Still Sick!

I'm sorry I have not been posting, but I caught some kind of flu or cold or something and have not been able to go out much.
I have been to all of my classes now and they're all very interesting. I particularly like Differential Psychology, in which we learn about personality theories. Philosophy of Religion also seems really interesting.
Other than being sick, I have been really good. In news around the flat, our fourth roommate finally showed up! Her name is Cat and she's from Glasgow. Also, our shower rail fell out of the wall on Friday and has not been fixed yet, so I took it upon myself to suction-cup it to the wall.
Janna, our friend William, and I went sightseeing a little on Saturday and climbed up the Sir Walter Scott Monument, saw the new Scottish Parliament building, and the gravesite of Adam Smith. The Monument offered beautiful views of the city and surrounding countryside. The parliament building is new, modern, very interesting and very expensive.
As the pictures are difficult to post here, I have provided links to all of them on Facebook:

Views from and of Edinburgh Castle
A Climb up Arthur's Seat and a Ceilidh
Views from and of the Scott Monument, Adam Smith's Grave and a 19th Century-Style Garden

Enjoy!

Sadly Sick :(

I haven't been writing about what I've been doing because I've mostly been staying in and watching movies. Unfortunately I got sick and haven't been able to go out much. I'm starting to feel better, though, and have a lot planned for this weekend, including the National Gallery of Scotland, the Sir Walter Scott Monument, the Edinburgh Zoo and the gravesite of Adam Smith! I'm really excited! I also had my second class today, which was Moral Psychology. It's basically Moral Philosophy, which was really interesting. It's mostly discussion, and I think I'm going to like the readings a lot. I'll keep you all posted!

An Interesting Evening

This evening did not go as planned at all, but I honestly think it turned out better than I expected. I went to an outdoor beergarden to watch the rugby game with my flatmate Alanna and some of her friends, as well as our Polish friend Karolina. Karolina bought me a Bailey's and it was delicious! But I couldn't finish it, so I gave it to Alanna. Karolina and I broke off from the group to go to this indie music social, which turned out to be really cool. We met her German friend Unica and went inside where we promptly met another German named Kris and listened to some great music! It was an interesting mix of people and we were all kind of talking about what home was like for us and how cold it is here, and when we ran out of things to say there was always the music to listen to and discuss. It was universally agreed upon that the first band (Frightened Rabbit, it was called) was better than the second, but I think they were both enjoyable. I was supposed to meet up with some other Americans to go on the Haunted Tour thing, but they decided not to go, and so I went back to the social. It was a really good time talking to people form different parts of the world. I think that after the beautiful landscape the thing I like the best about being here is the diversity that a large, international city provides. I've met people from Poland, Sweden, Germany, England, Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand, Australia, Korea, and from places in America that I've never been. It's just a wonderful opportunity to broaden my horizons even beyond the place where I came to study. After the bands left, everyone quickly began drinking a lot more (or so it seemed) to escape the boredom of a bad DJ and unfortunately then it turned into a large and slightly more varied frat party, so we decided to leave. Karolina and I walked home together (she lives just across the road) and had a really good talk about home and our parents and what we're doing here. I feel so privileged that she opened up to me the way she did about how she dreamed of becoming an actress, and her parents didn't support her. Although she is 23 and already has a degree from college in Poland, she is a fresher here, and I think it's hard for her to identify with some of the younger students. I can sympathize a bit, as I'm in my third year of college and so being away from home and my parents, while still exciting, has lost some of its novelty. It was really good to have a genuine conversation with someone amidst the hustle and bustle of tours, concerts, parties, games, events and above all meeting people that is Freshers' Week. And I'm especially glad to be making a friend from such a different background.

No pictures today :(

Janna and I planned to meet our friends William (who's Scottish), and Carolina (who's from Poland), and go on a tour of the newish Scottish Parliament building, but apparently we were supposed to get tickets several days ago which none of us had. So we decided to go to this talk a professor was giving on the religion of Islam. It was really interesting, although I raised my hand and asked a question about what a moderate Muslim believes about spreading Islam (the prof had said something about being unable to make other people believe Islam if they didn't want to), and I think he got the wrong idea and thought I was attacking. He must have picked up on my American accent because he then started talking about Evangelical Christians and a bunch of unrelated stuff. All in all it was a good talk, but I'm not sure I totally believe or respect the guy who gave it. He definitely came from a Muslim point of view and wasn't ready to consider being in someone else's position. After that, I went home and cooked pesto pasta for Alanna. She'd never had pesto sauce before and she liked it! In a few minutes we'll be going out to watch a rugby game and then I'm meeting up with some other people to go on a tour of the supposedly haunted places in Edinburgh (there are lots!) where people were tortured and killed (pleasant, I know). So that's my day, no idea what's on the agenda for tomorrow. Hope you all are doing well!

Climbing and Dancing: Arthur's Seat and My First Ceiliedh!

