Meredith in Edinburgh

Scottish Highlands!

2009-12-17T09:41:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went on a guided day tour of the Scottish Highlands. Our ultimate destination was Loch Ness, but we made lots of little stops along the way and traveled through a beautiful area of the Highlands called Glencoe. It was with a company called "Rabbie's Trail Burners" (for Rabbie Burns, the Scottish poet) and the tour was 12 hours! I had to get up at 7:30, which was hard since I had only managed to fall asleep around 5am. On my way to meet the tour group, I planned to stop by the coffeehouse near my flat to wake myself up, but was surprised to find that apparently coffeehouses here aren't open before 8am! Thankfully, Starbucks was open. I know some people hate Starbucks, but all I'm saying is if it weren't for that grande mocha I probably wouldn't have made it through the day. So Starbucks, you're all right in my book!

Our first stop was at a loch (their word for lake). I can't remember the name of it. This one was smaller than Loch Ness, but was very pretty!

Along the way to Loch Ness our driver made a bunch of quick stops at scenic places where he thought we might like to take pictures:

Finally, we arrived at a tiny town (population: about 500) that calls itself the "Gateway to Loch Ness" since Loch Ness borders it. Here we got an hour to walk around and eat lunch. These are the pictures I took of the loch itself:

On the drive back from Loch Ness we made several more quick stops at scenic spots to take some pictures. One of the stops was at a very old Scottish kirk (their word for church) and graveyard on top of a hill that had great views.

Some other stops along the way:

The tour guide was AWESOME. His name was Ali (pronounced like Allie), short for Alistair, and he was relatively young and just very cool. He did make some groan-worthy puns, but he knew everything about Scotland's history and was an interesting person to talk to.

Went to Glasgow yesterday!

2009-12-12T13:13:00.000-08:00

As mentioned previously, I have to find things to do to fill the time between now and when I go home. So yesterday morning I took a bus to lovely Glasgow.

On the way to the bus stop. Foggy Edinburgh!

I feel like it was about time that I went there, considering it's only a little over an hour away by bus and is, by all accounts, an awesome city. I really didn't get that full a picture of it since I was only there for about 7 hours, but I'll be going back there in February for a Spoon concert, which, side note, I am REALLY excited about. Spoon concert in an intimate venue the day after my 21st birthday sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me. But I digress.

Anyway, a friend of mine who has been to Glasgow had explained that there's not a whole lot of tourist-y attractions there (such as in the way Edinburgh has the castle, palace, etc.). They do, however, have good shopping, which is what I did. Before I came to the UK, I looked forward to going clothes shopping here because I've always thought of European clothing as stylish and chic, but oh LORD are clothes expensive here. It's ridiculous! Basically my day of shopping really wasn't very successful because any time I found something I remotely liked, I would look at the price tag and think "I could easily find something like this back home for much less, and I go home in a week". But even so, unsuccessfully shopping in Glasgow is better than sitting in my flat in Edinburgh with nothing to do!

Pictures of Glasgow:

Next week I think I might go on a tour of the Highlands. I will update if I do!

Two More Weeks!

2009-12-07T00:40:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe the semester is almost over! I fly home in less than two weeks. Lectures and tutorials are over; exam time has begun. Believe or not, though, I have no exams at all this semester. Which seems like a great thing, and it is great right now, but it means that all of my exams are at the end of the year. That's going to be especially stressful considering the fact that exams in the UK are worth so much more of your overall grade than in the US. So I would much rather have my exams spread out. What's particularly annoying is that one of my classes- Edinburgh in Fiction- is only a semester-long class and I took it this semester, and yet the exam is at the end of the year. It makes no sense!

The upside, of course, is the free time I have for these next two weeks. Unfortunately, my abundance of free time is not shared by most of my friends, who do in fact have exams right now. So I'll just have to amuse myself for two weeks. I plan to take a day trip to Glasgow at some point this week (bus tickets to Glasgow are ridiculously cheap), and possibly elsewhere on separate days.

That's all for now I suppose, more later!

Only a month left!

2009-11-08T11:45:00.000-08:00

Hi again!

Coursework is pretty heavy at the moment; I have 3 essays due in the next 2 weeks. Next Monday (as in, a week from tomorrow), my second British History essay is due, as well as my first Edinburgh in Fiction essay. My professor in the latter class gave us a little treat in that there is no class or reading for this week- instead, it's 'Essay Completion Week'. No such luck for British History; we still have the regular 3 lectures and our tutorial. The following Monday, my second English Literature 2 essay is due.

Last night (Saturday night) was really nice. Kate and I made brownies and watched the first two episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I haven't seen for years and hadn't realized how much I missed.

