Oh Edinburgh

Three academic days down! Would you look at that? Granted, today isn't over, but my classes are. I figured I'd write a blog now while I have some free time.

My first day of class was well, my first day. It's so obvious that I'm new here. Don't know any of the science buildings, don't know where the lecture theatres are inside of them; I don't even know the proper person to ask these questions. So. About my first day. I live right next to the humanities campus called Central (or George Square typically), however, my one bio class (surprisingly not the other) is located at the King's Buildings, the science campus. Naturally. Depending on where one lives, its quite a walk. From Central to King's, its about a 35 minute walk, give or take 10 minutes depending on your speed. So, living on the humanities campus, my walk is around ~35 minutes. No big deal; its a nice city. Typically students take the shuttle between campuses, which I intend to do some of the time. However, one needs her student ID to take the shuttle. I didn't have the ID yet, so my friend and I decided to make the trek to the other campus early in the morning. Her class was at 9, which she was late to, but mine was at 11 so I wandered around for a bit and settled in for an hour on the 7th floor cafe in the bio building. Class went well, although it was strange to have such a large class in such a large theatre. After that, I was done for the day so I happily walked back home.

I went to the library to pick up my ID card (yay, I can take the bus now) and made myself some lunch. I then realized that I still had to matriculate into the University and the one step standing in my way was meeting with my advisor (here they call them DoS- Director of Studies). I had to go back to the King's Buildings, figure out who my advisor was, set up an appointment and then meet with them. Luckily, my lovely advisor emailed me back quickly and I was able to see him later that day. This is where I made several mistakes. I chose to take the bus for the first time without knowing where the bus stop was. I asked a nice lady though, who gladly showed me. However, I didn't think to ask what the bus looked like though, which would have been nice since the bus stop was for several buses. After standing in front of my bus for an embarrassingly long period of time as other students stared at me and entered the bus, I got on. The bus was late so I was late to my meeting. This made me late to get back to the bus stop. Therefore, when I arrived, the line for the bus was so long that even though I made it in time, there was no room on the bus. So, instead of waiting in the VERY cold weather, I decided to walk back instead. At this point, it's very very cold and very dark. (The streets are well lit though, don't worry. I felt safe.) I hustled my way back but incidentally walked a little too far on one road and wound up passing the ONE place they tell you to not go near at night. Naturally. I wasn't there for long, so again, please don't worry.

The walk home made me late to meet a friend who I told to come by my place at 6. Luckily, I caught her leaving so it worked out. My friend was coming over to join me and a few other friends as we made dinner. The ISC (International Student Centre) was having a potluck that night, so we decided to go. In short, it was surprising how many students went and how well they can cook. The space was really too small to enjoy conversation or get to know anyone, but it was a nice night out with some new friends. Now I'm pretty good friends with the girls I cooked with, who are from Switzerland, France and the Czech Republic.

I realized later on that night that I had academic issues with some of the courses I had chosen to take, so the rest of the night I spent trying to fix my schedule and freaking out if I wasn't able to enroll in the class. It seemed like a bigger deal then. I've sorted it all out by now so everything is alright. By now, I've been to all of my classes, like them and have successfully enrolled.

Yesterday, I was testing out a class called Health and Society. However, on my way there, I realized I actually had no interest in the class. (Well, I did, but from the course description it was too much repetition of classes I have already taken.) Instead of going to the class, I decided to wander around the city and figure out where the gym was. On my way to the gym, which is probably about 10 minutes away from at most, I took the following pictures.

Arthur's Seat - So Close!

Pretty sweet, huh? I wasn't certain I was matriculated so I couldn't sign up for the gym yet, but that's one of my goals for today.

Yesterday was also nice because in my bio class, I sat down randomly and happened to strike up a conversation with the girl next to me. If what I say next doesn't make you believe its a small world, I don't know what else will. Turns out she used to play field hockey with a girl on my field hockey team now. We were both aware that each other existed, but never talked, met, etc. So it was by pure chance I sat next to her and met her. It's really nice that I did, though. Her flatmate plays for the intramural club team here so I now know about the team and can join! They have a match on Friday, but I don't have my stick and gear yet. I was told there's an extra stick so we'll see!

Other good news is that my new friends invited me over last night to hang out with them. I've finally met people from the UK now! When everything really got going, Americans were the minority. Probably about 2/3 of the people were from the UK. We decided to go to this cheesy karaoke pub for a little then headed out to two clubs.

Proof I Went Clubbing.

 The first club (Bongo) was a bust so we quickly moved to another one (The Hive), that I surprisingly liked. Both clubs had no entrance fee, probably because it was a Tuesday- lucky us. [Pictures to follow, eventually.] It played a lot of old music- music from the 1990s and 2000s so it was pretty awesome. A nice throwback and of course everyone knew the songs played so everyone was just singing along. A few of the girls and I tried absinthe for the first time. I think last night was the latest I've ever stayed out before. It was also really nice because a guy I met there walked me home (and bought me a drink!). While I didn't feel unsafe at all, it was nice having him there. Especially because I started walking down the wrong street. Stupid me. He also asked if I had done any of the tourist stuff yet and when I said no, he offered to take me to the castle or up Arthur's Seat. I took him up on the offer so hopefully we'll go to Arthur's Seat on Friday. Assuming he remembers that he told me all of this.

On the downside of all of this great stuff- I'm sick. My cold just seems to be getting worse with each day. Today being the definite worst. I'm thinking about going out to the Tesco to find stronger cold meds.

 Oh and by the way, I remember where we went the first night.  The Abbey. That's where I had the whisky.

The Pub From The Other Night
(Photo Courtesy of Rebecca)

I've successfully made my own meals for a few days (salad, clementines and pasta). Obviously very open to suggestions on easy (cheap) meals to make.  I think that's about it for now. I think I'm going to go take a nap now- not feeling so hot. Mkaaay bye.