Week 3 in Review

Tuesday, Jan 22

Logos & Lunch

Today was a nice day in the studio. I talked to my professor and showed him the logo I developed for my project and he really liked it! It's nice to have one piece figured out so I can base all the aspects off something so it's cohesive. Okkie and I also caught up with our Jewelry and Silversmithing friends, Anna, Lorna and Rebecca for lunch. It was nice see them and we somehow got talking about Christmas and Christmas traditions. The Irish and Canadian Christmases are about the same, a family gathering (sometimes somewhat forced) to celebrate the day. However the Dutch Christmas season is very different. Christmas Day is a low-key family gathering with the gift exchanging. Gifts are exchanged earlier in the season on December 5th when Sinterklaas comes. Boots are put by the fireplace for Sinterklass and his assistant Zwarte Piet. Families exchange homemade gifts with a poem (each member of the family is assigned another family member earlier in the year). Naughty children aren't given coal but are taken by Sinterklass to Spain in his sack (sign me up! free airfare!). It's fun to see how certain traditions from back home, like stockings by the fireplace might be descended from these traditions. 

DDD (Design Domain Disaster)

For Design Domain we were supposed to go as a group yesterday to our Design Domain site but some one was sick so we didn't go. Okkie and I hadn't heard anything about going today but we didn't want to get in trouble and not do our assignment. We looked up the location and it was a 50 minute walk from our studio. We thought about taking the bus but none of us really had any change and we had heard that we needed change for the fare. So we walked. After awhile dusk began and we decided we would just take pictures of our current location and hope it was close to where we were supposed to be. We didn't want to be in an unknown area after dark. So we began walking back. Okkie directed me to the nearest subway station and showed me her subway map and to make sure I knew my stop. She then made her way to her home in the West End. 

First Subway Ride

I took the subway from the West End and it was incredible. Tourbooks refer to it as "The Clockwork Orange", probably due to the orange color of the trains and how consistently they run. Locals refer to it as simply, "the Subway", none of the "Underground" foolishness of London! :P It's actually quite comical to me all the Subway restaurants (as in the American sub sandwich chain) and also the signs for the actual Subway. Honestly the actual Subway has better branding! I didn't have too much trouble finding the nearest West End station and I bought a multi-journey pass so I can just have it on hand when I need it. Fortunately the subway here is not very confusing. It runs in a circle and there is simply an inner and outer route. The Inner Circle runs counterclockwise and the Outer runs clockwise. I carefully chose the right one and listened carefully for my stop. It was so easy! Well that is until I got off at my stop. It was dark at that point and I had not yet been to the station during the day. I knew it was close to my school and house but I just didn't know which direction to go out of the station. I started walking and spotted Cineworld (the tallest movie theater in the world) which meant I was walking the right direction. Using my handy little map I found my way. I was very paranoid the entire time but I didn't have any issues. Once I was back safely in my room I looked up where we took our pictures today. We were still a while away from our site, probably 15 minutes at least. Looks like the only productive thing we got was exercise and I learned how to use the subway!

Wednesday, Jan 23

Fire Alarm

I've forgotten to mention every Wednesday morning at 8:45pm the fire alarm goes off in my building for a couple seconds. There seriously has to be a better way (and time!) to test a fire alarm. Fortunately Wednesday is one of the days I have to be in studio in the morning anyway.

Typo

I am seriously growing to hate Wednesday mornings. I love typography but this whole doing projects in 2 hours is crazy stressful. I always knew I worked at a methodical pace so this is definitely pushing me outside my comfort zone. Today my professor assigned us to design a book cover. Normally I would be ecstatic (dream job!) but we only had 2 hours to pull it off. 2 hours to design it and comp it! For you non-designers, designing something can take a long time by itself but then you also have to "comp" it or physically create in a client-presentation-worthy fashion. For the book cover this involved printing it out, cutting it to size, and mounting it on a piece of foam core board (which is also cut to the proper size). So I have no foam core and a ruler with only inches. Nice! Apparently one of the staff members has materials like foam core on hand that you can buy. So I didn't have to run out which was good. The foam core was too thick but I just designed my book with a bigger spine. I just didn't have time for anything else, so my edition has slightly more pages :P (maybe it's large print?) I printed my book cover but this printer does not work well and all the colors were wrong. Again no time. I cut everything out and put it together. It kills me to waste materials like foam core for a quick crap project like this. I saw at the crit a lot of my classmates used cardboard, which was smart and actually closer to the real thickness. We did the whole peers order projects from "best to worst" again. This time it turned out much better! Okkie and I were the top 2! I didn't expect that at all, particularly with all the issues I had. At the end my professor also critiqued us one by one. He had some helpful feedback, nothing that I felt wasn't undeserved. Then again it's also easy to get negative feedback when you spend such little time on a project.

Design Domain

We got to Design Domain and eventually it became clear that most of our group did not go. Only the people who said they'd go last Friday made it. That made me feel slightly better because I was concerned the rest went without telling me and Okkie. I think the tutors were a bit disappointed with our group so Okkie volunteered the information of our attempt to go. They were forgiving and said maybe we could give it another go another day. We definitely will…once we have bus fare!

