Baby, it's cold outside.

I’m sorry to report that my blog will no longer concern itself with food. It’s just not great here like it is in Taiwan. But drinks, now that’s a different story!

It’s day four for me in Scotland, and I’ve really been enamored with the city of Edinburgh so far. It’s stunningly beautiful and quaint; I feel as though I’ve stepped onto the set of Harry Potter. (Apparently J.K. Rowling lives here. Let’s hope I spot her sometime in the next four months!)

Here’s the recap of what I’ve been up to:

I arrived Saturday night at the Edinburgh airport, relieved my before-mentioned travel nightmare had finally reached its conclusion. Luckily the university had a welcome station for international students, and a nice guy helped me figure out the shuttle to get to my apartment. As I stepped outside I was immediately hit with a wall of cold air, made worse by powerful wind and a slight drizzle. Note: I had left eighty-degree Louisiana temperatures just a day earlier.

The shuttle took me right to my apartment, and after a somewhat confusing check-in process I arrived at my flat in the College Wynd building. It’s an old-looking complex (pretty much everything in the city looks old) and is arranged around a nice courtyard. I’m pleased.

I met one of my roommates, a nice girl named Katie from Massachusetts, and settled into my room:

 

[caption id="attachment_63" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="My room at College Wynd - it's actually bigger than it looks here."][/caption]

 

Decent, right? This is the first single room I’ve had in college, and it suits me just fine. The only problem is that my building is located close to some pub – although that’s not saying much since there are as many pubs in Edinburgh as there are 7-Elevens in Taipei – and people sing and make noise at all hours of the night outside. But I feel as though I’m getting an authentic Scottish experience.

PEOPLE PARTY SO MUCH HERE! There are no “off” nights, not even Sundays. The University of Edinburgh student union has nine pubs of its own. But Scottish people’s attitudes toward drinking are very different from Americans' ones. It’s not really “let’s drink to get wasted” all the time here – not to say that doesn’t happen – but more “let’s have a couple drinks and enjoy eachother’s company.”

The first night I was much too exhausted to go out, but I did take a brief walking tour with two other American students. The city at night was stunning. It’s hard to describe just how ancient the city feels, but literally every building has some history behind it even if it’s now a KFC. There are cobblestone streets everywhere, tight alleys they call “closes” separating buildings, and tons of beautiful cathedrals, government buildings, and homes. The university itself is also really amazing. All the buildings have the old (I’m sure there’s a more technical name for it) architecture and surround charming squares and parks.

Sunday morning was orientation. Not much to report that would be of much interest to non-Edinburgh students, but I did learn some fun facts about Edinburgh. The entire city is a World Heritage site, and Thomas Jefferson once said that Edinburgh is the city Paris ought to be. We got a walking tour of the campus from a student, and it became clear to me that I would have big problems getting lost. Not much of a surprise to those who know me.

On Sunday afternoon my new friend Alison and I went shopping at a bargain store to buy some essential apartment items and then to Tesco, the main grocery chain in the UK. I’ve heard things are much more expensive here, and I guess they typically are, but not when you just buy Tesco-brand items! It’s basically like Ralph’s. I got as much food as I could carry and pledged to go later with my backpacking backpack to get more. So far I’ve been living on peanut butter, store-brand nutella and lean cuisine-esque dinners.

On Sunday night I had my first authentically Scottish experience: I went to a pub. Alison’s roommates are a hilarious group consisting of girls from Scotland, Ireland, England, and Australia. We tagged along with them and some of their friends to a place called the Brass Monkey. It’s just the sort of place you think of when you envision Scotland – dim lighting, charming seating areas, a long bar with tons of taps. We settled into a little nook and enjoyed our drinks – cider for me, of course.

 

[caption id="attachment_65" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="With new friends having cider!"][/caption]

 

The guys we were with were really funny. One of them gave us his “top five in life” list, which I’ll recount here:

1. Sex

2. Food

3. Sleep

4. Dancing (yes, Scottish guys actually like to dance.)

5. "Bedlife"

When he got to “bedlife” I started hysterically laughing. It means literally “life in bed” – staying in bed all day. There are lots of words like that in the Scottish dialect that are a constant source of amusement for me. Here are some more:

1. NED - non-educated delinquent. Gangster-type guys "proper" girls don't associate with.

2. Pulling - kissing

3. Round - fat

4. Pissing - raining

On Monday morning the parliament program had its orientation, led by my director of studies Paddy. Imagine a stereotypical Scottish man. Does he look like this?

 

[caption id="attachment_68" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Yep, I took this picture without him knowing - didn't want him to think I was a creeper."][/caption]

 

Long graysish-red beard, huge pot belly (probably a result of regular alcohol consumption), thick Scottish accent, terrible body odor. He’s awesome.

Paddy told us all about what we’ll be doing for the duration of the semester: five weeks of class followed by a ten-week internship with a member of the Scottish parliament. I’m pumped. There are just 16 of us in the program, and it’s been really great so far getting to know everyone.

On Monday afternoon I went to the university library to check out books for my classes. It was intimidating at first because I had no idea where to go or what to do. But I asked for help at the desk and a very nice guy helped me understand the system. I’ve found that people here are very friendly and seem to like foreigners. They’re excited about Obama – I’ve been asked numerous times about the election. It’s a good time to be in Europe.

Monday night wasn’t as fun as the night before, since my attempts to go out were thwarted. One of my flatmates – a girl named Lauren who’s in the parliament program with me – Alison, and I attempted to go to a club with Alison’s roommates. The line was RIDICULOUS. Yep, on a Monday night. We were just basically pushed around for an hour in a mob of people (with my foot getting stilettoed a number of times, of course) before the security guard cut the line off RIGHT IN FRONT OF US. But it was probably a good thing since I had class this morning. I’m sure we’ll go back.

 

[caption id="attachment_70" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="All dressed up for da club, with no idea we weren't going out."][/caption]

 

This morning I had my first class – Scottish politics. Taking a class last semester which went through British politics has helped my understanding a lot, and I actually found the lecture very interesting. The interns have class together three days a week in a small seminar classroom in the Chisolm House, home to the Institute of Governance here. I had lunch with some of the interns, and I can tell already that we’re gonna mesh pretty well together.

In the afternoon Paddy took us on a tour of “historic Edinburgh.” We walked to Princes street, one of the main thoroughfares in the city. It’s a gorgeous street with tons of shops, museums, and otherwise historic places. We stopped at the cemetery where David Hume is buried and went up to Calton Hill, which has amazing views of Edinburgh in all directions. The trip was finished up with visits to the People’s Museum and the Museum of Edinburgh. Nothing special; I’m really not a huge fan of museums. Paddy made us watch a video in the first museum, and the guy next to me and I were cracking up the whole time because we couldn’t understand anything the people were saying because they had really thick Scottish accents.

 

[caption id="attachment_72" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Example of "old" architecture."][/caption]

 

 

[caption id="attachment_76" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="The cemetery where famous Scots are buried."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_77" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="View of Edinburgh from Calton Hill."][/caption]

 

 

[caption id="attachment_78" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="The Scottish Parliament building, where I'll be working in five weeks."][/caption]

 

 

[caption id="attachment_79" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Bird's eye view of Princes Street as the sun was setting. It gets dark around 4 pm here."][/caption]

So yea, things are going really well so far. I feel lucky to be here having this experience and am excited to get to know the city and the people better in the coming months. I’m especially glad to be in a country full of friendly people. But the cold will definitely take some getting used to for this Louisiana/California lassie!