Just Another Day...

This morning I had a class at 10 and my first ever tutorial at 11. The tutorial was really great, the professor was really nice, he works at an architecture firm in Edinburgh and had attended the university of Edinburgh.
Of course it has been raining all day, so my tennis this afternoon got canceled which is really too bad. I decided running in pouring rain was not fun, so much for daily exercises. I did see quite a few people running this morning with their dogs though. I don't know why anyone would want to walk, let alone run, with their dogs in the pouring rain. I know from experience that walking my two dogs in the pouring rain is awful, but I guess people here are just used to the rain.
At one point when there was no rain my flatmate and I went on a journey a few blocks away to recycle all of our empty cans and bottles. It's annoying that we have to go so far to recycle. The good thing about the journey was that on the way back we found a rug store that had pretty cheap rugs. So on an impulse buy I decided to get one of those really soft sheepskin rugs, I don't think it's real, but I got it for 15 pounds, which is a little over $20. It looks great in front of my bed, and I know I'll be happy I got it tomorrow morning when I get out of bed and my room is freezing.
I got a care package from my mom today:) Full of food and stuff that I forgot, it was very nice.
My flatmate got her books that she ordered from amazon and got these vouchers for wine, spend 80 pounds and get 40 pounds off. So three of us will chip in and have wine to last us quite a while.

Accents, strawberries, and fire

I think it's amazing that even though the people here speak English, I can't really understand people. Especially the British! They talk so quickly and just kind of mumble a little bit, I feel so stupid asking them to repeat themselves over and over. The other accents are not as bad but it is still a little difficult to understand people.
After classes I went grocery shopping and found that a store called Lidl sells strawberries for only one pound! That's about $1.50. I was so excited because I was upset that grapes are 2.50 pounds, which is about $3.75. I guess this means lots of strawberry smoothies for me!
After my flatmate and I had finished dinner, the fire alarm went off...great. So out into the cold we went. Turns out a friend of ours set off alarm, a different friend from last time but for some reason apparently our friends are jinxed. Of course the firemen came to check the building and everything, but after a little while we were allowed to go back into the building.

Post Office

I found the post office today, I thought it would be necessary to find it since I will eventually need to send letters. It's actually right across from my flat, very convenient. Nothing else really exciting to report about today...pretty normal and boring, I only had one class. I have finally figured out my timetable (love how they call it tutorial) though. I have one class Monday, two on Tuesday, a class and a tutorial on Wednesday, three classes on Thursday and an occasional tutorial on Fridays. Sounds pretty good to me...looks like I'll have plenty of time for a job, guess I better find one quick.

Yummm

The dinner turned out to be amazing. She was cooking from about 6 till 8. I ended up making my French Chocolate Cake again for desert and I bought a baguette. The sauce for the pasta was made of onions, garlic, tomatoes, eggplants, fresh basil (from our own basil plant in our flat) and mozzarella. I am now in a food coma, I'm going to fall asleep very very soon...
Oh, here's a picture of the pasta dish, looks good doesn't it?

Burning Eggplants

I woke up around 11 today and my flatmate said she wanted to go to this chinese restaurant that was buffet style. She said she had been there with her family and they thought it was great. So at around 1:30 three of us went to Jimmy Chungs Bar and Chinese Buffet http://www.jimmychungs.com/. It was surprisingly good. Whenever I think of buffets I think of Golden Coral or Chinese 35, which are really not like a restaurant at all, just a load of fried food. This was not like an American buffet, the food was really good and it was a good price. The funny thing was that they played American rap/hip-hop music throughout the restaurant. It certainly wasn't a chinese atmosphere....
At about 3:30 I got a cab to go to my tennis tryouts, that were about 15 minutes (by car) away. The tennis tryouts went pretty well, I don't know when I'll find out whether I made it or not.
Now one of my flatmates is skyping her dad in our kitchen and he is telling her how to make his famous pasta dish (I'm really not sure what it is but I guess I'll find out). All I know is that I walked into the kitchen to the smell of burnt eggplants...but my flatmate does tend to burn everything, hopefully she wont burn the rest of the dish. I'm sure it is going to be very good. A few of our friends are coming for the dinner, so she is cooking for about six of us.

