikings.  Thus, they won the battle.  So, you can see why the Scottish chose thistle as their national plant.  It stands as a symbol of protection and has for over 500 years.  

Next is my favorite Scottish symbol; the unicorn.

Here is an example of a Scottish Unicorn.  You can see the Scottish flag in the background.

Now, you may be thinking "but wait, the unicorn is a fictional animal", and well you're right.  However, it is the national animal of Scotland. (This one is kind of perplexing because most national animals are ones that you can actually see within the country.)  The unicorn stands as a symbol of innocence, purity and joy (isn't that nice?).  Nobody really knows when exactly the unicorn became the national animal, but it is also featured in the UK coat of arms.

The lion is the symbol of England the Unicorn the symbol of Scotland. (I guess Northern Ireland and Whales just don't matter?)

Lastly, I'm going to talk about the flag of Scotland.

Here is a picture of the flag that I got off of Google.

It is called the Saltire also known as the cross of St. Andrew. (This comes from the Bible.  St. Andrew didn't feel worthy of dying on the same style of cross that Jesus died on, so he was crucified on a Saltire, or diagonal cross.)  The rest of the legend as to how this became the flag of Scotland involves another battle that Scotland won.  The legend goes that before the Pictish Kind Agnus II went into battle against the English (see another thing the Scottish really like are battles that they won against England), he had a dream where St. Andrew promised him a victory.  Then, the next morning the troops saw a huge Saltire in the sky.  They later won that battle.  The Saltire has been the Scottish flag (for good luck) ever since.

Ok, so I have one last tidbit of information that I find really interesting.  Now, maybe everybody already knew this but me, but I find this really interesting.  First, look at the UK flag (the Union Jack).

You can see in the background (the blue background and the kind of awkward farthest back white cross), the Saltire of Scotland.  The red X is the flag of Northern Ireland and the red cross of England.  (the red X is also kind of the flag of Whales.)  The symbol together is the unity of those four areas to make one country.

I hope everyone throughly enjoyed their explanation of Scottish symbols (I at least find them interesting).  Tomorrow I have 1 class and 1 seminar. (But at least this time I won't have to search for the rooms.  I feel like such a pro.) 

Ulverston

Hello again! So as promised, here is blog post number 2 for the evening.  Before I get into anything fun about my day, I wanted to post some pictures of my host family's house (I know this sounds really creepy, but I thought seeing it might be cool.)  First, Jan and Andy live right in the middle of Ulverston.  Now saying that, you probably already think you know what their house is like, but you're probably mistaken.  They're house was huge! It was off a main little street back in an alcove.

Here is their house. You walk down a little alleyway and there it is!

Here is my room.  It was attached to my friend Katelin's room.  It was so nice to have a big bed again!

Here is the bathroom.  That tub and I did some serious bonding this weekend.

Here is the living room.

Here is the kitchen.

There were a lot more rooms, but I just took pictures of the rooms that I spent time in.  They also had a dog (a labradoodle) named Megan. 

We all really enjoyed Megan's company. (She also posses really well for pictures.)

Ok, so now that you have seen my homestay, I'll tell you about my day.  Last night, Andy had mentioned going on a hike up to this lighthouse monument that overlooks the ocean and Ulverston (I think he meant it jokingly), but we said that we would really like to go.  So, we got up early, put on lots of layers (because they said it was really windy at the top, which it was by the way) and headed on our walk with Andy and Megan.  

This gives you a little bit of an idea of how far up we walked. It was a pretty good trek.  We went all the way to the top where the lighthouse is.

Here is some background information about the lighthouse. The hill that it sits on is called Hoad Hill.  the lighthouse was built as a memorial for Sir John Barrow who was born in Ulverston and was a naval officer.  It was modeled after the Eddystone Lighthouse (which is in Cornwall).  

It was a really nice walk (and very uphill) but the view was worth it!

This is the view of Ulverston from about halfway up the mountain.  

Here is the lighthouse at the top! (Fun fact: It is lit up at night.  This is the only thing that I could when we drove in to Ulverston on Friday.)

At the top, you could see all the way to ocean.

It was a really great view.  We walked down a path along the back of the memorial around some fields with sheep in them.  These sheep got really close to the path...and we took pictures with them.

By this point Andy was pretty embarrassed that we were taking pictures with sheep.  But hey, we never could get this close to them anywhere else we've been.

After our walk, we went back to the house.  Jan made us a Sunday "dinner" (which means a big meal for lunch).  We had roast chicken and potatoes.  It was also really amazing just like dinner (or supper as they say here) last night.  She also made us triffle (which is a featured dessert in Harry Potter and now makes sense to me). It was a layered dessert with cake soaked in a jam substance, topped with vanilla pudding and whipped cream.  Needless to say, it was great.

