Unfortunately I am not able to be with my awesome dad on father's day so I just wanted to wish him a great day without me (even though it would be a million times better if I were home). I love you and miss you daddy!!
Although my day wasn't as good as it could have been with my dad, I still had a pretty good day. Almost everyone taking these summer courses has arrived, there are about 80-90 people I would say, so today we had our official orientation at Stirling. The day first consisted of a delicious breakfast buffet with eggs, pastries, bacon, and sausage. We ate the breakfast in a large auditorium/lecture hall where all of the talking for orientation took place. Sterling Yates, the ISS coordinator, talked to us about the campus, the country, and our classes. After all of the boring talk we finally got up and had a walking tour of the campus. I was so relieved about this because the campus is a lot bigger than my tiny St. Edward's campus. Even after exploring yesterday AND looking at a map I was still very confused as to where everything was, so it was nice to be taken to each facility by someone who really knows the campus.
After the walking tour we went back to the lecture hall to eat lunch. Again, it was a buffet style and had a bunch of different sandwiches, some even native to Scotland. I tried one sandwich that had jelly and some sort of cheese and something else in it because I think it was a traditional Scottish Sandwich, but it was disgusting just like I had thought. Kyle really liked it though, so he ate the whole thing! Lunch was followed by some more talking, mainly about Scottish history which was interesting, but most of it I already knew from my Butler orientation.
The next thing on the agenda for today was coach (bus) tours of the city and surrounding small towns. I almost didn't make it to this part of the day because Kyle and I, along with a group of friends, got lost trying to find where the coach buses were. We made the mistake of being the first ones out of the lecture hall, thinking we could lead everyone to the destination that we were told to go. However, that plan failed horribly and we ended up waiting at the entrance of the university holding up our thumbs like hitchhikers when the coach buses finally drove by...completely full with everyone else from the summer school program. It was embarrassing but we all had a good laugh about it.
During the coach tour we drove by the Wallace Monument, stopped at Bridge of Allan to see a cathedral with beautiful Gothic architecture, made another stop at Dunblane to see a statue of Robert the Bruce, then went back to Stirling where our tour ended at the Stirling Castle. We didn't actually go into the castle because it costs money (we have to plan that on our own time), we just took pictures of the beautiful view of the entire city.
From Stirling Castle we walked to the Stirling City Center to go to the Thistles mall, but along the way our RA's gave us a walking tour of the city which was quite nice. They let us go to the mall for anything that we may have forgotten at home or needed at the flat. I ended up not buying anything seeing as I brought over a HUGE suitcase packed to the brim (what can I say, I'm a material girl living in a material world). After the mall we headed over to the grocery store to stock up on necessary food items. I didn't buy much because they have the same store, but smaller, at the campus.
After so much walking I was ready to get back to campus! The coach buses picked us up once more to bring us back. By the time we got home it was already dinner time so, after a little rest, Kyle and I hiked up to the Atrium, one of the main student centers on campus, to eat dinner at the MacRoberts restaurant. We both had delicious fish and chips, which I had been dying to eat since I got here!
Now I'm preparing for my first class tomorrow, photographing the urban, by reading several chapters in the books that were assigned to us. I'm not quite in school mode yet since my surroundings seem like a vacation still. But I'm sure once I get up in the morning I will be back in school mode!
Wish me luck with class tomorrow!!
And as everyone says here, Cheers!
ps more pictures from today are coming soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment