So my hours left here are ticking down (it’s 3:00 in the morning and my plane leaves in six hours), and I figured I would write one comprehensive review that glanced over my experience here in Glasgow. Up until now, I’ve really only provided anecdotes and tongue-in-cheek complaints. But there’s obviously a lot more to this city than the airports and train stations to other places. So I’ve got a few final notes on Glasgow before I hop on my plane back to Boston.
School
The University classes I’ve taken here have been a blast. Granted, I took two classes that were unaffiliated with my program, so I had more liberty to choose subjects that I loved than most. But even without Animation and Creative Writing, there were times when I just felt like the system worked. Granted, you aren’t held as consistently accountable for your work as you are in the States. I only have one paper that counts for my entire grade in one class. And in total, you only meet for about six to eight hours of class every week, in many of our cases four days out of seven. But sometimes this opens up your experience to make it your own. Yeah, you spend a lot of days on your ass watching Youtube videos. But sometimes you get up and really look forward to taking a day trip to Arran, or walking into the city, or even sitting in a café and just reading. Sometimes you even look forward to going to class. I looked forward to every animation and writing class here, for the record. They were some of the best courses I’ve taken since starting college.
Music
This place is a melting pot of musical talent. Oasis, Bloc Party, Mumford & Sons, The Beta Band, and many, many more got their starts touring around Glasgow. This tradition has continued through the past few decades and has made for a consistently impressive live music scene. I managed to get to nearly half a dozen concerts here—Chiddy Bang, Big Boi, Blitzentrapper, Titus Andronicus, and LCD Soundsystem, to name a few. The venues tend to be small and impersonal, and all have some sort of history or reputation that precedes them. The music scene in Glasgow is something you won’t find in Edinburgh—maybe not anywhere else in the world. King Tut’s, Barrowlands, The Arches, even O2—these are places I’m going to miss.
Student Life
There is always something to do in Glasgow. If you’re feeling restless, you can go for a run (or a walk) in the park along the river—it stretches in either direction for miles and is frequented by friendly dogs and their owners. You can take a loop and head back into town, or follow the path until you get tired and have to turn around. If you’re lost, you can always look around and spot the university tower—that’s your north star.
If you fancy reading a book somewhere quiet, you can go to one of the Wi-Fi cafes at the bottom of the hill like Offshore or Sonny and Vito’s, and hang out with a book and a latte, or a scone and jam, or a bowl of museli. If you don’t have something to read, you can head to Voltaire and Rousseau’s, an old shop packed wall to wall with piles of used books, and find some gold-leafed classic there for a couple pounds.
If you’re looking for a night out, you can take a cab or a ten-minute walk to Sauchihall Street, where you can find a deal on drinks at Nice N Sleazy’s or Fire-Water—and maybe if you’re lucky you can convince your friends to come with you for some late-night stir fry at Wok to Walk. If you’re not feeling too ambitious, you can stick around and check out the scene at the Union clubs, or even at Oran-Mor (the church bar) or one of the places on Asthon Lane (see Vodka-Wodka). And if drinks aren’t your thing, you can head back toward Voltaire and Rousseau’s for tea around the corner, or see a movie at student rate (4 pounds) on Ashton.
If you’re feeling especially intellectual, you can take a quick walk to the Kelvingrove Museum, where you’ll not only find [free entrance to] a gallery full of Monet, Picasso, Van Gogh, and Dali, but also a taxidermy exhibit on the ground floor. If you’ve got time, you can take the train to the park to see the House for an Art Lover, or take the bus to the east side of the city for some theater. If it’s the weekend, the Barras Market will be in full swing, and you might find a deal on something nice, like a leather coat or a kilt suit. If your hungry, there’ll be a guy auctioning off raw meat somewhere.
Of course, if you need to finish that paper, you can always spend the day in the library. You might consider one of the top floors if it’s going to be a long day—on a clear morning, you can see the whole city through one of those big windows.
People
Glasgow gets a bad rap back in the States for being dangerous, full of drunks and criminals. The former may well be true—maybe even the latter, but that’s not what most sticks out to me about Glaswegians. People are not only polite here; they are genuinely friendly, outgoing, and extremely tolerant of tourists. Living near the university probably helped our reception, because people usually assumed that we were students once they heard our American accents. But even in the more sketchy areas, like outside Barrowlands at one in the morning, people still introduce themselves and ask how you are liking your stay in their city. It’s incredible. One night a few weeks ago a man sat down with Jon and Joe and I in a late night food place to talk with us while he waited for his friends to leave the club. At first I was suspicious—was he after our wallets? Was he drugged out? No—he had recently returned to his city after a long time away, and was so happy to be back, he just wanted to talk to people. That’s what it’s like here. I still don’t know what a Glasgow smile—at least, not the violent version.
We’ve also had a great time getting to know the other students living near us, both American and international. It’s incredible how many countries are represented in our one building—Scotland, England, America, France, Bulgaria, Ireland, Lithuania, Canada, Germany…the list goes on. For the most part, we’ve had a really positive experience getting to know our floor mates. They’ve cleaned up after us, leant us their dishes (usually unknowingly), and put up with our loud music late at night. We owe them some thanks for a great term.
I can’t really think of anything else, so I guess I’ll just say thanks for following along. I hope you’ve found some of this stuff enjoyable. Even if no one’s been reading, I’ve enjoyed posting stuff just for posterity’s sake. Some day I’ll type in ruminationsfromglaswegia.blogspot.com and reminisce a bit. It’s been a fun term.
The rest is in Jon’s hands. Until next time.
Henry
