Student Bloggers

When my fellow study abroad classmates and I got to our residence hall at the University of Aberdeen, the first person we met in the lobby was a second-semester first year from Venice who happened to be checked in already, but we didn’t know she was a first year. She greeted us, stood with us as we checked in with the receptionist and helped us carry our luggage up to our rooms. Afterwards, she showed us the best place to go grocery shopping in the area and walked us there. It wouldn’t be until dinner the next day that I find out she’s not an RA or a study abroad orientation leader or anything like that, just a really nice person.

Since I got here a week ago, every hour has felt like a day, but in a good way. This past orientation week at Aberdeen, I’ve met people from five of the six inhabited continents (an experience that I can’t quite describe, but is nothing short of amazing) and made some cool friends. I walked along the beach at night, visited pubs, went shopping, went clubbing and had an amazing time! (If you ever come to Aberdeen, I recommend a pub/restaurant down the street from the Uni called ‘The Bobbin.’ It’s a fun place, and there’s a pub quiz every Sunday night)

The food and candy here are different in small ways. First: Scottish Mars bars are American Milky Ways, Scottish Milky Ways are American 3 Musketeers, and Skittles here taste like real fruit, not factory fruit. The word ‘Soda’ here means something different, they call it ‘fizzy drinks’ here, so I just ask for coke when I order at restaurants. Another drink difference: the picture you saw above is a signature Scottish “fizzy drink” brand called “Irn Bru”. It tastes almost like orange soda, but not quite. Some people like it, some people hate it. I like it. Seafood is also more popular here than back home. 

Some word differences and other misc. differences: we call it standing in line, they call it “queuing up”. We call it a bathroom, they just say toilet. The song “Old Lang Syne” is more of a serious tradition here rather than just another holiday song. As cold as people say Scotland is, so far it’s been more windy, less cold and less snowy than Arcadia weather (people tell me everything stops on the rare occasion that they get more than a tiny bit of snow. I saw someone putting snow tires on their car today for a light covering of snow tonight). On the internet before I came here, I saw European people complaining that American public bathroom stalls have slits next to the door so you can see the person in there as you walk by. Scottish bathrooms do not have those slits, and it’s nice. It feels like a nice, sturdy stall door/wall, not the thin metal stuff in American bathrooms.

Their plugs are HUGE, and they have on/off switches so you can save electricity if you want to. I’ve been told the plugs are also about twice as powerful as American wall plugs. I can say that my phone charges faster and electric tea kettles are able to boil water faster than in America. People are always shocked to hear American tuition rates. I don’t get asked about the election as much as I expected, however my first impression of one friend was when he sat down at my cafeteria table and started loudly explaining how much he hates Donald Trump.

The political situation in Scotland is also at a climactic time. Shortly before Brexit, there was a national vote where all the people in Scotland could choose to either leave the UK and become independent, or stay a unified nation with England, Wales and Northern Ireland. They voted narrowly to stay. In the short few years since that vote, they’ve seen Brexit, Trump and an escalation of the refugee crisis. Under these new circumstances, the people here are expecting a new independence vote to be announced soon, maybe even during my time at Aberdeen. The UK political parties (that I know of) are the Tories (conservative, stereotypically portrayed as elitist), the Labor party (mildly liberal, working class stereotypes), the Green party (environmentally focused, liberal) and the Scottish National Party (primary goal is independence for Scotland, although they’re known to be pretty liberal on other issues).

It’s interesting seeing a system with more than two political parties. There is broader representation than we have in America, but there’s also a drawback I hadn’t considered. With so many parties, it’s hard for any one party to gain a true majority because the others can form voting coalitions to block it. This makes it harder for government to respond favorably towards popular mandate, when such a thing does arise. Otherwise, the political scene here strikes me as a bit cluttered with the ideas of all the different parties, but the locals seem to understand it well enough.

The idea of roommates is strange here; my dorm room is slightly bigger than an Arcadia freshman dorm room but includes a sink and only one bed. Out the door is a hallway leading to the bathroom and the stairs. The building is 5 floors tall with no elevator. I’m on the second floor (really the third floor, because over here the first floor is just the ground floor. No number). There are no RAs, as we know them. The RAs here have a lounge/office hidden behind a closed door (they met with us all and told us we’re always welcome to knock) that they stay in only during certain hours of the day/night. 24-hour service is available from the ground floor receptionists (called porters). There’s always someone there. They handle building maintenance, mail, locking and unlocking doors along with just about anything else you can think of related to the building they work in and being a receptionist in it. They’re awesome people. If you have any kind of question about anything, the person at the desk is usually the first person to ask.

On the topic of Scottish films: at Arcadia orientation, you will probably hear about 3 of them as being references for Scottish culture. They are Brave, Braveheart and Trainspotting (a sequel to Trainspotting will be out this semester). I’m here to warn you about Trainspotting.

My official review of the movie: 3.5/10, would watch again. My warning is that the movie features heavy drug themes and death, both of which I wasn’t expecting at all before watching it. What I’d heard was very contrary to what the movie was. Apart from that, the movie is just weird. I would call it a cult classic, in part because it has a small loyal following, and (not to insult Ewen McGregor’s acting, moreso the writing and directing) because it’s so bad that it’s kinda almost good. I can’t place exactly what made this movie bad because the plot wasn’t terrible (wasn’t compelling and had needless side plots), it handled sensitive issues well, it had good acting and an accurate portrayal of local culture, but something just feels missing. And feels like my eyes need to take a shower. The film is much higher quality than Tommy Wiseau's work, but doesn’t feel like it. If there exists such a thing as too much slice-of-life, this film found it. Like I said, would see again and will probably see the sequel. I just wish I was more prepared and knew better what to expect.

Of particular interest to me is Scottish money. Yes, I said Scottish, not British. A bit of history: in 1706 and 1707, England and Scotland unified their two kingdoms. Scotland was no longer an independent nation. Part of the deal, however, was that 3 Scottish banks retained the right to print their own money. One of these banks (my personal favorite because it seems to be the one best represented in the Aberdeen region) is called Clydesdale. So among the paper British Pound notes that are used as currency here are Clydesdale bank notes (in fact, bank of England banknotes seem to be in the minority, much overshadowed by Clydesdale). I haven’t been able to get a hold of any of the notes from the other two banks (a friend showed me a bill from the Bank of Scotland, however). I’ve heard that in England, Scottish money is much less common and is sometimes frowned upon, even though it’s the same currency.

Also of interest to me are the coins here. In Britain, they don’t use paper 1 pound bills. Instead, they use coins to mark 1 pound. There is a huge variety of these coins; I’ve started collecting them. So far, I’ve found 11 different ones, as can be seen above. After some googling, I’ve found that there are 25 different designs for me to collect. I will have a fun time looking for them this semester!

Another fun thing to do with British coins is arrange them in a pattern to make the royal seal. When they’re all placed together the right way, the art on the back forms an image of such. Also, since finding what appears to be a 50 pence coin marking the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, I’ve started looking more closely at every coin I get in case I find any other cool things!