A little bit about Cairncross House

This post is all about Cairncross House.  Now, there's not a super lot to tell, but most of its stuff that I wanted to know about before leaving so I thought I'd include it.

Obviously, the University of Glasgow Residential Services has a lot of the basic information about Cairncross, like how many students live there, how many rooms, what amenities the rooms have.  But some of the info just isn't there.  Or they pretend its there but when you click on the link it "can't be found" (which isn't very helpful at all).

This is the general Univeristy of Glasgow accomodations website: http://www.gla.ac.uk/undergraduate/accommodation/

And this website is just for Cairncross House:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/undergraduate/accommodation/residenceprofiles/cairncrosshouse/


Some of the basics about Cairncross House (I'll try not to repeat anything thats on the U of G website):

There are four floors, and as far as I can tell, the top floor (the 3rd floor if you're from the UK or the 4th floor if you're American), is a girls only floor.  At least, there is always a girls only floor - I have no actual guarantee that it's always the top floor.

To get into Cairncross, you use a key fob on a pad near the door, and that lets you in.  Then you're in a little "reception" area I guess you could call it, and the desk for Reception/Security is right in front of you.  If you go to the left, there are the doors for the Common Room, which is pretty big.  It has a bunch of couches, some chairs, a TV, ping pong table, and two vending machines (one for sodas and one for snacks).  This is also where mailboxes are, and you get a mailbox based on your last name, and share it with everyone else with the same last initial.  You all get a little key to go with your key fob.  Back in the reception area, if you go straight ahead from the door, that's how you get to all the rooms.

Here's a video that I took going from outside Cairncross House to my room.

It appears that there are about 12-15 people assigned to each kitchen (which in my opinion, is way too many people).  It works by your room number.  There's a sign on each kitchen's door that says which rooms the kitchen is for.  Bathrooms are not assigned (this kind of confused me on my first day), and I think there are two full bathrooms for maybe 15 - 20 rooms (some of which are most likely twin rooms), and then there's also a room with just a shower.

Cairncross is NOT organized apartment-style.  I couldn't quite tell this when I was looking into Cairncross.  It is just long hallways, with rooms, kitchens and bathrooms off of it.

There are two laundry rooms in the building, one on the 1st floor, and one on the 4th floor.  Two washers and two dryers per room.  A friend sent me this website at one point during the semester, and it was very useful to me to figuring out when a washer or dryer was available.

http://www.circuitgroup.com/viewsanctuaryglasgow

As for the rooms themselves, they're in pretty good condition.  I've never seen dorm rooms (in person) in the US, so I can't say if they're better or worse than in the US.  One perk of Cairncross is that the rooms all have their own sinks.  This was one of those things that I didn't think was a big deal but it was VERY nice to have.  It would have been fairly miserable without that.

The link for the floorplan for a large single room doesn't work on the Glasgow website, so I drew one up based on my room.  I am no artist, so its not fantastic.  And it doesn't quite show how big the room is, but at least it shows what was in it, and the placement.  I saw a couple of other rooms that were large singles and they all had different furniture placement, but it was fairly similar. 

And to end, here are some pictures of Cairncross that my friend Linda took for me (I never got a chance to take them while I was there). 

A generic bathroom at Cairncross (although usually they have showers, not tubs)

And then these pictures of my kitchen (yes, these are actual pictures of the kitchen that was assigned to me), I'm posting partially to show the "typical" setup of a Cairncross kitchen, and partially to shame the people I shared the kitchen with by showing what a pigsty!

Two stoves/ovens per kitchen

Tons of cabinets (I kept my food in my room)

Two fridges per kitchen, but the fridge is only the top half of each one.  There isn't a lot of space...  One microwave, one toaster

Trash is supposed to be taken out by the people that use the kitchen, and there is a kitchen rota to say who is responsible for it each week.

Two tables, with four chairs at each table

Lockers in the kitchen, I guess for storing food or something?  I'm not 100% sure - I never used them.  But you need to bring your own lock

So thats pretty much everything I can think of that would be of use to know - I hope it helps somebody!  If I think of anything else about life at Cairncross, I'll add it in.

And oh, by the way, every Thursday around 2/2:30, they test the fire alarm bell.  It ALWAYS rang just long enough for me to start to get up to evacuate. 

Glasgow - Local Stores

One thing that had me slightly worried before going to Glasgow, was trying to figure out how to get certain items that I would need right away (most particularly, a blanket for my bed).  I tried to look into it before I went there but it was very difficult to look at a map and try to figure out if a place was close or if it just looked close.  Or if that big line was a road I could walk on or a big uncrossable highway.  So this blog post is intended to hopefully help out anybody who may be wondering about the same things (although I know that I overthink things a lot, and this could be an issue that nobody but me ever thinks about!)

First things first... a slight disclaimer that this comes from the point of view of someone who lived at Cairncross House, and I'm sure that some of this would be irrelevant depending on how far away from Cairncross you lived.

