January 30, 2012 – Glasgow, Stirling, and Edinburgh

           On Wednesday it was the first international society pub night.  I met a few people there including students from France, Denmark, the U.S. and Canada.  On Thursday night I met a bunch of Mike’s friends at the University of Glasgow.  We then went to the pub night there and danced the whole night inside a church, which was turned into 2 bars and a club about 30 years ago.  The church itself is gorgeous on the outside with a giant steeple that you can’t miss from miles around.  On Friday Mike and I decided to walk around the city of Glasgow and take pictures.  We ended up going to the Glasgow Greens, which is a giant park where the Royal Doulton fountain made from terracotta is.  We also went into a museum that was all about the history of Glasgow as a city.  Afterwards, we walked around the Merchant City and went to the Museum of Modern Art, which wasn’t very spectacular.

            On Saturday Mike and I went on the University of Glasgow international society’s trip to Stirling.  On the way there along the sides of the roads in the farms there were sheep EVERYWHERE.  In Scotland there are 23 million sheep and 3 million people.  Made our sheep count rather difficult after seeing the first few farms.  We got to visit the Glengoyne Whisky Distillery and tried some of their whisky.  I of course didn’t like it, so I gave the rest to Mike, which he didn’t complain about.  Unfortunately there was a power outage while we were there so we could only get a tour of part of the distillery.  Next, we visited Stirling Castle, and got to go inside it.  Afterwards, we walked down to the town and grabbed some lunch.  The town was very cute with pedestrian streets and reminded me of Annecy in France a bit, just not as pretty.

            Mike and I walked around the entire castle below it on a trail, and then we came to a small park and cemetery, which we decided to walk through to see a view of the city below.  While we were walking we heard a dog whining and screeching and he was with his owner, which was a woman and her daughter.  The daughter went running to get their car, and you could tell that there was something wrong.  We stood there watching from a distance trying to figure out what had happened.  We continued to walk, and since we were the only other people there the mother called out to us to see if we had a hanky.  We unfortunately didn’t, and I knew something was wrong with the dog.  The women had a napkin and from a distance it was all red with blood as she put it to her dog’s mouth.  You could hear the dog crying and whining from far away and it broke my heart.  I really wanted to help but I couldn’t.  We walked back towards them after we got a few pictures from the viewpoint and asked her if her dog was going to be okay.  She said that he is just a year old, and her dog cut his face on broken glass that was lying on the ground.  She sat there hugging him closely and it really upset me that I couldn’t help the poor guy out.  She said that her daughter would be there soon with the car and they’d take him straight to the vet so he’ll probably be okay.  Just goes to show how ignorant people are that leave their broken glass bottles in the middle of nowhere.

            After witnessing that incident we then went to the Wallace Monument, which wasn’t anything special.  It was a giant monument that you couldn’t go inside even though there were doors on it.  We had to walk up a giant hill to get there, and then walk back down so it was a let down for me.  The only good thing about it was the view we got to see from that height.  After a long day of walking all around the town and up and down hills it was finally time to go home.

            On Sunday Mike and I went to Edinburgh with some friends I’ve made here at Strathclyde.  The entire group consisted of 9 girls and one guy – lucky Mike.  For the whole day our little group consisted of 6 girls and Mike since we split into 2 groups.  We saw the outside of Edinburgh Castle, saw the Elephant Room which is a café where J.K. Rowling wrote her first few Harry Potter books, and walked up and down the Royal Mile going into the little shops.  We also went to the cemetery where J.K. Rowling got most of the names for the characters in Harry Potter.  We then went on a tour of the Real Mary King’s Close.  Our tour guide was hilarious and the tour was overall really well done.  We went in the Mary King’s close, which is now underground, but hundreds of years ago when people lived there it wasn’t.  There were small houses, which were just small rooms with stone ceilings, floors, and walls where 8-12 people would live.  We also saw dummies that looked like they had a plague.  That was definitely a nasty disease.  1/3 of the Edinburgh population died every year from that single disease.  The conditions that people lived in back then are unimaginable compared to now.  They had no hygiene at all, which shows why a lot of them either died young, or got the plague, and then died.

            After the tour we walked down and saw the Palace of Holyroodhouse where the Queen stays when she comes to Edinburgh.  We then walked half way up Arthur’s Seat, which is a giant hill of rock with trails along the sides of it.  The view of the city from up there was amazing.  We’ll come back one day and walk up to the top of it, you just need a lot of time to do so.  Finally it was time to go home, and we were all exhausted from such a busy day.  It was a good weekend spent with some new friends, but it was just the beginning of our travels we’ll be doing these next few months.

