What's Going Down in Glasgow Town?

Wowzers. We have been busy. With what, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you. Since arriving in Glasgow we’ve been adjusting our attitudes about not being in Edinburgh and have come to love Glasgow anew. I’ve frog-marched eleven students to five museums and three dinners, and fought valiantly to keep them engaged in our morning classes. We’ve cooked a bit, and, exhausted, watched a lot of BBC. I’ve harassed Andrea and Autumn for the news at home. I’ve plied eight of the students with Vitamin C and juice since the plague has hit our camp (so far, Ben and I have given it a miss.) I’ve been teased about how fast I walk. I don’t get why they’re not in a hurry, though: We’re in Scotland! Here are the highlights, below:

Five museums, and the best one, hands down, was the Kelvingrove Art Gallery near the University of Glasgow. They’ve just completed a major re-haul and have organized it into “stories” mixing media, painting, sculpture and artifacts to make it more accessible and I say it worked. I opted for the nearly two-hour tour last Tuesday and didn’t regret it one bit; I especially loved the exhibit on Scotland: Fact and Fiction and the Glasgow Boys exhibit on Charles Rennie MacIntosh and his wife, Margaret; they displayed panels from his tea room that I fell in love with.

We’ve had some good dinners with and without the students: a yummy noodle bar, paella and tapas, and a visit to a bier house last night that I’d been to before with the crew when we lived in Edinburgh. Today we went to The Willow Tea Room, a MacIntosh design, and had afternoon tea, which was lovely. I love tea, I really, really do. It was the first tea experience for the students and they loved it. Moose, my lone male student, especially loves tea, and told me today that he’s been drinking, “like, eleven cups a day.” I don’t love tea that much.

Our Saturday was a highlight. We trained it back to Edinburgh to meet Shan, Steve, Cals, Esme and Tim for dinner, and had fun laughing and talking all night. Shan made her famous “pig brownies” and put together a cheese plate, further indenturing me to her fabulousness for eternity. We spent the night and reluctantly drug ourselves back to Glasgow on Sunday, but I pretended for the weekend that I could just train to my friends in Edinburgh anytime I wanted to.

Tonight we’re cooking in and prepping for our goodbyes to the students in two days time. Ben has taken some good photos that I’ll try to post sharpish.

Love,
Robyn and Ben