On a completely unrelated note, I recently learned about an annual charity hitchhike from the UK to either Morocco or Prague, and have decided I really, really want to do it. Basically, it benefits an organization called Link Community Development (http://www.lcdinternational.org/). They work in Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, South Africa, and Uganda, striving to 'improve access to quality education and promote the wellbeing of young people in rural communities'. The annual Hitch starts in England and Wales (people can start their hitchhike from wherever they are in the UK), and from there participants hitchhike to either Morocco (the original destination, and obviously the longer one) or Prague (this destination was added for people who didn't have enough time to devote to hitchhiking all the way to Morocco). At this point I'm leaning towards Prague, simply because I would be doing this over Spring Break, which I also need to devote to studying since all of my exams are worth HALF of my grade.

It's Halloween tomorrow!

2009-10-30T09:52:00.000-07:00

It's Halloween tomorrow! I went out with some friends Wednesday night in costume, which is when I took the above picture, but since not everyone else was in costume we didn't get the full experience. So tomorrow will be my first proper Edinburgh Halloween experience. I'm excited! I think Halloween is probably my favorite holiday. For one thing, it's right in the thick of autumn, which is my favorite season. And it's really the only holiday I can think of that it celebrated at nighttime- which, being a night person, works for me.

Pictures to follow, hopefully!

At last, another entry

2009-10-11T17:31:00.000-07:00

I suppose I could blame my lack of updates over the past month on the amount of reading I've had to do for my courses, but I've also been avoiding writing a new entry because so much has happened that the thought of trying to sum up my new life in any sort of succinct way seems a daunting task. But here we go! I've decided to break it down into sections:

My Flat:
I live in a university-owned flat called New Arthur Place with four other girls; two Scottish girls (Trisha and Caroline), an English girl (Kate), and another American (Cora). We're on the fifth floor, and our flat is somewhat unique compared to other flats in New Arthur Place in that it takes up two floors. I really like the location; it's right next to the student societies center, Pleasance, which, in addition being the typical spot for societies to meet, has a bar and a cabaret venue where comedy nights are apparently held every Tuesday.

New Arthur Place is also only a 5-10 minute walk from George Square, which is where all of my classes are held, and it's close to so many cool places while at the same time being away enough from the action that we don't have to deal with tons of noise at night (i.e. one block of university flats is directly above a bar...I don't envy them!)

Note: All of these pictures were taken on move-in day, which is why everything is so bare. Trust me, everything looks much more 'lived-in' now :)

Our kitchen!

My Courses:
I'm taking three courses, which to an American sounds like very little, but is actually a full course load here as courses are more intensive in the UK and require far more reading outside of class. The three classes I'm taking this semester are:
1) English Literature 2: a full-year module, normally taken in the second year. Because English literature classes are so popular here, you're only allowed to take one course at a time from third year (called Honours courses), so I'm taking this in addition to my Honours course. I chose the second year module because the first year covers mainly medieval and renaissance literature, whereas the second year continues chronologically and covers the period of literature I'm more interested in; specifically, the rise of the novel in the eighteenth and nineteenth centures.
2) Edinburgh in Fiction/Fiction in Edinburgh: my third-year Honours literature course. Okay, in the interest of full disclosure, I'll admit that not only was this not my first choice, I really only enrolled in it because it was the only one that had space left, since visiting students don't have priority for classes. But it is a pretty cool concept; discovering a new city in person while you're discovering through literature. And this week we're reading The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which I've always wanted to read. So maybe it'll end up being fortuitous that I wound up in this class! Also, this one is only a semester-long course.
3) British History 1: This, in addition to English Lit 2, is a full-year course. Not only does this complement my studies of British literature well, but I've always wanted to take a British history course- and where better to take it than in Great Britain?

In the spring, my Edinburgh in Fiction course will be replaced by "Shakespeare: Modes and Genres" which I am SO excited for, as I am a huge Shakespeare freak.

First Week: Over

2009-09-19T07:35:00.000-07:00

I feel like so much has happened since I last posted!

So this past week has been 'Freshers Week' (freshers being their word for freshmen) and so there have been lots of scheduled events, both during the day and at night. Tuesday night I did indeed end up getting my first fish 'n chips, and it was so yummy I can't wait to have it again. Afterward we went to a pub called 'The Blind Poet' (we chose that one because the girls I was with and I are all studying English Lit and thought it was an appropriate choice) and had a pint; all in all, a mellow night. Wednesday night, though, was a bit more of a flurry of activity. I went with some friends on a three-legged pub crawl led by the Canoe/Kayaking club that ended up a dance club, and was a lot of fun. It was especially nice to meet new people that I probably wouldn't have met otherwise. Thursday night was another pub crawl, this time led by the Stop Aids society. And finally, last night we went to a flat party in another block of New Arthur Place (where I live; I'm in block 5 and the party was in block 11) and then out to a pretty classy dance club.

