Orientation week for International Students
Door: Samantha de Bruijn
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Samantha
20 September 2010 | Verenigd Koninkrijk, Glasgow
When we were still in the Netherlands we had to sign up to the orientation week for international students. It was also possible to sign up to a Glasgow bus tour, a Glasgow walking tour and/or a social event (all for free) and for only 10 pounds we could sign up to full day bus tour to either Culzean Castle & Park & Ayr, Stirling Castle & Glengoyne Whisky Distillery, Callander & Loch Katrine cruise or Inveraray Castle & Town.
We had signed up for the Glasgow bus tour and the social event, which took place Thursday 9th of September. We departed from the Glasgow University at about 10 o'clock and the coach driver and guide showed us many (beautiful) places in Glasgow. It was a very interesting tour, but I have to say I don't remember everything the guide told us. She also told us some fun facts about Glasgow and she gave us a little lesson in Glaswegian. A 'sandwich' is called 'piece' here for example. 'Jail' is 'jile', 'small' is 'wee', 'girls' are called 'hen' and a 'church' sounds like the Dutch/German translation: 'kirk'. She told us many more examples and I can't remember them all, but I found a website that will give you some more examples (in case you don't know what to do with your spare time): http://glasgow.gmdesign.org.uk/
In the evening we went to the social event. Our ticket said there would be a light meal served, so we ate something beforehand. It turned out that the whole evening was a ceilidh (pronunciation: kay-lay), which is a Scottish folk dancing event. I thought it was great! I had a wonderful time listening to the music, dancing and watching other people dance. There were even some real Scotsman including kilt (don't start the 'and what was underneath it'-jokes, please). Halfway through the evening they served some small sandwiches (pieces!), chicken nuggets and so on, so we could restore our energy after all this dancing.
Friday morning (September 10) we were at the university again to join the full day bus tour. The one we signed up for was the one to Callander and Loch Katrine. I happened to sit next to another Dutch girl from Nijmegen. So much for the international socializing/ improving your English part... Nevertheless, we had a great time during the bus trips and I found out that studying abroad could also be arranged within a few months and by only filling in a few papers that someone hands you. Well, I suppose that's an other way of doing it...
About an hour after we saw the last of Glasgow University we arrived in Callander. During the bus trip we got some information about Loch Katrine on it, but nothing about Callander. Nothing was said in the bus about this 'great and wonderful village we apparently had to see, else we wouldn't be here, right?' except for: be back in an hour. We soon found out that it is nothing more than just one street with some shops. Even the church was nothing special, because it was turned over into tourist information. I don't exactly know what tourists have to do in Callander, but apparently they come there often since we could even pay with euros in the Fudge Shop. When we had some lunch we walked back to the bus via a road parallel to the main road. We had some beautiful views as you might have seen on our photobucket. We had some great views during the bus trip from Callander to Loch Katrine as well. This really reminded me of one of the reasons I wanted to go to Scotland for. Really beautiful!
Arriving at Loch Katrine we quickly had to get on the steamship Sir Walter Scott, because it would be leaving any time soon. I had already been on a cruise before when I was in England two years ago at a lake/water in the Lake District. To be honest (I know I'm not supposed to say this to any English or Scottish people), but I think the cruises are quite the same since I don't know the names of the mountains around it. Don't get me wrong, we enjoyed the beautiful views and we made a lot of photos. During the cruise we were told not to throw yourself or anyone next to you over board for various reasons, so we just ate some grapes instead, hahaha. Fun Fact: Loch Katrine supplies drinking water for Glasgow and surrounding areas.
After the cruise there was still some time left, so we got to spend some time in Aberfoyle as well. Aberfoyle was about as big and interesting as Callander, although it had 'The Scottish Wool Centre' which was fun to have a look around.
The tour itself was fun as well. Except for the beautiful surroundings we also had a fun coach driver. Every now and then he started some weird fun songs quite loud and expected us to sing along with the chorus. He also corrected the tour guides (some second year students). Apparently they said 'bus' to which the coach driver felt the need to 'rephrase that into coach'.
When we arrived at the university again we didn't really feel like doing grocery shopping and cooking, so we went to an Italian restaurant on Byres Road (close to university). They had quite a good concept for their menus. We had never seen it before and it took us some time to totally understand it. The menu card is full of little dishes varying from 4-6 pounds. Three or four dishes make up your total dinner, so you can have pizza and lasagne and pasta and bread, etc. Leoni and Mathilde ordered a pasta dish for two. I had a small pizza and some lasagne and we shared the bread with herb butter. I almost forgot to mention it, but we also shared desert: chocolate fondue!! Yummy! I am pretty sure we will visit the restaurant again some time.
Since there were no university/international student/fresher's events, we had the weekend off. So Saturday (September 11) we went to see the Burrell Collection. The museum is located in the south of Glasgow, so we were able to get there by train. Sir William Burrell collected a lot of stuff: castle furniture, artefacts from old Egypt, Romans, China, tapestries, paintings, even stained glass windows and complete arches! When he died he donated his whole collection to Glasgow city and they made a museum around his collection. This means that the stained glass windows are the actual windows in the museum building and that the arches are used as a connection between two rooms.
