An enthusiastic group of headteachers from Botswana recently arrived at Strathclyde University to begin their two-year management course. They were duly shown their accommodation, given the best of hospitality - as you would expect - and encouraged to settle in.
The heads, however, had other ideas. Coming, as geographers will testify, from a landlocked country, they were desperate to fulfil a lifetime dream. “When will you take us to see the ocean?” they demanded of the course leaders.
We are sure the tutors considered all the options, including some golden beach on the west coast, lapped by Atlantic waves, home to seals and gulls, and open to the changing elements. Budgets obviously determined the outcome and the heads were ferried down to Greenock. See culture shock.