Updating while I still have internet.

So, we had internet for a few hours the other day, and then it was turned off again. Finally we have the internet back and we're hoping it stays on for at least a few hours this time.

On Monday, I had my art history lecture and then, later that night, Laura and I walked to Iceland (our cheap grocery store down the hill from our flat) and bought ingredients for omelets. We made the best omelets. Laura made hers with fresh tomatoes, cheese, and spinach. I made mine with onions, spinach, ham, cheese, and mushrooms. Yummmm.

On Tuesday, I woke up early for sculpture at the Glasgow School of Art at 9:30am. I really don't mind getting up for that class because I love it so much. I really wish I could have sculpture more than once a week. It's so relaxing and we get tea and chocolate. We "finished" our first sculptures on Tuesday and next week we make a new one with the same model. After our model, Elaine, leaves us next week we get a new model named Andrew. I brought my photography camera to sculpture with me because after class I wanted to finish my roll of film for developing. I ended up taking some great photos but I didn't finish the whole roll. I had art history again from 3-4pm and then at 5:20, Laura and I walked to the gym and went to a BoxFit class from 5:30-6:15. Our other friends, Laura, Lindsey, and Sarah were there as well, so we all had a great time punching and kicking around. It was a huge class in the gym and a great workout. (I'm sitting in my room now, a day later, unable to move my arms above my head very quickly without it hurting.) After the gym, we had another family dinner with some of the leftovers from our fajitas and some new ingredients. Sarah made chicken quesadillas and they were wonderful. I finished my roll of film at dinner, taking pictures of people and random things in the kitchen. I'm actually really excited to see them blown up.

My final sculpture...I never really finished the face.

Another view of my sculpture.

After dinner we decided to go to Oran Mor for drinks and dancing. They had a great DJ and we were dancing until around 1am. All of us had class in the morning, but each song kept getting better and we could not get ourselves to leave the club. Anyway, we finally got to bed around 2 or 2:30.

Today, we were woken up by the fire alarm going off in our flat. I thought we could sleep through it and not have to get out of bed, but after a few minutes we heard other people leaving the flat to go outside. It was 8am and my alarm was supposed to go off at 8:45, so I was very annoyed that the fire drill was at that time. After the drill, we went back up to the flat, slept until 9am, and then woke up to get ready for photography. I developed my film today and the photos, from what I can tell looking at them up against the light, look awesome. I'm so excited to make some prints. After photography, I walked to bagpiping and had my lesson with Glenn from 1-2pm. It went well, I finally bought my own practice chanter and I will be able to bring it home with me! For my next lesson I have to have the exercises down and be able to play a little tune. I plan on practicing every day until my lesson. The bagpipes are definitely not as easy as I thought they were going to be. The chanter looks like a recorder but it is a lot harder to play than the recorder I played in elementary school.

After bagpiping, I took the underground back to Hillhead, and now I'm back in my flat hanging out here for the night. We're thinking of taking it easy tonight and having a girls night. I bought some face masks and I have some nail polish, so we might do a movie and girly night tonight.

Tomorrow I don't have class until 3pm, but I will go to the gym in the morning and then maybe work on editing my Top Chef video some more.

Love and miss you all!

Love always,

Jess

First full week of classes and Newcastle.

The internet has not been working in our flat for almost a week now. It is getting a little ridiculous, but hopefully they will give it back to us soon. I called our RA (Resident Assistant), Ludmila, yesterday and she said that she would call the accommodations office today and try to figure it out.

My class schedule is:

Monday:

10-11am, Art History Tutorial

3-4pm, Art History Lecture

Tuesday:

9:30-12:30, Figurative Sculpture

3-4pm, Art History Lecture

Wednesday:

10-1pm, Black and White Photography

1-2pm, Bagpipes Private Lesson

Thursday:

3-4pm, Art History Lecture

4-5pm, Bagpipes Lecture

Friday:

NO CLASS (Most of my traveling will start on Thursday nights or Friday mornings.)

Tuesday:

I had my first sculpture class from 9:30-12:30. I took the underground (aka The Clockwork Orange) to the Cowcaddens stop and walked to the sculpture studio. We had a nude model on our first day and it went great. The class is only 4 people, so we get a lot of help and one-on-one time with our teacher, Katherine. The model was very nice and on our break she gave us all chocolate. It’s so nice to have a model that can interact with you and make you feel comfortable in the studio.

