There is a lot to do in Scottish Summer, especially Glasgow and Edinburgh getting all busy and buzzing with tourists. While seasonal festivals are not-to-miss, it’s not a bad idea to squeeze this new venue in between your schedule. Formerly known as the Museum of Transport, Riverside Museum, Glasgow stands proudly on the side of River Clyde. I visited there on one Sunday afternoon.

Bicycles on the mid-air track in the Riverside Museum

Once you enter, a nice spacious hall welcomes you with steam trains, old public trams and glamorous vehicles. What is unique about it is that these classy vehicles from old times are not just sitting on the floor looking grumpy like they do in traditional museums, here they all look vigorously revived: cars riding on the upward belt along the curved wall and bicycles are displayed around the cycle-racing track in the mid-air.

The whole building is structured in the way that would overcome visitors’ expectation: there is no left and right but it seems that the museum is stretching itself into various directions. And I loved it. I don’t really like following those arrows telling you where to go next. Instead, I went to see a collection of boats and had a close look into the engine room of a steam train and more in the order I like.

Big touch panel type information boards which look exactly like a massive iPhone made me feel that museums are evolving. I couldn’t help thinking I might want to sign into my Facebook account on that thing. Museums used to be a quiet place for quiet people but with all the participatory experience and a human-size iPhone, I hope it will be more active and lively with visitors from all generations.

March 11 2011 has become an unforgettable day for the Japanese or people who are related to Japan. The series of earthquakes and tsunami brought the nation-wide tragedy that our Prime Minister described as ‘the worst since the World War II’. Given the situation, the University of Glasgow organised a run event to support the Tohoku University in Sendai, one of the worst hit areas in North Japan. So I called my friends including one Japanese friend and formed a small Stirling team to challenge 5km for fundraising.

I had never run in a race since school so training started with my friends who also had no experience in an official run. Although our training was often put off by our university coursework or part-time job shifts we managed to do some slots individually. During the session, a strange feeling caught me sometimes. I was trying to do something for Japan but at the same time I was so far away from it for such a long time that it almost felt like as though it were a foreign country.  I was caught in-between two national identities. I had to somehow reconnect myself to my homeland through accomplishing something I’d never done because part of me was feeling more attached to Scotland, though not completely.

The event day was a great fun. Despite us being beginners we all reached the finishing tape and we raised a decent amount of money amongst ourselves which would then be sent to the Japanese university. Coincidentally this also closed my 3^rd year at the University of Stirling. I’m feeling more like a multi-national student now. I belong to both Japan and Scotland and perhaps more in the future. And in this way, I think I can better define myself from now on.

Going home is like going to the past, I thought. I was on the way home after I had visited my old friends in Osaka – the city of my life. I go there almost every time I go to Japan and I go to Japan almost every holiday. This time it was a little different and I felt that things are changing when one of my friends announced an engagement.

New year gathering in Osaka

Osaka is a special place to me. I think everybody has their own special place. When you go away like study abroad or work placement abroad, you realise what you miss the most. Most likely it is your home but for me it is my school in Osaka region. Despite we all departed from school to each direction to become grown-ups, I and my school mates quite often organize a meet-up. Gathering around the table, feeding my rumbling stomach the region’s best food freshly cooked on an iron plate on the table. Steam and noise arise from the cooking are seized by even louder voices of ourselves exchanging each other’s life story to fill up the time we spent apart. It was only when one of us made a wedding announcement that the party fell into silence and cheering broke out. It was great news. It MUST have been! But after the dinner, when one of my friends said to me that she’d felt as though we would be living different lives even more than now from this point, I couldn’t help thinking the same.

Going back to Osaka was going back to be a school girl for me. But not anymore since I have had to face that I am not. As time passes by, I should look into the future otherwise be drawn in holiday nostalgia.

David cooking

When I was a child, my teachers and parents said to me, ‘people who have no dreams of the future will not fly far away’. Because of those inspiring words from my parents and teachers, I followed my dream and flew to the UK.

I am studying the Pre-Master’s programme at the International Study Centre now so that I can improve my English before my entrance to the Master’s degree. I want to study a master’s degree in management or human resources management next year as I want to gain professional knowledge from the curriculum and experience.

In the future I want to be a famous chef as I can cook many delicious dishes for my family and my friends in the dormitory and they are very happy to eat my cooking. On the other hand, I would like to be a sports teacher because I have learnt a lot about professional sport from books and I like to do different kinds of sport.

I will try my best to do my dream job in the future, and if I fail or I have problems with my studies, I will keep on dreaming to overcome the problem and keep believing I will have a good life in the future.

The Loch at Stirling

I made the big decision to come to the UK as a student in the international study centre because I like the education system and the culture of the people. I arrived here about two months ago and I feel that the Scottish people are very friendly to the international students. Whenever I go to town by bus I find the Scotsmen are very gentlemanly in the way they treat people. The teachers at the ISC are very kindly to the students.

Union Street

Before I arrived in the UK, I thought t hat the streets would be very dirty, but as a matter of fact, the street is very clean and the environment is very beautiful. I also think the UK has a very good traffic system.

My life in Scotland is very different from what I expected when I was in China. Firstly, I thought I had very good English before I arrived but I find it hard to understand the locals as they have very strong Scottish accents, so I must communicate more with the local people so that I can understand better. Secondly I thought I would be cooking by myself but actually we share the cooking and the housework in the accommodation. However, so far my time here has been the same as my expectations before I left China.

Written by David (Huang Zhiyuan)

Venue: Tesco. Target: Whole salmon. Let’s do it. Just like that, suddenly appeared in our messy kitchen counter was a well-fed fat salmon from the head to tail altogether.  After comfortably lying all along one side of the kitchen counter, the fish underwent an operation.

First- clean the fish

First: clean the fish. Always make sure that the inside of the fish has been being cleaned as well as the outside. Often it is this thick skin flakes outside that smell really bad so make sure you do this properly. Preparation in this case is vital.

Then rinse it. Just so that you get rid of tiny skin flakes remained somewhere. Let the fish be nice and clean.

Season the fish! The only pity thing was the salmon was so big that we couldn’t fit it altogether in the oven. We cut the head off and made thickest fillet steaks I’ve ever seen. And marinate the fillets with just olive oil and salt (sea salt if possible) on a foil-covered oven tray. Then just leave them into the preheated oven until they are very nicely cooked.

The salmon dinner on the table

It was the meatiest fish I’ve ever had. The best taste always comes from good materials and simple cooking. It fed four hungry students but there were still a couple of massive salmon steaks left. What did I do with these? Some days later, I added some onions, potatoes and scallops and made seafood chowder which served me another happy dinner time. La vita e bella quando puoi cucinare: Life is beautiful when you can cook!

I feel more confident about myself and what I’m doing. This is a simple but honest and biggest change. Frankly talking as an international student you need to make an extra effort to cope with everything that surrounds you. Administrative process (you don’t know what the person at the desk is saying), grocery shopping (which milk to pick?), internet connecting (certainly my main cause of panic), making friends (just smile and nod at every word) not to mention the language and cultural difference meaning you might find ethnic barriers sometimes.

On top of that there is your degree. I was particularly nervous when I joined my other fellows in Journalism at second year given that I was very new to the subject and to study on the same line as British/ European students whose concerns don’t contain basic language error. I was afraid I’d get too behind everybody. It turned out that I enjoy the course no less than the most enthusiastic Journalism student. Because I love it so work hard.

Two years ago my home town was in Japan. Two years past I have more than one home town in the world. I love being in Scotland and I’m proud what I have achieved because I chose this way by myself. Now I know I could be capable of more things if I wanted to.

The more I read, the more I get addicted...

