Day 1 & 2: 22/23 Jan 2019

Today was our first travel day. Sarah and I left Northfield around 11:30am to head for the airport! When we got to the airport, we checked our bags, got our boarding passes and headed for security. We said our ‘see you laters’ pretty quick just to make the transition easier. Once we were through security, we found our way to the gate. While in the airport we found someone that Sarah knew named Logan, who was also going on exchange with us! We talked with him until the plane was ready.

The first leg of our journey was to Newark, New Jersey. There was nothing too special or exciting about this flight. It was a rather small plane, but they did have Wi-Fi, so we were able to watch some of the movies they provided. Once we got off the plane we got to our gate and were already boarding, however, because of another plane delay we were stuck on the runway for another half an hour which really wasn’t too terrible.  When we were finally off the ground it was all smooth sailing until this lady and man started going after each other. The lady did not put her phone on airplane mode at all and before we were even up for three minutes she had reclined and put on her sleep mask….so you just knew that she was too good for anyone else. Meanwhile, this gentleman who was sitting behind her got all upset because she was reclining back too far for his liking. So, they started to argue and ended up having to get multiple flight attendants involved to the point where they had to ask him to move. I understand that the planes are small and as the gentleman said, “if she wants to lounge that much then she should be up in first class”, but it is also her right to recline as far as her seat can. It was a whole big fiasco, but luckily it ended after not too long.

Once we landed in Scotland, we met up with Logan again and found a cab to take to the house. When we got to the house, we got our room assignments and were able to unpack and refresh for a bit. When we got to the room, we met two of our roommates, Sydni and Maddy (Ellie, our other roommate, came a bit later). Once we were refreshed, we went into town to get some essentials. It was nice to be out and about after sitting all day. Since I were feeling yucky from traveling, I decided to take a shower before lunch.

A group of us (Sarah, Emme, Logan, Andrew, Ellie & myself) all went out for dinner/lunch at Black Smith Forge. It was really good food but sitting again made us exhausted! After dinner we headed back to the house so that we could go see the Mary Queen of Scots movie in Edinburgh. We all kept dozing off unintentionally during the movie no matter how hard we tried to stay away. Once the movie was over, they gave us the option to stay in the city or head back to Dalkeith and we all agreed to head back and try to get some sleep. By the time Sarah and I made it to bed we had been up for 34 hours! It was a long and exhausting day, so it definitely felt good to lay down.

Day 3: 24 Jan 2019

Today we (Ellie, Sarah and I) all stayed in bed until about 12:30pm. While we did use up a lot of the day like that it was nice and much needed. When we did finally get up, we went to Morrisons, the grocery store, to get some breakfast/lunch and a few groceries for the house. After we got back, we dropped off our things and had orientation. We started with just some basic introductions before we did a scavenger hunt around the house. I felt kind of bad considering I had been here before and knew pretty much every part of the house, but they still wanted me to play along! After the scavenger hunt, we got to eat many different Scottish food. Henry (our chef) made a delicious spread that filled us all up! Once we were done with food, we ended up playing games. There was a big group of us playing (Sarah, Ellie, Logan, Andrew, Chris & Oliver (a professor’s husband and son), Rudy and Allison). We played a game called Codewords! It was a really fun game that was not too hard to pick up. When we were through with games, we headed to the room to shower and get ready for our long day tomorrow.

Day 4: 25 Jan 2019

Today was a fun, jam packed day! We continued our orientation with an early wake up call for breakfast and to make our lunches for the day. After that we had some more lectures about the basics of living in the house and how to be successful as an academic here. In the middle of the lectures we got to take a wee walk down to the restoration yard, which has a restaurant, coffee shop, yoga studio and a little gift shop right on the estate. It was a beautiful day and nice to be able to get out and enjoy some fresh air. After lectures we had lunch – yay!

When we were done with lunch, we had a bit more lecture about safe travel and how to be aware of your surroundings. Once we were finally done with lectures for the day, we had free time to get into the city and explore more. Sarah, Ellie, Emme and I all decided to wander around Prince’s Street. Ellie wanted to find some post cards, so we found a few places for that and I introduced the girls to Primark. Primark is basically a huge store that has many styles of clothing, shoes, and accessories for cheap! It is a wonderfully dangerous place. After we wandered, we started to get hungry, so we met up with Logan and Andrew at the Boozy Cow (a restaurant that has great burgers, fries and other basic food as well as delicious shakes).

