January 16th

I have so much free time; I don’t know what to do with myself. I have been sleeping in, bumming around the flat, walking around the city and shopping, and eating, and getting to know my flatmates more. I am excited to start my modules (classes) Monday!

This is the first night everyone from the flat

was here, so we went out to Shakespears.

Then, we got into another school's club using

international student ID cards, haha.

My flatmates: Lea, Megan, Liz and Price ^

I am taking three classes: Molecules and Cells, 19th Century Literature and Culture 1, and Scottish Culture and Society. It should be a lot easier because I only have 3 classes to worry about and each class is only once a week. I do have tutorials sometimes too though… but I am not quite sure what those are.

A fun day

Yesterday we went shopping on Princes Street and to an underground mall. I get a couple things at H&M and had fun looking around. Then there was an international gathering at the Gold Tavern. It was great to meet more people from Napier. There were many US students, but many from all over Europe too!

How far will I walk a day?

On the third day, I saw the school for the first time. There are a few small campuses and they are spread out across a few neighbourhoods in the city. We didn’t realize that to get to the furthest campus it was going to be an hour walk on snowy sidewalks. We made it fine and on time though. Then, going to a Walmark-like store was another adventure. When we left out bags were full and heavy. We walked to a bus stop, rode the bus, walked some more, then up 2 flights of stairs to our flat! … it was quite the journey!

There are mice?

We discovered mice in our kitchen! Liz caught one in a box and we put him outside… but then we saw another mouse! We told one of the senior residences, and he came over to the rescue. He tried to catch him, but he couldn’t… and he advised us that when we catch one, not to pick it up by its tail…. Because it might fall off… !!! He then and gave us a lazar thing that sends high-pitched sonar waves that only mice can hear and told us to call Mr. RATcliffe for our mouse problems… and we all started laughing because he had “rat” in his name! 

Exploring the city

We decided to go for a walk and started off through the park right by our flat. It’s a huge park! We ended up on The Royal Mile and walked up to the monuments on the hill called Calton hill. It was a gorgeous day with blue sky! It looked so pretty and peaceful with the snow. From way up here we could see every side of Edinburgh and the North Sea. Things are so expensive here because the dollar is down. It sounds cheap if a sandwich is 3 pounds, but it’s actually about 5 dollars. They also give you really small portions and the food is simple and very fresh. And becuase of the small portions, freshness and long walks to the stores... I have a feeling I will be making many small trips to the grocery store.

Day 1

On my first day I explored the city with a couple of my flat mates. We found Princes Street, some gorgeous churches, and saw the castle on the hill in the middle of the city. We bought “go phones” for only 5 pounds of money, and added 20 pounds of minutes to them. When we got back I met my other flat mates. All of them are very nice and we have been hanging out a lot.

Getting to Scotland...

After all of this planning, I am finally here! I can’t believe I will be living in this beautiful city amongst castles for 5 months! It was a long flight, but I was entertained by a movie, food, walking around, nap…then another movie, more food, I’d walk around, then try to take a nap… and the girl sitting next to me went to Portland State and was going to Spain for the semester, so we had plenty to chat about! When I arrived in the Amsterdam airport, I went over to my gate and was excited that I was going to be in Edinburgh in less than 2 hours! But much to my surprise (5 minutes before I boarded the plane) I find out that the flight is not going due to the weather! So to make a long story short, everyone was shocked about what had happened and I soon made friends with some students of Napier Edinburgh University that were heading to Edinburgh as well (including one of my flat mates). We hung out together on the airport for the next 12 HOURS and tried not to go insane! We then traveled together on a plane to Glasgow, took an hour bus ride to the Edinburgh Airport, than a taxi ride to the flat! I was really tired by then, but was so excited to look around. The city was beautiful and very peaceful with the new snow.