Thursday, Jan 24

FoCi Lecture

Another FoCi lecture….blah boring. It was about archiving which could be really interesting to a history buff like me but honestly they just drain the life out of it. It was mostly common sense about archives and protocol about using them. Honestly for the exchange students it's still kind of relevant because we're new here but this is for all of Year 3. Shouldn't they know this already?! Only good think about FoCi is I get to see a lot of my other exchange friends from different courses.

Sunny Day Wanderings

It was so nice out today I just couldn't stay inside all day and let it go to waste! I had walked by this shoe store a few times and seen some boots in the window I wanted to get a closer look at. So I figured why not today? They had been on sale so I was also worried about the sale being over. Turned out they didn't really suit me but I wandered around a bit. Honestly it was just nice to be out. I've been cooped up in my room working on projects lately so it was good to get out. Particularly since it was sunny! Definitely nicer than home currently!

Bible Study

Had my 2nd week of bible study tonight. Dinner was Chicken Curry served with Rice and Naan. So tasty! I'm still getting used to eating spicy food (though I am sure this was very mild!). Bible Study was good. I was proud of myself that I remembered everyone's names! We continued in Philippians but just focused 1:1-11 in-depth. 

Some highlights to our discussion were:

1. Nothing "religious" that we do is worth anything unless it is done out of love for Christ and His Church
2. Paul's prayer for the Philippians focuses on the future (Christ's Return) and the big picture. He manages to focus on those things rather than immediate events and the details of life. Definitely a challenge, although we were sure to mention that focusing on the immediate or details is not bad in anyway, it's just what comes to mind the easiest.

Some views from today's walk.....

My school on the left and a local church belltower on the right.

A part of Sauchiehall Street

A Club + An Art Museum

Friday, Jan 18

During the day I just work in the studio briefly and talked to my tutor about my project. Then I made my way back to my room. Okkie had mentioned all of our exchange friends might be getting together for dinner. That ended up getting cancelled but we decide we'd all just eat on our own and meet up at our friend Anna's flat. So around 8 we all met up there. We hung out for awhile with great conversation and a bit of cider and wine. Again I just had a pathetic half glass of pear cider. Haha, I don't think my friends could mind too much, it just means more for them! :) At first I thought the plan was to migrate to a pub but eventually the plan was that Adrienne's flatmates were going to show us around to a local club. Now, I don't think I own anything "club-worthy" per se but I was literally in a knit sweater and a scarf. But no one else was changing so I just rolled with it. I was so woefully unprepared. I brought my giant camera and had it shoved in my purse. We arrived at "Bamboo" and checked our coats. We got there around 11pm and it was dead, only a few other clusters of friends. My friends got some drinks and we found a place to settle. We tried to grab a table but they were "reserved", you had to pay to sit. Anna got a vodka lemonade and let me try it. It was pretty tasty and she treated me to one when she ordered herself another. By that point we had claimed our corner of the dance floor and more people had arrived. We were having a good time but unfortunately we were cornered between the bar, DJ and bathrooms so literally everyone and their mother was crossing through our little dancing circle. We suffered through it for awhile but eventually we got fed up and moved to the other room. Again we staked our claim by the DJ but this area was out of everyone's direct path. I was able to set my giant purse down in the corner by the DJ booth and actually enjoy myself (rather than worrying about knocking people with it!). It was a really nice time despite how unprepared for it I was. I used to love high school dances just for the opportunity to dress up and dance with my friends and this kind of filled that hole in my life. The floor of the club cracked me up. By the end of the night it collected just more and more splashes of different drinks. It was a good time but we had finally had enough and after a favorite song or two we made our way back to our respective homes. It was a good night.

Photo Cred: Rebecca Maddock

  Photo Cred: Kennedy Dickerson

  Photo Cred: Rebecca Maddock

Adrienne, Anna, Me, Rebecca, Kennedy, Lorna, Okkie & Adrienne's flatmate, Ruby 

Photo Cred: Kennedy Dickerson

Sat, Jan 19

I had been invited by some of the people in my house to go to an art museum with them. So we set out early this morning for the Burrell Collection. We took the train from Glasgow Central. It was so beautiful and I was such a tourist taking pictures of a train station. The trains were so nice and clean and affordable. The US seriously needs to get on the ball with this public transit stuff….particularly Philly : /. Anyway the museum is just a short train ride out of the city. It is still considered a museum of Glasgow so it's free! :D The collection was owned by a Glaswegian shipping magnate named Sir William Burrell. He spend much of his live collecting great works of art with his large fortune and donated it to the city of Glasgow in 1944. The museum is situated in Pollock Country Park which is just beautiful walking through the woods until we reached the building itself. The collection is diverse having ancient works from Egypt, Rome and Greece as well as more contemporary works by the likes of Rodin, Degas and Cézanne. The collection's copy of Rodin's "Thinker" is significantly smaller than Philadelphia Museum of Art's. I was able to assure my friends that it really is as big as they thought, this was just a smaller copy :) It was great to go to an art museum with art students, most of them were armed with sketchbooks and I was able to wander around pretty leisurely and see the entire museum.  I was supposed to leave early to go back to school to get a tour of the school's famous Mackintosh building but I just couldn't tear myself away. I think I'll just do that tour when my family comes to visit and they will have to be patient with me :) After we were done exploring the museum we had some lunch in the museum cafeteria. We took our time before finally deciding to head back and brave the cold outside. On our way back we got to see some Highland cattle. A very authentic thing to see in the Scottish countryside :) We made our way back to our house and we all went our separate ways. Cat had mentioned something about going to see Les Mis tonight so later I met her and Michael in the front hall and we went to the Glasgow Film Theatre just a few blocks away. It's this nice small little theater and it's actually where my FoCI lectures take place. It was bizarre when we got there and bought our tickets we had to choose which seats we wanted like going to a show. It got stranger when we went into the theater and it was the exact one I have FoCI in! I was definitely more excited to see the movie than my typical lectures there. I had actually seen Les Mis with my family before I left but it was so good I didn't mind seeing it again! It even made me cry again….even with a few tears it was a great end to a great day.