Once we were done with lunch, Jan took us on a mini tour of Cumbria (I'll explain what area this is in a minute) before taking us to the train station.  First, this is easier to understand with a map.  

Cumbria is the area of England that is know as the Lake District.  You can see the cities are in black and the lakes are in white. Ulverston is close to the coast at the bottom of Cumbria.  We drove around Coniston, Grasmere, Ambleside, and other towns to get up to Penrith to catch the train.

We drove around and admired the scenery and saw some of the literary places around the area.  We saw the area where Beatrix Potter (who wrote Peter Rabbit) lived and wrote,  where John Ruskins (poet and artist) lived and was burried, and where William Wordsworth (poet.  He wrote the poem "I wondered lonely as a cloud".  I think everyone had to read that in English class at some point).  It was really cool! Also, the small towns, lakes and hills made fore great scenery.

Here is a picture of the some of the scenery.  It turned out to be another pretty day.

Here's a picture of one of the lakes that we passed on the way to the train station.

We drove around for a long time and got to see lots of small towns.  It was all really quaint and just what you would picture small town England to look like.  Eventually, we had to go to the train station to get our train back to Stirling.  Before getting on the train Jan gave us a box of great stuff! (We got glasses, which I didn't have until until now, a tea towel from the area, and paintings that she found at other Fairtrades.  Also, she gave us lots of food!)  She invited us to come back again. We plan on going back before we leave in June. We had a great time! I was kind of nervous about my homestay, but I couldn't have gotten a better family.  It was an awesome weekend!  

Tomorrow, it's back to classes and back to pasta. (As a side note, all of the Scottish men wear kilts when Scotland plays rugby.  When we got into Edinburgh (we had to change trains in Edinburgh) the game had just finished.  We saw all of the men walking around in their kilts.  It was really exciting.)  

Lancaster

Hello everyone! Well, I'm back from my journey to England for my homestay. I know that I didn't make a post last night, but I wanted to add pictures of Lancaster so I decided to do 2 posts tonight instead of 1.  So, here is what happened on Saturday.  We got up pretty early and ate breakfast at the Moffat's (my host family's) house.  Then, when Jan got back from having coffee with a friend, we went to a Fairtrade Coffee in the middle of town.  Basically you go in and have a cup of coffee and look at second hand items.  It was kind of like a rummage sale except classier.  I got a mini atlas of the world for 30 pence. (Now I can track where I'm traveling.)  After the Fairtrade Coffee, Jan had some things to do in town, so my 2 IFSA friends and I decided we would take a train into Lancaster for the day.  (I just want to mention that the train station was really cute. It was like your stereotypical train station that you would expect to find in small town England.)

This is the train station.  I just really enjoyed it.  

The train ride was really beautiful.  We stayed in the Lake District of England, so there were hills and water everywhere. We kept gawking out the window and taking pictures (the ladies that were sitting across from us must have thought we were crazy).  It was only about a 40 minute train ride from Ulverston to Lancaster, so we got in to Lancaster right around lunch time.

We decided that we really wanted to find food when we got into Lancaster, but were distracted when we walked up the hill from the train station and found the Castle.  By this time, we were seriously side-tracked and went and took a tour of the Castle.  Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures inside the Castle, but I do have some good stories about it that I will share.  But first, please admire the beauty of this castle.

Imagine walking out of a train station and running into this.  It made me really happy.  Plus it was a beautiful day. (Also, I'd like to mention that this is the third castle that I have seen since being here and I'm still impressed every time.)

Now, I'm going to tell you all about it.  This castle's main purpose was to protect England from invasions from Scotland back in the day.  It was never used as a palace, but was used for trials, executions and as a prison.  Actually, most of the Castle is still a prison and was a working prison up until only a little while ago.  One of the most famous trials/executions it was used for were the Pendle Witch Trials (think Salem on a smaller scale).   Anyways, inside we saw 2 court rooms, both of which are still used today, and some fun old prison things.  I got to sit in a 200 year old chair that insane people were chained to (it was actually pretty comfortable), put on chains and handcuffs, put my hand in this holder where people who were convicted of crimes were branded with an M, and got locked in a punishment cell (we didn't think it was much of punishment because it was roomy compared to our dorms).  The tour guide was really good.  It turned out that Jan knew him and may be getting a job as a Lancaster Castle tour guide in the future.  

After the Castle we wondered around the area by the Castle for a while.  We saw the Cathedral next door.

I was excited because there were flowers growing.  (Jan later told us that they are a specific type of flower that usually grow at churches.  I picked 2 to press while we were there.)

The view from the hill where the Castle sits was really pretty.  You could see all of Lancaster.

Here is the view from the Castle.

After our Castle adventure, we wandered down into the middle of Lancaster and came across a street fair.  About the time I laid my eyes on a pulled pork sandwich was when I realized our original "find food" plan upon getting off of the train.  So, we stopped and ate lunch on the steps of the Lancaster museum.  

