Cathedral, Walking Tour and Burns Night

     On Wednesday, several of my flatmates and I didn't have class so we decided to explore a bit. We went to the Glasgow Cathedral which was beautiful -- it's massive and very gothic looking. While walking around it we had a really good view of the Necropolis, which is a Victorian cemetery that sits on a hill by the Cathedral. Afterwards we checked out the St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art, one of Glasgow's most well known attractions. We were there for about 45 minutes and the exhibits were really interesting. We then had orientation back at the university, which wasn't very exciting haha. That night my flatmates went out to a pub night but I was still feeling super jetlagged so I decided to take it easy. I feel pretty normal now though.

     Last night we went on a walking tour of Glasgow with a local tour guide (Gary) who does cheap tours for students. It was really fun, although it was freezing outside. At each stop Gary would give us some information and tell us a funny story. In front of the Gallery of Modern Art is the Wellington Statue, and we noticed there was a traffic cone on the horse's head. Apparently years ago a drunken student climbed up onto the statue and put a cone on the Duke's head, and people have been doing it ever since. There are three variations: cone on the horse's head (making it look like a unicorn), cone on the Duke's head, and cone upside down on the horse's tail. When it first started, the police were furious and took the cone down, but it was always put back by students or passersby. Now it's completely normal, and it's actually unusual when the cone isn't on the statue. I thought that was a pretty amusing story. After the tour was finished we were starving so Michelle, Anna and I went to an Italian restaurant called Pesto's for dinner. It was so good! The dishes were small so we each ordered a couple, and got mozzarella bruschetta to share. When we got back to the flat we just relaxed a bit and watched funny YouTube videos together. It was difficult to go to sleep that night though because the boys who live in the flat below us had a rager of a party and were blasting music until about midnight. I guess they went clubbing after that, because they came back at about 3am and were screaming/being rowdy outside which was pretty irritating but I suppose it's something I'll get used to haha.

     So far today I have just had class, and it's pretty gross outside right now (cold and rainy - typical Scotland) so we are just hanging out at our flat. Tonight is Burns night, celebrating the Scottish poet Robert Burns. Kirsty, Anna and I got tickets to the Burns supper at the student union building of our school. It consists of a two course meal, a "nip of whisky", and I think there is going to be live music. It sounds like it's going to be fun! Not sure our plans for the weekend yet but it looks like we might go for brunch at a cute tea house tomorrow, and I should probably start reading the massive amount of articles/book chapters for my classes.