January 25, 2012 – First Impressions of Class

            Yesterday I had my first class at Strathclyde.  It was actually a lot different than McMaster but I enjoyed it.  The class had only 20 people in it, and it involved a lot of class discussion instead of lecturing by the professor.  I felt like I was in one of my labs I taught last term as a teaching assistant, except I was the student contributing to the class discussion instead.  Before class I was very nervous because it was actually a graduate class.  The class looks extremely interesting though but it has a report that is worth 80% of my mark, which is intimidating.  I looked at future slides for the next class and I've already learned a lot of the material.  I laughed when I saw it because it is supposed to be a graduate class, but I learned some of the stuff in 2nd year.  Maybe it is in more detail, but I'm not too worried about this class.  I was also surprised about the variety of people in the class.  I thought that I would be the only one with an “accent” but there were a variety of people with different backgrounds present.  There were other North Americans, someone from Pakistan, a bunch of Brits, and of course Scots.

            Today I had my 2^nd class but I didn’t enjoy it at all.  Thankfully I’ll probably be able to drop it and take a different course instead.  Of course my courses STILL aren’t finalized.  This course had huge equations later on in the course that scared me when I saw them later in the courseware, so I don’t think I have the background knowledge to take it.  Most of the people in my class yesterday seemed to be in this class as well.  I also had orientation today so I had to miss most of the one class I had.  I met a lot more exchange students, and everyone is going to the pub night tonight held by the international society here.  Apparently anywhere from 100-500 international students attend the weekly pub night EVERY week.  I can’t believe that one pub can fit so many people!  Tonight is the night everyone is excited for to meet lots of other exchange students.  Mike is also coming so he can meet the few friends I’ve already made, and to meet more people.  Should be a fun night!

January 24, 2012 – All settled into residence

           Over the past few days my mom and I have gotten the basic things so that I’m all ready for residence.  Surprisingly, the steak I’ve had 3 nights in a row at the hotel restaurant has been my favourite food so far here.  The weather has been good the past few days as well with limited rain.  On the weekend my mom and I visited the Glasgow Necropolis, which is a giant cemetery with the biggest tombstones and monuments I’ve ever seen in a cemetery.  We also visited the famous Glasgow cathedral which we didn’t get to see last time we were in Glasgow 5.5 years ago.  To be honest, it was a sight to see, but I’ve seen so many churches and cathedrals in the past few weeks that it just seemed like the rest of them.

            On Sunday I got my residence room.  It ends up that I’m once again on the top floor of my residence, but this time there is no elevator.  Thankfully I am just 4 floors up, but it definitely sucked lugging my heavy suitcase up all those stairs.  I am in a flat with 6 girls in total.  I’ve only met 2 of them so far.  There is one girl from Greece, one from Texas, 2 from China apparently, and one from Latvia.  Our flat has our 6 single rooms in it, a lounge area with a TV and cable, kitchen, 2 showers, and 2 toilets.  Thankfully we have sinks in our own rooms.  These past few nights I’ve slept in my new room, and my bed is a tad on the hard side, which makes me miss my bed back home.  Guess I’ll have to live with it though.  My mom left early this morning to go back home.  It was hard saying bye to her last night but thankfully with modern technology, I can skype with family and friends easily back home. :)  The adventure is just starting to begin!

            Today I have my first class!  Once I go to my academic advisor and get my timetable all finalized, and then go shopping for some extra things I need, I’ll be almost set.  It ends up that 2 of my classes only have between 20-25 people in them, which will be a huge change from McMaster.  I’m excited for my classes, but also curious about how they’ll differ to my courses back home.  3 of my classes are actually graduate classes, but they are apparently equal to McMaster’s 4^th year classes.  After class, I’m then meeting Mike to sign up for the University of Glasgow International Society’s day trip to Stirling castle and the Gleyngone Whisky Distillery this coming Saturday.  Busy day ahead of me!

January 20, 2012 – First few days in Glasgow

           On Wednesday we arrived in Glasgow in the evening.  After taking a cab to the hotel, and organizing and unpacking everything we met up with Mike finally for dinner at our hotel.  The next day was a busy day for my mom and I.  We ended up getting my student card, then my bank letter, then opening up a bank account, and finally getting a cell phone.  Doing all that took us most of the day and it was very tiring walking around the city, especially on campus with the giant hills.  Mike then met up with us and we had dinner altogether again.  The Scottish do live up to their reputation of not having great food.  I haven’t been impressed with their food yet.  Everything seems bland or the texture of things just isn’t right.  Maybe I’m just sick of restaurant food.  To be honest, I’m excited for when I get to start cooking for myself.  Their weather hasn’t been anything special here as well.  It has been raining off and on most of the time we’ve been here.  Nothing new for Glasgow winters though.  They rarely get sun here at this time of year.  One waiter we had at a restaurant even stated that Glasgow has all 4 seasons in a single day.  One hour it might be a very mild, nice day, and the next it might be very dark with rain and snow falling really hard.

            Today my mom and I went shopping for some things for my residence room.  We found the Poundland (like Dollarama back home) and Primark, which was an amazing cheap department store.  Afterwards Mike gave us a tour of the University of Glasgow, which was a very nice campus.  Just like most universities it has very old gorgeous buildings, but also modern buildings that aren’t as architecturally pleasing.  We ended up trying out the Glasgow subway today and it was hilariously small.  It is like a toy subway.  The platform itself is probably 1/8 of the size of platforms on the TTC and the train itself is a tube shape.  It just has bench seats going along each side of the train with enough space for one person to stand in between.  I ended up hanging out with Mike for most of the afternoon after we had lunch with my mom and tomorrow we get to do REAL shopping with all the winter sales going on.

January 17, 2012 – Last full day in Paris

            Today my mom and I decided to explore the metro in Paris.  We took it to see the Sacre Coeur basilica, which was definitely a sight to see.  We’ve seen so many churches on our trip though so it just looked like others we had seen.  We then walked throughout the little streets around there and found the square where there are lots of artists selling their paintings.  A lot of the paintings were extremely gorgeous and some of them were painting there on the spot so I watched them paint for a few minutes.  We continued wandering aimlessly throughout the streets and I kept thinking we would get lost.  We just continued down the hill since the basilica was on the top of a hill and we knew we’d run into a metro station eventually near the bottom.  Finally I figured out how to get back to the Latin Quarter on the metro so we could have lunch and I feel like the metro here is really easy to use now – it is just a lot bigger than Toronto’s subway.  We then shopped a little bit after lunch, came to relax in the hotel room, and then went back out to shop and walk around the Latin Quarter one last time.

January 16, 2012 – Tour is finished, now time to Relax in Paris!

           Today my mom and I changed hotels to one by the Latin Quarter and Notre Dame.  On the way there Neil Young came on the radio in the cab, which surprised me since I hadn’t heard any Canadian music at all until then.  My mom and I decided to take it easy for our remaining time in Paris since the tour wore us out.  We strolled through the Latin Quarter and went in the many souvenir shops and had a nice lunch in a family owned restaurant.  Later, we found the nearby fruit and vegetable market, supermarket, and bakery to get some food for while we’re here and dinner for the night.  It wasn’t a very eventful day, but we definitely needed a day to ourselves not really sightseeing since we had done that for almost 2 weeks prior to that.

Day 11 – January 15, 2011 – Tour of Paris, the Eiffel Tower, the Palace of Versailles, and Farewell Dinner

            Today we went on a bus tour of Paris to see all the famous monuments.  We then stopped at the Eiffel Tower and went to the 2^nd level of it.  It was very cold up there due to the wind so we didn’t stay very long.  We stayed for our brief tour up there and then just took photos.  My mom and I then went down to the first level to see the skating rink.  It was an extremely small skating rink with a white mini Eiffel tower in the middle of it but nobody was skating.  Afterwards we got a group photograph in front of the Eiffel tower.

            Next we went to the Palace of Versailles.  When I first saw it I couldn’t believe my eyes.  There was gold EVERYWHERE.  The architecture was so detailed and there were so many things gold plated.  Statues lined the edge of the roof in so many places, and the palace itself was ridiculously big.  It is no wonder it took 50 years to build!  Inside in the state apartments I was blown away.  There were paintings on the walls and the ceilings with gold in every room.  It was impossible to see all the detail; everywhere you looked there was something different to see.  Even the mouldings were carved showing different things.  When you see the palace, you really have no sympathy for the royalty.  It is no wonder that the poor people overthrew them and that the King and Queen got their heads chopped off (simple way of putting it).  They were obsessed with themselves and thought they could just have anything they wanted by taking it from the poor.  They had their bedrooms that were like 5 times the size of mine with paintings everywhere and silk on the walls and bedspread with silver and gold sewn into it.  Apparently those bedrooms were used so that they would wake up to 100 people in their bedroom who would help them get dressed and ready for the day.  It was called the Rising of the King whenever he woke up.  They also had private bedrooms for themselves as well that the later King and Queen made for themselves.  One of the Kings owned over 300 wigs and would apparently wear 6 different wigs a day depending on what he was doing.  The gardens were gigantic with perfectly pruned hedges and fountains everywhere.  Sadly the fountains weren’t running when we were there since it’s the winter.  Even though the palace was breathtaking and unbelievable to see, I still can’t believe that they had everything they had.  There were over 2000 rooms in the palace, and it seems like a mini indoor city to me!  They even had royal stables that used to house 200 horses and many carriages as well.

            After Versailles we then came back to the hotel to relax.  Next we went to our Farewell dinner which was one of the best meals yet I thought.  Everyone else had salmon, but because I don't like fish they made me chicken instead which was VERY good.  After dinner we then listened to 60's music on the bus ride back while waving to people on the streets (It's a TRAFALGAR tradition apparently :P).  Trafalgar was the name of the tour company we were on.  We then had to say bye to everybody but overall the tour was very enjoyable.  It was a tad fast paced but we got to see so many things we probably would have never seen if it wasn't for the tour.  Now my mom and I are on our own in Paris until Wednesday when we leave for Glasgow.  We change hotels tomorrow as well.