Floraidh Clement: Life in Glasgow: Forget What You Heard

"TRAINSPOTTING IS F*CKING SET IN F*CKING EDINBURGH!!!! NOT GLASGOW!! JESUS CHRIST!!!!! WHY SAY THAT?!" I screamed at my understandably alarmed work colleague - and not for the first time, either.

It was the end of the summer, and I'd achieved the results I needed to go to the University of Glasgow. I was ecstatic and just couldn't stop casually dropping it into the conversation, like everybody else who had just got into their first choice university, I'm sure. However, not everybody was so quick to reciprocate my joy. There were many raised eyebrows and shifty looks, with tones in voices changing from gleeful to a bit concerned in a second. Every single time this happened, it would feel like my achievement was undermined, somehow, and suddenly my going to an excellent university wasn't that important. Which - if you're wondering - feels like somebody's just taken a dump on all of your aspirations.

Having now lived there for 4 months, I can confirm that Glasgow has the perks and downfalls of every other UK city. It has terrible areas that I know nothing but their reputation and I don't want to know any more. People who pace the streets with knives...errr, aren't always necessarily going to be chefs. Drunkenly stumbling out of a club on Sauchiehall St and loitering around in a mini skirt probably isn't going to attract a friendly passing gentleman. The risks of walking around alone at night are high and you'd be out of your mind to do so. I can't just leave my bag somewhere and assume it'll be there when I get back. Not everyone's gonna help me out.

But come on - these are not features typical of only Glasgow itself. These are the unfortunate but natural dangers of any big city, and it's frankly ridiculous to think otherwise, especially if you make these assumptions without having visited the city. But as the locals would say, keep yir wits aboot ye and you can't go far wrong. Also, surely, if you've proved your intellectual worth by getting into a top Russell Group university, you would know all ofthis anyway.

I'm yet to speak to another first year who hasn't gone a bit mental for Glasgow, voted the European Capital of Culture in 1990. There's a lot to go mental for; the West End with its gorgeous boutique bars and cafes, the complete buzz that comes from getting the actual subway (!), the picturesque green scenery of Kelvingrove Park that many would think could never exist within a city, the way you could go for weeks and never need to go to the same club twice. The locals have been nothing but friendly and helpful in my days of being a Poor Little Lost Fresher; countless times have I had to stop a passing stranger to ask for directions and each time they've stayed until I was completely sure of where I was going, even whipping out an iPhone to physically show me on the map in one instance. Plus, whilst being the best shopping destination outside of London probably isn't ideal for the ever-dwindling student loans, nobody seems to be complaining about it.

Coming to Glasgow remains to be the best decision I've ever made, even when the deadlines are piled on top of me like an especially stressful game of Jenga and with the occasional craving for a bit of countryside air. But long before the UCAS process had even began, I knew I had to move to a city. I didn't want another little 'bubble' or a small community where people knew me and I would never have anywhere to hide. I didn't want to ever feel like I had explored everything there is to explore. The anonymity and excitement that city life guaranteed was what I desperately craved and every day I'm glad I chose Glasgow to finally experience that.

"Besotted" doesn't come close to how I feel about Glasgow and I'll still be acting like a tourist and chirping about how my uni looks like Hogwarts until long after I graduate.