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It’s almost exactly a mile from my dorm to my class building. There are 5 streets to cross in between. It takes me about 15-17 minutes. Click on the map to see a bigger version.

Hey, I uploaded a bunch of pictures! You can see them here, I think. Or just go to flickr and look for photos under my username, Aberwulf. I’m going to make a super-simplified map of south Edinburgh soon.

Several more eventful days here in Edinburgh. Moving into my dorm, International Student orientation, trying to get my internet set up, getting my room set up, trying to adapt to the new social climate, the first day of classes, getting stuck in a lift…blech, so much going on.

So, on Friday morning some people from the University talked to us. While we were waiting in line for IDs and room keys, a girl fainted. She’s really skinny, and people speculated that she was malnourished. I didn’t like that speculating. Anyways, we packed, then went to lunch. Our key cards had expired, because the Butler people were silly and didn’t tell us that we were supposed to check out by noon. So we got our cards re-cut. Had lunch, then left. They sent all of us living in Pollock Halls (the dorms) on a bus over; it was a very short ride. Got out, and then went down to Holland House with the 10 or so other Butler students living there.

I got to my room, and removed all my stuff from my luggage. I then started figuring out how I could get internet in my room. I made all the necessary installations and settings changes, then went into town to use the internet. I went to the Public Library, where you can get on the internet for free. That place is amazing. A really old building, it has floors and stairs that are very noticeably eroded by the passage of centuries of feet. Remarkable. I’ve never seen anything like that before. Well, a lot of things here are new.

When the library closed before too long, I went to the internet cafe to do a bit more online. Then I went and bought a voltage converter at Poundsavers, because I had almost fried my speakers earlier in the day, forgetting about the voltage difference. I made dinner plans with a friend, for a local chinese restaurant because the dining hall wasn’t open yet. The food wasn’t bad, but the service was amusing. The woman who owned the place had a very stereotypical if understandable Chinese accent, and talked to us a lot. She said all the people working there were her children. Entertaining.

After dinner, my friends and I went to see each others’ rooms. I have the biggest, because I’m on a corner, although another friend, Erin, has the nicest, as she lives in the newest building. She got a booklet about sports in her room, so we read that a little, and I started nodding off. I went back to my room while the others explored. I got to sleep early, then woke up late the next day when Matt, one of the friends from the previous night, knocked on my door asking for the mobile number of one of the other two. I left to go into town, and ran into Natalie and Erin. We went out, and Natalie (third friend) went to look for open banks (she didn’t find any; it was Saturday), while Erin and I went in search of internet. The library was closed, so we went to the internet cafe again. I went to that place a lot, but on the way back that day, I saw that there were several other places with better prices. Oh well. I’ll use those in the future if I have to, but I’ll probably have it for free at the library, dorm microlab, or room most of the time.

Oh, while leaving the internet cafe, we almost got hit by a car. It’s not that I’m not getting used to the driving on the opposite side of the road, it was just a dangerous intersection, and we were crossing in an unconventional place. We survived, though. Oh, I got my grades at the internet cafe too. A in Logic, A in ES, A- in Judaism, and B+ in Ancient. I wrote a pretty short final paper for Ancient, that might be why it’s lower. But not bad overall.

We went to Tesco’s (cheap grocery store-ish place) and I got some hand moisturizer and hair ties. We met Natalie and headed back. Just outside the dorms, a guy we passed looked a lot like one of the members of Old Blind Dogs. We went to Natalie’s room, met her friendly neighbor from Manchester, and watched an episode of the Office (US version). So, in the dining hall, every food item is assigned 1 or 2 points, and you get 6 points to use throughout the meal. It’s fairly reasonable; you can get everything you need with that much, but it still grated harshly with me. Even worse, they don’t let you go back from the eating area to the food area, not at all, because they can’t know whether you’ve taken 6 points already or whatnot. Sunday night I got into a long discussion with an attendant about that, because I was thirsty and wanted some orange juice, but she wouldn’t let me get any. I was annoyed. And also, we don’t get lunch at the dining hall, at all. Apparently we’re supposed to get it ourselves in the city. Ew. That’s what meal plans are for, sillies, so you don’t have to get your own food elsewhere. Jeesh.

