Fire, Stirling and Isle of Arran

This week I joined an indoor soccer team for internationals. The way Scots play indoor soccer is somewhat different to what I am used to. They have very little and wide goals and you are allowed to make sliding tackles! During the match we smelled fire. A few minutes later an employee of the university came in to tell us that the James Weir building was on fire! The James Weir building is one of the biggest buildings around campus, so it was a pretty big deal. When we walked back to our flat, we saw a lot of smoke coming out of the building, but no fire whatsoever. The police is still investigating what happened, but they expect some kind of chemical reaction set the building on fire (since all the science labs are located in James Weir). All classes that were supposed to take place in JW were cancelled. Luckily for me the teacher decided to relocate the lecture. While everyone had a day of, I had to attend lecture!



Me and my flat mates explored Glasgow last week, so this week we wanted to step it up a notch. This Saturday we went to Stirling to see the castle and the William Wallace monument. The international society organizes interesting trips throughout the semester especially for international students. It is a good way to get to know new people and to see Scotland. The castle was pretty impressive, but due to the foggy weather the view was terrible. In the afternoon we visited the city and the William Wallace monument. If you don’t know who he is you can either go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wallace or watch the movie bravehard.

On Sunday we planned our own trip. Along with 22 other exchange students we went to the Isle of Arran. To get to the Island we had to take the ferry. I was expecting a crappy ferry, but it turned out to be really luxery. When we got to the Island we walked to another castle and took the bus around the island (approx. 2 hours!). Since the Island is only small there were only a few busstops. If you wanted to get on the bus you just hailed one whenever you wanted! Later that afternoon we walked down a hiking trail and visited the kings cave, located on the beach. We also saw some seals on that same beach.

Tonight I am up for common dinner. Since I have to cook something dutch I decided to prepare Boerenkool (Yes they do sell boerenkool here! Haha). For now,

Cheers!