Being a tourist is fun.
Door: Saskia Veen
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Saskia
02 November 2015 | Verenigd Koninkrijk, Beith
Hiya!
My week in Glasgow has been absolutely amazing. Last Monday I arrived at my friend's house at six PM. Within the hour I was out on the street again for a zumba class I was going to join. It was great fun, even though it definitely was not what I expected it to be. I expected more of a samba/salsa-y dance workout, and this was nothing more than a regular dance workout. The teacher was great though, he was really into how sexy he was supposed to look.
On Tuesday I decided to sniff some culture in Glasgow and went to the University with my friend. We did a small tour until her class started. The main building is quite beautiful, even though it's the only old building on campus. All the other buildings are just regular structures, just like ours. I went to the Huntarian Museum, which is on campus. They had a small exhibition on ancient wildlife, which was great fun of course. The main exhibition was called "the Cradle of Scotland". It covered the arrival of the farmers in the Neolithic period (c. 2700 BC) until the peak of the Pictish royal power (c. 850 AD). After I visited this museum I went to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery, where another exhibition on wildlife was being presented. I was very proud of the fact that I could name all the gull species correctly! This art gallery was less interesting than the Huntarian, though. The only other interesting section in my opinion was the Dutch Painters section. It is a very interesting experience to see your culture from another side, even though the paintings still only include naked ladies and fruit.
On Wednesday I took a wee walk in the city centre of Glasgow. In the evening, I joined Capoeira Senzala Glasgow for a capoeira class, which was incredibly fun. Capoeira people are always extremely welcoming and hospitable, and the training was more fun than I had expected. I even managed to do a back handspring on my own! We also sang some new songs, I played some berimbau and played in the roda. After the training we went out for some drinks at a pub, which is the custom apparently. Half of the capoeira group are international people, it was very interesting to see how they experience capoeira.
Thursday morning and afternoon were very quiet. I just worked on my portfolio on that day. In the evening we had a party from the Alexandrian Society, a student organization from the Classics department. Since the University of Glasgow has a big group of international students, every student who came that night brought something from their respective country for snacks. There were Italian mini pizzas, Scottish cakes, some French stuff I forgot the name of and of course, Dutch devilled eggs. Everything was so delicious! We went to a student pub afterwards, where I couldn't resist the temptation to get a bowl of Scottish-style nachos. They came with a small serving of haggis sprinkled on top of them, which in my opinion is quite brilliant.
On Friday I went to Edinburgh to sniff some more culture. I took the train, and the ticket system is quite strange if you're not familiar with it. You get three tickets: one for your journey to Edinburgh, one return ticket and one receipt. Then you have to go through the gates by popping your ticket in the slot and the gates will open. However, you have to pop in the right ticket at the right journey. I tried to pop in my return ticket on the journey tó Edinburgh, and the gates didn't open. In Edinburgh I visited the castle, the parliament buildings, the Walter Scott Monument, and the palace. I walked the Royal Mile up and down three times because I got lost and only realized that the castle was at the end of it by the end of the day. I had an awesome time though, and I definitely want to come back one day. That night I went out to dinner with my friend at a Japanese restaurant. The food was absolutely delicious, even though it was hard to eat with the laminated chopsticks.
On Saturday I went to capoeira again in the morning. I was so early the kid's class was still going on, so I was invited to help teaching them. It was a great experience, because you have to indicate every movement very clearly (in English of course). Then, at the end of the kids class we had to teach them some basic Brazilian songs, which is so cute because they can't pronounce the words properly. Our regular class was pretty awesome again, we did a lot of feigning (which is one of my favourite things about capoeira - you get to fake a whole lot of things and when your opponent is distracted you get them). I actually managed to floor my opponent, and the teacher, myself and my opponent cheered all together. In the evening we celebrated Hallowe'en, and we did it thoroughly. I myself went as "gingerbread", and thankfully everybody got the pun. Our wee group consisted of the Blues Brothers, Persephone, Cinderella, Pippi Longstockings and a Gingerbread. It was quite a unique band of characters. The evening was great fun, we went to the QMU (Queen Margaret's Union), one of the two student unions in Glasgow. We came home at three in the evening, it was brilliant fun.
Yesterday was a very quiet day, the only drawback was that internet was down for the day, which this blog post is delayed by a day. I'm back at Hessilhead now for the reminder of the week, leaving next Tuesday.
And for the school stuff:
Word list:
Stalked crinoids (organisms related to the starfish)
Marsuptial mammals
Arthropod
These words will obviously not come back in a hurry, but it is interesting to know some zoology terms.
The opportunities I had this week in teaching were small. The most things I learned were based on socio-cultural things, for example the visit to Edinburgh Castle and the Kelvingrove Art Gallery. All the information and folders I took with me will make some great lessons for TP.