My sculpture studio.

My first figure sculpture.

After sculpture, I took The Clockwork Orange back to my flat and hung out until around 3pm when I walked to art history. In between art history and dinner, Briana, Laura and I watched Friends on my laptop for a little while and then decided we wanted to go out for dinner and drinks at Oran Mor. Oran Mor is a gorgeous restaurant/bar/club. It was converted from an old church, with some Mackintosh influences inside. We ordered Caesar salads and hung out with our friends Laura (another Laura), Ted, and AJ joined up with us a little later. After dinner, we walked to Ashton Lane and went to a bar called Nude for Mojitos. AJ joined the lacrosse team here at the university, so we happened to bump into two of his teammates at the bar and talked to them for a while. It was an early night because Laura and I had class at 10 the next morning, so we went back to the flat and got some sleep.

Wednesday:

We walked to photography at around 9:30 and got to the studio around 10. The entire class was just talking about the camera, settings, how to focus it, and what the class would be about throughout the semester. We also received our own cameras and film that we will be able to use all semester. After photography, I had a private lesson with my bagpiping teacher, Glenn. They still don’t have enough practice chanters for everyone, so I have been using Glenn’s for this week. I learned the scale and fingering for the chanter, and it does NOT sound pretty when you don’t blow hard enough into the instrument. I was laughing throughout the entire lesson because I couldn’t get the sound right. Glenn is a character and I’m excited to have such a great tutor for my lessons. When he plays, he does circular breathing, which not many musicians can do. The reason Kenny G. is so famous and good at what he does is because he can do circular breathing. It is when you puff up your cheeks and store air in your mouth while you inhale through your nose and blow out that fresh air into the instrument. It allows musicians to play an entire tune without taking their mouth off of the instrument. It’s fascinating to watch Glenn play the bagpipe while circular breathing.

The National Piping Centre in Glasgow

After bagpiping, I had a meeting with Anna West, our study abroad coordinator, and talked to her about my classes and how I have been settling in here in Glasgow. Summary of the meeting: love the city, love the people, I’ve made great friends, and I’m excited for the rest of the semester! I really couldn’t be happier here. I know I don’t have a heavy course load, but that is WHY I am having such a good time here. If I had more work, I would not be able to enjoy the city I’m living in and meet all of these great people. I, of course, am going to try to do my own side projects to keep me busy, like sketching, traveling, reading, etc., but right now I’m enjoying not being stressed out like I was last semester in New York.

At around 4:30, Laura and I went to the Glasgow University Union to buy tickets for the Newcastle Trip for international students. It was 40 pounds for a bus ride to Newcastle, staying in a hostel, dinner, entrance to a bar/club, and then a ride back to Glasgow. After buying tickets, I went to get my wireless internet connection fixed in the library so I could use the wireless in my flat. We ended up staying in on Wednesday night even though I didn’t have class until 4pm the next day.

Thursday:

At 1:15pm, after sleeping in a wee bit (yes, I just said “wee”), I went to the gym with Briana and at 3:30pm all of us headed to the National Piping Centre for our first Bagpipes lecture.

Later that night, we decided to go to The Hive, which is a club at the Glasgow University Union on campus, down the street from my flat. Everyone came over to our room before going out and then we went to get in line (or the queue) at the Union. It took us a while to get in and it was raining outside, but once we got in it was definitely worth it. Earlier that night we though we were going to a UN party, so we were all dressed in red, white, and blue, but we ended up deciding not to go to that club because it was too far away. Therefore, we went to the stoplight party at the Hive in our red, white and blue. They paint lines on your face (red, yellow, or green) depending on your relationship status. We all had a great time at the Hive and danced the entire night until we left the club at around 2:30.

The girls in all of our red, white, and blue.

Dancing at The Hive

Friday:

Laura and I spent most of the day hanging out around the flat and then at 6:30pm we went to our friends apartment for “family dinner.” Family Dinner is when a few people go out and buy a bunch of ingredients and a couple people cook for everyone, and we all have dinner together. We all end up paying around 2 or 3 pounds for dinner with all of our friends. On Friday dinner was with Laura, Heather, another Laura, Lindsey, Liam, AJ, Sarah, Briana, and me. We had fajitas and they were SO good! This is definitely a tradition we will stick with for this semester.

