A year in Scotland

Here is the second account of a pupil returning to our school from a year spent living abroad, this time from Pablo (3º ESO).


My story begins on the 4th August 2015 at 2pm, when I realised I was going to live in another country, Scotland (Glasgow to be exact), for a year.

I had that kind of sensation that you have when you don't know how it's going to be, if you can do it, and if you are going to like the place. I had to take two planes, one to London and another one to Glasgow, and then a taxi to my new house. My first view of Glasgow was good. For one day we had no rain, but then the next few days were different in many ways. It started raining every day. And it stopped for an hour and then it could rain again or be cloudy, or even snow. They called it four seasons in one day.

But let's focus. After two weeks I started school with my brother. It was really different from Spain! First, you had to move from one class to another instead of waiting for the teacher in one class. Next, the way of teaching was really different. The teachers interacted so much with the pupils. And they prepared so many things for the students to do, like class projects, games or even contests.

I have to admit that the first day was probably the worst one. You are new in a school where you don't know everyone (probably no one). In Scotland you don't have the same name for the school years as in Spain. For example 1ºESO is called S1, which means Secondary 1. It goes from S1 to S6, but when you pass to S5 and S6 they call it Senior 5 or 6. Apart from that everything is the same at school.

Back to normal life, my family and I moved into a bigger house one month later. Now and then we visited the city centre and its shops and museums. One of the most famous museums is the Kelvingrove Museum, near the university. It has so many art works, sculptures, fossils and animals - there's a wide variety of things.

In school you had a subject called drama, which is basically theatre. You had to act like a real actor, in different situations and places. It was really fun! Also you could choose different subjects at the end of S2, which was quite good. 

One of my last experiences at school was when, at the end of the year, we went to Blackpool Pleasure Beach, a theme park in the north of England. We went for the whole day and I really enjoyed it! That was one of my last days at school, but on my last day there was an assembly at the school church where diplomas were given to people if they had made an effort and they had got good marks.

Sometimes I miss that school. But after that I visited Scotland, from the west to the east, and it was good. You got to know a different culture, place, cities, people, history and friends. So my journey ended on the 1st August 2016, when I had to go back to Madrid. That's when you notice that a year has passed and you have lived a new experience and you have changed.