First week of 'normal' life

This last week was my first week of 'normal' student life here in Glasgow. Obviously almost everything I do here is still NEW, but 'normal' things like going to class started to appear in my schedule.
Another 'normal' thing, at least at student halls is seeing the firemen coming by twice a day because of false fire alarms...they are not very happy with us.

After spending my weekend mostly in bed after the Pirate party and the return of my cold, I started the week discovering 'Toad in the Hole'. (look it up) Nice :)

The rest of the week was spent partially on more registration (since last week the machine at University registration would not take my 'foreign' debit card) which eventually resulted in me having a beautiful University of Glasgow student card. I'm proud.

As every university, this one has a university library. The first 'normal' week is the perfect week to go there and find a place where you can spend a large part of your year studying. You would think.... Glasgow university library is just plain scary. Twelve floors of low-ceilinged, student-packed madness. I left as soon as possible...I have only seen two floors. It might take me a while to find the courage to go again.

On Tuesday morning I had my first lecture! I'd been looking forward to it and was a little nervous. The subject I am studying, as I've seen in Leiden, is not a very popular one. Everyone that you talk to about it always says: "Wow that sounds so interesting! I wish I had done that, blabla" But not many people choose to actually do it. So I was worried that I might be the only person there.... Turns out that me and this other lady (former elementary school teacher) are the only two taking the full Masters course this year. Fortunately there are always people taking these types of classes as auditors or as one or their optional courses. Now we are with 7 people for the Tuesday morning lecture on Approaches to Religious Pluralism.
The texts we have to read for this course are really interesting! We are looking at different ways in which major religious traditions have viewed people of different faiths.

Occasionally the sun does come out here in Glasgow! We even had a couple of days in a row with considerable sunshine throughout the day! As all of the Glaswegians do, we all went out and enjoyed it. See here, the first, and probably last, picture of me in the sun on the pavement at a cafe and a picture of my new (sunny day) hangout place at a nearby church. The steps are comfortable and right in the afternoon sun (if there is any). Note my bike! I love my bike...

On Wednesday I had an audition for the Universities female chamber choir. I was nervous but happy with how I did. I loved that they tested my sight reading by giving me a peice to sing together with two choir members, in three voices. On Friday morning I heard that they accepted me! So from coming Thursday I will be rehearsing with them every week.
They mostly do ancient and celtic music, but the repetoire is quite large. Last spring they sang for the BBC and they go on short tours regularly. I'm so excited! If you want to know more about 'my' choir:
http://www.music.gla.ac.uk/musicclub/madrigirls.html
http://www.myspace.com/madrigirls
(The sheperds wife song on the myspace is the one they made me sing at audition)

On Thursday I was supposed to have class, but there was no one there....not even a professor. Weird. Don't know how that's going to work out yet.
Oh, and yes, concerned family members, I am eating well, haha. Often cooking with my delightful flatmates :)

Kennen we deze nog?

Kennen we deze nog?









Ja? Herinneren we ons de boosaardige huisbaas die vertikte ons honderden jaren oude dak te vernieuwen, waardoor wij met lekken, duiven, maden, afbrokkelende muren en advocaten te maken kregen?
(wees gerust, de dode duiven en maden foto's zal ik niet plaatsen...)


Mag ik u dan nu voorstellen aan.......*tromgeroffel*

De Schotse Versie:

Knap, vindt u niet? Een stuk creatiever dan die in Leiden, gezien dit gebouw uit 2002 dateert en wij op de begane grond wonen, met 3 verdiepingen boven ons.



Kudo's voor het water, dat trouwens ook in de afgelopen twee weken al acht verschillende dagen niet warm wilde worden.
De vriendelijke heren van E-on, die wij afgelopen week al drie dagen over de vloer hebben gehad, hebben morgen weer iets nieuws om naar te kijken.



Minder kudo's voor de Senior Resident die boven ons geen overstromend bad aantrof en ons dus adviseerde de lampen in de gang zolang maar uit te laten. Want water en electriciteit is vaak geen gezellige combo.



Wanneer denkt u dat het gemaakt kan worden? We'll call someone, but it's Sunday.
En daar gingen ze weer.
Daaaag, tot morgen.

International Orientation and Freshers' week

The return of my cold proves that the last two weeks have been great fun and greatly exhausting. I'll give you a short impression.




First of all the International Student Orientation Programme was crammed full of useful (and less useful) information on the Universities different services and talks from the student unions, societies and Strathclyde police. Next to these semi-serious lectures there was enough time to meet students from all over the world. I've met some very nice people from Germany, America, China, Finland, Germany, Japan, Norway, Singapore, Holland (surprise!) and Germany.
The amount of German international students is just enormous...thank god most of them are nice :).


On Saturday the International Society took us out on a day trip. We saw some great, genuine Highland landscapes and all felt sick on the bumpy coach ride. Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries....so I need to get my pictures from someonelse still.