Sun, Jan 20

Nothing too exciting today other than church. This morning we focused on Jeremiah 10, the Living & True God, and the threat of idolatry. Idolatry is a lot more seductive and convincing because they're often good things but we just let them be our focus rather than God. Our God is not too great to care but he's too great to fail. He's made promises he cannot and will not break. The preacher mentioned a quote by C.S. Lewis, "Severe mercy, when they must turn to the One they rejected and who not share them with idols." Overall the sermon was a really good reminder.

In the evening the focus was 2 Corinthians 1:12-2:11. That passage is basically Paul defending his ministry and rebuking the actions of the Corinthians. The preacher pointed out that good Christian leaders may have to call out their congregation and defend their own reputations (not for their personal sake but for Christ's). It proves the true love they have for their church and their commitment to them, definitely an interesting thought. 

Week 2 in Review

Monday, Jan 14

First Crit (well sorta)

We had our first day of our typography class today (usually on Wednesdays but last week's was cancelled because the tutor was sick). We were paired up with another of our classmates and had to develop a business card and letterhead for them. All within about a 2 hour period. Very challenging to get to know a "client" and design something in such a short time. I was relatively pleased with what I came up with. One of the friends of my partner looked at my work and said it suited her really well. I took that as a great compliment. We all brought our work and then the class had to put the projects in order from best to worst on different qualities (reliable, innovative, overall success, etc). The professor/tutor really had no input, it was all the class judging their peers. It didn't go that well for Okkie and I, the two exchanges students. I can't say I blame them, it's easier to be critical to someone you don't really know than to upset a dear friend! I'm not too worried about it, it was such a quick project that I really have no emotional attachment to it.

Laundry? Nope. 

Running low on long sleeved shirts so I tried to do laundry this afternoon. Our house only has one washer & dryer for about 30 of us. It always seems to be busy. Things tend to be left when they're done and I'm not sure what the policy is with removing other people's stuff. I don't want to upset anyone so I guess I'll just wait until tomorrow when it's LITERALLY my last!

Tuesday, Jan 15

First Crumpet!

Bought some crumpets at the store last week! Tried my first one. They're a bit strange, sort of spongy but they have the taste of an English muffin. Now if only I could learn to drink tea….

Early Start -> Laundry & Phone Top-up

I woke up early today so I could get my laundry in (there were still clothes in there but I was desperate now). It took me some time to figure out how to use the washer and dryer but I got the general hang of it. The dryer doesn't seem to truly dry anything, it just gets them damp, even after 2 cycles so I gave up and just hung everything around my room. I also finally got my pay-as-you-go phone "topped-up". After no luck with doing it online or with a rep over the phone, I had to go to a convenience store and buy a voucher with a PIN code. Hey it finally worked so I'm happy.

Short Studio Visit (talk with tutor + wireless fiasco/fix)

After getting my necessary errands and chores done around my house, I finally got to studio. I arrived and turned on my laptop but then was having issues with my wireless internet. It's very frustrating because I could have gotten my work done just as easily in my room. I don't know how I fixed it but it eventually worked. Later I was able to have a nice chat with my tutor. He's very helpful and I seem to be on the right track in regards to my project so that's a comfort.

First Cooking Disaster

Had my first cooking disaster! I was trying to make some chicken tenders and potato smiles and I tried to listen to the box by putting the track on the upper shelf of the oven. Bad idea! When I came back to check it someone had shut the oven off and opened the oven door to let the smoke out. Poor little smiles….next batch was done on the lower shelf with a lot more success. Nice and tasty!

Ouch! Poor smiles!

Wednesday, Jan 16

Type Presentations

2nd day of Typo this week! Fortunately this one was better. We were just put into groups and made a presentation based on some typography concepts like kerning, spacing, tracking, leading and the like. A much more manageable assignment in 2 hours that's for sure! One of the guys in my group also showed us this awesome website! http://type.method.ac/ Well awesome for type nerds like me. Kerning is the space between the letters, it's more an art than a science. There's no formula for kerning and putting equal space between the letters does not work. It's all about visual weight.

Design Domain Project

After a rushed lunch, we ran to our next meeting for the day. We were introduced to Design Domain. It is an additional group project we will be doing for our design studio. We were split into groups and each group was given a neighborhood in Glasgow. We were instructed to go and visit and just experience the place. Take pictures and record our experiences and how we feel while we're there. This is the first step of the project but it seems like we will also get to share our experiences with a community group from the area. It's not entirely clear to me what we're doing beyond that. I'm kind of looking forward to this project because I did something in Philly last semester. It's a great way to get to know an area of the city I might not otherwise see. After our large class meeting we broke into our small visiting groups. We exchanged contact information and made plans to have people go Friday and Monday, depending on what was more convenient for you. Both me and Okkie are in the group to go Monday. This should be an interesting project, I'm looking forward to exploring another part of Glasgow. 

