Auld Lang Syne

As my Facebook friends may already know, this morning I busted my power converter and nearly set a hairdryer on fire. Yeah, not my best morning.

Miraculously, though, the day managed to redeem itself! International Student Orientation began today so I started to meet more and more people. It’s a strange thing, suddenly being an international student. To suddenly be on the same footing with students from China, Australia, Finland, and France. To have something that connects me with people from around the world. And they are some lovely people.

A few of us took a walk around the campus in the dark (about 5 p.m.). The university is up on a hill, so we could see the city lights and the illuminated cathedral. The main school building was also lit up and looked just beautiful. I’d tell you it looks like Hogwarts, and you’d just nod and say, “Of course it does.” But here’s a fact: Warner Bros. wanted to use Glasgow University as Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies. The only reason it didn’t happen was because the university wanted too much money.

There are three activities included in orientations beyond just meetings: a social event, a bus tour of Glasgow, and a bus trip to Edinburgh. I can’t got to Edinburgh because I’ll be in France, and I can’t tour Glasgow because I have a meeting with my English Lit professor (I’m excited about that class because I think I’m the only study abroad student taking it). But I was able to attend the social event. There was free food and everyone got a free drink, so all the study abroad/exchange students showed up. There were a lot of drink options, but most of us went with beer or hard cider. I took the cider myself, a good choice considering I hadn’t eaten much during the day and they didn’t give us food until we’d been there for a while.

It was a fantastic time. There was a pop quiz on Scotland, Glasgow, and the Glaswegian dialect. All in good fun, of course, nothing serious because most of us were buzzed by then. We took the test in teams. My team didn’t get all the questions right (we knew Gordon Brown wasn’t Prime Minister anymore but had no idea who the new guy is) but we won a box of chocolates for having the best team name: Team Number Ultraviolet Awesome.

Music played and several of the French students did dances none of us recognized, but we applauded enthusiastically all the same. People exchanged names to find each other on Facebook because a good number of us still don’t have phones. At some point a girl from a student group that works to welcome international students and show them Glasgow came to our table to ask if we wanted to go to “acoustic night” at a nearby flat. Some people had other commitments, but a few of us tagged along.

A ceilidh (pronounced like “kaylee”) is a Scottish dance. One of the Glasgow students tonight said “it’s like a barn dance, except not awkward and everyone has a good time.” But originally the term just meant a get-together where people played music, sang songs, read poems, and basically shared their talents to make a good evening for everyone. Tonight, I found myself in that sort of ceilidh. Local students played guitar, a Finnish study abroad student played a song he wrote, a Middle Eastern full-time student told a funny story that had us all laughing. One Glasgow student sang a hymn, another played hymns in a flute duet, the girl who had invited us read a poem in Gaelic, another read a humorous short story demonstrating a variety of Scottish accents. Between performances, we passed around snacks and talked to Glasgow students. I finally got a definitive answer on the difference between lemonade (what we’d know as lemon-lime soda), homemade lemonade (what we’d call lemonade), and lemon squash (juice concentrate that doesn’t even pretend to contain real lemons). We were also told one or two words we should never say. My only concern is I knew them both beforehand, so I wonder what social faux pas still lurk in my future…

The best part of the evening was when they passed around copies of “Auld Lang Syne,” with translation. Before I left Minnesota, my parents told me a ceilidh always ends with everyone singing “Auld Lang Syne.” So when we sat there, forty or so people cramed into a tiny flat, all singing this song, I realized for about the thousandth time, “I have arrived.”

I’ve seen a man in a kilt. I’ve heard bagpipes (and I’m seriously considering taking them up). I’ve seen phone booths, post boxes, cars on the wrong side of the road. I’ve even met someone who spent a day with Daniel Radcliffe. Every moment, there’s a new reminder of where I am. And every time, I’m still surprised. How did I get here? It still blows my mind, and will for some time. I’m not sure I’ll ever get over it.

Yes, some things are difficult. It’s not easy to make such a major adjustment to your life. But right now? I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

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