Today (Thursday) I climbed Arthur's Seat, which is a high hill formed by the now-dormant volcano. It was quite a hike, but it was totally worth the view when we got to the top. It was beautiful and very windy and cool. I felt quite good about myself for getting up there.
Afterwards, I went a had a good Scottish lunch with Janna. She got breakfast which here includes beans, toast, a fried egg, a cooked tomato, delicious sausage and some strange bacon. I got a sandwich I've seen on several menus around here, so it must be popular. It's called Coronation Chicken, and it's chicken in a sort of mustard-mayonnaise sauce, put on bread ad grilled. It, like EVERYTHING here, came with chips (fries). It was pretty good, kinda like a chicken salad/potato salad hybrid as far as taste. Then Janna and I took a bus around and went shopping at the nice grocery store. Walking around everywhere has completely tired me out! We settled in and I cooked dinner, and then we went to a ceiliedh (pronounced kay-lee), which is a traditional Scottish dance. It was SO fun! It's almost done in groups and it includes a lot of swinging, do-si-doing, walking under arches of other couples' arms and running through two parallel lines of couples facing each other. After that we were exhausted, and Janna and I came home and watched Becoming Jane, which is already out on DVD here. Tomorrow we plan to go to the Scottish parliament with a boy from Aberdeen who we met during the Edinburgh Castle visit. It has been really exciting and obviously quite beautiful so far!

Edinburgh Castle

This is the entrance to Edinburgh Castle. It was built atop a hill so that invaders could be seen while they were still miles away.













There are several different levels as the castle (and other parts of Edinburgh, as far as I understand) were built on volcanic rock.















There are tons of other buildings around the castle buildings. They're now used for gift shops (I saw three), a cafe, and an informative exhibit about the monument to those Scottish soldiers killed in WWI.













Inside the Royal Palace.






















These stones mark the graves of soldiers' beloved dogs. My favorite one was named "Scamp."






































Janna in front of the well that no longer supplies the castle's water.


















I believe this was outside the Scottish soldiers memorial. The names of all those killed in World War II were inside.





















Princes Street Gardens as seen from Edinburgh Castle.





View from outside the castle.














View from outside the building in which the Crown Jewels are kept. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but they include a crown, scepter, blade and sheath, as well as a glittering necklace, which was my favorite piece.














The tour guide said this was the oldest building of the castle. It's now the chapel, and weddings take place here. We happened to show up as a wedding party was leaving...
















The bride is in blue and the man in the kilt is the groom. :)

Pictures at last!

First things first, this is where I live. 27/5 Sciennes. This is the outside of the building. I live in the building on the right, which looks exactly like the one on the left. This was actually taken from my kitchen window.












This is the view from my bedroom window.













This is my bedroom/study room. Sorry it's a mess; I haven't really put everything away yet!











This is the bathroom and shower-room. They're separate here! At least there are sinks in both.













This is our kitchen (also messy--Alanna made me dinner tonight!).











And this is the common area attached to the kitchen. Nothing fancy, but live-able! Note that there's a TV in the corner--we can't use it because you need a license to watch TV here, and it costs about 135 pounds! That's nearly $300!

Here at last!

I finally made it to Edinburgh around 4 pm GMT yesterday, which was 10 am central standard time. I didn't sleep at all on my 9 hour flight; I guess I was too excited. Then I was supposed to have a 4 hour layover in London, but it turned into about 5 1/2 hours because the plane was late. I was so tired! But there was no way I was sleeping in the airport. I talked to some really nice people on both flights (thankfully the one from London to Edinburgh was only about an hour), and in line to go through customs (that was dreadful!). I also met a really sweet girl from France who was on the same flight as me to Edinburgh. We met some other people at the airport and three of us hired a taxi to get us to our flats. Unfortunately no one else had brought British pounds with them!
I made it to my building to pick up my key and found that I live in 27/5 Sciennes (pronounced sheens), in room #1. I'll put some pictures up of my living area later. When I got here I met one of my flatmates, named Alanna, who's from Ireland. My other flatmate is another U.S. student from New York. We're still waiting on one more girl to arrive. Alanna and I went to Tesco, which is a grocery store, to pick up some essentials like cereal and milk. Then we went out to a University of Edinburgh-sponsored pub crawl. I didn't last long at this, though, since I don't drink and was dead tired. I went home and went to bed early!
The city is absolutely beautiful! The buildings are old and stone, and everything is very grand. There is a beautiful, green park just near my flat with awesome playground equipment which I will have to try. And all the shops are so cute! There are dozens of restaurants, some of them familiar (Papa Johns, for example), but many privately owned (tons of Indian restaurants!) It's going to be hard to make myself cook! I'll take plenty of pictures of all of these lovely things later. As for now, I need to do a little more shopping and unpack.

Last Day

Tomorrow, Thursday, is my last full day in the U.S. Travis is coming to visit to see me off on Friday. I'm glad I'll get to see him one more time before we're separated for four months. It's a long time to be away from home and the people you care about!

Running Errands All Over Town

Well, I feel much more prepared today. I got my foreign currency from the bank, a dual-voltage hair-dryer (it's cold in Scotland--who wants to go out with wet hair!?), and some Dr. Scholl's walking shoes. Although I feel a little dorky, they're very comfortable. I also received my Eurail and Britrail passes from Fedex, finally! I'm very excited about the traveling I'll get to do. I've never even been out of the U.S. before!

Getting Ready

As the time to leave draws nearer, I feel myself less and less prepared. I have packed most of my belongings (and have forlornly left some unpacked as I just can't squeeze them into my two suitcase limit) and checked my flight schedule, lists and paperwork repeatedly. I leave Friday at 5:05 pm from DFW airport. Travis and my family will be there to see me off. As much as I want to go, I'm just nervous and don't quite feel ready yet.
At least I've paid for my lodging while I'm there, and I found out that University of Edinburgh (U of Ed) definitely knows that Baylor will be paying my tuition, so the money stuff is mostly taken care of. Here's a picture of where I'll be staying. Looks a lot like my dorm at Baylor...however, I'll have a kitchen, living room and bathroom that I'll share with probably three other girls, and it includes a cleaning service! Wow.
Well, hopefully I'll feel more and more ready as Friday approaches.