1 + 1 = 3?

Part of the fun of being an exchange student is meeting many new students from overseas. Glasgow's a hub for students from all over the world - including those from the fairer sex. With so many people new to the environment... sometimes 1 + 1 = 3?

Never fear though. The University is prepared for most eventualities, as Dani found out.

After all, you never know where that hot French girl has been (the label on the poster: you may have had more partners than you think):

It's an interesting university. That's all I'll say about it.

On another note... sometimes serendipity happens. It did today for me. There she was across the room =)

Castles and Whisky

The first week in Glasgow has flown by. I've been attending introductory lectures in sweltering lecture halls, meeting more exchange students, and gradually getting a feel for the place.

The uni took us on various tours yesterday, and I went to Stirling Castle and the Glengoyne Distillery. The castle is an amazing place, having been taken and retaken countless times by English and Scottish forces over the years.

You can understand why, after seeing the view from the castle. It controls the countryside for miles and miles.
The monument on the hill in the centre is dedicated to William Wallace. The weather was... Scottish yesterday. Had Scottish dew (light rain) throughout.

A succession of Scottish kings (Chad and I included) have set up their thrones at the castle over the years.

Anyways, we also went to the Glengoyne distillery. At that point, my camera ran out of juice, and so I'll have to keep it short. The whisky here is good stuff =). Nothing quite like single malt when it's free. The men working there must be the happiest men in the world - well at least the quality control guy must be.

Ceilidh

Last night I went dancing the Scottish way last night in Bute Hall. The University organised a ceilidh night for the international students. Admittedly, it's harder than it looks =) yours truly made the mistake of wearing boots there.
Anyways, ceilidh is tiring, requires coordination, and is also incredibly fun =). Strongly recommended (but don't wear boots)

On another note, I've met some pretty cool people here - a lot of Americans (some claiming Canadian nationality), some French, some Germans... and so forth. The University's pretty cosmopolitan. Oh and I ran into my first Malaysian last night. Here are Nadine (NZ) and Melanie (US) at the Glasgow Cathedral.Basically, aside from keeping Guinness in business, I've also been around the city. The cathedral at Glasgow is just amazing. The University organised a bus tour just yesterday and I'll be back again. Church services at the start of every month =)

Anyways, off to cooking dinner - having a pot luck tonight with some people. Cyas!

When it rains it pours

Unfortunately the near perfect weather I had enjoyed couldn't last forever. The honeymoon is over - might as well blog.

On Sunday, I attended Glasgow Chinese Christian Church (the church of a friend of a friend). The English service wasn't bad. Pastor's name was Gordon Cheung, but he doesn't sound like a Cheung. Sermons are even more interesting in a Scots accent. Anyways he spoke from Psalm 107:4-9 about wanderers. Actually I loved the way he structured it - he just went through the passage verse-by-verse, and elucidated. It's amazing how the Bible is just so accessible. You don't need a doctorate in theology to know God - just a heart for Him.

Prior to that, i had the pleasure of having a vegetarian brunch - some of the ppl from the church met up prior to the "half-one" service - afternoon services anyone?

Anyways, today I proceeded to slice my thumb making soup... bled for abit, I kept cooking... and tonight's oxtail soup was made with sweat, blood (literally) and tears (onions) =P... didn't quite get the mix right though... possibly too much paprika and water.

What else did I get up to? Well I met up with Severine, a French architecture student to see the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. Amazing place, featuring a famous painting by Dali, and various other brilliant pieces of artwork. I'll definitely be back again, this time with a working camera. Also, we were lucky enough to pay a visit when the organ recital was on - given I'm practically a philistine in the area of art, the only piece i recognised was the soundtrack from Babe =P. But honestly, I could probably spend 3 days in that museum.

Anyways, time to sign off for now. Planning to watch a comedy gig later (once it stops raining).

The Stew

Remember the stew I was making yesterday while waiting for the pork to cook?
Turned out pretty good =). Had a bit of a disaster boiling rice though, so had to fry some bread instead - I need to work out how to make rice properly.

Stew ingredients: some beef (preferably cuts meant for braising/stewing), carrots, spring onion, garlic, tomato, onion, soy sauce, sugar and plenty of pepper. Can't give the exact recipe, because I realise I'm turning into an agak-agak cook =P

But I cant really complain about today's meal. Another satisfied customer =)
Was in Matthews - a Chinese grocer in a less well-known part of Glasgow. While doing some shopping, came across this. Doesn't taste that good unfortunately (was feeling a tad homesick)
Lest you think that all i do is cook - well to be honest, until I left Perth I never really had the time to do it, what with ministry, work and study. But food is something I'm passionate about, along with photography.

In case you don't know, I was really into photography in high school, but I just let it fade (quite sad actually that most of us give up something we're passionate about when we enter adulthood). I'm slowly getting back into it though. I'm looking towards getting a new camera over the next few days. My current one just doesn't have the functionality I need. Given Glasgow is quite gloomy, the lighting is pretty bad and the camera doesn't have quite enough settings to tweak. Ahh well - here come's the shopping bug!