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 :)