Once we were done with dinner, we headed over to old town Edinburgh to meet up with the rest of our class and go on a ghost tour. By the name you would think that it was going to be scary, but it was more historical and talked about people who helped make the town and some of the weird shenanigans that went on through the years. It was very interesting and fun to learn about people who influenced the town and some of the weird things that when on (there were many grave robbers and they actually found a person buried alive, the last female to be executed in Scotland was in Edinburgh and when the new Edinburgh was build people were skeptical of it and did not want to cross the bridge to it so they had to recruit the oldest Scot living in Edinburgh to lead a parade across the bridge, so she signed a contact confirming that she would do it, but she ended up passing away before the day of the parade. The townspeople were distraught and did not know what to do, but they were bound to the contract the elderly lady signed, so the first official crossing of the Edinburgh bridge to connect the new and old city was a funeral procession). The tour was very fun, and informative. I learned a lot more about the city than I ever thought was possible. After a long exhausting day, it is time to call it a night!

Day 5: 26 Jan 2019

Today was another fun and long day. We started the day with breakfast and then began a long session of lectures. We had discussion about house chores and dinner/lunch duty which are we are required to do in order to keep the price of this abroad program down. After we were through with that we had ‘Tea Time with Nat (Patty, the house director’s wife). She talked to us about how to make tea, how it is very important in English culture and even made each of us our own cup of tea. After that there were a bit more lectures on money and how to spend it wisely which is always helpful since we are in a new place and we just want to try everything. Once that was all over it was lunch time – yay – we got a delicious cup of vegetable soup and a sausage roll. After that it was time for some Ceilidh Dancing, so we cleared out the dining hall for more space. Now, you are probably wondering what a Ceilidh is, Ceilidh is Gaelic for Party or Celebration. Essentially a Ceilidh is done at any kind of party like a school dance or a celebration like a wedding. It was a lot of fun to learn a new style of dance and get to know everyone a bit better.

When we were done dancing, we had some free time until we had to be in the city for a play. Ellie, Sarah, Logan, Emme, Andrew and I all decided to get dressed and head into the city for some food. We did not have a plan where we wanted to eat so we just got off the bus and walked for a bit. Eventually, we found a pizza place to try and decided to stop in. We ate at Pizza Porto. As soon as we walked in the staff were very irritable with us which was off putting. I have noticed more this time that the Scots stare a lot at Americans and just seem to judge up more than they should. It is very upsetting when you open your mouth and as soon as the accent comes out their demeanor changes. We got seated and ordered our food and when it came it looked delicious, but it didn’t come with anyways to cut it, plates, napkins, silverware or a drink. We were all very confused by this since every other table we had got everything they needed. It took a while, but finally we got the attention of the server and asked for everything we need…we got a pizza cutter and a pitcher of water. Since we didn’t want to make a big deal, we just managed. From the service we got there I can for sure say I will not be going back any time soon.

 

Once we were done eating, we decided to get out as soon as we could and go find dessert somewhere else. We ended up finding a very cute restaurant on the Royal Mile called Café Keno. Before we decided we were going to eat there we were looking at the menu outside and one of the workers, maybe an owner, came out to greet us and just because she did that we were sold. We all got a dessert, which was delicious, the servers were very attentive, and the atmosphere was very fun. Even though we only got dessert we looked at the whole menu and decided it was a place worth going back to for a whole meal. When we were done with dessert, we made our way to the bus stop to catch the bus to the theatre. It was all going great until I noticed we were headed the wrong way. In a panic we decided to get off at the next stop and try it again. We walked to the stop again, but there was no way we were going to make it in time, so we ended up catching a cab and making it in perfect time.

Finally, we made it to the King’s Theatre to see Glasgow Girls. The play was very good, and the actors had amazing singing voices making is 10x better. Since the play was going to get over a bit later Patty (House Director) got us all cabs to get us back to the house quicker which was very nice. When we got back, I showered and got all clean and then met up with some other people in the house to talked for a bit and explore around to see if we would find any other hidden rooms. After walking the whole house, we plopped down on the tartan staircase and talked for a bit longer before I decided to come back to the room, journal for a bit, and call it a night.

The first week has been very fun! The group of people this time are amazing, and everyone seems to be getting along really well. I am excited to see what this semester will hold between, exploring, classes and internships.

Talk to you soon  & thank you for reading