Saturday:

At 9am, we went to the Main Gate of the university and got on the bus to Newcastle with all of the other international students. We were dropped off at the hostel, checked into our rooms, and then got on the bus to go to the city centre. Our first stop was lunch, and then shopping in the city centre. There isn’t much to see in Newcastle, so we decided to just walk around the mall and along the main street.

I think this is the Millennium Bridge in Newcastle. (I took this while we were on the bus.)

Laura, Briana, and I shared a room.

What we didn't know was that the bottom bunk was a double :-P

Around 4:30pm we took the Metro back to the hostel, got dressed for dinner and hopped on the metro around 5:30 to meet the rest of the international students at the Monument in the city centre. Hojjat (the president of the International Society) took us to an Iranian buffet, which was actually very good. After dinner we went to a bar and sat around until 10:30. Although we were all getting very bored in the bar, it was the best people watching I have ever done. I have never seen so many stilettos, mini dresses, big hair, fake eyelashes, layers of makeup, and fake tans in my life. I really wish I could have gotten some pictures of the people in the bar for all of you to see. The bar we were in was also beautiful to look at, because it was an old bank with the huge columns.

The interior of the Revolution Bar.

At 10:30pm, we went next door to a Hidden club called Madame Koo. You have to walk down a couple flights of stairs to get to the dance floor. By that time, we were getting sort of tired but when we saw all the people on the dance floor, we knew we had to get on there with everyone else. They played some great music and I even had a dance-off with a guy on the dance floor. He started doing all of this crazy footwork and break-dancing moves, so I decided to challenge him and we had a little dance-off. We danced from about 11pm to 1am and then decided it was time to go back to the hostel to get some sleep before waking up at 8:15 the next morning.

Sunday:

Our alarm went off at 8:15am to go get some breakfast downstairs. The hostel manager had croissants, yogurt, fruit, orange juice, and cheese waiting for us. After breakfast, we went back up to our room to sleep until 9:40 because we had to get on the bus at 10. We drove about 20 minutes from Newcastle to the sea. The girls and I decided to sit in the aquarium café for hot chocolate/coffee/tea while looking out at Whitley Bay and the beach. We then got back on the bus to go to Durham Castle. After seeing Durham Castle and walking around there for a while, the bus driver took us to Newcastle’s MetroCentre, which is the largest mall in Europe. We didn’t want to walk around the mall because we didn’t want to be tempted to spend any more money, so we found a nice restaurant and ate a great lunch before getting on the bus around 3. From there, we took the bus back to Glasgow, went grocery shopping, and then came back to the flat to relax before another week of classes.

The beach and Whitley Bay

A turtle at the Blue Reef Aquarium

The girls walking back to our bus to go to Durham

Durham

Me in front of the Durham Cathedral

The girls (Sarah, Briana, Laura, Lindsey, Heather, and Laura) at Durham Castle

Monday:

I just had my 10am Art History discussion class, and now I am sitting in the kitchen, updating this blog, and thinking about eating some lunch. I have to go to my art history lecture in 2 hours, so I’m trying to organize my schedule and figure out my side projects for the semester.

Now that I am finally done with my blog update, I just found out the internet is working again in our rooms…I’m going to move over there to upload all of the pictures for this entry.

Love and miss you all!

Love Always,

Jess

Internet is STILL down!

I will be updating my blog soon with all that has happened in the past week. However, the internet keeps kicking us off and then we have to use the wireless connection which is never very strong in our room. Tomorrow I am heading to Newcastle-upon-Tyne (aka Newcastle) for the night with other international students. The Glasgow University Union is putting it all together. We leave tomorrow morning at 9am, take a bus to Newcastle (about a 3 hour ride), and then we are given dinner, a hostel to stay in, and entrance to a bar/club, all included in our ticket price (40 pounds). We will return to Glasgow on Sunday around 5 (I think), so expect an update and pictures that night.

Love and miss you all!

Love Always,

Jess

Internet is down...