Here is my pulled pork sandwich.  It was wonderful. It had this brown sauce on it that is only found in the Lake District of England that made it even better.

After lunch we walked the rest of the street fair and found a vendor selling cupcakes.  We bought some and went to sit in a nearby Starbucks to eat them.

I got a chocolate chip cupcake with chocolate frosting.  It might be the best cupcake I've ever had.

Then, we walked around Lancaster and saw some of the sights. We walked to a Cathedral in the center of town and went in to look around.  It was a gorgeous church and we spent a long time in there just admiring it.

Here is the inside of the church.

Then, we wandered around downtown Lancaster just admiring the buildings until it was time to head back up the hill to catch our train back.  We walked back towards the Castle and down a staircase that was supposed to lead to a Roman Bath (it definitely was just a grassy lot), but we ended up at the Millennium Bridge which crosses the River Lune.

Here is the bridge with a view of part of Lancaster in the background.

Then, we walked to the train station and got our train back to Ulverston.  This train ride was beautiful too (even though it was made less beautiful by the crazy children running around the train.)

This was the view from our train.  We got to watch the sunset out over the water.

We got back in to Ulverston just in time for dinner.  Jan invited over her friend (Sue) and the local bar tender (pub man as they are called here.  I should explain that the local pub is like family over here.)  She made an awesome dinner.  We had a sausage stew type thing with mashed potatoes and bread.  It was great to have a real meal (I eat a lot of pasta at school).  Afterwards, we watched Atonement (Jan and Andy let us pick the movie).  

It was a great day.  The next day, we looked around Ulverston and the Lake District before coming back to Stirling, but I will explain that in my next post (see 2 posts in one day!)

Train to Ulverston

Hello everyone!  First, sorry about not posting last night.  Stirling's internet wasn't working campus wide and it was really annoying.  But anyways, today I had one class, then got a train and am now in Ulverston, England.  My class this morning was honestly really boring.  My professor for the movie we're currently watching is a little Italian man. (When I say Italian, I mean he should be eating pasta and painting frescos.) Basically, he didn't tell me anything that I didn't already know (thank you Dr. Waite). 

Later, I got a bus to the Stirling train station and headed to Edinburgh to get my connecting train to Penrith station.  The first train was good.  There weren't a lot of people on it.  We got into one of the Edinburgh stations and had to change trains.  This is when the real fun began (I mean that sarcastically, kind of.).  We got on the train to come to Penrith to meet our host families.  That train was packed.  We were supposed to have reserved seating, but (lucky us) they overbooked the train due to technical difficulties and we had to stand.  About 15 minutes into the train ride, we decided to sit down in the little area where people get on and off the train.  It really wasn't that bad, but it was kind of annoying.

When we got into Penrith, we met 2 of the host families, (mine was running a little late) and we went to McDonalds (one of the nicest McDonalds that I have ever been to) to get tea and coffee.  Then, me and 2 of my IFSA friends who are also staying with me, met our host family.  Their names are Jan and Andy and they are really nice.  Ulverston is about and hour away from Penrith, so we made the  drive to their house.  It was really foggy, but nobody driving seemed to notice.  I'm in the Lake District of England, but I haven't been able to see anything because well it's foggy and dark. 

When we got to Jan and Andy's house (which is this really nice house in the middle of town), we ate pizza and talked for a while.  Now, I'm going to go take a bath in the nicest bathroom I've seen since being home.  I mean there is a tub and everything!

Tomorrow, we're going to tour around Ulverston a little.  Also, we're planning on going to Lancaster!

Technology

Hello everyone! First of all, my apologies for not posting this last night (or afternoon for the US).  My internet wasn't working and it made me really mad.  But, I typed it out last night anyways and (fingers crossed) you'll get 2 posts today.

I had 2 classes today, neither of which were very eventful.  We talked about volunteering as a leisure activity in my LEI class.  Snape still lacks the enthusiasm of a good public speaker.  (I really am starting to miss Butler professors.  They always show some life.) Then, I had my PMA class.  I think I now have a better handle on what this class is all about and it's really interesting. So, I'm going to explain it here so you can be amazed with me.  This class talks about management at the public sector level.  The public sector is basically the government, non-for-profits, hospitals, healthcare, etc.  This is really interesting because a lot of things in the Uk are public sector whereas a lot of things in the US are private sector.  (For example, most Universities here are public sector.  Students can go to college (a public one like Stirling.  Not Oxford or anything) for about $4,000 if not for free because the government pays for education.  I actually had a really interesting conversation today with a Scottish classmate about the differences in prices of colleges between the Uk and US.) I think I'm definitely going to learn a lot in the class. 

