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.)