Scotland - Glasgow

Jessica and I have safely arrived! We arrived yesterday, Friday 07 September. <-- Look I have even converted myself to writing the date the ye 'ole English way.

We are currently trying to figure a lot of stuff out. They really kind of throw you in here and you have to fend for yourself. After finding our apartment, photos to come soon, we were off to the bank to start a bank account. Well, first to a currency exchange. We need to have a bank account, not only for our own funds, but that is where our apartment rent is drawn from. They require you to have a bank account so they can directly take the money out of it each month. Our first snag came when we tried to get a bank account. The Bank of Scotland told us that we have no credit here in this country, they require a 3 year residency, so we can not get a bank account. We can apply for what they call an Easy Account which gives us a debit card but only allows us to withdraw £300.00 at a time. I can assure you that our monthly rent is more than £300.00. Banks are closed until Monday so we will see what we can do then. Stay tuned for the next episode of: Jess and Shane vs. Bank of Scotland!

Our apartment is very nice looking. It is much larger than what we imagined it would be. As I said, pictures to come shortly. The second snag arose when we tried to take a shower. COLD WATER! After finding the hot water tank, which also runs the electric heat for the apartment, I figured out how to get hot water. But wait, there doesn't seem to be a way to only turn on the hot water. We have to run the apartment heat at the same time. This is going to be fun in the summer! Going to try and talk to the land lord to have him explain how it all works. Stay tuned for the next episode of: Jess and Shane vs. Apartment!

So is it odd that I don't exactly have my classes yet? Fortunately, I just received an email from the department head with the course layout but I don't know when they start, what time, or where. Monday I am going to try and track the department head down and talk to him about it all. Stay tuned for the next episode of: Shane vs. Education!

Today, Saturday 08 September, we are off to journey the city of Glasgow. Trying to find things, such as this library that we are in now, the church, Ikea (Cameron's you jealous?), and figure out the bus/train/underground system. The local grocery store, C0-Op, is rather small and about a 15 minute walk. We purchased a little but it looks like we will have to buy as we go.

So our status for now is: We are in Glasgow, in an apartment that we currently can't pay for, no bank account so the apartment we can't pay for is currently also our bank (hope we don't get robbed), have no way of telling time because I destroyed our clock when I plugged it in without a converter - felt a little like the travelocity gnome, no Internet at our apartment that we can't pay for, not sure how to pay for the utility bills that we are using in the apartment we can't pay for, and the whole reason why we are here - I don't know when, where, or if I have classes!! Stay tuned for more. Who knows we may be home in a couple of weeks lol.