First Week of Class

It seems like I have been here forever but somehow I just finished my first week of classes. I am taking bagpiping, a religion class which gives an overview of the bible, and an accounting course. My bagpiping course has proved to be my favorite so far. The class is made up of a private bagpiping lesson to learn how to play the instrument and a seminar. The lesson is great as it is fun to have the new challenge of learning an instrument and I am lucky enough to learn from some of the best bagpipers in the world. The seminar is also very interesting as it is more of a casual conversation between three old men that love bagpiping that we get to listen in on and sometimes hear them play the bagpipes (I think I am going to begin sitting in the back row for the sake of my eardrums). My religion class have proven to be interesting in a different way. Scotland is a very secular country so the class is looking at the bible as a literary text rather than a sacred text. Very few students in the class are religious so that adds another twist to the discussions as they view the bible very differently than I do. As for my accounting class, I really enjoy my professors. The course is taught by two professors, both have proven to be quite funny and work really hard to make the information applicable and lively. I have had to get used to the examples they use in class that include companies or references with which I am not familiar. The weirdest adjustment has been how large the class sizes are; my religion and accounting courses both have over 200 peoples in them. With being used to having 30 people in a class back at DU, that has been weird getting used to. I also have a lot fewer hours in the classroom setting so I am working on getting creative in my free time-- my new favorite hobby is getting tea with friends.

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On Friday some friends and I ventured over to Pollock Country Park about a 15-minute cab ride from our accommodations to see the hairy Highland coos (cows). The park was filled with beautiful walking paths through the woods in addition to open fields for the coos. In the woods, there was an abundance of wild blackberries that made for the perfect midday snack. If you were dropped there you would have no clue that you were only 10 minutes from the city centre. The coos were very fun to see. They loved coming up to the fence to eat leaves we collected from nearby trees. It was quite enjoyable seeing such a hairy cow-- definitely nothing you'd find in Iowa.

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The rest of the weekend I spent exploring the West End of Glasgow near my flat. I grabbed tea with my friend at an adorable tea house on a hidden lane. I also have decided that I love the concept of tea because it is a great excuse to eat cake (not that not having an excuse to eat cake has ever stopped me before). In a rare moment of Glasgow experiencing sunshine, I went to read at the park. It was quite refreshing being surrounded by all the families and greenery of the park. Next to the park is the Kelvinhaugh Museum which I wandered around for a while. It is a free museum with lots of great history pertaining to Scotland and beyond. There is so much to do and see in Glasgow and I am slowly chipping away at its wonders.