Anyways, after dinner on Saturday night we watched 3 more episodes of the Office, 2 episodes of Blackadder from my collection, and the pilot of Firefly, also from my collection. We departed, and back in my room I worked for a while on a simplified map of south Edinburgh (in order to learn the streets), and then called home. Then went to sleep.

On Sunday morning we had International Student Orientation. It was pretty boring itself. Then we had lunch. On the way down, they gave us two booklets, one of which listed all the societies (clubs). I enjoyed flipping through that, figuring out what I wanted to check out. At lunch, I met a girl from Greenfield who went to Deerfield Academy and knows Kyle Yager and Dana Albertson, and she also goes to King’s College in Halifax now and knew Zack O’Neil when he was there. Her name is Emily, haven’t seen her since. I also, of all fantastic coincidences, ran into someone from Amherst HS there, Jen Tyson, who goes to Smith majoring in neuroscience. We chatted for a minute, just the superficial stuff.

There were walking tours of the campus at 2, and just beforehand I met a nice girl named Erica, from Hawaii. And yes, she knows Meri (though I gather not closely). She goes to Bowdoin, majoring in English and Art History, and is the most loyal member of a meditation group at her school. It was weird, I spent most of the rest of the day with her. We arranged to go to dinner at 5:30.

However, around 4:30 or 5, my next door neighbor moved in, and shortly thereafter invited me in for a beer. I accepted, not wanting to make a bad impression with my new neighbor, and also because I just wanted to meet him, and Scottish people in general. His name’s Ben, from the Isle of Islay (AYE-luh). He likes to hunt, drink, and play rugby. I don’t know if I really like him. It might just be confirmation bias, or something like that, but he and his friend Mike really were nothing like what I expected. They said most of the students at Edinburgh are English, not Scottish, and were mostly educated at public (to us, private) school. You have to understand, in the UK, apparently rugby is the sport played by people who go to prestigious public school, whereas football is the sport played by the less elite. These two guys actually LOOKED DOWN on football players! I was appalled. But I was also drunk and trying to be friendly. I have a very low tolerance, surely from not drinking much really ever. Erica came in around 5:30, and then we left around 6:30 or so. She had a much less negative impression of the fellows than I did. She, like a normal college student, likes her alcohol, and thought the two would be fun to party with, if not necessarily the most pleasant of company on a regular basis.

We met two Butler people for dinner, Emily, who lives on my hall, and Sarah, from Franklin & Marshall. They’re both very friendly, if very preppy. After dinner (and the confrontation with the dining hall lady), we went upstairs to the bar. I really didn’t want another drink, but the bartender gave them to us for free because we had just gotten there, so I figured it’d be rude to decline. And awkward to not have a drink with my new friends. So I got a half-pint of Guinness (though apparently no one gets half-pints there), which was not as good as the Guinness I’d had before. I liked better the “girly drink” that Sarah and Emily had, called a Snakebite. It was sweet, almost sickly so. I liked it; you couldn’t really taste the alcohol. That’s the best kind, from my perspective. We went back to Holland house and saw everyone’s room, then they went off to watch Under the Tuscan Sun in Sarah’s room in the new dorm (that Erin lives in too), Chancellor’s Court. I stayed in.

I was productive though. I rearranged and cleaned up my room, made it pretty, put up stuff on the walls. I made a pretty name sign for my door, and started a pen & ink drawing on a piece of cardboard that had been part of packaging for something. Skipped the party in the Student Union building; it was 3 quid for entry, and I didn’t feel like going out anyway.

