Initial impressions of the United Kingdom

This post is a bit outdated. I wrote it in the first week of June, 2009 and emailed it to my friends/relatives to describe my initial reactions to life here in Scotland. Enjoy...

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So I have been promising a few people emails on how life is over here in Scotland. I thought it'd be nice to sort of outline everything that's been going on and how I'm doing and give you my contact info so you know I'm alive.

First of all, it is a transition, regardless of everything I really miss just being able to call people up for a chat or coffee or a drink. That being said though, I don't think it will take too long to break into the social circle of the university. The Institute for Gravitational Research (IGR), which is the group for whom I work, all get together around 11:15 in the common room of the department for lunch/coffee everyday. It's usually about 10-20 people. It's a bit slow this week because a lot of people are at the LIGO meeting in Orsay, France. Next week, more people should be around though. The other students also were saying that the group gets together a lot on Friday nights and weekends for various events. I mean, let's be honest here, they are all physicists and therefore striking up a conversation is a bit awkward, but I'm trying to force myself to get out and actually talk to people, if not linger in the background. I share an office with three other people but we have a window that looks over the main building of the university. It's very tranquil; lots of trees and birds.

The area in which I live is very student-esque. I live near the intersection of two huge streets. My flat is above a very posh liquor store and overlooks the road, but at least that gets me up in the morning. It's only about a 5-7 minute walk in the morning to my office. I usually walk along Byres Road which has tons of cafes and pubs and various stores. It's a bit expensive though. Compare to Pearl Street. I live right next door to this building called the Oran Mor which is a famous place in Glasgow. It's a renovated gothic cathedral that has been turned into a pub, a restaurant, a music venue and many other little social areas. It's a beautiful and awesome place, if only I had the money to go there :(. That's definitely the first place I'll take anyone who comes to visit. Diagonal from the Oran Mor, across the intersection and in view from my window is the Glasgow Botanic Gardens. It's so nice to have that so close. I can literally cross the street and go sit in the rose garden in the afternoon. They have a gorgeous, giant glass house there as well. Between my flat and the university is a place called Ashton Lane. It's a little pedestrian alley that is littered with cozy places to hang out. They have lots of places to grab a bite to eat. (You should google these locations for pictures). I also went to the cinema there with my dad when he was out here getting me settled. I think the cinema was the WEIRDEST cultural difference, but I'll mention that below.

Living in the UK is interesting. The buildings have been here for YEARS and they're not really in a rush to tear them down for renovations. The floors ALL creak; I don't know if I've been somewhere that hasn't made an enormous amount of noise when I walk. I'm so used to everything being so automated, like especially going to the public bathroom where you twist on/off the faucet, use a bar of soap and flush your own toilet. No sensors anywhere. The control is kind of nice...but weird to adjust to. Of course everywhere has a boiler heating system with those big metal heaters in all the rooms and they don't work that well, but it's okay. It is pretty cold here actually...now that the sun has gone away, it feels more like October than June. Winter should be fun.

Okay, weird/interesting/bizzare things I've noticed/have to get used to:
1. Going off of the last statement, it's still light out at 11pm and starts to get light again at about 5. VERY much an adjustment
2. Grocery stores have usually just one brand for every kind of food. Not 6 shelves of different peanut butter. More like 1/4 of one shelf.
3. The lack of technology as noted above. Not to mention their electrical plugs are huge. But I do like how every outlet has a switch next to it where you can switch off the power instead of unplugging. Convenient and energy saving.
4. Ah yes, the cinema. This is fun. So you have assigned seating...seriously, and people actually comply. The screen is about 20ft by 15ft. There's only seating for about 100 people. And (This is the best) when you buy your ticket, they ask you if you would like beer or wine for the film. BRILLIANT! Just think of how many bad movie dates could have been made so much better simply by the addition of alcohol.
5. Pubs really fulfill their namesake here (public houses). There's tons of them on every block and they really are a place to sit down at any time of day. If you want food or drink, you go to the bar yourself to order. It's basically a place to walk into when you're tired or need a break and find a little corner to cozy up in or sit at the bar to meet people. The closest one to what they're like here is Conor O'Neill's in Boulder. Just take away the waiters.
6. This is ESPECIALLY weird after living in Boulder, but pedestrians do NOT have the right of way. Under any circumstance. I've seen people run back across the road when they see they're not going to make it. So not only do I have to get used to looking to the right before I cross, since cars are coming from a different direction, I have to consciously think "Okay, is this thing going to hit me? Is that car down the road turning my way? Will I die?" This also makes pedestrians really aggressive when crossing. They cross at ANY free moment.
7. No closets. We all just have wardrobes in our rooms.
8. I have to turn on the water to the shower room before turning on the shower. That was fun to figure out. I washed my hair in the sink my first day since I was the only one up and had no one to ask...not to mention that in order to turn on the water you press a big red button. I've always been taught never to press the big red button. In any circumstance. Except when evading aliens.
9. I'm slowly figuring out what all the different stores are. i.e. Scotland's versions of Target, Safeway, Wal-mart, Kinkos.
10. You can't access Pandora.com in the UK. I found a secret way to bypass the security, but it wasn't easy and I feel bad doing it. I would be very depressed otherwise.
11. You don't have to get a cell phone (mobile phone) plan. You can go into a store and just pay for a cheap phone and minutes without ever having to sign up for anything...It's really nice.
12. This was hilarious. So my first few days here was the sunniest Glasgow has been for ages. It was sunny for about 5 days. Since most people here are as white as I am, believe it or not, I finally got to see people with worse sunburns than what I've had. I now know what people were thinking when they saw me walking around with magenta skin. Every day too, the percentage of people with crippling sunburns kept increasing. It was awesome.
13. Bowling greens are actually popular...and people of all ages use it. I don't know the rules of the game. But people bowl lots of balls across a lawn. On the aforementioned sunny days, the greens were completely packed with people of all ages bowling.
14. We have our version of Pearl Street. It's called Sauchiehall Street. It's like Pearl on crack...it's twice as wide and shaped like an L and about 5 times as long. One branch of the L is all the tacky stores like the £ store and Marks&Spencers (Like Target) and the other side is all really posh shops. At the intersection there's a sort of indoor mall (which they call a gallery). There are tons of musicians and at all times, there's at least one bagpiper playing (as far as I've experienced).
15. Finally, my keyboard is really weird. I can't even describe how bizarre it is to get used to. For example, my return key is in the shape of half a "T" as opposed to a backwards "L". I keep hitting this \ when I mean to hit return. The computers are just in general more different than I would have thought.

I'm sure I will add to this list and take things away as I experience more stuff and get more used to it. Living overseas is definitely way different than traveling. I'm still alive though and I'm glad I'm here in graduate school because it seems like a good way to meet people and socialize really quickly. Since I'm coming in at a weird time, though, I am kind of like the new kid at school...but I don't think it will take too long to adjust. I miss my life in Boulder and I definitely miss everyone. Some more than others...That's been the most difficult. Especially because I have no idea when I'll see some people next...people I'm used to seeing on a daily basis.