RECAP: Everything Else

Alrighty, I'm going to speed it up and cover the rest of Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday all in one compact post. Wish me luck.

Sunday they took all the international students on a walking tour of the University and on a bus tour of the city of Aberdeen. The university was founded in 1492, and it's one of the six ancient universities of Great Britain, among the likes of Oxford and Cambridge. The city of Aberdeen is a bustling metropolis of 200,000 people, set on the northeastern cost of Scotland, with a primarily oil-based economy. All of the old buildings in downtown Aberdeen are made out of a type of granite that was mined from the surrounding area. The granite is embedded with tiny pieces of mica, and rumor has it that on a sunny day the mica makes the granite buildings all sparkle. When we finally get a sunny day I promise to go downtown and take some photos.

After the tour I rested a while before heading over to a friend's flat to play a few hands of Texas Hold'em with a variety of Americans, Germans, Scots, and English. I upheld the Texas reputation by winning the first hand. I met an Englishman named Dominic who lived in San Antonio and is absolutely enamored with Texas. We made fast friends.

Monday we began our first day of classes and I only had one, Modernism. It was a brief introductory lecture, and although it was overwhelming at first, I don't think the class will be a major problem. Afterwards I attended a traditional Scottish dinner thrown at the University Chaplaincy. Much to my disappointment they did not serve haggis, but they did serve a tasty shepherd's pie. I took it easy for the rest of the day and turned in early to recover from the rather frantic pace of my first week in Scotland.

Tuesday I went to my second (and only other) class, Scottish Literature. I enjoyed the lecture much more than my first Modernism lecture. Tuesday night is the quietest night at the dormitories, and I ended up going to the Watering Hole for a pint with the Americans, Dominic, and Hendrik. Corey and I wandered about the complex for a while before calling it a night.

Wednesdays I have no class, so I generally was just plain lazy yesterday and I spent most of it dozing in my bed and trying my hand at writing sonnets (which is very difficult, by the way). In the evening I darted over to Dominic's flat, where he served us some very tasty, homemade pizza. I left our little get together about midnight and went home. I chatted with the Scots at home before calling it a night.

At least I thought I had called it a night. Sometime around 3:00am I was awakened by a loud screeching sound. after ignoring it for the first few minutes I came to the sleepy realization that it was the fire alarm, and so I threw on some pants and went out into the hallway to see what was up. It was full of smoke, so I grabbed a hoodie and came sauntering out of the flat to stand in the street with the rest of the building. I was disappointed to find that nothing was actually on fire. Turns out it was all our apartment's fault. Dormitory staff went in and cleared out the smoke, and after being accused of leaving our grill turned on, the apartment maintenance staff went in and found out it was a simple malfunction. They blamed it on the cleaners, which is good enough for us as long as we don't end up with the fine. My flatmates Tommy, Mark, Adri, Cakes, and I all went back to our beds and sweet, sweet sleep.

So there it is, we're all caught up on the major events that transpired while I was without the glorious internet. I hope you enjoyed it. More interesting posts on Scottish culture and life are coming soon, I promise.

Cheers,
Jacob