39 posts tagged “university of glasgow”
I've lived in Scotland for just over a year and I've seen only a small fraction of the dramatic mountains, crumbling castles, crystalline lochs, and mythic biology that attracts so many to this ancient land. For this reason (and for someone's approaching 29th birthday), Nick and I are renting a car and setting off into the Scottish countryside for a four-day tour that will take us along the eastern seaboard, swinging left to Loch Ness, over the Eilean Ban, and onto a surely idyllic hike on the Isle of Skye.
Here's a map of our route, along with some of the anticipated highlights. Are you jealous yet?
I've been knee-deep in work on my final dissertation, a collection of approximately 600 lines of verse, of which I've written approximately 450 thus far, and I have until August 11 to finish.
After that, I'm on my way to the States for a three-week odyssey that will take me from Newark to Brooklyn to Yardley to Pittsburgh and on to San Antonio to see my family. I'm very excited about the upcoming trip, as it will be the first time that I meet Nick's family and the first time that he meets mine (at least my mother's half).
Photos from the past month to come shortly, I promise.
I've officially schlepped all of my belongings, not counting a few bottles of lotion and my favorite Calathea plant, to my new flat on Park Road and finally settled into Glasgow tenement living. The girls that lived in the flat before us were slobs. We moved into a dustbin, a trash-pit with mold on the walls, rubbish under the beds, and a year's worth of dirt on an surface flat enough to collect such. Slowly but surely, Chris, one of my flatmates, and I are sorting through the mess and making this foreign place a little less foreign.
On the upside, the location is ideal, the view from my bedroom is amazing, and the size of my closet is enough to make any clothes collector drool. Everything else will be sorted in due time — and plenty of cleaning, antifungal, and disinfectant products.
Thanks to everyone who sent their positive thoughts and prayers to Nick while he was in the hospital and continue to do so throughout his recovery. Since Thursday, he's been souped up on Co-dydramol and Diclofenac Sodium Enteric and I've been: tying shoes, buckling belts, cooking meals, washing dishes, and cleaning rooms.
On Easter Sunday we attended mass at St. Peter's Partick, followed by a scrumptious traditional Eastern European feast of perogies, ham, kielbasi, and potato latkes. While I was cooking, Nick, in all his one-armed splendor, was sneakily making me an Easter basket stocked with a various assortment of chocolates, a package of Maynard's Wine Gums, a box of chewing gum, and some fancy cider.
Frankenstein's monster after surgery.
Nick recovering nicely.
The Easter "box"sket
Easter dinner... half-eaten.
This Thursday, in honor of International Women's Day, I will be performing as part of a "Women and Animals" event at the Glasgow Women's Library in association with the Creative Writing Programme at Glasgow University.
Poet Jennifer Williams opens the evening, followed by performances by Laura Tansley, Helen Sedgwick, Kirsty Logan, and author Mandy Haggith (Last Bear, Paper Trails, Castings).
The cabaret-style event is free but please reserve a place by phoning the library at 0141 552 8345 or emailing info@womenslibrary.org.uk.
Glasgow Women's Library, Second Floor
81 Parnie St., Glasgow, G1 5RH
Women and Animals.
Last Thursday, 5 March, the editorial board of From Glasgow to Saturn, the official online literary magazine of the University of Glasgow's Creative Writing MLitt, celebrated it's 2009 relaunch with performances from featured writers in the Edwin Morgan Creative Writing Room.
The event was a total success — so successful, in fact, that the editorial board decided to host a monthly reading party for every issue. More details to come.
Classmates Nikki Cameron and Arthur Ker were among the featured readers.
What good friends!
(L-R) Nick #2, Alissa, and Nick #1
Editorial board member, classmate and friend Genevieve pours the wine.
I drink the wine.
Nikki reading her piece "Moonlight"
Richie Murby reading his piece "Sky Lanterns."
Richard Pye reading his piece "Anatomy."
Sam Tongue reading his poem "Ferry."
Shannon McGarvey reading "Storm Fishing For Souls" for John Jennett
Arthur Ker reading "Hot and Happy Chips."
Editorial board member, classmate, fellow Texan, and friend Tyler Brown closing with some words of encouragement.
Alissa posed with the Creative Writing room dragon.
Nick #2 with the dragon.
Editorial board member, classmate, and friend Jose holding the creative writing dragon.
Cimei and the dragon.
Nick #1 and the dragon.
Genevieve and the dragon.
Wine, Shannon and the dragon.
Nick #2 holding "How to Kill A Dragon" and Jaime actually killing the dragon.
Deciding to nix the Alps idea (out of the mere guilt of pretentiously saying that I was going to the Alps, I'm sure), I am headed to Barcelona and onto the Pyrenees to try my hand at some good old-fashioned Andorran sport and fodder.
I'm actually only spending a day skiing in the Pyrenees and then I'm off to Barcelona for a weekend of hedonism, Spanish style. From what I've gathered about Spain, I'm pretty sure that this means staying up to 11 a.m. drinking wine and doing pills. I keed, I keed.
Serendipitously, I just reconnected with an old friend from Texas, who actually lives in Barcelona with his fiance. I've known him since 1999, and it's been five years since I've even seen or talked to him, so it will be good — albeit, very strange — to meet up for our ten-year reunion. If someone told me five years ago that the two of us would reconnect in Spain, I wouldn't have believed them. Then again, I could say the same thing about my life for the past six months.
What a beautifully crooked road I travel on!
A view of the Pyrenees
Barcelona at night.
Early in the afternoon, Nick and I met up for lunch at the Left Bank, a surprisingly delicious sandwich shop off Gibson Road. In Glasgow culinary standards, this place is rock solid. Surprisingly, I didn't add any salt to my meal. That says a lot, really.
Afterward, we explored two of our University's most anomalous gems: the Anatomy Museum and the Hunterian Museum. Unfortunately, we spent too long staring at dissected faces, deformed fetuses, and embalmed torsos at the Anatomy Museum and arrived at the Hunterian just before closing time. In the lobby (pictured below) we did some text coordinating and planned to meet up with a group of friends at the Usige Beatha (pronounced "Ooshka Beya").
Once we'd spent a few hours at the Usige, everyone was surprisingly ravenous and headed to the Stravaigin — yet another culinary gem on Gibson! Never in one day in Glasgow, excluding homemade meals and Thanksgiving, have I eaten so much delicious food!
The following Saturday, I found an "American store" and bought up all the necessary materials make some chicken enchiladas. Talk about a taste for a sore tongue!
I can't believe that this is my university!
I'm in a state of constant amazement.
Texty McTexterson, making plans.
Marcia and Anna at the Uisge Beatha
The gang — Chris, Graham, Jose, Nick, and Anna — at Stravaigin.
Maybe it's because we're on the cusp of Valentine's Day or perhaps it's the cuddle-bug cold weather but, I swear, it seems that the rosy scent of love is inescapable. From my newly-acquired Steve McQueen locket to the ritualistic late-night consumption of my beloved Fruit Corner yogurt, I'm seeing hearts everywhere I turn.
I feel like I'm being hunted by Cupid. Actually, I'm pretty sure Aphrodite has a hit out on me but I think I'll go ahead and let her break my knees just for the sheer thrill of it.
Fruit Corner. There are comparable comparisons in the U.S. but I never bought them.
My favorite is strawberry.
Again, my Steve McQueen locket and music box
(because it's just that cool... and strangely Scottish)