Monday morning, I got up, showered, went to breakfast. Went to the Microlab, which is very close by and free internet. I then went in to George square (where my classes are) and tried to get into the International Students’ Lounge for some free tea, but it was closed. I saw an Italian girl whom I met at International Students’ Orientation. Her English isn’t very good; I hope she does okay in her classes. I went over to the Uni Library, and hung out in the computer lab (more free internet) until close to class time. Well, half an hour before. I went over to David Hume Tower (DHT), where my classes are, and scoped out where they all were. Oh, the power was out, so there were no lights, but I was impressed by the architecture; a big building and just about every room I saw had some natural light. But even though the electricity was off, one of the three lifts was working. I unthinkingly used it to check out where my classes were, and it worked fine. However, when it came to time to actually go to class, I got in it again (along with 12 other people), and it died on the 4th floor or so. So yeah, it was really crowded, and we were stuck there, in the dim light, for about 10 minutes. Luckily, there were about 4 other people from my class there, so when we finally did get out, the lecturer readily accepted the excuse. In the elevator, some people were being really loud, and I was just being calm and waiting. There were two or three other North Americans in the lift, one in my class.

The class was good, not at all scary, just pretty much like a class I’d have in the US. An hour of lecture, then an hour of tutorial (discussion). It was about how Descartes is considered NOT to be a good basis for environmentalism. Okay…. After class, I talked to Bethany on the way home. I was bored, so I went up to visit Erica. she was doing nothing, so we went and hung out with Emily. My goodness, they seem preppy to me. popped collar, that sweater with the diamondy pattern down the front…lots of popped collars here. Lots of scarves too, of various sorts. Lots of long coats, and on women skirts and tights with boots. I approve, I suppose. Anyway, we talked, then went to dinner. We met another random American, and she and I lost Erica and Emily. We sat with some random Scottish students, and then they left, then she left, and I went and sat with Erin and Natalie and Matt. And two other girls, Laura from South Carolina (the girl who fainted), and Megan, from Scripps College in SoCal.

Leaving dinner, I called Liz Finlayson, a friend of a friend who studies here. She said a local pub was having all-drinks-for-a-quid night, and invited me along. When I got back to my room, I realized I really didn’t want to go drinking, so I texted her back saying I’d be staying in. I played some computer games, and watched Ocean’s 11 and Catch Me If You Can on my computer. While I was watching the movies, I worked on the pen and ink drawing I started the day before. It’s really nice so far; I’m really proud of it.

I was depressed last night, too. I think it’s mostly because I don’t have as stable a social situation as I do at home. I don’t really have any friends here, just acquaintances who I’ve spent time with. I don’t think enough of any of them to spend more time with though, that’s the thing. Feel like we don’t have enough in common, either. The one group I feel is sort of lame and I don’t think they’re that cool, the other is too preppy and focused on drinking. Drinking is such a big thing here. I mean, it is at home too, but there I have established friends, so it’s different. Also, coming into the environment there, I had the social sanctuary of Blackstone to go to if I wanted to get away from the drinking culture; here I don’t have anything like that. I think once I get involved with some societies I’ll have more meaningful social contact, but I’m pretty lonely until then.

Why is it that so many people are so obsessed with drinking, and I don’t like it? Surely neither way is better than the other, but still, frequently it seems like it’s not okay to not drink. I mean, it’s unusual. Especially in Europe, it seems pretty uncommon. But I just don’t like the stuff, not how it tastes, not how it feels, not how it affects my budget. And yet, there’s this pressure to do it anyway, because it’s what other people (who I like except for this) expect and want you to do.

Welcome to culture shock, version 2.0

ANYWAYS, today, I had to get up early to meet with my Director of Studies (DoS; they like abbreviating and pronouncing the abbreviation of things here), who’s somewhat like an academic adviser. The meeting was very short, and since then I’ve been here in the library on the internet via wireless on my laptop. I really need to get on getting in touch with the people about fixing my room’s internet. I want to see if my computer-savvy Scottish acquaintance can do anything though. I suppose I need to get in touch with him.

I have class today at 4, and maybe at 2 as well, although I doubt it. Oh, sometime yesterday I figured out when various concerts I want to go to are, and when various societies I want to look into meet. Stuff to do. I’m still kinda down, but feeling better than last night. Ooh, tonight’s the folk music society. That’s where I’m hoping to fit in, although I’m not going to pretend like drinking won’t be involved with that. In regards to drinking, I think I just need to figure out how to hang out with people who are drinking without doing so myself. Once I get that, I should be fine. It’s the lack of social contact and the pressure to drink that are getting me down. Ooh, articulation catharsis. Wonderful. I’m hoping to get up another map and some pictures soon. Enjoy. Pat on the back to all of you who got to the end of this long post.

