London and Getting to Uni!

Hello Again!

Internet has been very unreliable so I haven’t been able to send out a blog!

LONDON

London was pretty amazing. We did the usual Big Bus city tour and sat on the top of the open air double decker. We saw all of the big sights (Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Tower of London, the London Eye, Parliament, St. Paul’s Cathedral, etc.) It was hard to get some good pictures cruising as fast as we were going but we snapped up some good ones! Right now my blog isn’t letting me post pictures so I won’t be able to post those just yet =[ My favorite place was Parliament. The architecture was beautiful and the building was majestic. Pictures will never do it justice but it’s worth a shot!

We spent some time just walking around the city – the main shopping districts where all of the ‘edgier’ Londoners hang out and the more modern restaurants are. The department stores are huge and everything is much more fashionable than what we have in the states. I’m not a city girl so the two days in London were just right! We also went down to the east side of London to experience more of the real local flavor and found a nice pub there. That district is very popular at night and it gave it a nice city vibe. The tube wasn’t hard to figure out at all and the city buses were nice. I am a fan of the public transportation they have there!

The London Eye was pretty cool because we got it on a pretty fog less day and had great panoramic views of the city. It doesn't move very fast so you get a good chance to see everything. From up top, we were able to see some of the impressive courtyards the buildings had. After the Eye, we went on a walk down the streets they had and saw a bunch of neat street performers and the preparation for the Thames River festival.

Our apartment in the city wasn’t as nice as the one in Iceland was but the patio and the gardens off the back were beautiful. The apartment complex surrounds a 3.5 acre garden that has a nice walking path and playground equipment for the kids. It was real neat to have that in the city. The amount of money that Londoners have is a bit crazy- people park their Porsche's and Lamborghini's on the street, bumper to bumper, with Nissan's and Toyota's! These people definitely spend a lot of their money because everything is so expensive over there. To and from London were both nice airlines and made the travels easier. (The first one was maybe 3 hours and the second flight was just about an hour).


SCOTLAND

Saturday the 11th we arrived here in Stirling. We moved all the stuff into my dorm and then headed out for some food. The initial impression was unenthusiastic regarding the living arrangements but now that I have unpacked and rearranged, everything is much nicer. My room is long (think band-aid strip) and on one side it has a built in desk, wardrobe, and bookshelf. The other side has a sink and mirror, shelf, and my bed (which came with linens!). The best part about my room is the view – I look out the window and can see the loch, Wallace Monument and most of the dorms and other kids on campus with all of the rolling green hills in the background! The flat that I am in has 3 other girls (2 from Germany and 1 from Ireland/France) and they are all very sweet and we get along well. The flat is a long hallway with 4 bedrooms, 1.5 baths (2 showers and 1 toilet) and a kitchen which is actually a decent size and even comes with a double oven and a tea pot!

The family spent a lot of time hanging out without me while I got settled with the exception of meals and grocery shopping! They were very sweet and even got me a pay as you go phone which has come in handy. I think they explored some of the Scottish highlands and got a good look at the city. Their report is that it is more touristy than they thought but they have some really neat little shops. It’s a very old city (and is the heart of Scotland!)

Campus is beautiful! Everything is a pretty short walk (it is much more spread out than Clark is) and it is all very green! The golf course is only 3 holes but I haven’t tried that out yet. The loch has kayaks and things you can rent to paddle around and is always filled with beautiful white swans and ducks. All of the lecture halls and buildings on campus are pretty modern and the library just underwent a £13.2 million renovation! It’s really neat and it will be easy to spend the day in there doing school work.

I am taking 3 courses here at Uni (no one calls it Stirling). One is an upper level Scottish history course on Wallace and Bruce, a basic course about linguistics, and an intermediate course for Spanish and Latin American studies. I will have class almost every day (I am unsure yet because it is almost impossible to figure out how they schedule things) and every Wednesday from 1pm-6pm no courses are allowed to be scheduled so that you can go play sports! We are very big on sports here (and we were voted the safest Uni in Scotland!) The courses should be just the right amount of challenging with the exception of the history course which will be very hard.

I have made a lot of friends so far – most of them are international, a few local and one from the states. We’ve been going out a lot and have enjoyed getting lost around campus and the city together =] Some of them have mild to serious language barriers so it keeps things interesting! The great thing about being here is that everyone is so kind and helpful! They always smile, wave, shout hello and when you are talking to yourself about how nothing makes sense, they get up and come across the library to help you out!

I will keep you posted on other things going on – I just joined the campus gym and today and tomorrow are club and sports signs ups and tomorrow starts classes!

I hope everyone is doing well!

<3 Sha!

P.S. – If there are any weird spelling errors, that is probably due to the lack of sleep OR the fact that my computer is now set for UK English…