This past weekend was my family stay in Glasgow. As a part of the "cultural immersion" aspect of my programme, IFSA Butler works with official exchange agencies to allow their students to see a different side of Scottish life. I stayed with the Hodgkins in the Castlemilk section of Glasgow. The father, John, was a Baptist preacher(originally from Newcastle, England), and the mother, Maggie(originally from another section of Glasgow), was a Religion and Ethics teacher at a local school. They had a son who I did not meet(currently working on an agriculture degree in Aberdeen) and a daughter of 15 who was with us in the evenings. Apart from being the most populated city in Scotland, I also noticed a larger amount of rainfall. Maggie told me that the West coast gets all the rain, and the east coast(where I am) gets all the wind.
This is their house. It took about 3 hours to get to Glasgow from St Andrews bus station. From there, Maggie drove us home. When I say "us", I mean me and the three other American students that were with me. We spent the first night learning names and just generally enjoying some Scottish hospitality. We spent hours sipping tea and eating scones in their living room. It reminded me of my Grandparents' house in Nashville, to be honest.
We decided to go to the East side of Glasgow. There is an excellent art gallery on the West side that I would like to see at some point, but that will have to be another trip. After our breakfast and tea, our first stop was the People's Palace and Winter Gardens. It is an elegant Victorian greenhouse attached to a social history museum. We got to learn a bit about Glasgow and enjoy a tea break in the gardens.
This was a fountain out back. I am not one of those people.
We then went to the Barras, a famous flea market. Because of my bad luck at Les Puces, I was hoping to find some better deals here. All I'll say is that I'd like to come back. We then had some steamed muscles from a fishing shop owned by one of Mr Hodgkins' friends.
Next was our visit to the Glasgow cathedral. In the catacombs were the remains of St Mungo, the patron Saint of Glasgow. Not to be confused with the hospital.
My camera really isn't great at indoor photos, but I believe that you get a sense of the beauty of this place.
A really cool graveyard out back.
We then went over to the St Mungo's Museum of Religious Life and Art. After looking around the few floors of material, we had a tea break. After that, we went across the street to the oldest house in Glasgow. Built in 1471, the house was a really interesting window into 15th century life. It also had a fantastic garden out back.
Here's the back door, leading to the gardens. People must have been really small.
We then stopped by the shopping district of Glasgow before heading back to the house. We had a cup of tea to warm our wet feet and relax before dinner. After dinner, we had dessert(or pudding as they call all types of dessert) and a cup of tea. We then moved into the living room for more conversation. And more tea. We talked about the BNP(British National Party(a controversial, far-right wing political party that has been in the news lately)), the SNP(Scottish National Party(another party that has been gaining steam that is defined by its desire to separate from England)), American politics, educational differences between the US and Scotland, regional differences in America, and basically anything you could think of. All of the American students were from different parts of the United States and were all polite individuals. So, I'd like to think that we gave a positive, yet fair, impression of American viewpoints. I usually try to stay away from political discussions, but these topics were less of the pro-contra abortion stickyness and more of the "so, is Obama a Democrat or a Republican"? By the end of the day, I think I'd had like seven cups of tea. It's a miracle I fell asleep.
The next morning, the family invited us to go to church with them. The whole group decided to go except for Matt who was flying out of Glasgow around 10 AM. He was headed to the Patriots-Bucaneers game in London. A bit weird to be going to an American Football game in England, but hey. I think he got a free ticket. I did my part for American Football, though. I gave the daughter an Ohio State Buckeyes Jersey as my gift to the family. I originally thought it would go to their son, but she looked really excited to have a real American Football "top".
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