Thursday, Jan 17

FoCI Lecture

The lectures today were slightly better. First one was really enjoyable. The artist/lecturer worked on a project were she worked with local people all over Scotland and looked through their family photos with them. They would find a photo to use and then the owner of the photo would take her to where it was taken. The old picture was than edited to overlay the contemporary photo. It takes a look at how the scenery changes over time. I've seen something like this before and just love it so it was really good to hear her talk. 

© Nicky Bird

From the project, "Beneath the Surface/Hidden Place"

The next lecture was more fashion-oriented. I felt like it was good but a little lost on me since fashion's not really a key interest of mine. This lecturer looked at loved objects as a way to connect with a life and stories, particularly items in a wardrobe.

FoCI Workshop

Had my first FoCI workshop which is basically class time with a tutor to discuss your research. I have not yet heard anything about how we choose our topic so when I was told to "mind-map" I was at a loss. It has to relate to our major because it's actually intended to be the start of the local student's dissertation. Hopefully I'll figure something out.

First Bible Study

Thursday nights are when the church I attend hosts their international student bible study. We have dinner first and tonight was some sort of latin dish with beans served over rice. I'm not entirely sure what it was. All I know is I don't really like beans, that fact has been confirmed. But overall it was fine. After dinner we sang a few worship songs all together. When it was time to split into small groups, I was a bit disappointed that I was not in the same group as my new friends Cat & Sheryll. But my group was really nice and it's a nice opportunity to meet new people. For the next few weeks we will be study the book of Philippians. Tonight we literally went over the whole book. It was a little overwhelming but it was good to see how all the chapters interact. We saw a lot of repeating phrases/themes like partnership, joy, and imprisonment repeated through the book. We even managed to summarize the book in a sentence, "Stand firm in the Gospel together, despite opposition, because it will lead you to joy." Overall a good night and looking forward to getting to know everyone more. Oh and on a more humorous note I was told my group leader's name was Paul. So when I found him I double-checked I was in the right place and asked, "Hi are you Paul?". He corrected me and said, "I'm Paul actually." [Scroll over pink word "paul" to on the left to hear the "proper" pronunciation] He then proceeded to say he was used to correcting his American cousins. Haha I was very embarrassed that's for sure! 

Church + Curry!

[Feb 2 2013: Sorry for the delay! Finally back in action! Lots of projects hit me at once but I have it under control now. I wrote little notes of what happened each day, so all the highlights will be covered. Expect a lot of posts in the next few days! :) ]

Sunday Jan 13

I had been out late the night before with my exchange friends and I had not heard from the girls I was going to church before I went to bed. So I left my phone on in hopes of being woken up by a call or text with a time to leave. I did wake up to a call but unfortunately it was one saying it was time to leave! So I got ready in a hurry and met Cat & Sheryll downstairs by the front door. At church the sermon was on Daniel 3, the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego being thrown into the fiery furnace. Or for VeggieTale fans…Rack, Shack and Benny :) Two key thoughts that particularly stuck out to me during the sermon were: The 3 mens' deep faith and believers in bad times. I was impressed with the mens' conviction, they basically said, "Our God has the POWER to save us, no doubt about it. But we don't pretend to know his will." They know God is powerful but they admit that they aren't privy to his plans, overall or even for their own lives. Perhaps even more relevant is the reminder that God doesn't often save believers from the bad times, he finds us in the midst of it and stays with us. The church I've found here is great, good sense of community and really strong teaching. As with anywhere things are a little different. I have new songs to learn and I also have to restrain myself from standing as soon as the next song is announced. Apparently here you let the musicians begin and then get up all together when it's time to sing! Something to get used to.

Another thing to get used to is 2 services on every Sunday. Having multiple services isn't unusual but having different sermons at each is! So apparently you go to both since they're entirely different. I was so exhausted that I didn't do much of anything between the two services. I just took a nap. Then it was time for church again! The sermon was on Ruth, which I love particularly because my church back in Philly is also doing a series on it right now! The preacher took a really interesting look at it. He focused actually more on Naomi, Ruth's mother-in-law, than Ruth herself. Definitely not a way I've looked at the book before. The speaker noted that Naomi is never forgotten by God and that every chapter of the book holds a provision for her. She is very bitter of her circumstances, she's not happy with God but she never turns away from him. Instead when tragedy strikes her family in a foreign land she actually returns to the land of God's people. She doesn't try to run away. God just can't let go, he's preoccupied with Naomi. One important message near the closing was that none of us have enough wisdom to say "God doesn't know what he's doing". We might not understand his plan but we're not really in the position to question it!

After Church we were very hungry! Cat and Sheryll had invited me to have thai curry with them for dinner. I had never had curry before but I was willing to give it a try. We all helped cook it and I learned how to cut a pepper! Haha my horizons are expanding so rapidly! The curry was peanut butter-based and had peppers, broccoli, potatoes, peanuts and chicken served over rice. It was so tasty! I can't really handle spicy foods so Cat didn't put any additional spices in. She and Sheryll couldn't even taste it but I had to take a sip of water every other bite! Lol guess I'm a lightweight. My spicy food tolerance is a work in process. 

