Since the day before had been so miserably snowy and freezing-rainy, of course yesterday had to be absolutely beautiful. After enduring the awful weather, I had actually been hoping that this would happen, though I was surprised when it did. Almost all of the snow was melted by the time I left the flat. The nice thing about my experience with Scotland's weather is that when the weather is good, it's amazing.
I spent most of the day with Olivia and Myrthe, who are from Wisconsin and Holland respectively, and are the only people in my 6-man flat who aren't with Arcadia's program. We went to the Freebie Fayre (actually spelled olde-timey like that) in the student union, but there weren't very many booths and nothing was actually free except for the flyers advertising events and discount nights at restaurants and clubs. The three of us bought tickets for the Fubar club that night, since they were only 4 pounds. I had never been to a club before, but I'd heard that British clubs are different than American clubs in that, thankfully, the dancing isn't just a lot of grinding, so I felt more comfortable going to my first one here.
I also got an advertisement for this bar called 20rocks, which has a lot of discounts and fun event nights related to music and live bands. It looks really cool and generally more my style than a club, so I'm excited to go sometime.
Later that day, I tried to work on my homework, but I just fell asleep for an hour, and by the time I woke up, it was dinner. So I ate with Olivia and Myrthe, and we had a really good conversation and even discussed plans for dinners and doing other fun stuff in the future, so I'm glad I have some more friends to hang out with now.
The three of us went to the Fubar at ten, when they opened, and we hung out a little bit, waiting for people to show up. We got some 1 pound drinks, which turned out to just be shots (they were pretty good though because they were apple flavored and kind of sugary sour). Eventually, we figured out that everyone was buying their wristbands and then leaving to come back later. That seemed kind of weird because the club was only open until 3am, but we decided to leave and come back later too. When we got back at around midnight, the place was totally packed. A lot of the kids there seemed pretty young, like 17 and 18. I was sort of surprised to learn that it was pretty much the same thing as a Denison dance, except way more people and therefore a lot hotter and harder to move around. I guess I had some fun, but I was pretty tired, and I didn't really care for a that much of the music. They played a weird mix of songs that ranged from the late 90s/early 2000s to last year (and for the most part they weren't the songs I would have expected). I liked some of the songs and tried to dance the whole time, but I tend to get bored at dances, especially if I don't really love most of the music or know that many people there, so I was ready to go after the first hour. I did like hanging out with Olivia and Myrthe though, so that much was worth it. We finally left at 2am because we all had class the next day.
I actually wasn't too tired when I got up this morning, and I think the really great weather, which was even better than yesterday's, helped me want to get up. I had a class at 10, and I was glad to find that the buses come frequently enough in the morning that you're not likely to miss class if you live off-campus. I only had one class today, which was a lecture about Scottish literature and history. Today was just an overview of the periods of Scottish history we're going to look at. It seems like we're mostly going to examine Scotland's resistance to and acceptance of Anglicization ever since they joined England to form Great Britain in 1707. I really like history, and I found the information new and interesting, so I think I'm going to enjoy this class. The lecturer also seems nice, and I think he's a pretty engaging lecturer, although that's partly because I really enjoy listening to his Scottish accent. I'm glad that I like him so far because he's going to lead the tutorial discussions, which are basically seminars wherein the students can ask questions and discuss the material instead of just listening like in a lecture.
I was kind of surprised that there were a few adults in the class, but I guess that's because I'm used to Denison where everyone is an undergrad and we're almost all average-aged college students. The lecture format didn't bother me as much as I was worried it might, probably because there wasn't an overwhelming number of people (no more than 30) and because the lecture was only fifty minutes long (I hadn't had a fifty minute class since last spring, so that was nice). And I didn't feel like I had to talk. I could just take notes and listen. I'm glad I'll have a chance to participate in the tutorial on Wednesday though because I did get some ideas of things during the lecture that I wanted to discuss. Although I wish that participation counted as part of the grade here. Sadly, only the final papers and exams do.
After class, I went to the student union to buy a University of Stirling sticker for my car and a shirt for my sister. While I was there, I met some people advertising a lunch program run by the Christian Union, and I was glad that they came to me in this way because I had been wondering if Stirling had a Christian group that I could join. I met some really nice people there, and they invited me to their Bible study and weekly meeting next week, which I'm excited about. They are a pretty big organization, so I think I'll be able to make some friends there.
I feel like next week is going to super busy, since it will be my first full week of classes, and I'm planning to go to rugby practice (they call it "training" here), the Christian group, and check out some other clubs like the Rock Society (because they go to concerts and have music-related events), the Air3 radio station (because I want to see how they run their station), the Nature Society (because they do hikes around Stirling and are walking to Dunblane next week), the Craft Beer Society (yes, that exists, they're going to a local brewery next week which sounds interesting), the Fencing Club (to check it out with Olivia, though we probably won't stick with it), and the International Society (to meet other students from around the world). I definitely won't stay with all of the groups, but they have these "Try It Out" sessions during the first couple weeks, where you can just show up for a special event with the club to see if you like it. And you aren't at all obligated to come back. It seems like a really good idea, and I wish the clubs at Denison would do something like that. I mostly just want to use the sessions as opportunities to meet people and do something fun and relaxing.
That's all for now. I have to work on my weekend reading since I'm going to the Borderlands tomorrow. My friend Stephanie is staying in my room tonight so she won't have to take a taxi from campus to the train station at 6am tomorrow, and we'll just walk from here instead. I'm really excited to see other parts of Scotland besides Stirling and Edinburgh, so I'm glad that Arcadia offers us the opportunity. I'm also planning to go to the Isle of Skye, where the famous Eilean Donan Castle is, over spring break with Olivia and Myrthe. There's so much fun stuff coming up, I hope I can focus on studying these next few months!
Song of the Day:
I used to be so into this song in like 10th grade.
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