In general, I found the best place to shop for generic household goods is the shopping area on Argyle St by Glasgow Central Station.  In my experience, the best way to get there is to take the local train.  Its somewhat possible to walk there but its just much better to take the train (I think its a 30 min or so walk).  To take the train from the Exhibition Centre station (nearest to Cairncross) its £1.30 for a single (one way) ticket and £1.40 for a return (round trip) ticket. 

To get to Exhibition Centre is fairly easy - although it does take a few minutes.  Here's a handy dandy map to show you how!

Then once you get to Glasgow Central, I can never remember if its a left or a right, but go in the direction that has a McDonald's (no, not trying to be a stereotypical American but its pretty much right there so its a good landmark).  Once there, right on that main street there is a ton of shopping.

Personally, I shopped a lot at Primark, TK Maxx, Priceless Shoes, Poundland, Waterstone's and a couple of other places that aren't occuring to me right now.

Primark I found to be somewhat similar to Sears (at least in terms of price and the types of things you're going there to get).  You can get cheap clothes there - although the majority were not my style.  Also there are a lot of housewares.  I got my duvet and duvet cover there (for less than £20 total).

Also nearby is TK Maxx which is the UK version of TJ Maxx (tough to guess that one, right?).  Only its a lot better than any of the TJ Maxx's I've ever been in.  Obviously lots of discounted clothes and other housewares and things like that.

Priceless Shoes is ... whew, hard to describe.  Cause they don't have a ton, and what they do have isn't the highest of fashion, as far as I could tell.  But I'm not really the one to ask about their women's shoes because both times that I shopped there I was forced to choose from the men's section!  Which basically consisted of sneakers.  Anyway, I found that they were a good place to get cheap shoes, as each of the pair of sneakers I bought cost £10 or less.

Poundland.  Gosh I could write a book about my love of Poundland.  If you hadn't guessed from the name, it is a store where everything is £1.  And when they say that, they mean it.  Its not like in the US at the majority of "dollar stores", where stuff can still be $3, $5 or more.  I thought the quality of the products there was somewhat higher, too.  Definitely a great store to check out, especially when you're a student, and especially especially when you're a study abroad student (and you're having to buy housewares and other things that most likely won't be able to travel back home with you).

Waterstone's is just a UK bookstore chain.  Not much to really go into there because its just like any Barnes and Noble, but its right there on that same street.  Its also where I got my copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

Argyle St is also the location of St Enoch Centre, which has a ton more shopping (including a ridiculously awesome toy store, and a Ness store). 

Buchanan St (a famous shopping street) is located off of Argyle St, too, but for whatever reason, I never really shopped there. 

As for more local (to Cairncross House) shopping, the most important place is going to be the Tesco Express on Argyle St.  Its not very far from Cairncross House and is one of the best (read: most convenient) places to get food from.  And not far from there is one of my favorite little stores, Roots & Fruits.  Its one of those Organics/Whole Foods stores, but it also has, clearly, fruits and veggies.  And you can buy them individually instead of having to buy a big bag of apples or potatos.  Also has a little gluten free section, which was delightful for me. 

Roots & Fruits (you come across this first walking down Argyle St, away from Cairncross)

This is one of the perks of living at Cairncross House - the 78.  Its literally right next door to Cairncross House (as you'll see in the second picture), and its a vegan Bar & Restaurant.  While I don't follow a vegan diet, it was very convenient to go there for food (either to eat in or for take away).  Order the chips!  Super yummy.

Another good shopping area is on the other side of campus, on Byers Road.  I didn't do a TON of shopping there (and barely got any pictures of places so I'm not going to go into too much detail).  But on Byers Road is a place to get school supplies, a couple more supermarkets (Waitrose, which has a nice gluten free section, and Iceland, which I never went to).  Also a super cute store called Papyrus which has a bunch of stuff that you never knew you needed until you walked in there.  You'll spend the majority of your time there saying "Oh my God! Thats SO cute!"

And now, my absolute favorite thing located on Byers Road... is Taco Mazama.  Mmmm... tacos.  This place has such delicious tacos (and I'm sure the other stuff is good too but the tacos are the only things that are gluten free)

So yummy.  Seriously, try these.  I mean it.

Thats all for now - hope this helps someone!

:)

My Journey Home

So! It just occurred to me that although I had said that I was home and had talked about how I was going to get home prior to leaving, that I never actually went over my trip home and the details of it.  Oopsie!  So I just thought I'd do a little post about that because, like some of my other trips, the journey home was quite an adventure!!  (And just for the record, I think 'adventure' can be in either a negative or positive way)

As I'm sure I mentioned before, the last few days in Glasgow were a bit ... crazy, in a way.  Sometimes I was so bored that I didn't know what to do with myself, and sometimes I was so busy that I wished I could pause time just to be able to get everything done.