I have to say that I’m rather relieved that the summer has now officially gone. It was simply getting harder to comfort myself with air conditioners which are essential in summer in our area but gradually eats my health. Getting out of the aircraft from Munich at Heathrow airport, I was so pleased that my return to UK has been welcomed by showery and windy English weather despite those people who were clearly annoyed by the climate like a man behind me who shouted ‘it’s winter!’ as he sensed the air outside.

So here I am in a very nice and comfortable sofa in my own flat and it’s a sunny day which has been already a week or so. I’m enjoying Scottish Autumn. I still have a week to start my new term so this is what I decided in order to indulge myself. Books. OH, YES! Finally I seemed to have fallen in love with books. Beautiful literature, clauses, expressions and emotions flowing out of following pages make me experience a perfect world of satisfaction. I always knew I liked bookshops—as a matter of fact, countless visits were made to smell new books and soak myself up into the bookshop atmosphere which I totally loved but somehow never could really touch actual books.

I started out with To Kill a Mockingbird. I also read Eat Pray Love which was recommended by a friend of mine. Now I’m reading Harry Potter series of which I’m a big fan. I found the spines of the Harry Potter titles are aesthetically highly pleasing with a different combination of colours when they sit in a bookshelf altogether. This reading habit could be really addictive but I think I’d like to spoil myself as much as I can.

Me at the Byzantine Church in Naxos

As this is my last piece about my summer holiday, I will write a summary of the trip after introducing a historic spot in Naxos.

Naxos is the biggest island in Cyclades and often referred as the capital of the archipelago. Many churches and towers as well as the castle show the substantial influence of the Byzantine era which somehow resembles the sense of Asian architecture. One church we visited was built around 13^th century in the Byzantine Empire. The images are from the painting on the inner wall of the church indicating Christianity. The colour of the paint was so clear that it didn’t look more than 800 years old at all. I couldn’t help feeling that the older art gets the more beautiful it appears.

Looking back travelling with knowledge…

Greece was more than I dreamed. I did a little research of which partially I introduced in the last two pieces because I like to know the place I’m going. It doubles the enjoyment of a trip and it feels nice to be able to explain your travelling partner that which side of Parthenon’s decoration represents what battle in Greek mythology. Like this, I imagine the stories of Greek legends and why gods were everywhere in ancient Greek culture so to add more fantasy to my trip.

Most importantly I like to find out things myself. It fascinates me to discover a new thing. New knowledge also sets a next destination for further exploration. By travelling with knowledge like that, I will learn a little more about the place and people. Even after the journey is over, it sticks to my head with all other nice memory and makes me feel good every time I remember. It was such a refreshing trip I had this summer.

Paintings inside the church

Me at Parthenon

Continuing from the two previous posts about my holiday I will introduce some of the things I had learnt about Parthenon and Naxos prior to the journey. This time it will focus on the great Greek archaeology of Parthenon.

Standing on the hills in Athens is Acropolis meaning ‘upper’ or ‘edge city’. The Greek statesman Pericles who came in power around 5^th BC built what we can actually see in Acropolis today. He was one of the latest to have directed reconstruction of the city and completed Acropolis including Parthenon.

Regarding Parthenon, it is said that the most of the building was destroyed in 1687 when Parthenon was used for gunpowder storage under Turkish invasion. A massive explosion was triggered by the bombs from Venetians attempting to retrieve the power in the city. The rubble, still significant part of Greek history, was brought to UK by Lord Elgin in 1816 and has been displayed in the British Museum since then despite the political dispute over the possession of the marbles.

Looking up Parthenon, I thought I had to go to see the rest of the Parthenon. Especially the missing Parthenon parts were the sculptures where important Greek mythology was expressed. Without these, Parthenon is like an empty picture book with no pictures in it. I found a rare sculpture fitted in the top corner of Parthenon so took a photo to celebrate its survival in such threat to ancient Greek archaeology.

Greek Parthenon

Despite all that happened to Parthenon, it was still absolutely great. I was lost in town when I found Parthenon on the hill standing still. This was when I felt welcomed by Greece with such monument of history and how our trip started.The next piece will be a final of my Greek holiday.