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!