transatlanticism

glasgow is beautiful. it’s a rough jumble of sandstone facades, industrial in it’s reach for a shared aesthetic. the picture is my view of greater glasgow; the murano street student village is on a hill overlooking city centre. one of those spires in the distance is actually a converted church, now a restaurant, theatre and bar called “a play, a pie, a pint.” that tumble of buildings down the hill towards the river are apartments of some sort. the river clyde is visible at the bottom of the screen, and to reach campus it’s across the bridge and then about thirty minutes west.

the murano street student village is above maryhill road, a road with the reputation of being particularly stabby. a gaggle of international students: three french, one aussie and three americans, took a nice jaunt north on maryhill road in search of groceries, before being made aware of our mistake and turning right around to head towards city centre.

my suite is quiet. I don’t think I’ll be having any roommates until the scottish students arrive, which isn’t for another week. until then I’m content to spread my time between both bathrooms and both showers, as well as my spacious single room in which I currently sit.

the weather today was cold and rainy, about 16 celsius  and eternally overcast. right around sunset there was a spectacular explosion of pink and orange above the city, but I was without my camera.

the flights were okay, and nobody lost my luggage. on the transatlantic flight I was between the window and a dutch man who spoke little english, so I mostly kept to myself and tried to sleep. I think the time change is going to sit well with my body, as I type this at one a.m. local time, I am just about ready for bed.

for dinner us gaggle waltzed to a restaurant that turned out to serve cajun food, while listening to a scottish funk band play standards and crash test dummies covers. afterwards we went to “the wee pub” and ostensibly met john brown, a former famous footballer who gave us drinks and welcomed us to glasgow with open arms.

in store for tomorrow is a shopping trip for a u.k. cell phone, a can opener, and an exploration of the quickest route to campus.

for the moment, I’m going to crash.