I had a really fun interaction today that I feel the need to share.  First, here is a little bit of back story.  I hate Verizon.  If you are ever going out of the country and have Verizon as your carrier, switch to something else.  Every other major phone company (AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile) exists overseas and are compatible with company's over here.  But Verizon isn't.  The service is terrible, expensive, and the employees honestly have no idea what they are doing/selling.  Plus there is a really weird thing going on between Verizon Cellular Connection and Corporate Verizon.  If you have service from one, you are considered trash to the other business even though they are the same thing.  But anyways, here was my experience today.  I have been having issues with my phone over here and recently I received the same text 19 times.  And I'm not paying for the same text 19 times.  So, I called this Verizon service number (which was an overseas specialists number) and got this lady.  Here is how this conversation went.

Me: Hi. I'm studying abroad in Scotland and am having issues with my phone.

Lady: Ok.  So, you're in Sweden right?

Me: No.  I'm in Scotland.

Lady: That's in the Netherlands right?

Me: No. That's in the UK.

Lady: ----- silence -----

She eventually helped me with the text situation, but honestly I was scared that she would screw my phone up forever and since there are no Verizon stores over here, well I would have no help.  Then, I asked her why I couldn't get Skype on my phone.   She told me that Skype and Verizon haven't reached an agreement about overseas Skyping (just for the record, every other carrier has reached an agreement with Skype for international data use).  Here's how this conversation went.

Me: Do the Verizon employees know this whenever they sell phones? Because I was guaranteed that I would be able to use Skype.

Lady: Well did you buy it online?

Me: No. I bought it from a Cellular Connection.

Lady: OOOOOHHHHH a third party dealership.  You should have asked a cooperate office.

Me: I have.  They yelled at me (true story). 

Lady: Oh….Well you can connect to Skype using wireless.  And there is wireless everywhere over there.  (Not true) You can go to a café and get wireless or go to an internet café.  Those are everywhere over there. (Also, not true.)

(Spoken from a woman who didn't know where Scotland was 5 minutes before making this statement.  And just for the record, there are not a lot of café's with free wifi.  Yes, there are some, but not a lot and most of them are expensive.  Like 4 pounds for a cup of coffee expensive.)

So, basically my day was spent being irritate with Verizon which is a reoccurring event in my life these days. Needless to say, I will be changing carriers as soon as I can.  Later tonight, I went to my volunteering meeting.  This was another disappointing moment in my day.  It turns out that it was a big time commitment and I had to have official Scottish documents.  So, I need to find a new club to join.

Tomorrow I have one class and then I leave to go on my home stay.  The home stay is a mandatory (they said that they would reschedule if I didn't go.  So, they mean very mandatory) part of my study abroad with IFSA.  I'm going to a little town in England called Ulverston which is near Shap.  I'm staying with 2 other IFSA students and we're there until Sunday.  Hopefully I'll have internet access, but who knows.  If not, I'll just make 2 in a row like I plan on doing today.  

A Trek Through the Woods

Hello everyone! I thought that I had a class this morning, but upon further examination of they syllabus I discovered that I only have that class once sometime in April.  So, I didn't have classes today.  What did I do with my free time?  I studied. (I know I'm boring, but I really needed some bonding time with my UK government book.)  Later though today, I went exploring on campus.  We found some awesome spots on campus and I have some pictures to share too.

First, we went to the castle on campus.  It's actually used as classrooms for the Law students and offices, but it was still pretty cool.  We looked around inside, but there really wasn't much to see.

Here is the castle.  It's actually close to the campus golf course and only a 5 minute walk from my flat.

Then, we were going to head to the gardens, but we got distracted and found a trail that led into the woods. We walked on that trail for a while and ended up in the hills just behind campus looking out over campus, the William Wallace monument and Stirling Castle.  It was really pretty (and muddy. I was sliding all over the place.  I think I will appreciate that trail in the woods more whenever it is dry.).  It rained for most of our walk, but the sun actually came out while we were still up on the trail taking pictures.

This is a picture that I took on that trail. You can see the campus buildings and the loch that separates campus.  The tower in the distance is the William Wallace Monument (better known as Braveheart) which we haven't visited yet, but will when the weather gets nicer.

This is a picture of Stirling from that trail.  You can see Stirling Castle up on the hill with the town down 

below it. 

After admiring the view, we headed down the trail.  We had heard that there were horse stables on campus, and on our way out of the woods we found them.  We went up to fence to get a better look at the horses, and they came over to us (probably because they thought we had food). 

It tried to eat my purse. 

After our walk in the woods, we decided to walk to Bridge of Allan (a small town that's about 15 minutes away from campus) since we were already about half way there.  Once we got into town, we headed to the bakery and got donuts (my love of Scottish pastry continues).  We walked down to the river and ate them before getting a bus back to campus.

This is a picture that I took of a pharmacy in Bridge of Allan.  I just think it's funny because my Dad's name is Lloyd and he's a pharmacist.  There's a lot of Lloyd chains here. 