So Much to Do So Little Time

My list of things to do today consisted of this:
1. Find this store called Real Foods, so that I can buy poppy seeds
2. Make the cake for my flat swap tonight
3. Go to the bank, activate my card and find out how to wire money from the US
4. Go to the stores I thought about getting a job at
5. Get my books for school
6. Get groceries
Good thing I only got about half of that stuff done, I even woke up early and still didn't finish. It took me a little while to find the Real Foods place, but it was worth it. I got my poppy seeds and found that the store is a lot like whole foods, which makes me happy. The only problem is that it's a little expensive and it's pretty far from my flat.
The visit to the bank was, as always, a fiasco. It took forever waiting in line, and I had forgotten my passport. But in the end I got all of the information I needed, even if it did take most of my day.
Getting groceries was simple, at least one of the things was today.
I got one of my books for class, apparently I have to go somewhere else to get the others though, and I have no idea where...
I didn't get to look for a job but hopefully I can do that tomorrow, or maybe next Friday since I don't have any classes on Friday.

It's Raining, It's Pouring

I need some Wellies! I woke up to pouring rain this morning and it still has not stopped, actually I think it's raining even harder. I wore just my rain coat to class because it didn't look too bad, but on my way back I realized I really needed my umbrella. This is the first real hard rain I've experienced since I got here. Quite enjoyable. Of course today I'm on a mission to find poppy seeds, walking down the street in pouring rain isn't so fun. I need poppy seeds because my flatmates and I are doing this thing in our building called flat swap. This means that we are paired up with another flat and then assigned to cook either dinner or dessert. Our flat was assigned to dessert, so I suggested we make my favorite French Chocolate Cake, and the recipe calls for poppy seeds. I still haven't found them, but I'm not giving up yet! Two more classes today...lots more of walking in the rain.

Fire?

Tennis today was great. I got there a little before two and there were about twenty people there. After a little while about sixty more people got there. I couldn't believe that many people could fit on about ten courts. We ended up all playing king of the court doubles, it was really fun and I met a lot of people. I stopped playing at about 4:30. When I got back I just got into the shower and the fire alarm went off. So I ran out of my bathroom with my towel on and asked my flat mates if they we were supposed to get out of the building and they said yes. Greattt...I threw on some clothes really quick and we all went outside. Turned out a friend of mine in another flat had burned his food which set off the alarm. Never going to let him live that one down....

Rainy Days

I was just so happy to find that it was raining this morning. The good thing is that it is not raining too hard. My Introduction to the European Union class was today. This class is also in a Harry Potter type building, and the classroom looks extremely old, it's filled with old rickety wooden benches that are set up in theatre style. I thought it was kind of cool though, sitting in these old fashioned desks, in an old building, listening to an old professor talk about the history of the European Union. It should be an interesting class, there is lot of reading for it though. Once my flatmate gets back from class we are going to get our books. There's really no specific bookstore here, you really just have to search through all of the bookstores in town to find your book at the cheapest price...should be interesting. After that I have tennis, but I'm thinking it might be a little too wet on the courts, hopefully not.

Long Live the Internet!

Finally they fixed our Internet!! It was so nice to come home to working Internet after my classes....
Spanish was first today, I think it's going to be a really easy class, although I don't understand my teacher's accent. I found out what it means to be class rep, basically I am the "link" between teachers and students. So, I have to go to occasional staff meetings and give my input if necessary. Students are supposed to be able to come to me with any problems they have in the class and then I would speak to the teacher. My teacher also said that if he is doing a poor job I have the right to chew him out, harshly, haha sounds like fun to me! Not so sure about the staff meetings but I don't think it will be too hard.
The first official Architecture class was today, really fun! I think it will be a very interesting class, the professor seemed really passionate about architecture so that always helps.
After class I went to the grocery store to pick up a few things. I've never really appreciated being able to drive to the store in my car and drive home, without the trouble of carrying it all. I've realized that it's really difficult (not to mention heavy). I walk about four or five blocks back to my flat with these heavy bags, trust me it's not fun. I've learned to go more often so that it's not as heavy each time.
Skydiving society meeting tonight! Hopefully I'll get to sign up for courses!