Sightseeing + Social Outings

Saturday Jan 12

Today, at 1pm all the exchange students had a guided bus tour through Glasgow. So I woke up late and made my way to the meeting place when it was time. It turned out to be one of those classic red "Hop on, Hop Off" double deckers you see in a lot of major cities. There would be no denying we were tourists today!

Photo Courtesy of Kennedy Dickerson, because I apparently did not take one!

Just like a little kid I raced to the top deck, after all who wants to sit on the bottom of a double decker bus?! More practically, you could say I chose it for a better vantage point for pictures. Less practically, I sat in the uncovered portion (again for the sake of the pictures). It was bitterly cold! Between sitting still and being on top of a large moving vehicle, I was VERY numb by the end of the 3 hour tour. However, I did get PLENTY of good pictures for all my trouble. The tour was really nice because we were able to get a general overview of the city in the that amount of time. Now I have an idea of some places in town that I have to go see in more depth. I took so many pictures so I think I will just upload them to an album on Facebook for your viewing pleasure!

Those brave enough to face the cold!

After the tour, we were quite frozen. Some friends who live in West End had invited us over later so those of us who live by the school had some time to kill. We decided to stop in a cafe to warm up. My hot chocolate was delicious! It was just what I needed to warm up. After lingering in the cafe, we decided to head back to our respective dorms to bundle up a bit more before our walk to the West End. After meeting back up we shopped in a grocery store to grab some snacks and drinks. I bought some biscuits (hard cookies) and some berry cider I'd been thinking of trying. Then we made our way to West End. We didn't have a whole lot of trouble but I was extremely grateful that one of our friends had a iPhone and was mapping our route. I think it would have been a lot more problematic if she hadn't! But we found it and that's all that matters! (plus we were all bundled up so we weren't even cold!) 

One of our friends let us in and led us to their flat. It seems that everyone has their individual room with a bathroom and they have a room that serves as a shared kitchen and lounge. When we arrived in the lounge we were pleasantly surprised that they had cooked mac & cheese for dinner! It was so tasty and they had cooked plenty. It was so great! We sat and talked as we finished eating and one way or another started listening to nostalgic 90s music. Haha it was a great time, a lot of TLC, Destiny's Child and Justin Timberlake. At some point the snacks and drinks got broken into. Apparently I made some good purchases. The biscuits were tasty and the cider turned out to be the first alcoholic drink I actually liked. Still, I'm not used to my beverages having a kick so I took it slow. I was the only one who ended up drinking it and even with the several hours we spent I didn't even finish the neck of the bottle. At least I know I like some "adult" beverage, but honestly I still prefer water! Haha I guess I'll always be a "waterdrinker" as my friend Lauren calls me. 

The girls who were hosting us had actually been invited to a nearby pub to celebrate an acquaintance's birthday and invited us to come along. So our party moved down the street to Brew Dog pub. Apparently they brew their own beer. We managed to grab a table and settled in. I didn't bother getting anything since I had a whole bottle of something I actually liked back at my friends' flat. We just sat around and enjoyed the atmosphere. That's what I love most about these pubs, the social atmosphere. It's really not about the alcohol. Half of our group wasn't drinking and it didn't matter. The guys next to us were playing Jenga and whenever the tower fell it gave the rest of us heart attacks. Haha it's the little things! It was a good evening but last call was midnight so at that point we said our goodnights and those of us who lived closer to school walked back through the brisk Scottish night. :)

Me, Anna and Kennedy at Brew Dog

Okkie, Adrienne & Rebecca

Photo Credit: Kennedy Dickerson

Unfortunately we're missing Lorna in the photos but she was also with us!

New International Friends

Friday Jan 11 - Evening

We actually finished shopping just in time to drop our purchases off in my room and head over to the Mackintosh building. There we mingled with all the other international students. We're from all over. I met people from Ireland, Denmark, Canada and the US directly. That's only a handful out of 40 though, so I can only imagine all the countries represented. There were just light snacks and drinks out when we arrived and the event ran from 5-7. So we were a bit panicked because all of us were starving. The drinks were both soft and alcoholic, so I seized another opportunity to try an alcoholic drink (that I probably wouldn't like) for free. I tried a ginger beer. Nope no good. All of us were relieved when pizza came for dinner, even though it was Dominos :P Afterall, students like nothing better than free food! Overall the event was great, it was really nice to get to know some of the other exchange students.  The reception was on the top floor of the Mackintosh building so we had a great view of the city.

As the reception began to wind down we were given vouchers for a free drink at the Student Union. We got there and it's essentially a pub. The idea of them serving alcoholic drinks at the reception was weird but now my school owns a bar?! I don't know if I'll ever get over that surreal feeling. We had a rather large group of exchange students and we managed to find a place in the back for us all to sit together. Now we could make use of our voucher for a free soft drink, free beer, or free glass of wine. I've been wanting to try a hard cider since I'm pretty sure I won't like any of the beers, but that wasn't an option. I don't drink soda and I've had sips of people's wine at home and never liked it. So I gave the free beer a try. Turns out that with the vouchers they don't give you any choice in which beer (not that I know the difference) and with wine you merely get to choose red or white. So Stella Artois it was. I took my first sip....yeah beer is simply not for me. It was awful! I don't know how anyone willing drinks a bottle of the stuff! *sigh* We had some extra vouchers so my new friends encouraged me to use another to try something else. I used another voucher to try a glass of white wine (my dad drinks red and I've never liked my sips of his). Didn't like that either. None of my drinks went to waste though, promise! They were donated to the rest of the table.