This is a picture of the loch on campus taken from the bridge. It was actually sunny, so I thought I would take a picture to put up on my blog.

Tomorrow, I have a meeting for the volunteering thing that I signed up for.  I think that it should be interesting! (At the very least I get coffee out of it.)

Confusing Corridors and the Ice Cream Truck

Hello! Today I had two classes.  I had my LEI seminar followed by my first PMA (public management and administration) lecture.  First, I have been told repeatedly that the Cottrell building, the largest academic building on campus, is the most confusing building ever.  (It's made up of 2 parallel hallways with connecting corridors.  It also has 3 floors (side note: The ground floor in Scotland is floor 2.) and all of the hallways are really narrow.)  I, personally, didn't think it was too bad until today.  It literally took me 15 minutes to find the room where my seminar took place. Let me just say, that my seminar was held in a room behind the most discrete looking door of all time.  It was squished between 2 large lecture halls and wasn't numbered properly.  Never the less, I was still the first to arrive to class.  My seminar went pretty good.  It was actually taught by my LEI lecturer (the one that looks like Snape).  And now that I know where the room is, it will make life in the future much easier.

Just to illustrate the craziness that is the Cottrell building, I decided to post this picture of campus. It is the large blue squiggly line in the middle of the map.

Then, I had my first PMA lecture. I had another fun time trying to navigate the Cottrell building.  My problem this time though, was that I was supposed to be looking for room 2B84, (Note: the first number is the floor number, the letter is the corridor/hall, and the last number is the room number...ok this building really is pretty confusing.) however I learned today that there are in fact 4 rooms that could potentially be room 2B84.  There is a room 2B84 A, B, C, and D.  Luckily everyone was as confused as I was, so I made it into a lecture room (2B84 A) and everything was fine.  I think I'm going to really enjoy this class.  My class was really small for Stirling, only 30 people, and my lecturer seemed nice too.  Now, I just have to get a good understanding of the UK government and I'll be good to go.

Tonight, I had a reunion dinner with my IFSA group.  It was nice. (I mean, it was a meal that I didn't have to buy, cook, or think about.)  We got some ideas of good travel prices and stuff like that.  Plus I got a brownie with ice cream.

So, I made a discovery the other night that I feel the need to share with everyone.  There is an ice cream truck that comes to campus every night around 6:00.  It's really strange (to me at least.  I mean it's winter.).  Every night around 6:00, this little ice cream truck blasts Yankee Doodle into the residence halls and people go out to buy ice cream.  I find this is funny for many reasons.  First, you may know that Yankee Doodle is the song of the American Revolution, but after reading up on some Yankee Doodle history, I discovered that it was originally a British song that mocked American's or "yakees".  It was later used as essentially an American anthem against the British.  Why is this funny you may ask? Because the Scottish hate the British.  Any Scottish person will tell you that they are not British (even though they technically are because the British won the rights to Scottish territory back in the day) and will not conform to British society.  So yes, I find it amusing that there is an ice cream truck that comes to campus every night, that plays a song mocking the British.

Tomorrow I'm going to explore some more parts of campus! (Like the castle that is literally 5 minutes away from my flat.)

First Seminar

Hello everyone! Today I had my first Scottish seminar.  As everybody probably guessed, I was the first to arrive to my seminar this morning.  Although it didn't really matter that I was there early, because the door was locked until the Phd student, who taught my seminar, decided to show up.  There were only about 6 students in my seminar.  It felt more like a traditional class to me (like what I'm used to in the US) rather than anything weird.  It was led by a girl who is working on her Phd in Northern African film (I know right, this is a very specific area of study).  She was pretty nice....ok I'll be honest, she was extremely awkward.  It's not like she wasn't social, but it was more like she's been spending too much quality time with her Northern African films (and let's just say I'm not too worried about the presentation I'll be doing for her).  But, overall it was good.  I was the only American in that seminar, but that didn't really surprise me.  The other students were really friendly.

Later today I had a 2 hour lecture for my LEI class.  It was long.  There really is no other way to describe it.  Imagine sitting in a lecture hall while your professor reads the PowePoint slides word for word.  I have never seen people fall asleep in class before.  Today, I saw at least 6 people (yes I counted) doze off.  I also watched as people slowly got up and left the class throughout that 2 hour time period.  My class started out with probably about 80 people and ended with about 30.  Monday's are going to be long days.

So, I wanted to spend some time during this blog to discuss how Scottish students look different from American students.  This is something that I have observed over the past few weeks and while there are some exceptions, this observation is overwhelmingly true. (My friends have confirmed it, so it isn't just me that sees this.)  Scottish students fit into one of two groups.  They either look too young to be in college or they look too old to be in college.  What I mean is that there are students here who look like they are 12 years old and have no business being on a college campus unsupervised and then there are students who look like they are 35 and should stay away from college aged students.  This is how to tell who is an American.  American's look like they should be in college.  So, while some fashions and things may give away an American, it's mainly the fact that we look like we should be in college. (Note: I tried to find a picture to illustrate this point, but I couldn't find a legitimate example.)

I got a comment yesterday asking about what black pudding was, so I'm now going to explain the wonders of black pudding.  First of all, I just want to show a picture.

Here is a picture of black pudding courtesy of Google.

Black pudding is a traditional UK breakfast item that is made of congealed blood mixed with sausage type stuff and oatmeal.  Yes, this sounds disgusting and yes I tried a little bit of it in Glasgow.  It really wasn't that bad, it just tasted really onion-y and the texture was kind of gross.  It wasn't my thing.  But just like haggis, black pudding is something that is really popular over here and you'll probably find it when you order any traditional Scottish/English breakfast.   

Tomorrow I have more classes then a reunion dinner in town with my IFSA group! 

Going to Church

Hello! Today was a really great day here in Stirling.  Basically I went to church and then studied. But hey it was a very productive day.  This morning, my friends and I got up early (ok it wasn't that early, but compared to the rest of campus, we were up early) and made our way to the bus stop.  I had looked up the Stirling Methodist Church before studying abroad and really wanted to check it out.  My friends were excited about it so off we went to church this morning. As previously stated, the buses here are really weird on Sunday's.  It took us about 20 minutes to get into town, when it usually takes 5 to 10 minutes depending on which bus you get on.

Anyways, we did make it to church.  We got there a little late (thanks Sunday bus system) but managed to make it in before the announcements were over.  First of all, I posted a picture of the church below that I took off of their website.

The church is the building in the middle with the red door.  I learned that most churches in Scotland have red doors because it is a sign of welcome.  

This church was great.  We walked in the door and the man handing out hymnals and pamphlets (who we later found out is the Chaplin at the University) was really surprised/flustered whenever we walked through the door.  We then went into the sanctuary and took our seats.  The church is really cozy.  (I don't mean that in a it's small way.  It's comfortable and friendly without being overwhelming.)  Before we even really got seated, the man at the pulpit who was doing the announcements stated while looking directly at us "visitors are welcome to join us for tea and coffee after the service."  

There were probably about 50 people in the congregation, so we definitely stood out. I think we were the talk of the church today and probably will be for some time.  (We were the only ones in there that were college students.) The service was really nice.  It was different from how services are at home.  There was no organ or choir, but they had a good pianist and everybody confidently sang all of the songs.  We never really felt awkward because the minister would insert things into the service (like before communion he said "we welcome everyone to take part in communion.  If you feel uncomfortable doing so, don't feel pressured to join us.") that helped make us comfortable.  Also, the order of things was different.  The prayer was at a different time and the meter and pauses in the Lord's Prayer were different from back home.  But the service was good (I know where all of the good public speakers are in Scotland; they're ministers.) Nobody sleeps through church here.

Afterwards, we drank coffee and tea and ate cookies with the congregation for about an hour after the service ended.  Everyone was really nice and interested to get know us. The lady that I say next to during the service told me that everyone would ask us lots of questions because everyone knows everyone at that church.  This was basically true.  I think I met most of the congregation today and everyone was really friendly.  They even offered to pick us up from the University to bring us to church on Sundays.  The minister was also really nice.  I got to talk to him a little about this differences between Trinity (my church back home) and Stirling.  I told him about how we sing different hymns and he told me that they do have traditional hymnals, but the music that we sang today was written by a Christian Community on the Isle of Iona (which is off the coast of the Scottish Highlands).  I thought this was pretty cool.

Also, we got invited to a Ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee) which is a night of traditional Scottish dancing and music in Bridge of Allan (a small town close to Stirling).  We are really excited to go! Overall, we had a great time at church and are looking forward to going back again the next chance that we get.  (If anyone wants to know more about the church, I'm posting a link to the church website. http://www.stirlingmethodist.org.uk/index.html) 

After church, we went to get donuts (What can I say, we like pastries.).  Then, we went back to campus and I studied for my classes tomorrow.  I have my first seminar tomorrow morning!  I'm excited to see how it goes!

Glasgow

Hello! So, today my friends Katelin, Grace and I decided to take a day trip to Glasgow.  It was really fun, but I'm glad that I chose to study in Stirling.  Glasgow is way too busy/crowed/sketchy for me, but more on that later. First, we took the bus to the train station in Stirling and found our train to Glasgow.  The round trip to Glasgow only cost me 4.90 pounds.  This was very exciting.  Also, navigating the train system was not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be.  In fact, it was quite easy and something I'm sure we'll be doing a lot more in the future.  Anyways, once we boarded the train, we saw that the hills (more like unofficial mountains) all had snow at the top.

I took this video from the train.  You can see the view out the window and the snow covered hills. (As a side note, we didn't see any Highland cattle.)