So, the internet has been down in our flat for the past two days. Hopefully it will come back soon because there is so much to tell you all about my week so far. My first sculpture class, photography class, and bagpiping lesson! I am in the library right now and the IT people helped me set up the wireless internet connection for the University. I won't be here for much longer, which is why I'm not going to update all of you now. I just wanted to let you all know that there will be a post soon...maybe I can even get wireless if I sit in our kitchen because it's closer to the library.

This coming weekend I will also be going on an overnight trip to Newcastle with Briana and Laura and a bunch of other international student. Talk to you soon.

Love Always,

Jess

BOBBY MCFERRIN

Sunday wasn't all that eventful until later in the day. Briana and I went to the library to fill out forms for Arcadia University. Arcadia is the program I'm with in Scotland, so we have to fill out orientation and host family surveys. After that we went grocery shopping and found a great grocery store near us. It's called Waitrose and is similar to Whole Foods, only I think it is cheaper. After buying some groceries, we came back to my flat and cooked dinner. We made a wonderful dinner of penne pasta, garlic bread, and broccoli. yummm. We were so stuffed by the end of dinner and all we wanted to do was lay down and watch a movie. Braveheart had finally downloaded on my computer, but it is 3 hours long so me, Briana and Laura watched Mulan, which was playing live on channelsurfing.net.

Our delicious dinner.

Today was my first real day of class. At 10am I had an art history seminar. There are only about 10 people in the seminar and the grad student leading the discussion seems very nice. She made us get right into art history and talk in front of the class about paintings we didn't know. We had to try and guess what time period they were from and what the artist was trying to focus on. I think it will be a good seminar, though. After class, I went back to my flat to relax for a few hours before going to my first art history lecture at 3pm. The lecture was fine, the same as any art history lecture I have sat through. I have these 1 hour lectures three times a week, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.

Once class was over, Briana and I walked to the subway because we wanted to go downtown and walk around St. Enoch Centre, which is a big shopping mall downtown. On our way to the subway we bumped into Laura who was coming back from her bagpiping lesson, and she ended up joining us on our adventure downtown. We didn't spend too much time in the mall because everything downtown seems to only be open until 6pm. On our way back home, we bumped into a friend who told us about a performance going on at 8pm with Bobby McFerrin for Celtic Connections. Celtic Connections is a month long festival in Glasgow, that brings so many different performers to Glasgow. (CLICK HERE to check out the website.) Laura and I knew we really wanted to go to the concert. We had been invited to go to a pub, but I couldn't imagine turning down Bobby McFerrin for a pub. Briana is coming down with a cold, so she decided to stay in for the night.

At around 7:30, we headed over to the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in the city centre. We ended up having to take a taxi half of the way because we were running a little late. Once we arrived at the concert hall, we bought our tickets and went to our FRONT ROW BALCONY seats! The concert was unbelievable. Bobby McFerrin is incredible and I feel so lucky to have been able to see him perform live. He is really into audience participation, so I found myself singing and humming throughout most of the concert. He invited people onstage to dance and sing with him, and it was all entertaining. I even snuck a few pictures of him, one of which you can see below. It seemed like the concert went on for a while and I was expecting my watch to say 11pm at the end of the concert, but it was only 10pm. Laura and I were hungry so we went to a little grab and go food place and ate there before heading home. Now we are back at the flat, I'm so full from dinner, and I have class tomorrow at 9:30 at the Glasgow School of Art. I'll need to leave for the subway around 9am to get there on time...I don't think that will be too hard for me, I just need to go to sleep soon.

Bobby McFerrin with a bunch of audience members that ran up onstage to sing. (He only asked for 12, but there were about three dozen people onstage.)

Goodnight...I love and miss you all!

Love Always,

Jess

Not much happening around here.

Wednesday night, I went with a bunch of girls to a club in Merchant City in Glasgow. The club is called the Polo Lounge and the dance floor was packed. We had a great time but all decided we were done dancing at around 1:30am.

On Thursday I slept in for a little while and then at 4pm I had my first bagpiping class. We got to meet the instructors, and set up times for our private lessons. After a little introduction from the professor, Finlay, Briana and I went to a movie at Cineworld. Even though we have both already seen the movie, we wanted to see Avatar again, in 3-D. It was just as good the second time. After the movie, we met up with AJ for some dinner downtown. AJ went back to his flat and Briana and I went back to ours to get ready for the Hive. The Hive is every Thursday night at the Glasgow University Union, so there were huge lines out the door. Briana and I got ready and then went to stand in line, but after 30 minutes, and dealing with a bunch of creepers in line, it wasn't worth it to wait any longer. We ended up calling it a night and went back to relax.

