Recent travels into Europe have given me a glimpse of how much more challenging it is to live somewhere that does not speak your native language. English is spoken in many countries, but that doesn’t account for signs and maps that I found upon arrival in Belgium to be entirely in French. While in Belgium, I met an exchange student from Brazil who was traveling for the weekend. When speaking with Dimitri, I noticed he struggled to understand me fully. My solution was to repeat phrases in different ways as people have done for me in Scotland. The communication skills that Scotland has armed me with carried over into this experience and have made me feel more self aware and more conscious of others when communicating.

A Whole New Cuisine

To me, food is one of the most exciting parts about being in a new place. Food brings people together. One of the best ways to connect with strangers, whether it be taxi drivers or someone next to you on the subway, is asking for restaurant recommendations. There are times you’ll be led places that aren’t just great eateries, but that have the best local cuisine. My mother and I were chatting with our cab driver on our way to dinner one night when she visited for a weekend. Among digressions into personal stories about his family that included details I wasn’t sure his friends even knew, he eagerly recommended a dish called “stornaway black pudding.” Black pudding is a traditional Scottish dish that I had only heard about, but still imagined to be simply pudding that is black. The cabbie couldn’t say enough about how delicious stornaway is. And when we browsed the menu at the restaurant, sure enough, our eyes fell upon an appetizer called stornaway black pudding. That evening I learned two things: always trust your cab drivers (a rule that is probably best isolated to Glasgow), and always try the local cuisine!

Embracing the Area Around You

Every city has its own history, culture, heartbeat, and rhythm. Spending time noticing the things that make a place unique is a way to make the most of your experience and also make your everyday life easier and more like home. Aside from locating grocery stores and pharmacies in your area, it’s important to know more than just the routes that you’ll travel to pick up necessities and get to classes. Most cities have train and subway systems that make it easy to get from one end of the city to another. In Glasgow, for just a few pounds, the subway can take you from the University into the Financial District where you’ll find shops and high-end cafes. Good news for Washington D.C. locals: the subway system in D.C. has prepared you for almost anything! Many smaller cities have routes that only run in a few directions.

One way I have explored the city of Glasgow is through its museums. I live about half a mile away from an internationally renowned museum, called the Kelvingrove. Not only does this beautiful and historic building excite my artistic interests, (it has a collection of infamous Impressionists ranging from Van Gogh to Monet and Matisse), but there is also an extensive section detailing the history of the city of Glasgow and Scotland as a whole. One rainy Wednesday, I stumbled upon a piece of Glaswegian art that completely changed my perspective of Glasgow and its influence on European artistic movements in the past. Located right on the University of Glasgow’s main campus is a reconstruction of a house owned by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret Mackintosh in the early 1900’s. Charles was an interior designer. He spent many years building furniture and indoor spaces that transcended the accepted traditions of the time. His rooms act as magnificent works of art. Every angle and color choice is purposeful and dramatic. Entire walls were raised to allow more light, and angular structures were built to shape the room in ways that you had to view from multiple angles to truly appreciate. This distinct style masterminded by Mackintosh became a trademark for Glaswegian style. There are now locations across the city that pay tribute to Mackintosh’s revolutionary influence. From libraries in the Glasgow Art School, to tearooms and observation towers in the city center, you can find Mackintosh’s touch all over. I’m now able to understand the past behind the old brownstone flats that I walk by each day.

These examples of language, food, and art are just a few of the ways I’ve learned about Scotland. I came here knowing that I wanted to leave with a piece of Scotland in me; a piece that changed me. How can a country change you? Through my experiences in two months of living abroad, the sheer difference has led me to turn inward and understand a bit more about myself. I am able not only to adapt to new surroundings, but to appreciate them and learn from them. It’s the difference between being a visitor for a semester and feeling like a local.