Greetings from Glasgow!

Hi everyone! I'm finally getting settled in to my residence. The picture to the left is what I see when I look out my livingroom window. In the foreground is the Provand's Lordship, Glasgow's oldest house built around 1471. Behind it is the Glasgow Cathedral.

My flat in residence is wonderful. We're on the top floor, and the lift (which unfortunately didn't work the first couple of days I was here) comes straight up into the flat (so to get to our floor you need a special key). I have a nice sized bedroom with a closet-sized bathroom with toilet, shower, and sink. But it's my bathroom!! There is also a large common kitchen and living room.

The flat houses 8 females - so far 6 have arrived. There are two from Bolivia, and one each from Alaska, India, and Greece, then me from Canada. All postgraduate students. So far, everyone is lovely. We've all been busy trying to settle in and get the supplies we need to make the flat feel like home. I imagine our final 2 flatmates will arrive this week.

I've been walking around alot. Most of the amenities are located via George Square. George Square - which you can see pictures of if you go to my Flickr page (link to the right) - is the reference point for just about everything. It has the Glasgow City Chambers, as well as the tourist information centre. Northwest of the University is a large shopping area called Buchanan Galleries, and to the south there is the St. Enoch Shopping Centre.

The Glaswegians are very very kind and helpful - though a little difficult to understand sometimes. There are around 1500 International students at Strathclyde University alone, and on top of that there is also the University of Glasgow as well as several colleges -- so a large, and somewhat lost, student population is the norm. I'm sure I'll get used to the accent and slang in time.

Anyway, there is so much to talk about, and my thoughts are very disorganized at this point. But it will all trickle-on gradually. Saturday I am going to the Isle of Arran to see castle Brodick. Today is International Students Orientation, and then a reception in the Student Union.

I've uploaded a large batch of photos to my Flickr account. You'll notice I have a bit of a strange name for my flickr account. It's a Doctor Who thing I used for my Yahoo ID for playing games... and I didn't see the sense in signing up for a new ID since I had one already. ;-) Anyway, pictures are worth a thousand words... so I'll direct you to those to do a little of the talking for me. :-)

Cheers!