Well, that went quite well…
I have finished my first semester of university in Glasgow, and it has been brilliant. Of course there’ve been ups and downs but I have to say I cannot find a single reason to regret my decision of going to Glasgow. It is a wonderful city and everything about it just feels right. I’ve not been stabbed or anything.
The culture side of my course was perhaps a slight niggle; it feels like English lit in another language at times, which I suppose it essentially is. But in reality I’ve enjoyed studying the French and Spanish texts more than anything I ever studied in English (including the shocking and highly pretentious feeling of actually thoroughly enjoying a French poem or two) and writing the essays at the end were nowhere near as painful as I expected. Even Honours essays are only expected to be 2000 words; it’s nice to know that even in a few years from now I shouldn’t be stressing out over multi-thousand word essays for weeks/months.
People are amazing; I don’t think I could have been put with a funnier, friendlier, more like-minded bunch of people at Cairncross House. As a side-note, halls are so much better than flats; being able to just wander into any of about 20-odd kitchens with all different people in them is so much less restricting than being with the same 5 to 10 people all year. So anyway, everyone I’ve met is wonderful and I love them all. Genuinely didn’t think I’d be so lucky; I think I expected every second person to be some sort of bastard.
French is brilliant. I have found a new hero in Dougal Campbell, with his ability to waffle through the Monday lecture and still make me walk away feeling like I’ve learned something. His dedication is unparalleled; the number of grammar quizzes he’s made (and I’ve subsequently attempted) is ridiculous, and I totally admire his enthusiasm for the job.
Spanish is done almost entirely in smaller tutorial groups which gives you more of a school feeling which is quite sweet; and my Spanish class at Glasgow is almost as wonderful as the one I had at Inverkeithing! We had an absolutely brilliant tutor as well, and it’s such a shame he was only here for the one semester. Still, Spanish continues to be thoroughly enjoyable, and contrives to creep towards becoming my favourite language despite the fact that I’ve only studied it for 15 months as opposed to the 8 years of French. It’s nowhere near French in terms of online resources and backup, but it’s made up for in lovely people in the class and a great teacher.
Russian’s a bit crap, unfortunately, but I’ll deal with it. I have met my nicest coursemates through Russian though, so I can’t say I regret taking the subject. Still, I can’t say the prospect of Monday Comparative Slav Grammar lectures whetting my appetite for the new year. It started off quite fun, learning the alphabet and how to read and write letters and words. Then we started learning about cases, grammar and spelling rules. It’s all downhill from here, I expect.
As with every year, I guess, there are a few people who realise that their course, their uni, or uni in general isn’t for them, and sadly two lovely people have left us. Still, I know and they know it’s for the best and I know we’ll all meet again.
It’ll be nice to be home for a bit, catch up with what’s happening back in Fife and all that; but I get the feeling come the 9th of January I’ll just be itching to get back to Glasgow again. I’m so happy there, happier than I ever thought I could be.