There is also a park around the museum where there should be some wild (?) highland cows of which Leoni and Mathilde are a big fan. Most of the shops here sell very cute postcards and calendars of them. Unfortunately there were no 'cute cows' to be seen, but we did have some sun during the day (well, at least when we were outside).
That night the Glasgow University Christian Union organized a haggis party. Everyone was invited, so we went to have a taste of the famous haggis ourself. It wasn't too bad actually! It just tasted like minced meat (Dutch: gehakt), but with some different spices. You don't want to think of what your eating when you're eating it, but neither do you when eating a frikandel. We had a typical Scottish desert as well: cranachan (cream, raspberries and some wisky).
After we dared to taste the haggis and had our dessert, we went to the Glasgow University Union (GUU). This is one of the two student unions of the Glasgow University (the Christian Union is more like a society). They had organized a ceilidh party as well, so now we could show off our fantastic Scottish dancing skills! Well, not really, but we got the hang of it a lot quicker than during the social event Thursday.
Sunday was a bit of a lazy day. Mathilde and Leoni walked into town to see how long it would take them (30 min. just like to university) and brough back a clothes horse, so we finally had a place to put our wet clothes after washing them. Although, when they brought it back, the laundry had already been hanging in my room for the day at a string attached from my door to my window. It think the photo will be on photobucket soon.
We ended the week by first going to a salsa dance class of the International Society and after that the GUU threw a traffic-light party which means you have to dress or paint you face in either green, yellow/orange or red. Green = available, orange = sort of in relationship, but open to new ones and red = has boy/girlfriend. Makes sense right? It was fun to see that a lot of people should have changed their colour at the end of the evening. The building of the GUU is called 'The Hive' and we know why now: it's absolutely huge.
The other union is called the Queen Margaret Union (QMU). Signing up for both unions is free, so we might do that, even though we are 'only' here for a few months.
Love, Samantha
-------------------------------------
Ceilidh: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A9ilidh
Callander: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callander
Loch Katrine: http://www.lochkatrine.com/
Burrell Collection: http://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums/our-museums/burrell-collection/Pages/home.aspx of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burrell_Collection
Cranachan dessert: http://www.scottishrecipes.co.uk/cranachanrecipe.htm
We had signed up for the Glasgow bus tour and the social event, which took place Thursday 9th of September. We departed from the Glasgow University at about 10 o'clock and the coach driver and guide showed us many (beautiful) places in Glasgow. It was a very interesting tour, but I have to say I don't remember everything the guide told us. She also told us some fun facts about Glasgow and she gave us a little lesson in Glaswegian. A 'sandwich' is called 'piece' here for example. 'Jail' is 'jile', 'small' is 'wee', 'girls' are called 'hen' and a 'church' sounds like the Dutch/German translation: 'kirk'. She told us many more examples and I can't remember them all, but I found a website that will give you some more examples (in case you don't know what to do with your spare time): http://glasgow.gmdesign.org.uk/
In the evening we went to the social event. Our ticket said there would be a light meal served, so we ate something beforehand. It turned out that the whole evening was a ceilidh (pronunciation: kay-lay), which is a Scottish folk dancing event. I thought it was great! I had a wonderful time listening to the music, dancing and watching other people dance. There were even some real Scotsman including kilt (don't start the 'and what was underneath it'-jokes, please). Halfway through the evening they served some small sandwiches (pieces!), chicken nuggets and so on, so we could restore our energy after all this dancing.
Friday morning (September 10) we were at the university again to join the full day bus tour. The one we signed up for was the one to Callander and Loch Katrine. I happened to sit next to another Dutch girl from Nijmegen. So much for the international socializing/ improving your English part... Nevertheless, we had a great time during the bus trips and I found out that studying abroad could also be arranged within a few months and by only filling in a few papers that someone hands you. Well, I suppose that's an other way of doing it...
About an hour after we saw the last of Glasgow University we arrived in Callander. During the bus trip we got some information about Loch Katrine on it, but nothing about Callander. Nothing was said in the bus about this 'great and wonderful village we apparently had to see, else we wouldn't be here, right?' except for: be back in an hour. We soon found out that it is nothing more than just one street with some shops. Even the church was nothing special, because it was turned over into tourist information. I don't exactly know what tourists have to do in Callander, but apparently they come there often since we could even pay with euros in the Fudge Shop. When we had some lunch we walked back to the bus via a road parallel to the main road. We had some beautiful views as you might have seen on our photobucket. We had some great views during the bus trip from Callander to Loch Katrine as well. This really reminded me of one of the reasons I wanted to go to Scotland for. Really beautiful!