The train ride from Stirling to Glasgow was pretty short.  It was only about a 30 to 40 minute ride.  Once we got into Glasgow, we had good intentions of promptly starting our Rick Steve's walking tour, but got side-tracked by a restaurant advertising a 4 pound breakfast. 

Here is my 4 pound breakfast.  It came with 2 types of sausage, baked beans, black pudding, an egg, bacon, and a potato pancake thing.  Let me tell you, it was worth the 4 pounds.

After successfully consuming our 4 pound breakfasts, we headed to the start of our Rick Steve's walking tour.      We started at a "lighthouse" (I never did figure out why it was called that.  It was just an artsy building with a tower.).  It had different exhibits inside, but the main reason for going there was for the view of Glasgow.

Here is the view from the top.

Next, we headed to the Glasgow Modern Art Museum.  We went inside and there were some pretty cool exhibits.  Mainly it was warm, dry and free so we walked around it for a while.  Next, we went to St. George Square.  

It has different statues in it of famous Glaswegians (people who live in Glasgow).  The building in the background is the City Chambers building.

Then, we walked to this church that was somehow significant to Nelson Mandela.  I'm not really sure how Glasgow (or Scotland in general) is connected to Nelson Mandela, but well we saw the church which was by the Stock Exchange building.  After that we got a little distracted by a gift shop and the sound of drums and bagpipes.  Well, we found some awesome street performers.   I couldn't help myself, I took video of it.

These people were just standing in the middle of the street performing.  There was a man selling their CD, so I guess that they had a purpose, but it was really cool to see.

After this, we walked to the Glasgow School of Art.  This is supposed to be one of the most architecturally significant buildings in Glasgow.  It was designed by a famous architect named Charles Rennie Macintosh. He designed a lot of buildings in Glasgow.  We didn't really see a lot of the school because you had to take a tour to see it, so we just kind of walked around the lobby.  

After successfully completing Rick Steve's tour (Ok I'll be honest, we didn't see Tenement House which was also designed by Macintosh because it was really hard to get to, but I hear it's really nice.), we walked to the Cathedral of Scotland.  This church was gorgeous! Also, the priest that greeted us, wins Glasgow's friendliest person award.  He was really nice and gave of directions and a free brochure of the necropolis. 

Inside, this cathedral is amazing (and yes this was partially because it was warm, dry and free).  

We then journeyed around the necropolis (which means city of the dead...which means it's a graveyard).  I was really excited because we saw the grave of William Miller, who wrote the nursery rhyme Wee Willie Winkie.  After that, we went on the search for food and ended up at a place that sold fish and chips.  We got fish tea which means that you get fish, chips and tea with your meal.  It was really good (other than there being some bones in the fish) and we felt really authentic because there weren't any other tourists in the restaurant.  We then headed back on the train to Stirling, where we promptly missed our bus in order to get ice cream at a cute little place by the bus stop.

Overall Glasgow was a good city.  I don't think that I could spend a lot of time there though.  It was kind of a big dirty city and I was always kind of worried about getting mugged.  I definitely prefer my clean and quiet Stirling.  Also, people (other than that awesome priest) were kind of mean in Glasgow.  In Edinburgh and Stirling most people are really friendly and willing to forgive you for your American-isms.  However, Glasgow did have it's nice spots and it was a fun way to spend my Saturday! 

 Tomorrow we're going to the Methodist Church in Stirling. I've heard that there are some differences between churches here and in the US, so I'm excited to experience this!

Scottish Donuts

Hello everyone! Well today I had my second class (EUC: post-war European cinema).  I was not first to get to the lecture hall today.  Nope, my good friend the Asian exchange student (as in not plural.  I guess not too many of them are interesting in post-war European cinema...or Friday lectures.) beat me there.  I was happy though, because in this class there were a lot of students who didn't have friends.  I realize this sounds really mean, but it makes me feel better when I'm not the only one sitting alone.

My tutor seemed pretty nice.  After, I got used to his Scanish (this is a unique mixture of a Scottish and Spanish accent.) he seemed like a really nice guy, but I learned today where not to sit in class.  This is by A.) the professional cougher who gagged through the entire lecture, and B.) the row of 5th grade boys who make jokes about the tutors Scanish.  Anyways, the class was pretty normal.  I did find out today that I get to do a presentation for this class.  Evidently (according to my IFSA-rep) Scottish people are really bad at giving presentations and American's typically do really well on presentations at Scottish Universities. So, I plan to throughly enjoy doing mine.

After class today, my friends and I went into town to go shopping.  We went to this bakery called Bayhne's Bakery.  It had the best looking things that I have seen in a long time.  I got this donut sandwich thing.  It was like a glazed donut cut in half with cream in the middle and chocolate on top.  It was wonderful.

Here I am ready to consume my donut sandwich.  I didn't exactly eat this in the most classy of fashions I must say (but hey I didn't exactly have lunch).

