Hello France!

Here are my feelings, after my first month in Glasgow, at the half of my trip to Scotland.

We have a better weather than the beginning of our trip, what permit to Yassine and me to be more motivated than the beginning of the trip.

 

A real mix between classic and modern architecture!

From the street, I saw a corridor, on the Buchanan street, I thought it was a cinema… But when I arrived at the end of this corridor, I saw a very huge and beautiful Shopping centre.

The fact is that this shopping centre is the Princes Square Shopping Centre. I had never seen a shopping centre like that, with these wood-stairs, and this architecture.

However, I bought nothing: it was essentially luxury shops. (Mont Blanc, for example)

 

Our 1^st day of visit:

As the big worker I am, I woke up at 11am, took my brunch, then I took my time.

We met up with Yassine, to go to the Gallery of Modern Art, we saw a lot of arts, some of them were incredible, some other were a little bit strange for us.

It was great to see that there were French artists’ pieces of art in this gallery.

 

 

After that, we go across the city, where we discovered a new part of the street, we found this place so beautiful, so we stopped for a picture.

 

When we arrived at the Glasgow Green Park, we discovered a very huge, and very beautiful garden, truly, I didn’t expect to find a garden as huge and as beautiful as the Glasgow Green Park, in the town centre of Glasgow.

 

After a twenty-minutes’ walk across this park, we arrived in front of this very beautiful fountain, called the Doulton Fountain.

This fountain has been created for the Glasgow Exhibition of 1888 at Kelvingrove Park, due to the fragility of its materials, this statue has been particularly vulnerable to damage. The statue has been struck by lightning in 1891. Moreover, during the 80’s a lot of vandalism acts were the cause of its damage.

Now, this fountain is in front of the People’s palace museum. And it is a really piece of art.

After that, we went to the People’s palace museum, but we found this museum not really organized, without a real sense. Maybe we don’t have the art sensitivity, but for us, this museum was not interesting.

 

Although, this day was a great first day of visits, and we were happy of our tour, and of our weekend.

 

The Buchanan View’s Summer festival:

This day was organized the Buchanan View’s Summer festival (in our student residence), to celebrate the end of the school year, the end of the exams, and the beginning of the summer.
For this day, we have been very lucky, the weather was great, and permited us to eat our free slices of pizzas, and our ice cream in sunny conditions.

We talked with a Tai student, who were here for studies, and we shared our first feelings about Scotland.

 

Our 2^nd day of visits:

With Yassine, Eirhnh (my roomate), and Panos (a friend of Eirhnh), we went again to the Gallery of Modern Art, and then I remind myself it could be great to take pictures of this horseman, with his building site cone on his head, which is a big emblem of the city of Glasgow.

This day, I took more time to watch the different pieces of art in this gallery. It permits me to better appreciate this museum.

 

After this (re)visit of the Gallery of Modern Art, we walked across the city, to the Glasgow Cathedral, as known as the “High Kirk of Glasgow”, we visited this cathedral, I thought it was huge and very beautiful, the architecture, the different decorations.

We went to the crypt, it was the first time for me I was going in a crypt. The crypt was beautiful, and there was a chorus who was singing religious songs, and prayers, it was very beautiful.

We visited a room where priests could meet other priests, or other members of the clergy.

I really liked this visit. The only thing I didn’t really like was the fact that it was a shop, inside the nave of the cathedral, I thought it was not the good place to trade.

 

After this cathedral, we went to the St. Mungo Museum of Religious Life & Art, I think it is a very interesting museum, but I was so tired to really enjoy this visit.

 

By coming back home, I found these two pieces of art in the street, I really enjoy street art generally, but these ones were meaningful, for me, a lot of significations, in one painting, I think that it is real pieces of art.

 

What a beautiful view!

An evening, I ate at the Yassine’s flat, and I discovered the beautiful view on the city he could see, and I really liked it.

 

My 3^rd day of visits, the Kelvin Groove Museum, and the Riverside Museum:

This day, I went to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum with Eirhnh, and we saw a lot of different things, animals, paintings, and other pieces of art.

 

Then Maria, a friend of Eirhnh joined us, and continued the visit with us. She suggested us to take pictures with the faces, so I would like to share to you, my best pic, with those funny faces.

 

Then, we met Audrey (a student from our school), who, in front of the Kelvinhall building, to go to the “T-rex in town” exposition. This exposition was expensive, near £10, just to see this T-rex, and to do some activities around the theme of the T-rex. These activities could permit us to learn facts about the T-rex life, etc.

It was good, but the value of it was not £10, for me.

 

After that, we decided to take the Subway, to go to Riverside Museum, which is a museum about the evolution of the transport, where we can find cars, motorbikes, trains, bicycles, and boats.

In total, there are more than 3000 pieces of art.

This museum was my bigger crush of the Glasgow City. I really liked it, I fell in love of these cars, and of theses motorbikes.

Usually, I prefer motorbikes to the cars, but this day, in this museum, I thought that cars were amazing, we could see ones of the first cars, to the new ones, and it was great.