Last full day of Butler orientation. Much less interesting than the day before. Learned about our homestays, got our Uni IDs, I went on a walk and took a bunch of pictures, then in the evening after dinner got coffee with some people. With awesome names.

I was the first one at breakfast. I think a lot of the people in the group are pretty preppie. Presuming this is a relatively representative sample of American college students (perhaps unlikely), that’s unexpected, for me at least. First thing today, a guy talked to us about our homestays and we found out where we’re going. I’m going to be going to Stirling, and staying with a middle-aged couple. There’s another guy from the program who I don’t know staying there with me. Then, we did lots of boring registration stuff with the Butler people. Ick. Finally, a Minister of Scottish Parliament came to talk to us, supposedly about the political climate in Scotland. He was from the Scottish Nationalist Party, so what he did have a lot to tell us about was the issue of nationalism and independence in Scotland. Interesting stuff, but not exactly as wide a picture of the political landscape as I had been expecting and hoping for. I wanted to learn what all the big issues were, instead we learned a lot about one. Oh well. I’ll be here a while; I’ll figure things out. Afterwards, we had lunch.

In our long free time before dinner, I took a leisurely walk around the city. I started at the top of the Royal Mile, and walked all the way down to the end. I personally think the new Scottish Parliament building is gorgeous. It is rather jarringly modern compared to much of the rest of the architecture in the city, though. Then I walked on up to Calton hill, the third high point in the city after Arthur’s Seat/Salisbury Crags and the Castle. There are a number of quirky monuments there. The most out-of-place-seeming is the National Monument, which was supposed to replicate the Parthenon, but only about a quarter was completed. There are several roughly cylindrical towers commemorating various people: Admiral Nelson, Robert Burns, and some random Uni professor, Dugald Stewart. Apparently he did philosophy. Who knew. But his monument’s about the same size and design as the Burns monument, and I don’t think that’s appropriate. I then descended and started walking along Princes Street, the main boulevard of the New Town (though not central to it). There was an oatmeal-thick throng of people, and all the shops were big chain stores. The street looks out over Waverley station. There’s the enormous monument to Sir Walter Scott there, right next to a brightly-lit ferris wheel that isn’t quite as tall. I kept on walking down the street, curved around the Castle, then went up the Old Town side and up to the Castle Esplanade. That’s a big courtyard area between the Castle itself and the top of the Royal Mile. I walked around there a while, realized I was very tired, and went back to my room to chill out for a bit.

Dinner was at a restaurant a little walk away. It was decidedly unimpressive. The food was good, but there wasn’t nearly enough for me, and we didn’t get to order stuff; it was just given to us. However, I was able to name all ten or so people at my table, which was an accomplishment. Again, I sat next to the people I don’t like, or rather, they sat next to me. Maybe they like me. I don’t think so. Who knows. Only one more day after this one.

After dinner and a spell in my room, I went out and happened to meet up with some people from the program. We went to a coffee shop across the street. There were four of them. The one guy, Keith, I had met several times before. Economics at Whitman College in Washington state. The other three, though, I had never met, and they have the AWESOMEST names. Henny is a computer science major at Wesleyan. Z-Z and Rogan are both English majors and Rugby players at Bowdoin. Aren’t those delicious names? And they’re all their actual names, Z-Z being a nickname for Alexandra (long story). Anyway, all four of them are really nice. It was fun, even though the caffe machiatto I had (cheapest thing short of an espresso shot on the menu) happened to BE basically an espresso shot. Oh well. Sugar can make even the most bitter of caffeinated beverages palatable to my pampered tongue. Afterwards, I stayed up and did a lot of computer stuff, then went to bed.

First full day of orientation. Lots of fun, informative presentations, lots of learning and forgetting who everyone was. Saw my dorm and class building. Climbed a mountain, paid the toll of my hat. Went on a bus tour of the city. Had a quick, 1.40, half-hour fix of internet. Went to a pub, had my first Guiness.

