Hello everybody !

It’s almost the end of our experience in Dundee. So, this is the assessment of my personal experience.

Did you enjoy your semester in Dundee?

Yes, this semester was an awesome experience! I’ll never forgot this, it was fantastic and so rewarding! I think it’s the best part of my studies.

What did you enjoy the most?

I enjoyed all my trip! To start, I like the academic system which enable us to have time to do sport, to go out, and to visit the country. I think what I enjoyed the most was all the trips in Scotland. Scotland it’s a very beautiful country and you can see so many beautiful things: mountains, lakes, the amazing landscape with its cliffs, the old cities…

I particularly enjoyed the trip ain Arbroath Cliffs, it was extraordinary and so beautiful, I think it was the most beautiful things I seen in Scotland.

Arbroath Cliffs

But I really enjoyed my trip in Edinburgh too. Edinburgh is a very beautiful city with lots of things to do. You can walk in the old city where there are lots of shops, you can visit monuments, museums, the castle and more, and you can also climb some hills. I recommend especially to visit the National Scottish Museum which is very entertaining and to climb the hill to the Arthur’s seat where you have the most beautiful view of Edinburgh.

Arthur’s Seat

How did you like the courses?

I really like the Scottish academic system, I prefer it than the French system.

I liked my 3 courses which met my expectations. The course I preferred was International Financial Accounting because it’s lots of calculations and my professor was very good.

Would you recommend spending a semester in Dundee?

Of course! Everybody should spend a semester abroad, it’s the best experience for a student!

Today English is very important, so you have to speak a good English and the best method to improve your English is to go in an English-speaker country. Moreover, it’s very good when recruiters see you spent a semester abroad in your CV.

I think Dundee is a good choice for a semester abroad. Dundee is situated in an English-speaking country so if you want to improve your English it’s a good point. But the main reason why you should choice Dundee is because Scotland is an amazing country. People in Scotland are very nice, and it’s a so beautiful country with lots of fantastic things to see!

What did this experience bring to you?

I decided to do a semester abroad principally to improve my English. And I think I really get it better, especially in oral comprehension and at speaking.

Then, this experience allowed me to discover the beautiful country of Scotland and the Scottish culture. And a semester abroad permit the open-mindedness that is, I think, a good point.

To finish, this experience develop the independence and the socialization. Indeed, you are alone in a city you don’t know, with people you don’t know who speak a language you don’t speak really well. So, you have to speak to people to ask for help and also to make friends, so you can’t be shy. And, you have to manage by yourself in everyday life and also when you organize travels in Scotland. So, this experience really allows me to improve my independence.

To conclude, a semester abroad it’s an amazing experience that I would recommend to everybody. Dundee was a really good choice. And this experience bring me lots of good points, especially to improve my English that was my reason to leave.

I hope I made you want to do a semester or a year abroad.

Bye Bye ! 🙂

Emilie CAILLETEAU

Aberdeen, nicknamed the Granite City, with its 196 670 inhabitants is the third most populous city in Scotland. Aberdeen is a major fishing port and is the European oil capital.

Then, what can you visit in Aberdeen?

The Maritime Museum:  The maritime museum has collections of objects about shipbuilding, fast sailing ships, fishing and port history, with ship models and paintings. It includes also exhibitions about the North Sea oil and gas industry.

From the top of the Maritime Museum you can have a spectacular view of the harbour.

The entry for the Maritime museum is free.

The Tolbooth Museum: The museum presents exhibitions about local history and the development of crime and punishment. In the museum you can see the cells of the 18th century with the original doors and barred windows. You can also discover a guillotine which was used in Aberdeen in the 17th century.

The entry in the museum is free.

The Tolbooth Museum

The Provost Skene’s House : The Provost Skene’s House is a 17th century house. The house keeps period rooms, as the kitchen, the fireplaces and more, which enable to show how people lived in the 17th and 18th centuries. Then, in the Painted Gallery you can see series of religious painting, and discover the changing fashions in the Costume Gallery. To finish, you can learn about the local history, coins and archaeology on the top floor.

The Gordon Highlanders Museum tells the story of one of Scotland’s best known regiments between 1794 and 1994, the Gordon Highlanders. In the museum you can discover the period uniforms, medals, documents, maps, paintings and more.

The entry in the museum is £5 for students.

The Art Gallery: If you are interesting by modern art, sculptures and paintings, you can visit the Art Gallery which is free.