BeanScene

This morning I went for another run at Holyrood Park, it was very nice. I got back to my flat and saw that we had gotten mail, two of the letters were for me. Finally my bank had sent me my pin number, of course they sent it twice and they haven't sent me my card yet so I can't even really use it yet. Our Internet is still not working. It's really a pain because I needed to figure out where one of my classes is today. So annoying. So I walked down the street and found a little coffee shop called BeanScene, http://www.beanscene.co.uk/, with free Wifi. So I bought myself a hot chocolate and I'm sitting at the window enjoying my Internet, they are playing the Beatles and the Beach Boys in the cafe haha, couldn't be any better. Too bad the hot chocolate was expensive, it's got whipped cream and marshmallows on it, I would certainly come back for more. Hopefully my Internet will be working again later after my classes, otherwise it will be back to the library...

First Day of Class!

Last night I decided that I should wake up at a decent hour and start to get my daily routine down. So I set my alarm for 8:30, course I didn't wake up until 9, but I didn't have classes until 2 anyway. After I got up and ate breakfast I went on a run. My flatmate had said she enjoyed running at Arthur's Seat in Holyrood Park which was relatively close to our flat. Course I had a little trouble finding it but I did, and I was just oh so happy because all of the trails were uphill, which is exactly what I wanted...I found one trail that wasn't as steep as the rest. Two little old ladies were walking their dog, the cutest Jack Russel I've ever seen, and as soon as he saw me he came up to me and jumped on my leg. The women said I must be special because he normally ignores other people, but I think that all dogs know when a person is a dog person. He even tried to run after me when I started going the opposite way. The view from the trail was amazing, at some point I will have to go back and climb to the top with a camera.
After my run I got back to my flat and found that our Internet was not working. I called customer service and they said that the whole building didn't have Internet but someone was trying to fix it. Great. Love having no Internet.
At around 1:30 I left for my first class, Spanish, with was at 2 in Old College. Old College is a beautiful building that looks like it's right out of Harry Potter. First thing I noticed in class was that I couldn't understand a word that my professor was saying, well I could but I had to listen very closely. He had a mix between a Spanish and a Scottish accent (how that happened I don't know). I volunteered to be the class representative (who knows why). Something made me do it though, no one else had volunteered and the professor looked upset that no one wanted to, so I raised my hand and said I would. Apparently it looks good on your resume anyway so I guess it's a good thing, I'm not really sure what it entails though. The people in my class were nice, although I may not be in class with them after all because I have to choose whether I want to take the class Mondays and Wednesdays or Tuesdays and Thursdays.
After Spanish I went to Architectural History, I met a few people in this class too. As soon as we sat down we were given a form to fill out to find out when our tutorials will be. Classes in the UK are split up into lectures and tutorials, lectures are obviously when you listen to the professors lecture and tutorials are when you are put into smaller groups to discuss the material. After we filled out the forms the professor said we were free to go because technically tomorrow is our first day of class.
So, other things I've noticed about classes here that are different in the US:
1. Tutorials and Lectures (I guess it's a bit like classes and labs)
2. A 60-69 grade is actually really good, it's considered a B. 70-100 is considered an A. Sounds good to me!
3. No one uses backpacks. I stick out like a sore thumb with my North Face, everyone uses messenger bags, but I really prefer my North Face
4. Under no circumstances do you wear sweatpants to class. I haven't seen a single person wear sweatpants, everyone dresses really well for class.
5. They only take three classes a semester, so awesome. I've got one or two classes a day and that's it.
So far those are the only differences I've noticed, but I'm sure I'll find much more.
After class I got back to my flat to again find that the Internet wasn't working. Sooo frustrating. So now I'm sitting in the library on my computer. I'm hoping the Internet will be running again by the time I get back. Oh and something else that's just awesome, I still haven't gotten my debit card for my bank account here, and it's been over 5 business days.

No Rest for the Weary

This morning I had the idea that I'd shower, have a relaxing day, maybe go grocery shopping, but somehow that didn't happen. When I tried to take a shower this morning the water was freezing cold and wasn't showing any signs of getting warmer. My flatmate had said that they turn off the heating for the water during the afternoon so it's possible that I wouldn't be able to get a hot shower. yea right. There was no way I was taking a freezing shower, I tried but started to get a chill half way through. So I tried lots of different things to get the water hot, it turns out there are two switches in the kitchen that you have to turn on if you want the water to be hot for a certain amount of time. Awesome.
After my hot shower I was searching on the Internet for a place to buy tennis shoes, since I needed knew ones. I found a place to buy them and the walk took about thirty minutes. Of course I had to get groceries on the way back. So my journey for shoes took me almost two hours.
So now I'm exhausted, but I got a lot accomplished.

"Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get." -Forest Gump

This morning the chicken outside my window woke me up a little before 7, when I looked out my window I saw that magically the one chicken had now become two...great. The good thing is that I was able to get back to sleep after a while. Later in the afternoon my flatmate and I went to the poster sale the University was holding. The posters were relatively cheap, so I got two more for a room. A Ferrari poster and a Beatles poster.

In the evening my flatmates and I headed over to the Chocolate Party in one of the University buildings. This was completely worth it. First we came to a table that had bags of candy, Digestives, and Nutella. So we took plenty of Digestives and smothered them with the amazing tasting Nutella. I had never tried Nutella, but I fell in love with it, which is of course going to be a little dangerous. Then we waited in another line that was leading to a chocolate fountain. While waiting in line there was a table that had some After Eight Dinner Mints which are the best chocolates in the world. So when the people running the event weren't looking my flatmates and I grabbed a handful each for later. The chocolate fountain was really cool, they had bananas and Digestives that you could dip into the fountain. So, once we were full of chocolate we went back to our flat and are now sitting in our living room enjoying our After Eight Dinner Mints. 

Registration, Societies and Food

At 8:45 this morning I woke up realizing that I had, of course, set my alarm clock to 8 pm and not 8 am, I had overslept by 45 minutes. My roommate and I had planned to get up at 8 and get ready to register and sign up for a doctor at the student health center. So I rushed out of bed and got ready to go. The view out my window showed that it would be a very nice day today.

First my roommate and I went to the student health center and got the forms for signing up for a doctor. At registration I met with my Director of Studies, who is supposed to help me choose classes and figure out my timetables. Unfortunately I was unable to sign up for Swedish language introductory course. Apparently all of the language courses at the University require a general knowledge of the language and since I know very little Swedish I was unable to sign up for the class. My other classes all seemed to work out and are in the afternoon, which is nice. My Director of Studies did tell me about a Swedish delicacy cafe that was right outside of the building. So of course I went to it as soon as I left his office. The cafe was called Peter's Yard, http://www.petersyard.com/ they had some of the best handmade crispbread and lots of other breads and sweets.

Later my other roommate and I went to the societies fair which was a lot of fun. There are a lot of very unique societies. I signed up for four societies, tennis, paint balling, skydiving, and architecture. I will actually be playing for a team in the tennis society. The paint balling society sounded like a lot of fun, but maybe a little intense for my roommate and I. The skydiving society sounded really exciting, they do a lot of training in wind tunnels and then actually go skydiving, the only problem is that it costs 150 pounds...I don't know if I can really afford that. The architecture society sounded really interesting, the first meeting is this evening. They have a lot of lectures from architects all around Europe plus they have a lot of social events so I can meet other people who are studying architecture at the University. My roommates and I are planning to go back to the society fair tomorrow because we had come late so many of the societies had left...who knows, maybe I'll join some more societies! (Love how they call them societies and not clubs like they do in the US).

Swallowed in the Sea

This morning I woke up and looked out my window thinking that it would be another beautiful day, the view out of my bedroom window was promising. Of course I was very wrong, it was raining on and off all day long. Since it was my dad's last day in Edinburgh we decided to do some sight seeing. We went out to North Berwick which is on the coast. Here are some pictures of the coast.

The White Rock is called Bass Rock, it has a lighthouse on it

The streets were lined with these bushes that had some sort of fruit or vegetable on them

Here is a close up of the fruit or vegetable

. 

After we saw some of the coast we went inland and saw all of the beautiful farmlands, with lots of horses and sheep. By this time we were hungry and decided to look for somewhere to eat. We stopped at a golf course called Whitekirk Country Club. There was a public restaurant inside called Thistle bar and restaurant. The food was amazing. I ordered the baked lasagna, which was great. I enjoy that Europeans don't give you large portions. 

My dad ordered the salmon salad which he said was very good, even though I thought it didn't look appetizing at all, but I don't like salmon.

After our lunch we went to the Tantallon Castle which was built 1350 AD and was residence for one of the most powerful Scottish families, the Douglas earls of Angus. As we were walking towards the castle the wind started picking up, and by the time we got to the castle the wind was literally whipping us in the face. I felt like the whole building was going to collapse and when i was on the top of the building I felt like the wind was going to lift me up off the building. Of course I wasn't really dressed for the weather, the wind made it freezing and my scarf made several attempts to escape my neck. But it was still worth it because the Castle was great and I got some great pictures.