I started out day two with a bath, which was reasonably sublime. Met and re-met some people at breakfast. After that, a guy talked to us about life in the UK and Scotland specifically. He was hilarious, and really informative. Then the Scotland Office staff talked at us for a while; I doodled and took notes when something interesting or relevant came up. I’ve taken a lot of notes, in the style of my dearest mother (and father, for that matter). After the boring talk, some police constables came in to talk to us about safety. The guy who talked was very tall, and very funny, not to mention informative. After that, we ate lunch, and I further saw how it makes sense that Francie and Janie are friends.

After lunch (1:00) we had until 3:30 off, when we had to meet the buses for our tour of the city. I went to a post office and cashed two travelers’ cheques, and noted that Sandy Bell’s, a hub of live folk music, is very nearby. It wasn’t far from there on Forrest St. to George Square, the University area which is the site of David Hume Tower, where all of my classes are. I had a notion to continue on to Pollock Halls, to see where I was living. The dorms are a pretty, little place, much smaller and closer together than I imagined from the satellite image. They seemed nice. But looming beckoningly over Pollock Halls is Arthur’s Seat, a mountain very near to the city center. As I had nothing to do for an hour and a bit, I realized I had to climb it, there and then.

After with difficulty finding the way out of the dorm area and over to the Park, I cut across a field, up to a road. I walked along that for a while, looking for a way up. Not finding one, and feeling like I was going in the downward direction, I turned around. That was at 2:19. Near where I came in, in the other direction, was the path I was looking for. There were steps, but it went much closer to straight up the mountain than the G-rated path one is directed to. I went up, sometimes having to climb rocks for a little bit, the wind getting stronger the higher I went. At one point, I was on a pretty bare grassy mountainside, with the wind whistling violently in my ears, flapping my coat around. I was scared, afraid of getting blown off the mountain, pretty literally. But I altered my course a little, not going over the crest of DOOM, and made it to a much nicer path, although the wind still howled around me. This time it was at my back, pushing me forward and upward. The path came to a sub-peak, all smooth and grassy. Now, from here on in, when there was grass, it was permanently plastered to the mountainside from the wind. I pushed on over this little crest, and there was the summit, in sight. I went down a little, and with slight anticipation, entered the wind tunnel-like depression between the two high points. Holy MOLEY it was blowing strong. I made it to the rocky base of the summit, laughing into the face of the gale (sorry for the dramaticism, though it’s all literal; this was a really amazing experience for me). As I began pondering how to ascend to the top, the wind gusted and my nice wool hat went flying off, tumbling at 40mph down the mountain. At first, I made to chase it, but quickly realized that it was moving quicker than I could possibly run, even on stable, flat ground. So, I battened down the hatches and made for the summit. The last little bit wasn’t difficult at all, although the wind was still very strong. It was likely strongest on the summit, where I stayed for all of 45 seconds, making sure to touch the summit point, before heading back down. I went to look for my hat, in the slight hope that it had caught on a bush or something. I soon gave up. I went down an easier way, close to the path followed by the majority of people. I realized that it was getting to be about 2:45, and I needed to start moving quickly to get back in time. So I did. The path was clear and easy, and I just tromped on off that mountain, across the road, and back into the city, using the Castle as a landmark to head toward. I was walking very briskly, and I happened to pass down the street where we stayed on Hogmanay, Montague St. I was just making a bee-line for where I thought the hotel was, and I made it back around 3:20. I dashed upstairs, changed my shirt and cleaned up a smidge, then ran downstairs (well, by elevator). I was actually in plenty of time for the buses.

The tour was nice. It was informative, although I already knew a lot of what they told us (from all my obsessive research before arriving), but it was really good to actually see all the places I knew about. The guy next to me fell asleep for most of the tour. This was just our program, by the way, in two buses. When we got back, I made plans to go to an internet cafe and dinner with some people, then galumphed to the Royal Mile to get a new hat. Stores were starting to close (they close around 5:30-6), but I was able to find a nice winter hat that says Scotland on it for not TOO expensive (those touristy shops…oy). Then I came back and typed up some posts to put on my flash drive and copy into my blog.

The internet cafe was really nice. It’s like when you’re underwater, and you come to the surface to get some air. Or like when you really have to pee, but you feel the need to hold it in, and then you finally get to a toilet….it was the same sort of sensation as those things.