Well at least the label is pretty! So I had to document that.

We hung out in "The Art School" for a few hours enjoying each other's company and getting to know each other better. A few times I found myself caught in the middle of a conversation in Danish. They apologized but I couldn't begrudge them. I mean I can't imagine spending a few months speaking something other than my native language. It's quite impressive, so I was more than willing to give them a chance to talk to one another. All of us are just so relieved to have friends! Particularly ones who are in the same boat as us with being so far from home and familiar surroundings. Unfortunately, most are only here for Term 2 rather than Term 2 & 3 like me. But we'll just make the most of the time we have. Fortunately, I've met some great people in my house too who are full-time students here. All the Americans also seem to be here for both terms too. 

Photo Credit: Kennedy Dickerson (fellow Philadelphian from UArts!)

Unfortunately, 3 including myself missed the group photo because we were downstairs exploring the live band playing! Oh Glasgow, you are exactly the answer to my love of live music! Definitely looking forward to spending a term in the company of such lovely people!

Meeting Tutor + Shopping

Friday Jan 11 - Day

My Dutch friend and I are exchange students in the 3rd Year Graphic Design program. Our tutor had  invited us to attend a 4th Year Presentation today to get us more familiar with the program here. After, we both also hoped to speak with him about what our projects would be and what our schedule would be. We both arrived at the presentation and were introduced to everyone. The 3rd & 4th Years share a studio so even though we're not technically in the same class we will be seeing these folks around. The presentation was essentially an informal crit. The 4th Years have some sort of show coming up so they were showing their progress on that project in particular. Everyone has very different projects and only some are working on the same brief. As was explained in my meeting after, every term there are new project briefs. They write new ones every year and the students choose which briefs to work on. Looking at this term's schedule we will be doing 2 projects. However, when it is time for a new project there will be fresh briefs as well. They go through a lot of project briefs here that's for sure. It's kind of nice to think the professors always need to be thinking of new/better projects. It's also nice that every student will leave school with a very different portfolio, between being in a different year and answering different briefs. Hearing about all the different projects was very interesting. They're really innovative, some are even based on designing for the future and future technology. It was definitely great to sit in on.

After the presentation, my friend and I talked to our tutor and coordinated meeting after lunch. Fortunately, we didn't have to go far because the school has a real nice eatery downstairs. Lots of familiar burger & fries type choices at a good price. Got myself a tasty chicken sandwich with chips (french fries). Then we went back upstairs to meet with our tutor. He explained our 3 briefs and told us we only needed to choose one. We can really only choose from 2 because one requires the letterpress workshop. He said he's already a bit crowded in there but this same brief will be offered for project 2 if we're interested. I didn't even look at the brief and I'm interested! I definitely want to take advantage of the fact that there is a letterpress here! He went over our schedule (we don't have a crit until next Friday Jan 18) and gave us a quick tour. The school also has it's own textile printer that we have access to. It's not screenprinting, it's essentially a printer that prints your design straight on the fabric. I also have to find an excuse to use this machine :)

After this my friend and I walked back to where I live and the rest of the school buildings are located. The international office is holding a reception for all the international students tonight so she'll hang out in this part of town for that. We did a bit of necessary shopping. Now that we finally have a studio desk and our assignments, we needed some school and design supplies. I looked up the local art store and we went to buy some sketchbooks we could start working in. Then we needed school/office supplies. She wanted to go to a place called "Tiger". I had walked by it a few times and never been inside. I admired well-designed objects through the front window but avoided going in, thinking it would be expensive. Instead we go in and I am pleasantly surprised that they have EVERYTHING and it's affordable  Best of all it's gorgeous Scandinavian design, my favorite! I suppose Tiger can be compared to Ikea in that way, great design made affordable. However instead of furniture, Tiger specializes in the smaller trinkets that fill a home. It was awesome and I can tell I'm going to do as much shopping in there as possible. I tried to restraint myself so I just grabbed scissors, a small stapler, a map of Europe and some snacks. I found some rice cakes with a layer of chocolate when my friend pointed out some wafer-looking things called Dutch Waffles. I tried one and OH MY GOSH! Where have these things been all my life?!? I see an addiction in the making. Between stroopwafel and Tiger itself....oh my.

My 2nd souvenir: a map which I will mark with all the places I go!

The delightful Stroopwafels (I don't have any at this point so Wikipedia to the rescue!)

First Week in Review

My first week was pretty uneventful so I'm just going to do a quick summary of the highlights of each day. This might be how I do all "week" posts in the future. We'll see.

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Monday

Orientation

So my first "orientation" activity was Enrollment. I still didn't have a class schedule at this point so I figured that's when I'd get this all figured out. Nope, not at all. Just paperwork to confirm our place at Glasgow School of Art. Not too long after there was a general "International Welcome". The faculty here seem really great and very lively. Philly even got a shout-out! Not for anything good unfortunately....mostly for being dangerous : /. Well, better to be notorious than not known at all? Next was Library Induction which was not nearly as formal as it sounds. Simply a quick overview of the services the school library offers.