After the Tantallon Castle we went back to the city and went to the Edinburgh Castle, which is a couple blocks down from my flat. The Castle was beautiful and the views of the city were even better.

Now I am off to dinner somewhere close by, hopefully it will be good! 

Nightmare on South Clerk Street

This morning my plan was to set up my bank account, buy extension cords, get groceries and get a new cell phone. Even though I accomplished all of this it took from 9:30 in the morning until 5 in the evening. The day started off well, I got my groceries, extension cords, and got my new cell phone. My dad and I next went to the bank. First problem started at the bank. I needed a specific letter from the University, but I didn't have this letter and I didn't have a printer to get the letter. So my dad and I ran around town trying to find a Internet cafe and when that failed we went to the University. This is where the nightmare on South Clerk Street comes in. It may not have been on South Clerk Street, but it was on the Universities campus, it was a game of hide and seek. Every person we talked to sent us to another place on campus, until finally someone has the novel idea to tell me to go to the library and print the letter off myself. So in the end this is what I did and got to the bank, which took another hour, but I still got the account. Unfortunately, I still have to wait 5 days until I can get my debit card. So in the end it took about eight hours to get everything done and I am totally worn out, but at least the nightmare is over.

A Calm Moment

Finally I am here in Edinburgh and have a moment to sit down! The flight over was awful, given that flying coach is never really a fun experience. Plus a seven hour layover in Heathrow airport was not in anyway exciting, even though Heathrow is one of my favorite airports. When my dad and I got to Edinburgh we went to pick up the car we rented. The car given to us was one of the smallest cars I've ever seen and trying to fit 4 huge suitcases and 2 cary-ons into it was not easy, of course I took a picture just to show how comical it was.

But I am here and settled in and that's all that matters. The flat I'm living in with three other girls is not awful, but nothing special either. After hours of unpacking and organizing I have finally gotten my room in, close but not entirely, order. Here is a picture of one side....

and here is the other side...

Next is a couple pictures of the living/kitchen area....

Like I said, nothing special but it could be a whole lot worse. 

At six this morning I heard a funny noise outside which sounded strangely like a clucking noise. I said to myself, now I'm in a city, where on earth would a chicken come from and why on earth would it be outside my dorm, surely it must be some sort of bird? I looked out my window and... 

Surprise!

Turns out there is a chicken that lives outside in the closed in area around my dorm...who knows why...

After a trip to IKEA, best store in the world, my dad and I brought in all of my cooking utensils and stuff for my bedroom. Which was when I really started unpacking and getting my room together. Later my roommate and I walked along South Clerk Street and found the most ridiculous store where you could buy almost anything you could ever want. Then it was off to a meeting about housing and now a calm moment to myself before the evening activities....

“The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” – St. Augustine

St. Augustine definitely knew what he was talking about, so I’ve decided to read a whole new chapter of the World by studying architecture at the University of Edinburgh for a year.  I’ve been traveling with my family to Europe all my life and have once stayed alone in Sweden for a month, but living completely on my own in a country that I’ve never been to can be, needless to say, a little nerve racking. Add the stress that comes along with the studying and you’ve got a nineteen year old girl shaking in her waterproof (as it rains constantly in Edinburgh) boots. But with the nervousness also comes a great deal of excitement, new people, new places and a completely independent lifestyle. A week before my great adventure, at which time my mom is starting to loose her head with worry, a friend of my moms tells me that I should keep track of all the things I do and the places I see, maybe in a blog. Thinking that I won’t already have enough to do everyday in Edinburgh I decided a blog was a fantastic idea.

It is my last full day in Chapel Hill North Carolina and it is hectic. I’ve got to pack all of my clothes for a year and make sure my suitcases don’t exceed fifty pounds (curse new luggage charges), get all of my banking straightened out so that they don’t stop my debit card, figure out what I’m supposed to do and where to go when I get there, and hope that everything will run smoothly. Let’s just hope the airline doesn’t loose my luggage, as they have a knack for always loosing my family’s luggage. But here’s a little picture of inspiration that keeps me thinking that Edinburgh will be great, I mean who wouldn’t like to live right down the street from a real castle?