Glasgow

I’ve been in Glasgow now for about a week, which is just enough time for me to figure my way to Uni from my flat, and that’s about it... Glasgow is relatively small though, the underground is just one line, or circle rather. But the nice thing about that is you can go either direction in the circle; a plus when comparing it to the loop on the Chicago El. They call it the clockwork orange because it’s completely orange and well, it’s shaped like a clock.

There are two nice bits of Glasgow, the city centre and the west end. Well, I’ve only been to those two areas so far, and since I’m an expert in Scottish cities those are obviously the only nice parts of Glasgow…  I live in the west end where the University of Glasgow is. I really like it! All the housing is “tenement” style, which to me means they are all very old beautiful buildings, four stories tall, with 12 feet high ceilings and huge bay windows; really spacious and really nice. Three main differences would be the radiator style heating, absence of a garbage disposal/dishwasher, and the absence of a clothes dryer. Instead we have this awesome pulley-line system that runs along the ceiling of our kitchen. Knots in the “pulley-rope” hook the rope at different levels. So for example you would let all of the rope go and hook at the last knot to hang your clothes on the line, then pull the rope hooked up to a pulley and hook it on one of the first knots so that your clothes hang over head to dry.

My Uni is seriously Hogwarts, circa 1451 (I know Hogwarts wasn't around in 1451, but if it were, I would imagine it to look like my Uni). I’m not joking, it completely gothic style. But cool! It’s a pretty small campus, and unfortunately I don’t have any of my classes in the Hogwarts bit. But, I am in some old, grand, houses that had been converted into office and lecture buildings. I’m doing my Masters in Public Health or MPH, and I was surprised how small the programme is at Glasgow. It’s good for me because I’m pretty sure I’ll get all the help and guidance I need. There are only four full time students and maybe 10 students in total! I haven’t actually started any classes yet, just been attending a bunch of introductions to the programme and refreshers courses. We’ll see how it goes, it sounds pretty demanding doing the MPH full time in one year, but I’m pretty sure if I keep on top of things and get ahead when I can, I should be fine.