Duthie Park: The Duthie Park is a spacious park with open green spaces, different kinds of tree, flower beds and a river. The park includes also a closed space, the Winter Gardens which is an indoor garden in a glass house. The Winter Garden includes a Japanese Garden, a pink hill, many exotic plants and especially one of the largest collections of cacti in Great Britain.

You can visit the Duthie Park freely.

To finish, you can go for a walk in the Old Aberdeen which preserve the characteristics of the old town with old houses, buildings and medieval streets.

In Old Aberdeen you can visit St Machar’s Cathedral, King’s College Chapel or the Cruikshank Botanic Garden.

Cruikshank Botanic Garden

Emilie CAILLETEAU

Highland Games are a huge event in Scotland. Highland Games take place in more of 80 cities, villages, islands or castles in Scotland from May to September and it is governed by the Scottish Highland Games Association (SHGA). It combines sports, fun and Scottish culture.

Highland Games combine heavy athletic events like Caber Toss, Tug-o-War and Scottish Hammer Throw, and light events like piping, dance, running, cycling… And it all takes place in a Scottish staging, for example all competitors in heavy events must wear a kilt when they compete.

What about the Caber Toss and the Piping, two of the more famous events in Highland Games?

The Caber Toss

A long wooden pole is stood upright, the competitor takes it, runs and throws it vertically holding the smaller end in his hands. The larger end has to touch the ground first and then the smaller end has to touch the ground in the 12 o’clock position measured relative to the direction of the run. The winner is the one whose the throw is the closest than the 12 o’clock position.

Caber Toss

The Piping

There are two types of piping: the solo piping competitions where competitors play in a range of styles and the group competitions. You can see hundreds of pipers and drummers from different groups playing together and walking in unison.

Piping

Secondary events and attractions

Highland Games are not just sport events, there are also lots of other activities.

We can see principally the clan tents and lots of vendors of Scottish related goods. Visitors can have information about the Scottish roots and can join a clan if they want.

Moreover, armouries exhibit their collections of swords and armours, and they stage mock battles.

You can also see exhibitions and trials of herding dogs which highlight the breeder’s and trainer’s skills. There may be other types of Highland animals too.

In addition, various traditional and modern Celtic arts are shown like Harper’s circle, Scottish country dancing, traditional music, song and others entertainments.

To finish, if you are hungry, some food vendors are here to offer you various types of traditional Scottish foods and refreshments.

Emilie CAILLETEAU

Glasgow is situated on the River Clyde, in the West Central Lowlands. With its 599 650 inhabitants, it is the largest city of Scotland, and it is a big industrial city.

There are lots of things to see and to visit in Glasgow. So, I am going to present you the main visits to do.

To visit Glasgow, I advise you to do the City Sightseeing Glasgow tour which is a bus that takes you in all the main districts of Glasgow. During the ride, a person tells you the history of Glasgow and its monuments, the translation in French is available. The first bus leaves at 9.30 am and the last bus at 4.30 pm. The price is £12 (if you book online) for 21 stops, you can stop when you want and take another bus after.

Bus City Sightseeing Glasgow

You don’t have time to do all the stops but you can stop at the main places.

First, you can get off at the stop number 2, the Glasgow Cathedral. The entry is free and you can visit the cathedral freely.

Then, you can get off at the stop number 11, SECC. At this stop you can visit the Glasgow Science Centre which contains the Science Mall, a planetarium, Scotland’s biggest-screen IMAX cinema and a Science Show Theatre. The price for the Science Mall is £9, it’s £3 more if you want to visit also the planetarium, and £3.50 more to visit the Glasgow Tower next to the Science Centre.

The Science Centre comprises 3 floors of over 250 science-learning exhibits. It includes interactive exhibits and live laboratory experiences. In the Science Show Theatre there are live science shows with bangs, flashes, flames, crashes and explosions.

The Glasgow Tower is 127 metres high and can rotate at 360 degrees. It is the tallest freely-rotating tower in the world.

After, you can go to the next stop, the Riverside Museum. The Riverside Museum is a museum of transport where you can see old trains, bus, vintage cars, motorbikes and bicycles. You can also walk in an old street of Glasgow with shops dating from 1895 to the 1980’s.

Outside the museum you can visit a sailing ship named the Tall Ship and see how the sailors lived. The entry for the museum and for the boat is free.

Riverside Museum

Riverside Museum

To finish, I advise you to get off at the stop number 16, the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. The Kelvingrove is a huge museum with a wide range of objects and collections: exhibitions about natural history, arms and armours, paintings, sculptures… The entry for this museum is free too.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

Enjoy !

