First 2 Days...

September 9th, 2009

FINALLY in Edinburgh! Setteling into the beautiful Apex hotel which will be my home for the next 3 days while i go through orientation. The flight over wasn't as bad as I expected. I left Phoenix at 8:45 a.m, landed in Newark, NJ around 4, and then got on the student flight at 8:30 p.m. A bit of advice if you are ever traveling overseas; Virgin Atlantic! They hook you up! Food, snacks, pillow, blanket, toothbrush, and cute pair of red socks with airplanes on the toes. :-) Landed in London around 9 a.m. where I learned my first of, I'm sure many, lessons. Don't eat the Caesar salads. The caesar dressing consists of pretty much mayo and pepper. Ew. From London we took a very bumpy, hour long flight to Edinburgh. By the time we landed it seemed like everyone was in a jetlag trance. My sleep pattern is so messed up at this point, it is 1:48 in the morning, but I am up writing this because my body is telling me it's only 6 p.m. Arizona time. This is going to take some getting used to. The hotel fed us some tasty lasagna and then I headed back to my room to jump on Skype and Facebook to let everyone know I am alive! All in all, a pretty non-eventful trip over. Orientation starts bright and early at 7:30 with breakfast! Some meetings to follow that about safety abroad...blah blah blah...then a guided city tour! I'll make sure to take lots of pictures and report back! Until next time...

(photo of Edinburgh Castle outside my hotel room)

September 10th, 2009

After a very informative day, I am finally getting a chance to relax! Orientation was very helpful today. I learned a lot about the culture; like, police men dont carry guns...just mace and wands. AND, that if a guy offers to buy you a drink in a pub, by accepting, you are basically implying that you will "return the favor" later. Tipping apparently is not standared as it is in the U.S. The only place one is expected to tip is in a restaraunt...and 10% is great!Also, I figured out where all the street signs were hiding! Ha! For the first 2 days I was wandering aroun, trying to figure out where things were based on landmarks I knew! Today I finally saw that the signs are on the sides of the buildings on each corner!

Went on a guided tour of the city this evening, which was cool mostly because my guide wore a kilt! Lots of fun pics, including; Edinburgh Castle, the Firth of Forth, a couple of random monuments with facinating back stories, and the castle that the Royal Family stays in when they visit (which was built hundereds of years ago by Queen Mary of Scots!) To give you an idea of how old this town really is, it is divided into 2. Old town and New town. New town was built in the early 1700's. Haha, so imagine how old OLD town is!

It is 11 p.m. and I can hear a band playing in the pub across the street. I fall in love with this place more and more every single day. I also fall in love with technology, since it is the only thing connecting me to my family and friends at this point. I bought a pay-as-you-go cell phone to be able to talk to the friends i'm meeting, and I have 300 international minutes, so if you see a phone number come up on your caller i.d. that has way too many numbers, it is probably just meeeee! Ah, another early day tomorrow, consisting of registering for classes and shopping for fun things for my flat! Until next time...

(Firth of Forth)

(The Queen's Scotland Residence)