Tonight is the Freshers Ball, which I don't think I'm going to go to, as well as the 'Big Cheese' (which plays cheesy fun music), which I do think I'll go to. More later!

Starting to get my bearings...

2009-09-15T10:33:00.000-07:00

I have fortunately gotten over the bout of sickness that I suppose resulted from extreme jet lag and have been able to explore the city quite a bit. Yesterday I did a lot of walking and wound up on Princes Street, which is a famous street here in Edinburgh and is lined with tons of shops. Along the way I bought a printer and a frying pan. I still need to get a ton of stuff for my room, but it's a start.

Today I went with two fellow Tulane girls on a tour of the Royal Yacht Brittania (it was one of the many events during "Freshers Week" that the student association pays for). It was one of those self-guided tours so we made a beeline for the Royal Tea Room, which was actually a working tea room serving tea and scones and all that business. I've never been to a tea room before, and to be honest I'm not a big tea person, but I figured this was an experience I needed to have as long as I'm in Great Britain. We got a pot of "Famous Edinburgh" tea and I had the most delicious strawberry tart.

I've been taking pictures but I still don't have that damn USB cable :/ I'll post them when I get it.

Tonight the girls and I are going to a pub where I plan to have my first ever fish and chips. Should be fun!

I'm here!

2009-09-13T01:20:00.000-07:00

Ugh, it's been a rough couple of days. I got hardly any sleep on my 10 hour flight to London; one of my bags got re-routed between London and Edinburgh (I still don't have it); after being dropped off at the residence hall where I had to pick up my keys, I had to walk several blocks uphill with the heavy bag that didn't get lost to get to my flat and then drag that same bag up 5 flights of stairs; and to top it all off I've thrown up twice so far. Merry Christmas to me!

Seriously though, I'm assuming the stress of traveling so far brought on the sickness and that it should go away soon. I figured the first few days might be tough; it's a pretty big adjustment. In more cheerful news, my flat is quite nice. My bedroom is decently sized. I took pictures when I first got here but then realized I don't have a USB cable with me to upload the pictures, so I'll post those later. I have four flatmates; two Scots, a Brit, and another American.

I have several things I plan to today: first, the University is holding International Day (U. of Edinburgh has quite a large number of international students), which mainly seems to involve a welcome ceremony which I plan to go to. I also need to go grocery shopping at some point, try to get my bag back from British Airways, and then tonight I'm going on a "Ghosts and Ghouls" tour of Edinburgh with two other girls from Tulane.

I think that's it for now. Pictures to follow!

On the eve of adventure...

2009-09-10T18:38:00.000-07:00

Hello! I created this blog as a means of chronicling my adventures as I spend my junior year abroad at the University of Edinburgh, where I will be studying English Literature.

As I write this, I have less than 24 hours until I leave for Scotland. I fly from LAX to Heathrow (a 10 hour flight, during which I'm counting on Ambien to knock me out) and then from there to Edinburgh. To say I'm excited is an understatement. But I'm also a bit nervous! I have no idea what to expect. I've never been to the UK before, and the longest I've been to Europe is about a week or two. I'm also nervous because I've had such an amazing two years at Tulane so far. I'm leaving behind friends that I will miss terribly, and in the anticipation of my departure I can't help but hope that the gamble I'm taking in going for the whole year will pay off. Speaking of which, every time I tell people I'll be spending an entire academic year abroad, I invariably get the same question; "But...why?" So here, in a nutshell, are the reasons:

1) Tulane actually only approves the UK study abroad programs for spring and full year because the fall semesters at UK universities are so much shorter. My classes don't start until September 21, a full month after Tulane's classes start. To go just for a fall semester in the UK wouldn't really afford you the full experience, and if I went just for a spring semester it would likely be harder to make friends there since I would be coming in halfway through their school year.

2) Many of Edinburgh's classes-- including 2 of the 3 I'm taking (3 classes constitutes a full course load there)-- are year-long. They are slowly becoming more semesterized, but only because the government told them to, and thus I've heard Edinburgh is dragging their feet a bit

3) By staying for the spring semester, I get to enjoy the month-long spring break Edinburgh students get, when I'll be able to travel around Europe!

So there you go! I certainly hope my decision to go for the year pays off. For one thing, I hope I get along well with my flatmates! I got my first choice of flat (New Arthur Place!) which I am thrilled about; it was my understanding based on various student message boards that no one ever gets their first choice. Anyway, I will be living with four other girls. I move in directly on Saturday and I can't wait to meet them. I hope we can decorate our flat and make it look "home-y". I also hope at least one of my flatmates is a master in the kitchen! I wish I could say I am, but alas...

Anyway, I suppose that's all for now. I have quite of bit of packing to do, which I will probably be up all night doing! Hopefully that will help me sleep on the plane...