The group I went to dinner with was of about 9 people, 4 of whom were studying in Glasgow. There were 6 of those people in our whole program, and they were having orientation in Edinburgh too. Anyways, two of the people I ate with were really interesting. One of them is one of BECCA WELLS’ FRIENDS FROM HOME!! Her name’s Tess, and she seems really cool. She wrote a novel in 8th grade, vaguely resembling Mists of Avalon, but with even-more-fictional characters. She’s a Women’s Studies and Creative Writing person, so her thesis piece is going to be something about generational interaction between a young woman and her grandmother. Cool, I say. Anyways, she’s studying at Glasgow Uni. Another of the people there is studying at Glasgow School of Art. She’s from New Mexico, her dad was Cherokee, her mom’s a Swiss nuclear researcher, and her grandmother was a prostitute. Let me just say that we got into the topic of her lineage by her saying, somewhat randomly, that her grandmother was a prostitute. Her name’s Alexandra, and she goes to Colorado College. Tess goes to UConn. Anyway, it was nice meeting them, if only for briefly, as they depart for Glasgow on Thursday morning and Friday morning, respectively.

Let me just insert this: there are some people who I find myself eating with a lot whom I really don’t like very much. One is a frat boy from GW in DC, another is a cynical Chicago sophomore. I always happen to be eating with them, but I really don’t like them. Oh well. There will be a whole new cast of characters very soon. Wholesale, as we say in frisbee. (That last means that everyone who’s playing takes a sub)

At dinner, we made plans to go out to a pub later. So we did, to one across Grassmarket from the hotel. I’ve been to 3 different places over there. One place there is the oldest pub in the city, being open since the 1500s. That’s history for you. Anyway, I had a pint of Guiness, and it was lovely, as alcohol goes. There were a lot of us there, and we were sitting in this little table at the back of a fairly empty pub. Most people were drinking in a fashion you would expect of mainstream American college students. I spent most of the hour and a half or so talking with Alexandra from New Mexico. She’s really nice and intelligent, I’m sad she’s studying in Glasgow. It’s not that far away, though. She reminds me of Alex Pressman, primarily in the way she talks and where she lives (Colorado). Oh, she interned at that art school in Chicago this past semester, and worked with some lady who wrote this book that’s been on the bestseller list for a while. She (Alexandra) also knows the person who designed the Sacagawea dollar. And she grew up on a reservation. Cool beans. Anyways, it’s the strongest connection I’ve made with anyone here so far. We went back to the hotel, and went to sleep.

First day of IFSA-Butler Orientation. Thus my study abroad experience has begun in earnest.

We got to Edinburgh around 11:30am on Tuesday, coming in to Waverley Station (that’s the main Edinburgh train station). It was so difficult hauling my luggage up the hill, across the Royal Mile, then down the other side to get to my hotel. We got to the hotel, went up to my room, and found a girl in it! Turns out, the hotel screwed up with the room assignments, and made a lot of mixed-sex rooms. They quickly switched people around so everyone was roommates with someone of the same gender. Except I never got another roommate. So I had a room all to myself.

Anyways, Bethany and I headed out to walk her back to the station. She caught a 4:00 train, and I walked around for a bit: the Royal Mile, Cowgate, then Grassmarket (where my hotel is). Cowgate is one of the old Old Town streets, at the lower level. Both bridges go over it. Edinburgh has the Old Town and the New Town, on either side of the little depression Waverley station is in. The Royal Mile runs from the Castle down the top of the hill on the Old Town side of Waverley. Just on the other side of that hill, the ground drops down pretty dramatically again. It’s down there that Cowgate is, and Grassmarket. That’s the oldest part of the city, except maybe the Castle itself. Two bridges go over Cowgate, connecting the Royal Mile to the higher land on the other side of Cowgate.

Anyways, I was texting Catherine, a friend of my friend Heather, to see if we could meet up somewhere. We did, and went to a pub across from my hotel. She got a coffee, I got a pint; I wish I had gotten a coffee. It’s cheaper, and not alcoholic. I still don’t really like alcohol if I can avoid it, I just don’t mind it as much here. But cheaper is also an important thing.
She told me about all sorts of stuff over our drinks, including how grades translate.