Then, we went back to the Pound Stretcher where I finally invested in a spoon (actually I got 6 for a pound.  You just can't beat Pound Stretcher.  Plus I couldn't take eating my yogurt with a fork anymore.) I also went to the train station to get my young person's rail pass.  This gets me 1/3 off of all train tickets that I purchase (like the one I'll get tomorrow to go to Glasgow).  I must say this experience was interesting.  The lady that got me my pass was just Miss Merry Scottish Sunshine.  She pretty much yelled things at me that didn't make sense, but I mean I got my rail pass so it doesn't really matter.  

Tonight I experienced Tesco 1 pound pizza (and awesome garlic bread).  As sketchy as this sounds it was actually really good. Also, I did find peanut butter, but it's one of the weirdest things I've seen.  I think it's too authentic for my taste. I opened it up and it was strangely oily on top.  I thought "wow that's weird, maybe it tastes ok though." Well, it didn't.  Then, I saw that on the side it says "Separation is natural. STIR ME UP (yes, in all caps) before serving." Where I come from, separation is not natural, but it did taste better after stirring. I think this stuff might actually have real ingredients whereas I'm way too use to my Peter Pan back home. I also got this cheese (like sliced cheese for sandwiches) that says "cheddar, with a wee bit of a bite." I'm hoping that translates to sharp cheddar, but I'll let you know how that goes.

After writing about Irn-Bru last night, I really wanted to write about something else uniquely Scottish tonight.  

These are Highland cattle (known as "coos" here). 

These cows are the most awesome things ever.  Evidently, they can be found pretty much everyone once you get up into the Highlands (except I will be looking for them on the train ride to Glasgow tomorrow when we're going through rural areas).  Also, up in the Highlands, there is supposed to be a place that you can go and feed and pet the cattle.  These are things that I definitely need to do while I'm Scotland...like see the Loch Ness Monster. 

Tomorrow I'm heading to Glasgow, (and I'm taking Rick Steve's walking tour of the city). We're leaving bright and early so that we have plenty of time to explore the city!

My Real First Day of Classes

Hello! This time the title is not deceiving, I really did have a class today.  Since I'm sure everyone memorized my schedule that I posted yesterday (ok, probably not) you'll know that I was supposed to have 3 classes today.  Well, I only had 1.  My PMA class doesn't officially start until Tuesday and my seminars for that class don't start until 2 weeks from now.

Anyways, I did have my 9:00 class this morning.  (It was actually kind of cool walking to class, because the fog was really thick.  I don't think I have ever seen fog like I did this morning.) I'm one of those people that get's to class really early in order to scope out the best seat, so I went to class around 8:30. (In my defense, I thought this class had the potential to be huge.) As you probably guessed, I was the first person in my class this morning.  I walked in and up on the projector screen was a slide about "cultural studies".  After a minor panic attack, thinking that I didn't have the right lecture hall, I realized that this was an advertisement for something on campus (which is kind of weird, but most of the lecture halls do this.).  One thing I learned today, is that only Americans and Asian exchange students get to class as early as I do.  What can I say, we're overachievers.

After I sat around for a half in hour, people started to come to class.  Classes here actually start at five minutes past the hour and end five minutes before the hour. (At Butler, we have this built in.) My tutor seemed really nice. Honestly, I was kind of worried because when she walked in, she looked a lot like Snape. (As in, she was wearing black pants, a black top, and a long black coat.  She also had a long pointy noise and chin length black hair.) Luckily, she didn't have the Snape personality.  My class was pretty much what I expected.  It was just a usual lecture.  There were about 50 people in the class, which I thought was pretty small by Scottish standards.

So, looking back at my past blog posts, I realized that I haven't talked about Irn-Bru (pronounced Iron Brew) yet.  This is THE drink of Scotland.

Here is a picture of Irn-Bru that I got off of Google.

Now, this may look like your run-of-the-mill orange soda, but don't be fooled.  It may be a neon orange color (it does say on the bottle that it will stain your clothes) but it actually tastes like a mix between bubble-gum and Sprite.  I have tried it, and it's not quit as nasty as it sounds, but it's definitely an acquired taste.  Anyways, the fun fact about Irn-Bru is that it outsells Coca-Cola here (and not just by a little.  It sells almost twice as much.). So, you know how you see Coke vending machines, here you see Irn-Bru machines.

Also, I'm also really excited because I'm getting involved with my first Scottish program here. My friends and I (ok I kind of signed us up for it) signed up to do some volunteering stuff with little Scottish children in Stirling. The meeting isn't until next week, but I'm pretty excited.  I mean I look forward to any opportunity to get free food and use my bus pass.  Also, this weekend we're planning  a day trip into Glasgow. Tomorrow I have a class in the morning and then I'm going to Domino's (yes, I know this is very American) tomorrow night.