I took some pictures for you:

 

 

My 4^th day of visits, attempt of visit for the Glasgow Science Centre, and Riverside museum again:

This day, with Yassine, we went to meet Carla (a student from our school), with 3 of her friends who are living in United Kingdom (Connor, Mitch, and Liv).

We begun by going to the Glasgow Science Centre, but Carla and her friends were not very interested about it, and told me it was more for children, so Connor went to the reception and… asked for a refund!

So, we walked across the bridge, and came to the Riverside Museum, the second time for me.

On our way, I saw this view of the Glasgow Science Centre building, I wanted to take a picture of it since the beginning of my trip, so I did it:

 

Our 5^th visit, in the Glasgow Science Centre:

This day, we went, with Yassine, to the Glasgow Science Centre, where we discovered a lot of science experiments, and a lot of facts on it, and we also saw a lot of optical illusions.

This Centre was not just a museum, in which you are just looking at paintings, and other pieces of art, but you have to be active to understand the aim of each experience, it was a very great place to understand our environment, and every existing element.

 

 

 

Edinburgh, a very beautiful city

With Yassine, we went to Edinburgh, the last Saturday, and we did a lot of things.

Do not count on me to share too much information about it, Yassine already did it on his article, based on this day, to Edinburgh!

I just share a few photographs of this day.

 

See you soon,

Dimitri

Who am I?

My name is Dimitri, I am 19 years old French student. I like playing sports (I am a basketball player), listening to music, and I am passionate about motorcycle.

I am in my first year of technical diploma in Office Management of Small and Medium Companies, and for that studies, I have to do a two-months internship, so I decided to do it in Scotland. I found Fatbuzz, then I applied for it.

Fatbuzz accepted to hire me for two months, so I prepared my things, and came to Scotland.

 

What are my first feelings about Glasgow?

When I arrived at Glasgow, everything was different, from people mentality, to the flow direction on roads, passing by the different weather (I think I saw only once the sunlight).

The first big evolution for me was the traffic flow direction: I cross a road, I have to watch at the right, then at the left, in contrary to France. It could be dangerous for me to don’t be attentive.

Then, by coming in Scotland I was not expecting to a very sunny weather, but I thought I was going to have a good weather at least one day a week! But I did not bring French’s sunshine!

Moreover, I thought It is very tiring to walk in Glasgow because of the hilly of the city. Moreover, miles are bigger than kilometres, so when I turned on Google Maps, and I saw 1 mile, I didn’t expect to walk for 10 minutes, but it took me 20 minutes!

In addition, I wanted to play basketball, or go swimming, in the city, the only sports hall I found was perfect, I could go to play basketball, go to swimming pool, but also weight room, for 38£ per month, given that I really need to play sports, so I would have made it profit very quickly. The only problem was that I needed to have an English bank account to subscribe, and if I don’t subscribe for it, I am afraid that it will be too much expensive for me.

My first feelings are that Scotland seems very beautiful, and Scottish people look very open minded, with foreign.

I did not visit a lot of the city of Glasgow yet, because I had to adapt myself to my student life, learn how to live in a student’s room, and it took lot of time.

Despite this, I planned to visit Glasgow, with a Bus Tour for example, to discover other interesting places.

I also would like to discover Scotland, more generally: for example, by going to the famous Loch Ness, and other lakes and castles.

 

 What about my first days at Fatbuzz ?

Then the Thursday, I begun my intern at Fatbuzz. With Yassine, we dare not enter in the office, but a staff member invited us to enter in.

We were welcomed by Kenny, the head of design. We present ourselves, our studies, and then we went to our desk, where Kenneth, a developer, asked us to resize images, for a website. It takes us two days of work.

The Monday was the International Workers’ Day, so the office was closed.

We came to the office on Tuesday, and then we worked with Yannick, the Marketing Accountant Executive, who asked us to find quotes and anecdotes for a Facebook page, of a mathematical school book. After that, he proposed us to look at different clients’ websites, to become acquainted with different clients.

I think the first part of my internship is a knowledge taking of the activity of Fatbuzz, and after, I will have other tasks to do.

My internship in Fatbuzz just begin, and I think it will be very nice, with very nice people, and I think my journey in Scotland will be very interesting, and I will improve my skills concerning my studies, and my English.

 

Fatbuzz Company is not like other, there are few things which make it different…

                                                                                                                                                                                            …Buzz

Buzz is the official mascot of the company, but he has other functions, the most important one are to bark at any postman who enter in the office, and help employees when they need a helping paw.

He doesn’t have a lot of spare time, but likes to play with his ball, and to go for long walks.

 

…The Buzzmobile

Beyond her Fiat 500 aspects, the Buzzmobile is a very competent car, with a very great look.

With her missing rim in one of her wheels, and her perfect outline, this car can drive up to 200mph, according to the local myth…

Batman has reason to worry, the new generation is here !

 

 

 

Dimitri Boyet, 10 May 2019