I went back to the hotel for dinner, the first of several meals in the hotel’s restaurant. I met several people that time, most notably one of FRANCIE JONES’ BEST FRIENDS from Wesleyan, Janie (sp?) Stolar. I wonder if she’s related to Jake. All in all, I met about 10 people or so that night, not retaining their names, schools, hometowns, or majors very well. It was to be indicative of the way things would be going for the rest of orientation. The IFSA Butler Scotland Office staff was unimpressive; I got a bad impression of them from the start. I felt they didn’t do a good job of being warm and welcoming. One of them is talkative in a stressed-out way, and very forceful-seeming; she’s the head of the Office. Another is VERY quiet, and the third is fairly quiet too. They’re nice, and helpful, but I was underwhelmed. I got back to my room, still no roommate, and bopped around a little, then went to sleep.

Sorry, got pretty much cut off on that last one. I’ll be moving into university housing on Friday, I think, and shortly thereafter I should have pretty regular internet, and will be able to post more and maybe upload pictures, too! Until then, though, I think I probably won’t post again, just ’cause it’s 70p a minute here, which is cheap, but it’s still something. I’m so glad everyone’s reading the blog, and once I get moved in, I’ll try to keep it regular (via oats, bran flakes…hardi-har-har). One quick teaser: today I almost got blown off Arthur’s Seat (big mountain in the city) while climbing it by myself, but made it to the top anyways. Okay. bye for now.

Hogmanay. The Scottish New Year’s Celebration. And us with no plans of anywhere to stay, or how to get home before 7am. Fun times.

We went from the tube station near Katie’s house to the tube station near the railway station. On the tube, Bethany noticed a group of people with luggage who had tickets to Edinburgh’s Hogmanay. As we were getting of the tube, I started talking to them, and they let us tag along. They were taking the bus, so we went with them (it was cheaper, they said). There were four of them, all our age, one guy and 3 girls. The guy, Murray, is from outside Edinburgh, going to school at Glasgow Uni, and the three girls are all from Northern Ireland, two of whom also go to Glasgow, and one of those is Murray’s girlfriend. Helen=gf, Leanne=Glasgow but not gf, Emma=not Glasgow. The bus was bumpy, and stopped at Haymarket station, shy of the city center because the roads were closed off. Upon getting out, we realized that the wind was blowing very strongly (leaning-into-the-wind-and-being-supported strongly), and Murray (a philosophy student!) predicted the Street Party would be cancelled. Our four new friends were going to a party at a flat belonging to a friend of one of their friends (who would be there). They agreed to let us tag along, as they didn’t know the owners of the flat either, so we did. There we met a bunch of other people our age, notably Andrew (our friends’ friend), Craig (Andrew’s mate), Kathleen (owner of the flat), and Eilish (studying in London), oh, and Bethan and Jenny. Most of them study at Glasgow too, except Kathleen and Eilish. Everyone was really nice, we went out and bought alcohol and food, then came back, then went out for dinner (Chinese). Then we came back, found out for sure that the Street Party was cancelled, and decided to go out and pub hop anyways, and to meet other friends of people.

We went to a bar just off the Royal Mile called Tron, which was jammed full. I didn’t have anything, everyone else did. We left, ran into some people (including some Australians), stood around, walked out to the middle of the North Bridge, stood around, figured out vaguely what we were doing, then went back to the base of the bridge. We stood around there for a while, then mostly went back to the flat. The Irish folk, Murray, and ourselves then split for a party at the flat of one of his old friends, which he said was just around the corner. It took a lot longer than all that, and when we got there I didn’t really like it. Lots of wild people I didn’t know. We were there for midnight, and on the stroke I had my first taste of Irn-Bru, the OTHER national Scottish beverage. We left soon after, and returned to the flat, which was empty, and consequently unenterable. So, we went to a pub on the corner and sat a while. The proprietor and bartenders were coming around with free plates of sandwich sections, which was lovely. There was karaoke, some good, some bad, but the highlight of that part of the night was at the end, a guy was singing American Pie, but the monitor kept flaking out, and he would bang the top of it, and sometimes it would skip, and once even it went back to the beginning. And, of course, everyone in the pub was singing along at the top of their lungs. So, we went out for a walk, and decided to check on the flat, which was open and inhabited now. We went in, started to get ready for sleep-ish stuff. We talked about differences between Scotland and the UK, and talked about Facebook and stuff. I got all of their full names, and facebooked them, and got a couple of them to join facebook (hahaha, I’m so evil). I never slept, but tried to write in my journal, not very productively. Around 6:30, Bethany, Murray and I headed out to catch the bus back to Glasgow. It was early by the time we got back, so we went back to Murray’s flat instead of Katie’s. We talked about all sorts of stuff; it was great, learned a lot. But gotta run now, ’cause internet cafe time is about to end. Cheers! more later

