Dear Green Place aka Glasgow

Hi everyone!

You're about to read my first blog! I will start introducing myself. I'm Michelle Rewinkel, 20 years old and third year student International Business Administration. This semester I'm studying at the University of Strathclyde Business School Glasgow.

George Square, City Chambers

I know, it’s quite a mouthful but you cannot say University of Glasgow, because that is our competitor. There are 3 Universities in Glasgow with in total 40.000 students in a city with approximately 600.000 citizens and 1.2 million in the suburbs. Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the UK. The campus of Strathclyde University has the best location of all the Universities. It is right in the city centre! Within 5 minutes I am standing on George Square, the main square of Glasgow. The city has cemented its reputation for offering the UK’s best shopping outside London, from the Italian Centre in the Merchant City, to the exclusive, designer label parade of Ingram Street, right through to the delicatessens and boutique shops of the fashionable West End, where you can grab a drink in one of the many pubs on Ashton and Creswell Lane.

I arrived on Sunday September 18th. You might think that’s late? Well, the semester starts here at the end of September. My first class was on September 27^th. So I had a long holiday! I had my first incident when I was boarding. I bursted my Identity Card, whoops! I contacted the Dutch Embassy and they left the choice to apply for a new one with me. Thanks, that’s really helpful! Now I still don’t know what to do. My second incident happened the first night. I have a room on campus in Forbes Hall. AMAZING! Within a few days I have met all my flat mates, Carol from the States, Chelsea from Canada, Christina from Germany, Livia from Italy and Jo Han from China. I would recommend everyone to take a room on campus even though it’s more expensive you meet so many people! Back to my incident. I was about to go clubbing when I suddenly had my door handle in my hand, not in the door. Consequently, my first night in Glasgow was waiting till 1.30am when someone finally came to fix my door so I could go to bed!

However, these small incidents are nothing compared to the fun I have here in Glasgow. It’s an incredible city and the Glaswegians are very friendly. I haven’t noticed a culture difference between The Netherlands and Glasgow yet. Perhaps I will find out more differences after a few weeks living here.



University of Glasgow

 I explored the city by a Hop-on-hop-off city bus tour. Glasgow has breathtaking Victorian architecture like the City Chambers and the Glasgow University is stunning! It feels as if you are walking on the set of a Harry Potter movie! It is one of the oldest buildings of Glasgow and it is vested in the West End on a higher level. So you have a nice view of the city.

Gallery of Modern Art



During the tour we came in contact with the Glaswegians humor. In front of the Gallery of Modern Art stands a statue. In the photo you see that there are traffic pylons on the man’s head and the horse. Every evening the police takes them off and every night Glaswegians put them back on. This is been going on for quite some years now. 

In my next blog you will hear about my amazing (!) trip to the beautiful city Edinburgh and the start of my lectures... 

See you till then!