Everybody's Got to Learn Sometimes

Hey all,

So I know it's been a while since the last update. Told you I was bad with these. Things have been kind of hectic since then, what with school starting up. So, here goes.

Saturday -We finally arrived at University of Stirling at about 10 am. From there, we set up our rooms, and wandered around campus for a bit. Realizing we really would need food and pots and pans, we adventured into the downtown area of Stirling (City Center). Did you know that Stirling only just became a city in 2002? The queen granted it city status as apart of her Golden Jubilee! We wandered around, finding the cheapest stores we could (hey, we're students and the exchange rate is a killer), including the Pound Store, Pound Stretcher, and a second Pound Store, as well as Argylls. Fun stuff.

As for the dorm room itself, it is very, um, interesting. The dorms are separated into suite rooms, so there are five people living in a suite, all with their own room, then a common room and a kitchen. Fun fact: the person who designed the dorms took inspiration from a Swedish Prison....

Swedish Prison Cell

My Dorm Room - Look familiar? I mean, the bed and the desk
are switched, but otherwise... This is right at the doorway.
There's a closet to the left. That's it.

So other than a few shelves and a few inches added to the width, I'd say they did a pretty good job. The showers are another story. I guess this campus is WAY into saving energy, which I'm all for and everything, but really? I would just like to shower in peace. The showers, though they do have warm water (Lets not even talk about how the bathrooms are FREEZING.... apparently they school decided to skip out on heat in there, too), have this button. And you press the button for water. And then 20 seconds later, the water turns off. It's like those faucets you have to press to get water. Except as a shower. I mean, it's really NOT that bad, but I just needed a rant session.

Anyway, finally met all my suite mates, and they're all very nice. There's Laura, Esme, Moira, and Enga. Laura, Esme and Moira are all from Scotland, while Enga is from Germany/Taiwan (goes back and forth between the two).

On Tuesday, some girls from IFSA and I decided to visit Stirling Castle finally (Sunday and Monday were full of boring and unnecessary orientation information.... seriously felt like a freshmen in college again.). It was absolutely amazing. I liked it much better than Edinburgh (and lets be honest, Edinburgh Castle was pretty amazing....). It had a much more castle-feel to it. And our tour guide was adorable. He had this long white hair that was receding (had to be about 60) and wore green plaid pants. And had an accent. Of course. The castle itself overlooked all of Stirling. It was said that whoever held Stirling Castle held Scotland. This was because A.) Stirling Castle had a great view of the surrounding areas to see advancing armies and the hill it sits upon is naturally easily defensible, and B.) it was/is the gateway into the Highlands. The reason for this is because it sits on the River Forth at the most militarily advantageous spot. It was the easiest place to move a mass amount of soldiers across the river into the Highlands. Stirling actually used to be the capitol of Scotland. Unfortunately, as it was quite the cloudy and foggy day when we went, I don't have a good picture of the castle as a whole, but only parts of the castle itself.

Opening to Stirling Castle

Naturally, we had some fun while wandering around the castle and found the Great Hall where the kings and queens sat....

Hanging out with Royalty

So that was pretty much our day on Tuesday. Oh, and I do believe that was valentines day? No, Monday was Valentines day. Gosh, I just don't know anymore. Well, then, on MONDAY we went to dinner with a large group of girls. It was nice, but definitely need to think more about eating in, so I can save for Europe trips. I've talked to Quincy about visiting him at the beginning of my Spring Break in Germany, and then maybe meet up in Italy with the IFSA girls. It's so weird being able to say that. Like, 'oh, no big, just jumping over to Italy.' It's crazy. I still can't get over it. And talking with people in England and being like, yeah, you're close enough! I'll totally come down for a weekend. It's just LONDON. SO WEIRD. It's also crazy because the University is recognizing Prince Williams marriage to Kate Middleton as a NATIONAL HOLIDAY. So, naturally, we're just going to pop over to London with the millions of other people.... It's crazy. I think I will live here. Everything is so close!!

Well, that's all for now. I'm off for a weekend visiting Dylan in St. Andrews. Should be fun! I'll update if anything interesting happens. Hope everyone has a good weekend!