Friday, Briana and I went to the gym and then went out to dinner at a sushi restaurant. It was so nice to have sushi, and we were both craving it. After dinner, we went grocery shopping and then made plans to go with a bunch of people to Cheesy Pop. Cheesy Pop is another big event here at the University. Every Friday night at the Queen Margaret Union there is a big dance party/event and of course huge lines again. (They actually don't call it a line here, it is a queue.) There was a huge group of people on the third floor of my building before Cheesy Pop, so we went up to join them. After leaving the flat, we went to stand in line for Cheesy Pop. It was ridiculous and we were probably standing there for 30 or 40 minutes. Me, Briana, and AJ got so sick of the line that we ended up leaving around midnight.

This morning I woke up a few times and wasn't feeling very good so I stayed in bed most of the morning. I finally got up to take a shower and Briana and I went to get some food with AJ on Byres road. We went to Mario's Place for some fish and chips and then hung out in my room and watched Superbad. Now I'm watching some live TV on channelsurfing.net. This clearly hasn't been the most productive day, but I can't wait until classes start next week so I can actually do some work.

Until next time, love you and miss you all!

Love Always,

Jess

First Day of Class...sort of.

After standing in line at registration, I finally got my official Glasgow University student ID card with my picture on it. I think after registration I just went back to the flat, met up with Briana, and then walked around a little. I actually don't remember everything that we did...the days here are just getting mixed up in my head because there is so much free time. I don't have a working visa, which would have been nice to get a job and be a little more busy, but I was thinking I might be able to find a babysitting job somewhere.

At around 6pm, Briana and I forced ourselves to go to the gym and we got a pretty good workout in. The gym is so small for the size of this school, but we'll just have to deal with it. (They also have a steam room and sauna that I haven't found yet, but I will definitely be taking advantage of that.) After the gym, we went back to our flat to relax, and get ready to go out for our friend Lorna's 21st birthday. She found a pub in downtown Glasgow called The Horseshoe. Supposedly it has the longest bar in the UK. We took the Underground (aka The Clockwork Orange) to Buchanan Street, and a woman was nice enough to show us where the pub was. I find that just going up to people on the street and asking for directions is the best way to go. Forget about getting lost and trying to find a small alley on a map (even though sometimes it's fun to get lost), just ask someone and usually they are nice enough to help out Americans. We stayed for a while at the pub celebrating Lorna's birthday and then at around midnight we caught a taxi back to our flat and called it a night.

(Left to Right) Briana, Jasmine, Lauren, Lorna, and Laura at the Horseshoe Pub

Lorna with all of her drinks! She is 21 now...

This morning, my roommate, Laura, and I had photography at the Glasgow School of Art. And, YES, I actually did have class this morning. Can you believe it? (Because I really couldn't believe it.) We walked to GSA with a few other people who are in the class as well, and when we got to the Mackintosh Building we filled out forms and then got our own private tour. No photography today (that starts next week) but the tour of the Mackintosh Building was incredible. They just celebrated the 100th anniversary of the building in December.

The foyer of the (Charles Rennie) Mackintosh Building

The Hen Run corridor at GSA

Throughout the tour I saw many stained glass roses in the Mackintosh Building, and I finally realized why there were roses on the pen I was given for Christmas. My parents got me the most beautiful pen for my Christmas gift and it was from the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Collection. I purposefully brought my pen to class this morning so I could fill out my forms with it. Below are pictures of the stained glass rose and my Mackintosh pen.

After the tour and seeing the sculpture building as well, me, Laura, and our other friends hopped on the Underground and went back to our neck of the woods. Laura and I went to a coffee shop called Smug and got an amazing brunch of bagels and hot chocolate. Now I am back in my room, laying on my bed, and I'm really tempted to take a nap since I don't have class the rest of the day. Or maybe I'll take the time to start editing the Top Chef 5 video today. I have no idea what is going on tonight, but tomorrow I have my first bagpiping class from 4-5pm and then we might go see Avatar in 3-D even though all of us have seen it.

Love and miss you all.

Love Always,

Jess