Welcome to Stirling, Scotland

#WelcomeToStirling

Sunday, June 14, 2014

Over the last four days I feel like I've been in summer camp. :-) I wake up, eat breakfast downstairs, and head out on adventures packed with activities of immersing myself in a new culture. St. Christopher's Hostel is an easy place to meet people from all over the UK, it is situated in the heart of Edinburgh, and is walking distance to many museums, breathtaking churches, art galleries, shows, tourist attractions, stores, clubs and more. It's an easy place to meet people from all over the U.K but I'm finding as soon as I make an acquaintance, that person has taken off to their next adventure. There is a constant in/out flux of people daily in my room. As soon as you seem to get used to seeing someone, you come back to find that someone new has been assigned to that bed. 

I have been exploring the city by myself totally caught up in the culture of the people, buildings, and especially the art galleries. I have yet to encounter an art gallery in Edinburgh that isn't free and though there are many, I tend lose myself for hours in one or two a day looking at the different displays of national art, modern art, and portraits. Wednesday, June 10th, I visited the Scottish National Gallery. Upon entering, you are drawn to different brightly colored walls that guide you to such eras as Venetian art, prints and drawings, or contemporary art in Scotland. Some of the paintings are the largest in size that I have ever seen. 

You can see the size of the people in the middle against the size of the actual painting. 

Every era of art has a piece of furniture that decorates the room to coincide with the era that the paintings were done. Additionally there sitting areas for people encouraging individuals to draw or paint the art they are viewing. There are no enclosed or blocked off areas for viewing the art and this allowed me to get up close to an actual work of Vincent van Gogh AND Claude Monet painting.

Monet - The Church at Vetheuil 

van Gogh - Olive Trees 1869
This painting was done during the last of van Gogh's days that he spent in an asylum. The portrait is supposed to be a compliment to his famous Starry Night. van Gogh is to have said that olive trees have a particular meaning and significance to him. He felt that they symbolized his feelings about Christ in Gethsemane. This painting is 1 in a series totaling 18.  

Thursday, I was checked into a 5 star hotel upon meeting my Institute For Study Abroad (IFSA) instructor and my fellow classmates - HUGE difference staying in a hostel versus a hostel. The privacy, the quietness, and great stuff like room service and my own television!  The view from my window included Edinburgh Castle, said to be Scotland's most popular tourist attraction. With a bit of warning, if you're not a Dr. Who fan, you won't get the rest of the video. 

Room With A View 

After two days of orientation and a 30 minute bus ride, we all arrived at the 300-acre campus of The University of Stirling (who's campus and sites are too enormous to place this one blog entry - look soon for an update) and moved into our dorm room. Our dorm rooms are small and efficient with everything needed. There are two entries to get to your hallway on the far left and far right. Each hallway has a communal shower at the entrance of the door, followed by 4 dorm rooms as you walk down the hallway, then a kitchen and meeting place in the middle, followed by another 4 dorm rooms down the rest of the hallway. The entire IFSA group (20 of us I think) is assigned to the dorm building called the Fraser of Allander House. There are 163 rooms broken into 4 buildings but all connected.

Video of room

Hallway - door leads to kitchen area 

Kitchen area 

I am the only person assigned to the fourth floor in building four until the rest of the students for the summer semester arrive on Monday. Outside my window you can take in the Eden of lush green trees and fresh cut grass, feeling the breeze cascading through your room as you unpack, and ducks that sit outside your window waiting to be fed from your room or from the overs made in a kitchen meal.  

Fraser of Allander House 

My room has a welcome packet to include my name, a University of Stirling t-shirt, complimentary bedding and towels (you pay rental fees for towels and bedding in the UK), University of Stirling tote bag, our class schedule, and a schedule of various activities to take place before the first day of school. According to this packet the next few days are going to be quite busy! Our kitchen has been stocked with a small amount of staples that don't make it necessary to get to the grocery store urgently so I plan to head to sleep now as it looks like most students have already done. 

I will update another blog entry with the tour of the campus. 

School is off and running in two days!

Happy travels!