"Fresher's" Week

September 12th 2009

Blogspot is being sassy and wont let me post a picture of the view i get from my window! I am on the top floor and look right out at the Firth of Forth, Holyrood Castle, and mostly, Arthur's Seat which was formed by an extinct volcano 350 million years ago. Google it. Welcome to my life!

Today is move in day for all international students and "freshers." I was put in Darroch Court...pronounced "derek." Ha, okay let the jokes start flowing in. ;-) It is actually one of the newest and nicest flats on campus. The only one with washers and dryers and one of few with internet in every bedroom. I got lucky. It is right next door to the campus sports center (handy) and a pretty central location (VERY handy since everybody walks everywhere here.) I went and picked up a few necessities at Boots (equivalent to a small Walgreens) today, and on my way, walked past about 25 kilt stores. There are lots of places to buy them, but no, unfortunately there arent actually any people walking around in them!

Cool story for all my fellow Harry Potter fans: A few hundred years ago, a woman named Maggie Dickson was convicted of getting pregnant out of wedlock and hiding the pregnancy. This was apparently very illegal and she was hung in the center of Grass Market for her crime. After the hanging, as she was being brought to the cemetery, there was a knocking from inside the casket and it was discovered that Maggie had survived. The people took this as a sign from God that she was meant to live, so they let her go. But, from then on she was known as Half-Hangit Maggie. Well, J.K. Rowling wrote a good chunk of the Harry Potter series at the Elephant Pub here in Edinburgh, and Half-Hangit Maggie was the inspiration behind the character "Nearly-Headless Nick!" Love it!

Ahh, what else is new and exciting? Tonight is the beginning of "freshers week," which basically means that for the next week there are a million things to do everyday! Lots of tours of campus, parliment, castles, etc...Hang gliding, three-legged pub crawls, and i cant even think of the other activities they have going on! Should be a blast though! Oh! I tried something called irn-bru. LoL, here is pic of the can. The actual stuff is about as orange as the color of the can, and it tastes exactly like the bubble gum barbie toothpaste i had as a kid. The Scots go nuts for this stuff! It is the number one selling drink among sodas here. Ha! Awful stuff if you ask me. Also, i rode in a car for the first time today...on the wrong side! The way every drives, plus being on the opposite side of the car on the opposite side of the road is enough to give a girl a heart attack! :-) Until next time...