Arriving at Loch Katrine we quickly had to get on the steamship Sir Walter Scott, because it would be leaving any time soon. I had already been on a cruise before when I was in England two years ago at a lake/water in the Lake District. To be honest (I know I'm not supposed to say this to any English or Scottish people), but I think the cruises are quite the same since I don't know the names of the mountains around it. Don't get me wrong, we enjoyed the beautiful views and we made a lot of photos. During the cruise we were told not to throw yourself or anyone next to you over board for various reasons, so we just ate some grapes instead, hahaha. Fun Fact: Loch Katrine supplies drinking water for Glasgow and surrounding areas.
After the cruise there was still some time left, so we got to spend some time in Aberfoyle as well. Aberfoyle was about as big and interesting as Callander, although it had 'The Scottish Wool Centre' which was fun to have a look around.
The tour itself was fun as well. Except for the beautiful surroundings we also had a fun coach driver. Every now and then he started some weird fun songs quite loud and expected us to sing along with the chorus. He also corrected the tour guides (some second year students). Apparently they said 'bus' to which the coach driver felt the need to 'rephrase that into coach'.
When we arrived at the university again we didn't really feel like doing grocery shopping and cooking, so we went to an Italian restaurant on Byres Road (close to university). They had quite a good concept for their menus. We had never seen it before and it took us some time to totally understand it. The menu card is full of little dishes varying from 4-6 pounds. Three or four dishes make up your total dinner, so you can have pizza and lasagne and pasta and bread, etc. Leoni and Mathilde ordered a pasta dish for two. I had a small pizza and some lasagne and we shared the bread with herb butter. I almost forgot to mention it, but we also shared desert: chocolate fondue!! Yummy! I am pretty sure we will visit the restaurant again some time.
Since there were no university/international student/fresher's events, we had the weekend off. So Saturday (September 11) we went to see the Burrell Collection. The museum is located in the south of Glasgow, so we were able to get there by train. Sir William Burrell collected a lot of stuff: castle furniture, artefacts from old Egypt, Romans, China, tapestries, paintings, even stained glass windows and complete arches! When he died he donated his whole collection to Glasgow city and they made a museum around his collection. This means that the stained glass windows are the actual windows in the museum building and that the arches are used as a connection between two rooms.
There is also a park around the museum where there should be some wild (?) highland cows of which Leoni and Mathilde are a big fan. Most of the shops here sell very cute postcards and calendars of them. Unfortunately there were no 'cute cows' to be seen, but we did have some sun during the day (well, at least when we were outside).
That night the Glasgow University Christian Union organized a haggis party. Everyone was invited, so we went to have a taste of the famous haggis ourself. It wasn't too bad actually! It just tasted like minced meat (Dutch: gehakt), but with some different spices. You don't want to think of what your eating when you're eating it, but neither do you when eating a frikandel. We had a typical Scottish desert as well: cranachan (cream, raspberries and some wisky).
After we dared to taste the haggis and had our dessert, we went to the Glasgow University Union (GUU). This is one of the two student unions of the Glasgow University (the Christian Union is more like a society). They had organized a ceilidh party as well, so now we could show off our fantastic Scottish dancing skills! Well, not really, but we got the hang of it a lot quicker than during the social event Thursday.
Sunday was a bit of a lazy day. Mathilde and Leoni walked into town to see how long it would take them (30 min. just like to university) and brough back a clothes horse, so we finally had a place to put our wet clothes after washing them. Although, when they brought it back, the laundry had already been hanging in my room for the day at a string attached from my door to my window. It think the photo will be on photobucket soon.
We ended the week by first going to a salsa dance class of the International Society and after that the GUU threw a traffic-light party which means you have to dress or paint you face in either green, yellow/orange or red. Green = available, orange = sort of in relationship, but open to new ones and red = has boy/girlfriend. Makes sense right? It was fun to see that a lot of people should have changed their colour at the end of the evening. The building of the GUU is called 'The Hive' and we know why now: it's absolutely huge.
The other union is called the Queen Margaret Union (QMU). Signing up for both unions is free, so we might do that, even though we are 'only' here for a few months.
Love, Samantha
-------------------------------------
Ceilidh: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A9ilidh
Callander: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callander
Loch Katrine: http://www.lochkatrine.com/
Burrell Collection: http://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums/our-museums/burrell-collection/Pages/home.aspx of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burrell_Collection
Cranachan dessert: http://www.scottishrecipes.co.uk/cranachanrecipe.htm
-
29 September 2010 - 14:48
Ilona Schipper:
He Samantha!
Tof dat jullie Nijmegen kunnen gaan promoten daar! Ik heb tot nu toe alleen nog maar wat emailcontact gehad met spaanse studenten die of nu in Nijmegen zitten (niet heel handig dus) of met mensen die het volgende semester willen gaan. Voor mij wel weer goed om mijn spaans te oefenen. Colleges volgen in het Spaans valt toch echt nog niet mee!
Voorlopig is het hier inderdaad nog erg lekker weer, 20 tot 25 graden gemiddeld. Mij hoor je dus niet klagen! Ik zal ook wel aan jullie denken hoor, wanneer het hier een keer regent. Want dat komt (zo af en toe dan) ook best voor!
Groetjes Ilona!
Reageer op dit reisverslag
Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