Emilie CAILLETEAU

Inverness is situated in the Scottish Highlands (north of Scotland) and it is along the River Ness. The city is one of the 6 biggest cities in Scotland and it is regarded as the capital of the Highlands.

Inverness is a very beautiful city, you really have to visit it.

To start you can see the Inverness castle which is dominating the city centre. The castle is wholly pink and you can enjoy a beautiful view of the city. Today the castle is a courthouse and is not open to the public.

Inverness Castle

In the city you can also visit the St Andrew’s Cathedral which is also pink and is richly decorated.

Near Inverness, there is the famous Loch Ness. The Loch Ness is the second largest Scottish loch with a surface area at 56 km². To enjoy the beauty of the loch, I advise you to do a boat trip on the loch. During the tour, someone tells you the history and the legends of the loch, and maybe you will be able to see the famous Loch Ness Monster if you are lucky! You can do a trip in the journey or the evening, and you can also choose to do a high speed trip. Trips begin at Fort Augustus situated at the other end of the loch.

Loch Ness

Then, you can also visit the Urquhart Castle and the Loch Ness Centre and Exhibition, both situated in Drumnadrochit along the Loch Ness.

Urquhart Castle was built in 1230 on a hill along the Loch. The last of the government troops garrisoned in the castle blew up the castle when they left in 1692. So, now you can visit the Urquhart’s ruins and see the life of the noble residents of the castle at medieval times. And, on the top of the hill you have a beautiful view on the loch. The entry costs £7.90 and the visit lasts around 1 hour.

The Loch Ness Centre and Exhibition was opened over 30 years ago. The museum presents us the history of the Loch Ness from the ice age to the third millennium, so 500 million years of history, natural mystery and legend. The history of the loch is presented in 7 themed rooms via a hi-tech multi-media presentation with animations, lasers and special effects. You can discover the history of the Loch Ness Monster and learn about rumours, hoaxes and truths about it. You can learn about what has been discovered and what research has been done, and see some of the actual equipment used to explore the loch. The entry costs £7.95 and the visit lasts a little more than 1 hour.

I have presented you the main activities to do in Inverness, and I hope it can help you to organize your trip.

Have a good trip!

Emilie CAILLETEAU

In Scotland Halloween is more famous than in France and they have lots of old traditions which I’m going to present you.

First of all, the fancy dress is the most important. In Scotland lots of people disguise themselves, and not only children, teenagers and adults too! So you will probably see spirits, witches, devils or skeletons in the street if you come in Scotland at Halloween.

Then, children go knock on the doors of their neighbours to have some sweets. In the traditions, before to have some sweets, children have to sing, recite a poem or a joke. But now children just knock on the doors and say “trick or treat”.

But Halloween is not only the day where children eat lots of sweets, it’s also a day to have a party!

For the party you have to decorate your home with lots a terrifying things, especially by carving pumpkin lanterns with creepy grimaces.

Then, to animate the party, games are indispensable, and in Scotland they make games especially for Halloween.

– Bobbing for apples: This game involves trying to grab apples floating in water using the mouth and with the hands tied behind the back.

– Treacle scones: In this game, participants have to take a bite out of treacle scones hanging from ropes.

To finish, you have to cook. Necessarily, you have to buy lots of sweets for the Halloween party but it exists other specialities at Halloween, as the sausage rolls. According to the legend, a witchcraft act of 1735 forbidden the consumption of pork pastries on Halloween. This act was repealed in 1950’s and the sausage rolls became popular at Halloween parties.

There are lots of events at Halloween in Scotland, so I’m going to present you some of them.

• Scotland has lots of castle and many of them are apparently haunted. So, at Halloween there are lots of ghost tours to do, for example you can do the Haunted Tour in Glamis Castle or the Original St Andrews witches tour.

• Then, there are two popular festivals in Scotland: the Glasgow horror festival and the Samhuinn fire festival in Edinburgh.

The Glasgow horror festival takes place in the city centre of Glasgow. The festival lasts 12 hours and includes indie film screenings, costume prizes, live music and more.

At the Samhuinn fire festival you will see colourful costumes representing characters from ancient folklore, fire, musical and street theatre shows.

• In Dundee, the biggest Halloween party for students is The Legendary Halloween Party at the nightclub the Union. It’s a busy night so you have to buy your tickets before, the price is £7.50.

Happy Halloween everyone! Have fun!

