So, I arrived in Glasgow yesterday, and, as an international student, I was welcomed by students from all the Glaswegian universities and could get a free bus ride to the uni :) I knew it before, and I had registered, but you could also register when you arrived. These volunteers were usually foreigners as well, probably because they tended to be part of the international societies, and they've organised welcoming committees every day at the airport and central station for about 2 weeks from about 9am to 6pm! O_o
I thought that was a great idea, as many students have never been in Glasgow before, and some of them have never even been abroad (especially the non-European ones), so being welcomed by friendly students and driven straight to their accomodation is a big plus, as you can feel very lost and stressed out when you first arrive in a foreign country (the most stressful being public transport, especially buses, since with a cab you can still give them the address and just relax.
So after I got to the uni and chatted with very nice people from so many countries (mainly European, but a couple of Indians as well), they kindly called me a cab and it cost only £3 to get to the flat I'm gonna be sharing for a year with Nils (he's my boyfriend), who's live here for nearly 2 years now). I must say it was so good to not have to look for accommodation and roughly know where I was going this time, although there certainly was some kind of appeal to the feeling of 'lostness' I had 2 years ago when I moved to Slough in England (and even then I directly met with people who knew the place and were to share a house with me, but I knew nothing about transport, had to open a bank account and just get used to living somewhere else, 'on my own', which was the first time for me, who'd never left my hometown in France for more than 3 months in a row ^_^)
I should get going now, got loads of things to do, including getting myself a Freshers' Pass (I will tell you about freshers' week in my next note :o))
xxx
XL
It sounds like a great start :) It's good to see they take care of their international students there (can you imagine people from Paris 3 waiting for exchange students at the airport? NOT GOING TO HAPPEEEEN).
ReplyDeleteHave fun :)
That's great !!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy, and see you soon (yes we can (c))
Emma: I know!!! But then it got me thinking ('yes it can' :p) and I just thought how hard it must be to organise such a thing! Think how many airports (okay, only two ^^) and TERMINALS there are in Paris!!! But then I suppose the ERASMUS society in Paris does something for them when they arrive (meetings, parties, etc.), but nothing of the sort, of course :()
ReplyDelete'Senks', Sab :)