we were spoiled when it came to the weather we experienced our first two weeks here; it is no longer. where once was surprising sun and massive blue sky there are endless clouds and a perpetual mist.

the internationals took a trip to edinburgh a few weekends back. edinburgh is a tourist city at its heart. where glasgow is in all things a bustling metropolis of scottish life and scottish people, edinburgh is littered with kitsch shops and tourist pubs that are essentially off limits to any semblance of scottish reality. the castle is beautiful, as is the architecture, but after two days of the place I was ready to take the bus ‘home’ to glasgow, where I felt more a positive part of something truly foreign.

in the time since edinburgh, glasses have begun rolling up to full speed. I’ve filled my borrowed slr with thirty-six black and white pictures of glasgow’s urban landscape, which I will learn to develop tomorrow at the glasgow school of art. then, my first meeting of figurative sculpture. the jury is still out on whether or not we’ll be presented with a nude model the first class or the second. I’ve had my first private piping lesson, and am having a good time messing about on the practice chanter, learning scales and simple exercises to build my dexterity.

I miss home.

in describing the varying stages of culture shock I was told I’d be experiencing, this part would be called ‘homesickness.’ I am smack dab in the middle of a beautiful living city, but find myself spending long hours scraping facebook for small vestiges of home. it doesn’t help that I’ve not seen the sun for nine days.

surely it is only a matter of time until I recover from this indifference to my geographical location and start appreciating glasgow and scotland on a deeper level. if the first weeks here were constant shock and amusement at the differentness of things, then hopefully the next twelve are an exploration of the sameness of our cultures, or maybe, the uniqueness that the boisterous, scottish way of living applies itself to its location in the uk and in the world.

now let’s see if I can pull myself out of this.

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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.