Last week was Freshers' week, the introductory week for the Universities first years. As an International Postgrad Fresher :) we were allowed to buy a pass to gain entrance to all of the evening activities in the student Unions.

The week passed at high speed. Comedy nights, headphone discos, pirate parties, we saw everyting. And enjoyed it! Hence the cold.
At one of the Freshers' Fairs I found three choirs that I could join. I have an audition for one of them tomorrow....I'm already nervous, they are supposed to be really good. We'll see.


So last week was the ideal week for meeting drunk scottish freshers, who were omnipresent and nice to talk to. (Just up to the moment when the bus that goes to all the halls has to stop to let one out to puke....classy) No sober Scottish friends have been made though...(except for Chris:)) hope to find some at a choir or in class.

We found our last missing flatmates. I now live with a chinese girl (Yuan), an english girl (Jenny), an american guy (Nick) and a bosnian guy (not a clue...).
They are all friendly, creative, funny, weird and heaps of fun in their own way :). I'm really happy with them.

This week is the first 'normal week'. I'm looking forward to it. I'll try to get some normality back into my days. I'll keep you posted!

Neighbourhood Impressions

A day in the life of an international student

Sometimes you find yourself, at the end of a day, thinking about all that has happened that day.
Sometimes the amount of weird things that can happen to you in just one day amazes you….Yesterday was like that for me.

How on earth can you cram cold showers, getting lost on campus, grazed shins, exhibitions, extremely clean patches of grass, two (different) national dances, a group of Chinese people and porn under your mattress in ONE day…

Let me explain (this may take a while…):

First of all, our water hadn’t been heating up since the night before and we figured it was because of the restrictions on heating on campus. We only have heating at set times in ‘summer’ because they don’t want us to over-heat the place. Now we can only heat our rooms in the early morning and late afternoon.

So we thought that also meant we wouldn’t be able to get hot water during the day. We were already planning to set up riots to fight not being able to shower in the middle of the day (or night) when I went to ask about the winter schedules. Turned out that we should have hot water 24 hours a day and that “probably our boiler was just broken”. The lady behind the counter said that happens a lot and that I should fill in an official form and someone would come round to fix it. When I asked her when she thought that would happen she said: “Maybe today or tomorrow” :O

Thankfully the maintenance guy was right behind her and said he would come to fix it within the hour. Showering can be such bliss…

Nick (my American flat mate) and me were supposed to meet some of our friends at the Kelvingrove museum at noon to see an exhibition. Nick said he knew a shortcut to get there from the main building on campus (the castle on the hill) through the park. Realize that it takes us 20 minutes to walk from our accommodation to the castle and we had only had a cold shower to put our heads under… When we got there, the gate to the park below was closed. So we went to find another way out of campus. I was on my bike so I went ahead to see if there was a way out of there at the bottom of the hill. I thought the gate was open but it wasn’t. Imagine me riding up to the gate and having to stop quite suddenly…Result: 1 grazed shin.

What to do now? We just walked around campus for half an hour trying to find a way out…we ended up behind some dodgy hospital building finding a way out onto the street we had started from. We were an hour late to meet our friends at the exhibition. The exhibition turned out to be great. Benson is an epic photographer. http://www.harrybenson.com/

After that cultural experience I went to buy some random stuff at Boots. I also needed some laundry detergent, so I bought a large bottle of that. I put the plastic bag on the right handlebar of my precious bike and began the journey back home. At one point in that journey I have to stop cycling and get off my bike to cross a small patch of grass. As I did so, in some otherworldly way, the top of the laundry detergent bottle got stuck in the spokes of my front wheel. It just ripped it clean off! I wasn’t going fast or whatever but something was stuck so I looked down…and my detergent was gushing out of the bottle onto my bike and the grass… The lid was actually stuck in the spokes. Trying to save whatever was left in the bottle, I leaned over dropping almost all of the other stuff I was carrying. As soon as I got the bottle closed and my stuff off the ground I moved on as fast as I could…hope no one saw me. But you can be sure that, as soon as it rains, there’s going to be a VERY clean patch of grass somewhere in Glasgow. I should put my bike out when it rains too…it does smell very nice now :)

When I came home I went to the reception to ask about the hot water and an hour later I could take my well earned shower. (If only to get the detergent off my hands)

We know we have a Chinese girl flat mate since Friday…but we hadn’t seen her since meeting her in three seconds. We were starting to think we would never see her gain, as her door is closest to the exit so she can sneak in and out without being seen :). When meeting us she was sort of shy and apprehensive. Then today the whole kitchen was covered in traces of her presence…big cutting boards and enormous knives everywhere. There was also meat and vegetables all over the place, like she had just run away when hearing us come in. We joked that she definitely would be able to kill us with all those knives… and that maybe she would do that if we asked her to put her stuff in the fridge. Then right before I was off to go to dinner at Annemiekes’ I heard a tiny knock on my door. The Chinese girl (I can’t remember her name…I should write it down) was standing in front of my door trying out her best English and inviting me to have dinner with her and her friends. It was so sweet! She had four Chinese friends over and invited all of her flat mates to come and have a traditional festival dinner with them. Unfortunately I already had other plans, but it was a really nice offer. And my other flat mates said it was really good :).