Emilie CAILLETEAU

This year Abertay University proposed a student trip to the Glenturret Distillery. The trip costs £19 per person and it includes the bus, the visit of the distillery and a tasting session. You can also take a picture of the World’s largest Whisky bottle!

The World’s largest Whisky bottle !

The Glenturret Distillery is located on the banks of the Turret River in Crieff. It was established in 1775 by John and Hugh Drummond and was originally called Hosh. At that time it was a single malt distillery, and it was the first to use the pure waters of Turret Burn. It adopts the name of Glenturret in 1875.

Since 1993, the distillery belongs to Highlands Distillers which was bought by Edrington Group in 1999. Neil Cameron is the distillery Manager since 1997.

The Glenturret Distillery with its 240 years of experience is the Scotland’s oldest distillery.

It’s the most visited whisky distillery with 80 000 visitors each year.

Glenturret Distillery

The 5 steps of the fabrication of the whisky:

At Glenturret Distillery, the whisky is still made by hand, it’s the only Scottish distillery where traditional methods of whisky production are still used.

• The Milling

The Glenturret Distillery buys its malt at the company Simpsons Malt and take its pure water in the Loch Turret not far from the distillery.

The malt is ground in the grist mill until it resembles coarse flour.

• The Mashing

The mashing is done by hand, in a hand-operated mash tun, with a wooden rouser. The Glenturret hand-operated mash tun is the last remaining in Scotland.

This method enables a better control of the mash which enables to have more sugars and so more alcohol.

• The Fermentation

For the fermentation, the Glenturret Distillery uses wash backs made from wood.

The distillery have a long fermentation time of up 100 hours which enables to have particular fruity characteristics.

• The Distillation

For the distillation, the Glenturret Distillery uses traditional copper stills.

The particularity of the Glenturret distillation processs is that they run their stills very slowly which it allows to make spirit sweeter and lighter.

• The Casks

To finish, the Glenturret distillery adds some water from Loch Turret to reduce the strength of the new make spirit, and the spirit is put into oak casks. The casks are stocked in warehouses and are left undisturbed until the whisky is matured as they wish.

About 70% of the production sold is single malt, the rest is Glenturret, Malt Liqueur, Fairlie Liqueur and Famous Grouse.

Emilie CAILLETEAU

At Abertay University the sport is an important part of University life. That’s why Abertay Sport offers lots of choice of sports for everybody. You really have time to do sport so enjoy this opportunity!

Club

Abertay sport offers lots of diverse competitive sports which compete in the British University and College Sport (BUCS) leagues where they have had much success in recent years. But Abertay Sport also offers non-competitive and recreational club sports.

18 sports club are proposed in Abertay: Basketball (women and men), Football (women and men), Badminton, Hockey (women and men), Golf, Rugby (women and men), Netball, Tennis, Volleyball, Dance, Swimming, Triathlon, Boxing, Snow sports.

Elite

The Elite Athlete Development Programme (EADP) was created to help the national standard athletes to combine their studies with high performance sports. In the past, the Programme has supported athletes competing at the Commonwealth Games and European Championships.

What the EADP can provide to the athlete?

The EADP permits the successful to athletes insuring they stay in the best possible shape. The EADP provides physio therapy to ease any pains, and a financial support to enable them to make competitions around the UK and Europe. It also provides academic flexibility to insure the athletes succeed at school.

Gym

Abertay Sport also offer a gym on the campus. You can become membership for £30 per term, which is really cheap!

Gym has lots of quality equipment such as treadmills, exercise bikes, machines for arms, legs, abdominals… It is open every day: from 7:30am to 8:30pm during the week, from 10am to 4pm the Saturday, and from 12am to 4pm the Sunday.

Abertay Gym

The gym also offers a range of exercise classes at £1 for one class or £10 for a block of 13 classes: Bums, Tums and Thighs; Spinning; Tae-Bo; Stress Buster; Step Aerobics; High-Intensity Circuits.

This year there is a new exercise class, Kangoo Jumps. It is more expensive (£3 per class) because they provide you special shoes.

Kangoo Jumps classes are very dynamic and allow to develop the muscles in the whole body and also to develop the cardio-respiratory endurance. This class is a high calorie burning and enable to improve balance, co-ordination and agility.

Kangoo Jump poster

I have personally tried Kangoo Jump, Step Aerobics and Tae-Bo. I love this three fitness classes but if you have to choose just one, I advise you to try Kangoo Jump that is really fun and enable you to work the whole body.