Tuesday

Nancy Drew and the Case of the Missing Tutor

At 10am I was supposed to go to the satellite campus and meet my tutor (advisor). I live conveniently near most of the school buildings but unfortunately the new design building is under construction on main campus. So the temporary quarters for the design school is 15 minutes away (reminiscent of the walk between PhilaU Main Campus and Falls Center. Nicer walk though!). I actually woke early to take the shuttle since I wasn't familiar with this area of the city. I got on the shuttle at 9:15 and didn't arrive until 9:45 due to other stops. So I will definitely be walking when it's a nice day and still light out. So I found my proper department and found the staff office. My tutor was not in yet so I was led to the studio and told I could wait there. Around 10am another exchange student came. She's from the Netherlands and was also meeting the tutor at the same time. We chatted extensively and waited 1.5 hours for the tutor to arrive. Finally we decided to leave. We exchanged numbers and emails hoping to get the issue sorted out soon. When I got back to my room I sent an email to my contact in the International Office here at GSA. She replied to say she'd look into it. Shortly after she forwarded an email from our tutor, he had called out sick and she apologized saying she must have read her email in the wrong order. Oh well. As of Tuesday....still no indication of what I will be doing school-wise here.

Church Plans

At some point church came up on our walk back from the pub Sunday night. Someone in our party was going to go to church at 9pm but unfortunately we were out too late and they missed it. I mentioned I was hoping to find a church here to the people I was walking with and they mentioned the names of the people in the house that go. Well today during dinnertime I bumped into one of them and she invited me to come with her Sunday. Sounds like they might also have a bible study. Yay!

Movie Night

The girl who invited me to church (also one of the few actual Scots I've met directly) proceeded to invite me to watch a movie with her and a couple of other housemates in her room. Later that evening I descended to the downstairs that I didn't even know existed (it feels like our house just consists of stairs, lots of stairs). The 4 other girls and I all watched "Big Fish". Andrew is actually the one who introduced it to me and it's my favorite Tim Burton movie because it's strange, but not in his dark usual way. Another really nice time with the people of my house.

Wednesday

Wrong FoCI lecture
While I'm here I only have 2 courses, Design and a research course called "Forum for Critical Inquiry" that all of Year 3 takes. Every year has their own FoCI course. In orientation they went over both Year 2 & 3's topics since the 40 exchange students are spread out across those two years. The Year 2 FoCI sounded interesting but Year 3 just sounded like research methods....very dull. Well Wednesday morning, a few exchange students and I all bumped into each other at the theater where the initial briefing for FoCI is supposed to take place. It gets started and it's actually a full lecture today based on "Modernity in the City". It was really fascinating. Rosters were being passed around while we listened and when I got it, all the pages said Year 1 across the top. My name was no where to be found. After the lecture wrapped up we talked to the lecturer and she apologized and said ours was actually TOMORROW morning. *sigh* Well at least it was a good lecture. It's just that now I know that Year 1 AND 2 are going to be doing more interesting things than me....darn.

The STILL Missing Tutors
After attending the wrong lecture, my Dutch friend and I went to the International Office to clarify some things. There are no signs anywhere but with some directions we confirmed that the random door next to the theater was it. Up a couple flights of stairs looking for some sign of GSA, we found the office. Our contact there apologized for the wrong date and suggested we go to our department and see if we can meet one of the other faculty members since our tutor was still sick. When we got down there, none of the Communication Design staff were in. We talked a bit to the other students and they gave us the project briefs but suggested waiting to speak to our tutor before starting. We got desk space for each of us then left. 

The West End

My Dutch friend lives in the West End of Glasgow, closer to the satellite campus than the rest of school. She decided to show me around down there since we really had nothing else better to do. First we walked through the Kelvingrove Park. I have heard Glasgow has a good amount of green space but  the area I live in doesn't have a lot (at least not that I've found). Even though it's typically wet, overcast and cold here, I really loved walking through the park. Something wonderful about those open greenspaces. :)

 

 No camera so just iPod pictures!

Then we went into the Kelvingrove Art Galley and Museum. Apparently all the museums in Glasgow are free so that's very cool. We just wondered around the ground floor, not being overly careful we saw everything. I definitely want to come back. Though it's kind of funny the way the exhibits go. We walked from Native Wildlife to Extinct Animals/Dinosaurs to Ancient Egypt to a City of Glasgow exhibit. Kind of eclectic but it was still really nice. Then we decided we should probably go back home before it got dark. My friend told me there was a bus stop nearby and also the Subway, but I figured I'd just walk. I haven't been on public transit yet and I knew I would be able to find my way back home walking. I definitely underestimated the walk. It was quite a ways but I finally made my way back. I must figure out public transit soon if I want to explore more areas of the city!

Thursday
Thursday nothing too exciting happened, the only highlights were:

RIGHT FoCI Lecture
I attended the right FoCI lecture. It was so boring! Apparently we get to choose our own topics to research though, so maybe that will be good? It doesn't help it's in the morning either. Best part was chatting with the other international students at the end.

