First Full Day- Check.

Overall, today was a pretty amazing day. My first full day in Edinburgh consisted of orientation, exploring and trying my first Scottish whisky.

Orientation was basically the same as any other orientation. Boring. Way too long. Much too much repetition. The nice thing about it was the tour of the main campus that was given afterwards. That somewhat forced people into smaller groups, allowing for the group to get to know one another. From my tour group, I met several girls who I'd later have lunch (the lunch was courtesy of the ISC Orientation) with and then go grocery/phone shopping with. After realizing we weren't completely done with our shopping, one friend and I decided to set off down the street we lived on to look for stores that sold home appliances, etc. We not only found what we were looking for (hangers, hand towels, blankets) but also discovered probably half of the touristy part of the city as well. We accidently wandered our way up to Edinburgh Castle, where we watched as the sun set.

Part of Edinburgh Castle as the sun sets

It was a pretty surreal day, having finally seen so much of the beautiful city. Despite having been in the city for really only one day, its so obvious why everyone who travels or lives here loves it so much. It's unlike any city I've ever been to. Admittedly, I haven't been to all that many cities, but regardless, this one is something special.

    

 After our excursion around town, I had a little downtime to figure out how to work my phone. I obviously immediately let Sydney (who is studying abroad in London) know that I had a working phone and was SO delighted when she called me shortly thereafter.

Dinner wound up being loads of fun too. Sonia, Priya (two Haverford girls) and I joined two new friends for dinner at a delicious Indian restaurant. The owner was so incredibly hospitable, offering us free naan and a special (and free!) vegetarian dish that he made just for us. After dinner, we stopped at a pub for our first night out. Chill, adults. We have class tomorrow (meaning, we didn't go hog-wild). But three of us, being in Scotland and not wussing out with an American cocktail, ordered Scottish whisky. My whisky, Glenkinchie 12 Year (a single malt from the Scottish Lowlands), was the "malt of the month" (yay for discounted alcohol) and was pretty tasty, if I do say so myself.

After a few hours of chatting in the pub, we headed back to our respective accommodations to get prepped for school (in my case, completely figuring out my classes and where they're located). Which I still have yet to do. So, knowing that, I bid you all adieu.