Day 2: First Trip into Stirling

Today, the day started at 8:30 am (3:30 am Michigan) we all walked to one of the main buildings on campus for an orientation that included breakfast and lunch.  Breakfast consisted of sausage, scrambled eggs, ham, and bread.  For lunch they served us some mini sandwiches.  They had several different kinds and you could choose between "A Taste of America," or "A Taste of Europe".  I tried a few of them, but the most interesting one consisted of cranberries and turkey on white bread.  After the orientation, we went on a walking tour of the campus.  The campus is huge and so beautiful.  There are bunnies EVERYWHERE!  If you go for a walk across the campus, you will probably see 30 of them.  A friend and I decided that bunnies are the squirrels of Scotland.  They actually do have squirrels here,too, but I have only seen a few of them.

The University of Stirling Campus

After the walking tour we returned to the building we were at earlier for a short presentation about Stirling.  After the presentation, we were supposed to take a tour of the city of Stirling.  The Staff told us where to go to find the buses.  I followed a few people out side because I had no idea where we were supposed to go.  We thought we were going in the right direction, but then we realized no one was following us.  After wandering around trying to find the buses, we decided to walk to University Entrance in hopes that the buses would drive past and pick us up.  Luckily our plan worked and we were able to go on the tour.  We stopped at a few main sites, including Dunblane Cathedral, the site of the Battle of Bannockburn, and Stirling castle, but we didn't really get much time to check them out.

Dunblane Cathedral

Statue at the site of the Battle of Bannockburn

One of the amazing views from Stirling Castle

We also got to spend some time at the mall and Tesco, one of the main grocery stores here.  I bought a few of the essentials that I forgot to bring with me.  All of the program staff here have pretty easy to understand accents, but while we were shopping I had my first encounter with a thick Scottish accent.  One of the cashiers at a store was asking me and a friend where where we were from and what classes we were taking, but it took few minutes to understand what he was asking.  We had to ask him to repeat himself a few times.  I hope I will get better at deciphering the Scottish accent as time goes on.  It was definitely a busy day and we didn't get back to our flats until 6:30pm.  I am exhausted.  My classes, Scotland on Screen and Scottish History, start tomorrow morning.  Tonight I think I am going to make a quick dinner, watch Braveheart (it is required for my Scotland on Screen class) and go to bed early.