Yet Another Home
A little checking out of the city here and there gave me a good sense of belonging, and that’s what I would call a “positive starter”. Moving here has made the home-leaving feeling resurface for a while, and it was just like the first time I arrived in England. The difference is, I knew a bit better what to expect.
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GCU, The Europe Office, And New Assignments
“Glasgow Caledonian University is ranked 1st in Scotland for work experience opportunities” (ISB, 2017).
True enough, landing my short term project work here is one of the best happenings in 2017 for me. With the modern architecture, the university overall looked fantastic and The Europe Office team was absolutely welcoming. Coming in new, I set an objective for the first few days to study the projects — what they are about, what they want to achieve, and what I can do to support them. Document collection and extensive reading proved worthwhile as this knowledge allowed me to generate an analysis and a proposal for the team.
The following days of the work became challenging and extremely productive with tremendous support, guidance, and, I have to mention, “empowerment” from Mark and the whole team. While we were exploring new potential methods to convert training and physical learning environment into virtual and interactive studies, either self-paced or with instructor, I discovered another expertise area of mine working on both digital tools and module designs to enable the possibility of our project partners having access to the online materials, learning, and tasks. This will ultimately benefit them and the project as the objective of Enhance Project is to build up capabilities and improve the resources of HEIs in Vietnam in terms of Research and Innovation while one efficient way to do this is to put together a swift and effective method of transferring knowledge and practices.
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What’s up Glasgow!
Except for relentless rainfall and drizzles almost every time of the day and every day of the month, Glasgow does feel like home. The city is the middle ground of buzzy and calm — like… Leeds and London combined. Commuting to and from work is, I’d say, my best way of observing the atmosphere and having every thought possible jumbling around. Since Glasgow is more of a commercial hub, there is a modernity look to it and every here and there there are things to do and to enjoy, casually or as a tourist. What amazed me about Glasgow and perhaps Scotland as a whole is the bodies of water running across the city, which feels pretty much like when you need to move north or west, you would always run into a river somewhere on your way. And of course, River Clyde is a small piece of beauty somehow. I thought the whole spot around the Clyde Arc was iconic. I hate to compare but sort of love to say “The Clyde of Glasgow feels like The Westminster of London”.
More exploration to come!
~ Rosanich Sou