After a very nice dinner at Annemiekes’ I went to the International Student Society Salsa night which turned out to be alright, but not very exciting. The Ceilidh (Scottish traditional dancing party) downstairs was just as medium-interesting so I went home quite early. Maybe I was just not in a partying mood yesterday.

I haven’t been sleeping very well on my spring-mattress here, since I’m not used to having steel spirals sticking into me (resulting in bruises on my thighs…grr), so someone gave me the tip to try turning my mattress over. Maybe that would help. When trying to turn over my mattress it got stuck on something…a porn DVD! What?! That wasn’t mine! I literally burst out laughing and ran into my flat mates’ room to show him what I found. I’m glad I found it now and not someone else in a couple of moths who will definitely think it was mine! Some poor horny guy is now reaching under his mattress and realizing he left his treasure under mine, haha!

If you have stuck with me for this LONG entry, I thank you. :) Can you imagine all of this happening in one day…it’s ridiculous! But interesting. We’re definitely not bored.

Random Update

Vandaag is De Grote Aankomstdag van alle eerstejaars. Er staan 40 auto’s voor onze flats waar ouders met zenuwachtige achttien jarigen uitklimmen.
Ik voel me al alsof ik hier thuishoor en probeer geruststellend naar de bange gezichtjes te kijken. "Don’t worry! You’ll be fine."
Papa en mama kijken ondertussen of ze vanaf beneden kunnen zien welk van de identieke ramen nou van zoon- of dochterlief zal zijn.

Zo.

Daar zit je dan…eerste momentje rust na vier dagen hectische nieuwigheid. Vreemd genoeg is dit ook het eerste moment waarop de zon vrolijk je kamer in schijnt.

Ja, denk je dan, nu kan ik even iets typen dat voor ‘de mensen thuis’ misschien interessant zou kunnen zijn.

Dan denk je na over de afgelopen dagen, over het ontmoeten van een absurd aantal mensen van een absurd aantal verschillende landen, over verhuizen naar een ander land, over intrekken in een nieuwe kamer etc. etc.

Maar alles vliegt eigenlijk nog door je hoofd…waar moet ik beginnen, wat moet ik vertellen?

Geen idee :)

Ik zou wel van iedere gebeurtenis een blog willen maken, maar dat slaat ook weer nergens op.
Een goed verhaal zit er dus niet in vandaag. Daar moet ik toch echt wat rustiger voor zijn denk ik. Alleen random zinnen komen in me op eigenlijk…daar moet je het maar even mee doen.

Het is Gezellig

Ik ben nog steeds Verkouden

Ik heb een Fiets (Maar durf nog niet zo veel. Ze rijden hier aan de verkeerde kant van de weg...)

Mijn nieuwe kamer is Fijn

Ik heb nu een Adres en een Telefoonnummer

Ik Hou van mijn Badkamertje

Het is Druk

Ik heb het Leuk

Mijn kamer is Blauw

Ik heb nu 2 Huisgenoten (Nick en een nieuwe Chinese. ((Jin! Ze komt ook uit Sichuan)) Ze is er pas sinds vannacht en is erg verlegen)

Ik Vermaak Me Prima







Frouk! Ik zal voor je vragen over de eekhoorns :P

Welcome to Glasgow

Ja! Daar ben ik dan. Goed aangekomen en al redelijk gesettled in mijn nieuwe stulpje.

De International Student Orientation is vandaag begonnen dus veel tijd om te bloggen is er niet.

Hierbij even een eerste indruk:

Nationaliteiten vandaag ontmoet (in order of appearance):
- Amerikaans
- Nederlands
- Schots
- Pakistaans
- Fins
- Noors
- Nigeriaans
- Australischschsch
- Duits


Weersomstandigheden:
- Koud
- Medium koud
- Regen
- Medium regen
- Veel regen
- Medium zonneschijn





Number of pictures taken outside when sunny: 8
Number of pictures taken outside when not sunny: 0


Mijn enige aanwezige huisgenoot op dit moment is een Amerikaan, Nick. We ontbijten gezellig samen en opereren als 'unit' op de borrel/socialisevloer.






Raar dat je die ene persoon die je één dag langer kent dan de rest meteen als 'vriend' gaat zien en de rest als 'vreemd'.



Mijn verkoudheid/griep is overgegaan in de hoestfase. Helaas gebeurde dat tijdens een welkomst/informatiecollege... Hopelijk is het morgen over.












Dat is geen rat maar een eekhoorn --->

We zijn er bijna!

Maandag is het zover!