Arrival and Orientation

Well here I am, safe and sound in Edinburgh! The trip here went very smoothly actually, thanks to a little help from a wonderful thing called Tylenol P.M. I took two about 30 minutes before boarding my flight from Philadelphia to Heathrow, and the next thing I knew light was shining int through the window and the stewardess was waking me up asking, "coffee or tea miss?".

I am absolutely amazed at how beautiful it is here. Amazed. Everything is so lush and green (which makes perfect sense seeing that it rained twice within six hours of my arrival). I now see what they mean when they talk about the weather being "variable" and "unpredictable."

My journey overseas was fairly straightforward. I managed to keep track of all important items, avoided getting lost, and both of my bags were there waiting for me in Edinburgh, so I am chocking it up to a success. To start off my attempt to study abroad as frugally as possible, I took the bus from the airport rather than a taxi the entire way. It worked out well, although I bet I made several locals chuckle as they watched this Davidson sweatshirt clad girl drag her two big suitcases off of the double decker bus, across the cobblestone street, and then heft them into the nearest taxi outside of Haymarket Train Station to complete the trip to my hotel. But I managed to get to Channings Hotel for £9 rather than £20, so I am alright with a few people laughing at me.

The hotel was absolutely wonderful and exactly the spot that I needed to sleep off my jet lag. The staff was immediately friendly and welcoming and the bellhop, Scott, even offered to sit me down and go over a map with me so I wouldn't get too lost when I went out exploring. After his advice I decided that, thanks to success of my Tylenol PM during the flight, I felt up to a run. He directed me towards the Leith Path which runs right along the river that spills out into the Firth of Forth. My jaw was hanging down nearly the entire time I was running, it was so beautiful.

After that I made my way back to the hotel to shower before heading off to meet up with Jenny Hall, another Davidson student who is also studying abroad through Arcadia. Minus cell phones, we had resorted to communicating via email to set up a time and place to meet. Thankfully we managed to find one another in the very busy Waverly Train Station before heading off to Maxie's Bistro for dinner at the recommendation of the concierge at my hotel. I had asked him where we should eat on our first night in Scotland and he said Maxie's without a doubt. It was a cozy little place with a small dining room inside and a rooftop terrace as well. We opted to sit outside and enjoy the view... however, the second rainstorm decided to make its appearance about five minutes after we got our (delicious) food. Jenny and I kind of sat there in the drizzle, wondering what the protocol was for dining in the rain in Scotland. For all we knew, they might just sit right through it since they're so used to it! But our waiter came and offered to set up a table for us inside, so we scooped our plates up and relocated to continue dinner, just slightly damper this time around.

Jenny has already dubbed me the official "navigator," so I was glad that I could get us to and from dinner and back to the hotel without any mix ups or wrong turns. Hopefully that trend will continue! I feel like I sort of already have a feel for the city thanks to reading so many of Alexander McCall Smith's books, all of which are set in Edinburgh. When I was running the first day I navigated my way over to Moray Place and India Street, where two of the characters live in his 44 Scotland Street series. I still just cannot believe that I am actually here...

My room at Channings Hotel

The view from my room

A clock in the park right next to the Edinburgh Castle

My very first view of the castle! Made me realize they really weren't kidding when they said it was up on a hill...

The Scott Monument

A pretty doorway along the Royal Mile

My hotel concierge's recommendation for dinner - Maxie's Bistro

The view from our table on the restaurant's rooftop terrace

I asked the waiter what he recommended for dinner, and he said the mussels since they were "so fresh they tasted like they had just jumped out of the sea!" And I also made sure a bowl of lentil soup made its way to our table... it was chilly

Pretty sunset from Deans Bridge during the walk back to my hotel

So after that first dinner, I headed back to my hotel and attempted to conk out. However, it took about two hours and another healthy dose of Tylenol PM to do the trick. My body is just now getting used to the time, so I think I will sleep better tonight thankfully. On Wednesday morning I woke up and went for another beautiful run, this time through Inverleith Park and then by the Royal Botanic Gardens and along another riverside path I stumbled upon. I still think that the best way to get to know a city is to go out and get relatively "lost" and just happen upon places you probably wouldn't have found otherwise. But no worries, I carried a map with me at all times and did have a good idea of where I was.

After getting all of my luggage together I headed over to Pollock Halls, which is the main campus/dorm area for all the freshmen attending the University of Edinburgh. Arcadia had reserved rooms for all 60 of us here for the two nights during orientation. The rooms are small and simple but they have everything we might need and are close to the city center, so it has been a nice place to stay while getting to know Edinburgh. I feel like I could spend about 5 paragraphs talking about orientation, but I don't want to put anyone to sleep, so I'll give an overview in pictures instead.

Lunch the first day with some people from my program. We ended up eating at a little French bistro over in the Haymarket district. Very Scottish I know...

View of the far side of Arthur's seat in Holyrood Park during our orientation walk

The building where we ate dinner. From the outside it basically looked like a miniature castle. Which apparently is the norm here in Scotland.

View from our dinner table

Eating dinner with Jill (left) and Mureid (right), two of the girls I have spent a lot of time with during orientation

We figured we were in Scotland and were somewhat obligated to pay a visit to a pub our first night. So we chose The Montague right close to Pollock Halls (so we wouldn't have to walk very far in our somewhat jet lagged state!)

We were pretty much the only people when we got there around 8:00. Which was probably a good thing since we had absolutely no idea what we were doing and it took us about 10 minutes to figure out what we should order. (Thankfully the bartender was very nice and helped us out). Due to my abhorrence of beer (good choice to come to Scotland I know) I ended up trying a Bulmers pear flavored cider. However, it was HUGE! I think I took all of three sips and then the other girls helped me finish it off. So don't worry mom and dad, not going too crazy over here :)

From the left, Jill again, Louisa (who also goes to Davidson), and Stephanie

Leonard Hall, where we had all of our indoor orientation sessions

First drink of Irn Bru!! It is the strangest stuff ever... it is the most popular soft drink by far in Scotland, taking precedence over even Coke and Pepsi. It's hard to describe... basically it looks like someone dropped an orange highlighter into a bottle of fizzy water and then it tastes like they added about 50 packs of bubble gum to the awfully colored mixture. It's actually pretty tasty though! Although it has a good amount of caffeine so we were super jittery after that. Made for an interesting afternoon...

Okay, so apparently I have overloaded Blogspot's picture capacity, so if you're not tired of me already, keep going onto the next entry, there will be more photos!