Flights... regional flight from Albany to Philadelphia was horrendous but mainly just for me. Possibly because it was such a small plane, I was kinda freaked out and was getting really scared. Thankfully the flight was about 45 minutes, and then navigating around the airport in Philadelphia was not really difficult. From Philadelphia to Glasgow, the flight was somewhat better. It was a bigger plane so I wasn't really scared like I'd been in the other one. I even got served a somewhat decent gluten free meal so hurrah for that! (Although I would like to say that I've never heard of a rice cake with strawberry jam and butter as a type of breakfast snack... Gluten free or not).
We arrived in Glasgow around 6:30 in the morning local time (1:30 back home). After some walking and talking we got through immigration and got our bags and went through customs and we were out! Waited awhile for the University of Glasgow Welcome Team to pick us up but when we finally spotted them (they were wearing fairly obvious yellow University of Glasgow hoodies), we got our free shuttle and were dropped off at the halls.
I'm staying in Cairncross House...
... which I'm told is anywhere from a 5 to 15 minute walk (it depends on who you ask). I've yet to actually see the University so I'm looking forward to that.
My room is a large single, and I'll post a picture of it once I'm fully unpacked and my pots and pans arrive (hopefully tomorrow).
So as for today, post-arrival...
Had to lug my 50 pound, perfectly not "overweight" suitcase up four flights of stairs. Yay, top floor...
Took a possibly 2, possibly 3 hour nap (I really don't know what time it was when I fell asleep or woke up). Then I met up with two other girls who had been on the shuttle and were staying at Cairncross House too. We decided to go out to try and get cellphones, cause none of us had any that could be used here. We walked down some streets...
where we took the train a few stops up the road to a big shopping area. After searching and going from store to store and back to stores, we all wound up buying the same pay as you go phone. Hey, it'll do for 4 months.
I then went to Primark (haven't decided on what I think a US equivalent might be) that was right up the road to get blankets of some sort, cause the one in my room wasn't gonna cut it. And apparently they don't sell blankets, so I had to buy a duvet and duvet cover, but hey, I'm warm. (Btw, its really cold here).
Then on the way back to our hall, we stopped at a Tesco Express, which appears to be a mix between a Stewarts and a regular grocery store. It had a lot more than a Stewarts would have, but it clearly wasn't as big as a regular store. It was handy anyway, and isn't very far from our hall, which is nice.
Anyway, I know theres a lot here, and I won't be doing this for everyday, but as it was my first day here, I thought it might be nice to share it. :) More pictures coming tomorrow, I'm sure. Yay, orientation!
In the meantime, a few little random British-y pics that didn't have a true place in the blog:
Cobblestones!
Walkers??? Don't you mean Lay's?? And shouldn't they already be salted??
Litter!
LOL, yes-CLEARLY Lay's...and what the heck is 'Walkers'? Does that mean 'runners' or 'slackers' can't have them? what about 'couch potatoes'??
ReplyDeleteGlad you made it! I'm sure it will be fun, especially after you learn your way around. I have to know, is that a bus station or were there just random people sitting on the side of the road in your photo?
ReplyDeleteHaha no, that wasn't a bus stop (haven't tried that out yet). Those were the people I was travlelling with. We had stopped on a median to figure out where to go and I decided to snap a few pictures of our surroundings!
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