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while, folks. I’ve been going through internet withdrawal from first scudsy dialup and now friggin expensive shite at the hotel. This’ll be a multi-part post to make up for it, starting with the ride north and Glasgow.

Bethany and I had bagels and english muffins for breakfast on Saturday morning, still in Manchester. Do they call them just muffins and not english muffins over here? I forget. Christine gifted me some sudoku puzzles clipped from newspapers. We set off for the station, but our train had been cancelled, so we drove to another station to catch the next one to our destination (which we could use the same ticket for). We got to the other station, and promptly got on the train, with barely time for a quick goodbye to Christine and David. The ticket collector had crazy wild hair, like some 70s rocker or something. His name tag said Danny.

In Preston, our layover point on the way to Glasgow, we bought our young-person railcards, which get us 1/3 off any rail ticket in the UK. We caught the train to Glasgow, and it was a stressful experience. It was crowded, and I couldn’t find anywhere to put my massive luggage (Bethany’s was back in Manchester, to be picked up later on the way to London). Then we realized we were in the wrong car, so we had to move. Then again I had to find a place for my luggage, and was still doing that when the ticket collector came by, though he was nice and said he’d come back in a bit when I was done (which he never did).

As we rode north, I was struck by the splendor of the Northumbrian and Scottish hills, and by the ubiquitous history of the land. Who knew what had been happening on the land we passed, 200 years ago? 1000? 4000? This is what I’m studying abroad in Scotland for.

We watched Lilo & Stitch on my laptop on the train, and when we arrived in Glasgow Bethany’s friend Katie, from camp, picked us up and drove us to her flat. We’d be staying there for a couple days. I like her well enough, but she smokes more than a chimney, we’re talking at least a cigarette an hour. She’s nice, and I’m thankful that she put us up, but her flat REAKS. We confirmed that there was no public transport back from Edinburgh to Glasgow until 7am on the 1st. So we’d have to figure something out (and so we did; more on that later).

We then went on a walk around the city. We went to the Botanic Gardens, although the greenhouse had just closed. Over to Ashton Lane, a gorgeous little pedestrian cobblestone street with mostly pubs and restaurants, and christmas lights strung across the top. We went into a pub called Vodka Wodka, and I got a bottle of Stella Artois (just what Bethany got). Apparently it’s Zoe & Abi Philips’ favorite, and it was pretty good. It’s odd, I’ve been less abstemious with alcohol since here. I think it’s just the difference in atmosphere. In college, it’s more about drinking to get drunk, or at least tipsy, or buzzed. Here, it’s as if people drink just because that’s the thing to do. So, as it’s the thing to do, I’ve been drinking. Anyway, that bottle got me pretty woozy, probably because I hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast. Also, because I don’t hardly ever drink, I likely have a low tolerance.

We got dinner at an Italian place, where Bethany and I shared a nice classy cheezy pizza. Back at the flat, we watched TV (I haven’t heard anyone refer to it as the telly yet). We watched a tribute to Steve Irwin, Little Britain’s holiday special where all the characters were abroad somewhere, and then the Shawshank Redemption.

The next morning, we watched Star Trek IV (The Journey Home, the one where they go back in time to the 80s to pick up some whales, which are extinct in the 23rd century, in order to save Earth from destruction by some alien race that was in contact with the whales). We watched a lot of TV in the flat. Then we set off for Hogmanay…