Emilie CAILLETEAU

You are just arrived to Dundee and you are completely lost? You need a duvet, a pillow, some plates, some cutleries, some food… and you don’t know where buy all of that? Then, this guide is for you! In this guide I’m going to give you some advices to help you to make your installation as smooth as possible.

First of all, I’m going to present you the functioning of the student accommodation.

There are 4 accommodations: Meadowside, Victoria Chambers, Parker House and Lyon’s Street. In each accommodation you have several flats with several bedrooms in each flat. Each flat have 1 or 2 kitchens for all the students of the flat with table, chairs, fridges, freezers, sink, hotplate, oven, microwave, cupboards, dishwasher… You have to buy your own plates, cutleries and kitchen utensils. Kitchens are cleaned once a week by cleaners. Bedrooms are composed of one little bed, one desk, one chair, one cupboard, and one chest of drawers. You need to buy sheets, duvet and pillow for your bed. You can choose a bedroom with your own shower room, or the shower room can as well be in common. Your shower room is also cleaned but not every week it depends of the accommodation, so you must buy some household products too.

So, as you can see you have to buy lots of things when you arrive in the accommodation. And I know it’s difficult because you don’t know the city so you don’t know where you can buy all of that. That’s why I’m going to give you some advices.

First, for kitchen utensils and household products you can go in the mall Wellgate where there are lots of shop where everything cost £1 so it’s really interesting. There is also this kind of shop in the city centre.

Wellgate Shopping Centre

Then, to buy food you can go to Tesco which is a supermarket like in France and it’s not very expensive. There is also M&S which is bigger so you have more choice but it’s a little bit more expensive. The Iceland shop in the Wellgate is well to buy frozen foods because you have lots of choice.

To finish, you can go to the Primark to buy your sheets, duvet, pillow and other household linens. Primark is a big shop situated in the shopping centre Overgate which sell also clothes and which is really cheap! In the Overgate there are many other clothes shops as H&M, New Look and Topshop, so it’s a good place to shop!

Overgate Shopping Centre

I’ve tried to give you the best advices for your move. But if you have any other questions, feel free to post a comment and I will try to answer at best!

Emilie CAILLETEAU

Scotland is situated in the northern part of the United Kingdom. The total area of the country is 78,772 km² and it is home to almost 800 small islands, the most famous are the northern isles of Shetland and Orkney, the Hebrides, Arran and Skye. It has around 5.3 million of inhabitants who speak three official languages: English, Scots, and Scottish Gaelic.

We can divide the Scotland into 3 regions:

– The Upper Lowlands: It’s the South of Scotland, just over the English/Scotland border. This area is agricultural and has lots of beautiful greenery and hills.

– The Central Lowlands: It’s the area where we can find Edinburgh and Glasgow, it’s the most industrial and populated.

– The Highlands and Islands: This wild area represents about 50% of Scotland. It has the most beautiful scenery with its mountains, lochs and islands. On its 800 islands, only 130 are inhabited.

Highlands/Lowlands

There are only 6 officially recognized cities in Scotland: Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Stirling. The capital of Scotland, Edinburgh, is the second-largest city of the country with 492 680 inhabitants. The city, with its many large finance firms as Lloyds Banking Group and the Royal Bank of Scotland, is the financial services centre of Scotland. Glasgow, with its 599 650 inhabitants, is the Scotland’s largest city and is a big industrial city.

The official national flag of Scotland is the Saltire. The flag is composed of a white cross on a blue background. The cross represent the cross where Saint Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland, was crucified.

The Saltire

Politically, Scotland is a constitutional monarchy, the head of the state is Queen Elizabeth II since 1952, and the First Minister is Nicola Sturgeon the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) since November 2014. The SNP supports Scottish independence, so it legislated for an independence referendum which was held on 18 September 2014. The independence was rejected by a majority of 55%. Then, the UK Conservative Party legislated for a referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union which was held on 23 June 2016. The result is that a majority of 62% in Scotland rejected withdrawal from the EU. After this referendum the Scotland’s First Minister, Nicolas Sturgeon, announced it is likely that it have a new independence referendum.

Economically, Scotland has a GVA (Gross Value Added) of £117 billion and a GVA per head of £21 982, that it’s more than the United Kingdom and the France. The main exports of Scotland are: food and drink (whisky), refined petroleum, electronics and financial services. And Scotland exports mostly in the United States, Netherlands, Germany, France and Norway.

Emilie CAILLETEAU