The day before I left, I had finally managed to get all my bags packed, with the unfortunate bonus of having to pay for one of my bags to be overweight.  Joyful!  Spent a while Skyping with my mom, trying to pack a carry on bag (ended up with two :-\), and then at 3 am on the 20th, I started bringing my bags down (I wanted to give myself plenty of time incase it was ridiculously hard).  Speaking of which, whew, that was really really tough.  Glad I don't have to do that again.  Heavy bags are heavy.  But I eventually got all of my stuff downstairs and into the common room.  Then sadly, I discovered that there was no possible way to include everything that I had in either my luggage or my carry on, so I wound up donating a few more things (that I didn't want to, like my Christmas Crackers).  Finally, a little before 5 am, my taxi pulled up outside of Cairncross House.

This is where the fun started.

The first sort of "issue" was that I had been kind of hoping (expecting?) that my cab driver would be able to help me get my bags into the cab.  Not really sure why I thought this but, its true.  And unfortunately, my cab driver was both not capable of getting my bags into the cab, and insistent on doing it.  Which leads to me awkwardly standing nearby and trying to help this guy lift my luggage in.  This was also an issue when we finally got to the airport and he tried to lift the luggage out.  And also when, after getting me a luggage cart, he tried to lift the luggage onto it.  (Each time I had to basically force my way past him and get the bags).  I gave him a tip - I don't care about those stupid British no tipping laws.

The second issue is that I'm still not certain whether or not he was drunk.  Either that or he was extremely tired.  But I was definitely concerned.  Made it there in one piece though, hurray!

Got to the airport around 5:15 or so, but unfortunately the check in desk for my flight was open yet.  And for whatever weird reason, there is no real area to wait in the airport prior to check in.  So I waited with my trolley on the floor for an hour.  Then the real trouble began.

When checking in for the flight, my luggage was weighed, and the fact that the one bag was overweight was acknowledged, blah blah blah.  But then she asks the question I'd been afraid of hearing... how much hand luggage did I have?  And unfortunately for me, although I had "one carry on and one personal item", which was allowed, it appeared that I had close to 40 pounds of it.  Oopsie again.  Not allowed.  So my only choices at this point was to either pay 200 Euros (or pounds, I'm not sure) for a 3rd bag (in addition to the 75 for the second bag and 75 for overweight), or try to fit everything extra into my other suitcase that wasn't overweight, and pay 75 for the second bag, 75 for the first one being overweight and 75 for the second one being overweight.  So I went through my luggage on the floor of the airport and made all/most of the second carry on fit into the other suitcase.  Had to throw out some things, however, including my green messenger bag that was my carryon on the way to Glasgow.  Not thrilled about that, but... what could I do.  So I go back (because my luggage has to be weighed again).  They weigh it, tag it, take it, and send me on my way to pay for the luggage (a different desk)

Then the next problem comes up.  I only had enough money (both on my emergency credit card, and in my bank account), to cover the original plan of the fee for a second bag and the overweight fee.  Not two overweight fees.  I try to use my credit card just incase it will go through anyway (you never know).  But it doesn't.  Starting to panic because the only other thing I have is my debit card, and I don't really WANT that to go through because if it does, its going to cause SOO much in overdraft fees.  "Fortunately" it doesn't go through.  But now I'm stuck.  Its around 7 am, my flight is at 8:15, they have my bags, and I have no way of paying for them.

My only option (and it literally takes me about 45 seconds to come to this decision), is to call my parents internationally, on my UK cellphone with less than a pound of credit, at 2 in the morning their time.  Yay.  (Sorry again, Mom and Dad).  They end up giving a credit card number over the phone, thank God.  And I get to go on my way.  I've basically lost all sense of time at this point (what with the shaking and crying and all of that), that I've convinced myself that I'm going to miss my flight.  But I go through security with no issues, walk the 800 miles to my gate, and sit numbly for the 25 minutes before my flight boarded.  Guess I wasn't running late after all.

Flight goes well, land in Amsterdam.  Now, I have been looking forward to going to the Amsterdam airport for ... months?  Because one of the places that I wanted to travel to but didn't get the chance was Amsterdam.  And I wasn't going to miss out on an opportunity to get some neat souvenirs - even if I didn't technically visit Amsterdam.  So I stop in one of the little souvenir shops, finally end up with a tiny little pair of ceramic shoes (I obviously didn't want to use my credit card after the fiasco with my luggage) that was around 3 Euros.  But nope, the guy in the store wouldn't allow me to buy it without my boarding pass!  Which I didn't have because it was a different airline than what you could check in for in Glasgow.  And by the time I finally found where to check in and had gotten my boarding pass, I was 800 miles away from all of the little stores (including one that apparently sold all elephant things!!!).  So I didn't get a single thing from Amsterdam!

Fortunately the rest of my trip went fairly smooth, minus just the normal airport frustrations, like waiting in line at Immigrations and going through Customs and such.  But I got through that part and met up with my parents (yay!) and it was sooo nice to finally be home (even if I wasn't home, I was just in Philadelphia). 

I don't know what it is about trying to get home from someplace, but it apparently has to be difficult.  Would still do it all over again, though. 

Sorry for the long post but I have an inability to leave details out! 

Oh and if anyone has been to the Elephant Store in the Amsterdam Airport, could you please tell me that nothing is for sale or that each one costs a million dollars or something - to make me feel better?