Cheerio!
My week in Glasgow has been absolutely amazing. Last Monday I arrived at my friend's house at six PM. Within the hour I was out on the street again for a zumba class I was going to join. It was great fun, even though it definitely was not what I expected it to be. I expected more of a samba/salsa-y dance workout, and this was nothing more than a regular dance workout. The teacher was great though, he was really into how sexy he was supposed to look.
On Tuesday I decided to sniff some culture in Glasgow and went to the University with my friend. We did a small tour until her class started. The main building is quite beautiful, even though it's the only old building on campus. All the other buildings are just regular structures, just like ours. I went to the Huntarian Museum, which is on campus. They had a small exhibition on ancient wildlife, which was great fun of course. The main exhibition was called "the Cradle of Scotland". It covered the arrival of the farmers in the Neolithic period (c. 2700 BC) until the peak of the Pictish royal power (c. 850 AD). After I visited this museum I went to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery, where another exhibition on wildlife was being presented. I was very proud of the fact that I could name all the gull species correctly! This art gallery was less interesting than the Huntarian, though. The only other interesting section in my opinion was the Dutch Painters section. It is a very interesting experience to see your culture from another side, even though the paintings still only include naked ladies and fruit.
On Wednesday I took a wee walk in the city centre of Glasgow. In the evening, I joined Capoeira Senzala Glasgow for a capoeira class, which was incredibly fun. Capoeira people are always extremely welcoming and hospitable, and the training was more fun than I had expected. I even managed to do a back handspring on my own! We also sang some new songs, I played some berimbau and played in the roda. After the training we went out for some drinks at a pub, which is the custom apparently. Half of the capoeira group are international people, it was very interesting to see how they experience capoeira.
Thursday morning and afternoon were very quiet. I just worked on my portfolio on that day. In the evening we had a party from the Alexandrian Society, a student organization from the Classics department. Since the University of Glasgow has a big group of international students, every student who came that night brought something from their respective country for snacks. There were Italian mini pizzas, Scottish cakes, some French stuff I forgot the name of and of course, Dutch devilled eggs. Everything was so delicious! We went to a student pub afterwards, where I couldn't resist the temptation to get a bowl of Scottish-style nachos. They came with a small serving of haggis sprinkled on top of them, which in my opinion is quite brilliant.
On Friday I went to Edinburgh to sniff some more culture. I took the train, and the ticket system is quite strange if you're not familiar with it. You get three tickets: one for your journey to Edinburgh, one return ticket and one receipt. Then you have to go through the gates by popping your ticket in the slot and the gates will open. However, you have to pop in the right ticket at the right journey. I tried to pop in my return ticket on the journey tó Edinburgh, and the gates didn't open. In Edinburgh I visited the castle, the parliament buildings, the Walter Scott Monument, and the palace. I walked the Royal Mile up and down three times because I got lost and only realized that the castle was at the end of it by the end of the day. I had an awesome time though, and I definitely want to come back one day. That night I went out to dinner with my friend at a Japanese restaurant. The food was absolutely delicious, even though it was hard to eat with the laminated chopsticks.
On Saturday I went to capoeira again in the morning. I was so early the kid's class was still going on, so I was invited to help teaching them. It was a great experience, because you have to indicate every movement very clearly (in English of course). Then, at the end of the kids class we had to teach them some basic Brazilian songs, which is so cute because they can't pronounce the words properly. Our regular class was pretty awesome again, we did a lot of feigning (which is one of my favourite things about capoeira - you get to fake a whole lot of things and when your opponent is distracted you get them). I actually managed to floor my opponent, and the teacher, myself and my opponent cheered all together. In the evening we celebrated Hallowe'en, and we did it thoroughly. I myself went as "gingerbread", and thankfully everybody got the pun. Our wee group consisted of the Blues Brothers, Persephone, Cinderella, Pippi Longstockings and a Gingerbread. It was quite a unique band of characters. The evening was great fun, we went to the QMU (Queen Margaret's Union), one of the two student unions in Glasgow. We came home at three in the evening, it was brilliant fun.
Yesterday was a very quiet day, the only drawback was that internet was down for the day, which this blog post is delayed by a day. I'm back at Hessilhead now for the reminder of the week, leaving next Tuesday.
And for the school stuff:
Word list:
Stalked crinoids (organisms related to the starfish)
Marsuptial mammals
Arthropod
These words will obviously not come back in a hurry, but it is interesting to know some zoology terms.
The opportunities I had this week in teaching were small. The most things I learned were based on socio-cultural things, for example the visit to Edinburgh Castle and the Kelvingrove Art Gallery. All the information and folders I took with me will make some great lessons for TP.
Cheerio!
Reageer op dit reisverslag
Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