Grocery Shopping
Again this just proves how bland my day was. I went grocery shopping again, got there and did all my shopping. I was ready to pay when I realized I forgot my wallet. I put back all the chilled items and went back to my house. Fortunately it's only 10 minutes there and back. I left my other things in my basket out of the way on the floor but they are apparently very efficient because it was gone when I came back. So I re-shopped and went on my way.

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So not a whole lot of things have gone right this week but despite all that I have really fallen in love with Glasgow. Hopefully by next week I'll have everything (school-wise) figured out.

First Night Out

Sunday, I had expected a quiet night in, maybe finish unpacking and such. Then I got a knock on my door. One of the girls I met the day before asked if I'd like to come along to George Square (which at the time, I had no idea what that was). They were leaving in 5 minutes or so, so I got ready and met them in the entrance hall of our house. After waiting for the final few members of our party, we stepped out into the night. My housemates were very friendly and really seemed to enjoy the role of playing "tour guide" to me and the other new American student.

George Square turned out to be this public square which is currently filled with Christmas festivities! There is a giant swing ride and ice skating rink and it is all done up with lots of lights. Here's some pics from Google since I did not have my camera with me!

© Copyright Thomas Nugent

(Source: scottishlimos.blogspot.co.uk)

After riding the swing ride, we started walking back towards our house and went to an Irish pub called Waxy O'Connors. It was insane. My guides were quick to say this was not your average pub. If Disney World had a bar (particularly somewhere near Splash Mountain), it would look like this. It was huge and themed. We sat in the Church bar, so there was a giant set of organ pipes and stain glass. However curiously, themes also overlapped. There was also tree roots coming out of the ceiling to offer an underground vibe. It was very bizarre but also very awesome.

(Both images source: www.waxyoconnors.co.uk)

Hmmm not sure if it was this organ. Perhaps another?

I started my trip slow and just had my usual: an ice water. :) However I did also order a Apple Crumble, it was a little bland but it wasn't bad. Overall it was a great night just talking and getting to know each other. Most fun were our conversations about the differences between the UK and US. After hanging out at Waxy's for a few hours we came back to our house and hung out in the hallway some more. Definitely a good night and a good way to start my trip. Great first pub experience...even though I didn't drink. :P

First Full Day

Sunday (Jan 6) was my first full day in Glasgow. I took my time getting up but decided I better get out and explore, since it seemed to get dark so early the day before. Most importantly I needed to find Primark, a store in which I would find sheets (particularly cheap ones that can be left behind). So I grabbed my camera thinking I'd sightsee on the way. I had tried to find Primark the night before with Google map directions and it hadn't worked out so well. So I was prepared to go on an adventure! Armed with my camera and my directions, out I went.

The Mackintosh Building (the original building built for the Glasgow School of Art by Charles Rennie Mackintosh) was on my way so I geeked out and took a couple pictures!

Sadly, there is a construction site across the street so I have no hopes I getting a proper picture of the front facade. Unless I want to risk standing in the street.....which I might...

So after admiring the Mackintosh building I kept walking straight ahead, keeping an eye out for the street I needed. I kept walking until I came square with a busy street and couldn't walk straight ahead any longer. I didn't want to lose my sense of direction and get lost so I made my way back to a more familiar area and jumped one street over to Sauchiehall Street. Pronounced "Sucky-hall", this street is the one I visited to go grocery shopping and is a key shopping district in Glasgow. It is also conveniently one street over from where I live. :) Primark was supposed to be somewhere along it so I continued to walk down the street. I found that in some parts it even became a pedestrian only street.

A view of Sauchiehall Street.

 I even found the Willow Tearooms which I had seen on the Google map when looking up Primark. I will definitely return and go into the Tearoom, which is another one of Mackintosh's designs. For now I just settled for appreciating the facade.

The tearoom window above, and the jeweler on the ground floor.

Mmmm "Baked Potato filled with Haggis". Classic. Lol maybe one day. I will definitely be eating there at some point, that's for sure! I still have to see the inside!

At this point I was getting frustrated, I really couldn't find this store. I was walking up and down Sauchiehall Street and cutting down side streets to make sure I didn't miss it. Finally I came up next to a T-Mobile ("Tee-moe-bile" rather than "Tee-moe-bull" here!). This was something else that was near Primark on the map. So I walked by the T-Mobile store and closely scanned the neighboring stores. And there it was. I had legitimately walked by it at least once. If anything can be said for this trip and finding the things I need….let's just stay I'm getting A LOT of exercise! 

Primark turned out to be nice and affordable. It's similar to a Kohl's, specializing in clothes and some home goods. I also don't understand how all European "discount" clothes (i.e. Primark, H&M, etc) retailers still manage to look like department stores. Nothing like shopping in a Walmart or even Target, that's for sure. After Primark, I decided to check out the other grocery store, Farmfoods. It specializes in frozen foods and some fresh products, all much cheaper than the Tesco. After grabbing some more groceries I went back to my house and expected a quiet evening in.

My first souvenir! 

For all my architecture-y friends (and people I confused when explaining my house),
here's a virtual walk-through. 

Miscellaneous sights seen around town today.

A lot of that candy was NOT American! FALSE ADVERTISING! 

Ridiculously expensive and nothing to tempt me really because there were no Reese's :(. Also disappointed that there was no peanut butter when there was fluff in the window display. What else do you eat it with?!?