Scotland!

I'm finally here! In Glasgow, Scotland, and I have been here about a week.

I arrived last Sunday after leaving halfway through my own convention, Torucon. That was all I could think of, the week leading up to Torucon, that I would have to leave and my fellow leaders would have to tidy up after the con without me. But they did a fabulous job wrapping up and I hope everybody had a good time.

So, last Sunday, I left from Værnes airport at 6 pm and flew directly to London. Here my dad and I collected our luggage and crossed half of Gatwick to get to the terminal our British Airways flight was leaving from. I'm glad we had about two hours at Gatwick to find our way and eat, because half the time I had no idea where we were going. Next time I'm going home I will try to look for an alternative that doesn't involve changing flight companies halfway through the journey.

British Airways felt more like Shabby Airways on our 1h 20min flight to Glasgow. The seats were run down and uncomfortable, and everything with the exterior and interior felt 20 years old. But it got us up in the air and down again at Glasgow.

Arriving in Glasgow at about 11:30 pm we planned on taking a taxi, because we had no idea when and if an airport bus was leaving and if it would stop by our hotel. What we wasn't expecting was the taxi queue. There was no airport bus in sight and our whole flight seemed to have the same idea as us. We were a little late exiting the terminal, as we wanted to look at some brochures first. As a result we ended up at the back of the line. There was a bus arriving about ten minutes into our waiting in line, and about 5 people got on. The rest of us waited for taxis. And even though the taxies were coming and going in a steady stream we waited about 25 minutes for our turn.

We stayed at Devoncove hotel for the night and early monday morning we got up, ate our breakfast and went to the reception at Cairncross House. It was just down the street for the hotel. I got my key and checked out were I was supposed to live for the next year.

I live in a flat in Kelvinhaugh Street, just opposite of Cairncross house. The flat is on the top floor, the fourth floor I would say but I guess the correct way to say it here in the UK is third floor. I share the flat with four others. Two American girls had moved in a few days before me and two more girls moved in yesterday. I believe one is from the US and one is from Hungary. We have our own room and share a kitchen, small living room, a bathroom and a shower room.

My room, upon arrival. (Now, it's already really messy).

My wardrobe. There was a disappointing lack of shelves to put my clothes on, but a trip to IKEA fixed that.
There was a disappointing lack of Narnia too, and a trip to IKEA did certainly not fix that.

My living room and dining room table. 

My kitchen.

Over the last week I have been to information sessions about university life and everything I have to do. Enrolling in classes is not easy, as I can't just go online and sign up for the classes I want, like I'm used to. First I have to find a member of the staff of the subject area I'm taking, be it a tutor, lecturer, professor or class secretary, and get them to sign a form. This is to ensure that my subject area knows that I'm a visiting student and will need to finish my assignment by the end of my study period in Glasgow, or so I'm told. I find it all a cumbersome affair and I am still working on getting it right.

I have also been on a walking tour at the university and a bus tour in the city. I also went on a walking trip into town one morning. From my flat there is a 10-15 min walk to the university and a 25-30 min walk into town. Glasgow is beautiful, and so is the university. Have some pictures:

The University of Glasgow

Kelvingrove art gallery and museum

The art gallery and university is quite close

A church in town.

Another church

Lots of pretty stone buildings.

One of two Tardises I've seen so far.
Glasgow is quite enthusiastic about Doctor Who these days because of the 50th anniversary and the fact that the next Doctor is played by Peter Capaldi, who is from Glasgow.

The central station

Pretty building.

I walked past a shop and stopped dead when I saw this in the window.
Needless to say, I walked in. And bought some Dalek muffin forms. Guess I'll have to do some baking soon.

Over the last two days I have also visited Falkland, St. Andrews and Pitlochry. I will write about those visits quite soon.