And so it begins...

Well after months of fretting, too few hours of sleep, 12 hours on planes, 7 hours in airports, and one very sleepy shuttle ride I made it! Considering all the things that could have gone wrong with the trip (and trust me, I considered all of them) the journey was pretty smooth and painless. I was very, very lucky that none of my flights were canceled or delayed due to the snow that is everywhere, it seems that I can't escape it no matter where I go. I wasn't able to sleep as much as I would have liked on the plane rides, but I sat next to nice and/or silent (which is almost as good if not better) people on all of them and the food was pretty tasty. So I survived my first international flight!
When I arrived in Edinburgh (pronounced here as "Eh-din-bra", sort of flipping the r) I got my bags pretty quickly and then went over to the University welcome counter which was full of very friendly people who chatted with me, gave me some water (I was so thirsty I almost hugged her when she did) and lots of useful maps and info packets, and helped me get a spot on the shuttle to the University.
I met two other international students while I was waiting, one from Maryland who goes to Wash U and one from Virginia who goes to Brown. The guy from Brown lives in my building as does another girl from Brown who I met on the shuttle. After lugging our luggage up the stairs (the lift was broken, figures) the three of us went to lunch at a little coffee/tea/sandwich shop around the corner from our building. It was quite tasty and pretty cheap - a good place to know about.

Here are some pictures of my room before I unpacked:

Even though it may not look like it, the room is pretty nice and spacious as far as university housing goes. My only complaint is that the heat automatically turns off thirty minutes after you turn it on.

My windows look out onto what seems to be the courtyard of another building and have a pretty nice view:


hmmm...I was just interrupted by the fire alarm going off. While we were all out waiting on the sidewalk in our pajamas (it's 1:00am) one of my flatmates informed me that the alarm goes off at least once a week usually. Oh boy.

All of my flatmates seem quite nice. There's Alex who's from Connecticut and goes to Fordham, Salomi (no clue if that's spelled right, probably not) who's a first-year here from Glasgow, and Olivia who's also a first-year and is from Dundee. Salomi and Olivia both lived here last year and seem to get on really well, which is a good sign I suppose.

Classes, or lectures rather, start tomorrow. I have all three of mine on Monday. Greek meets on MTWR mornings, Greek World meets MTR, and Scottish Literature meets MWF. I'm a little bit nervous for Greek, but luckily the girl from Brown, Alison, who I've spent quite a bit of time with so far, is a classical languages major and offered to help me if I needed it. I plan to take her up on her offer. Well I suppose I should probably try to get to sleep. I haven't noticed much problem with jet lag except in the late evening. I get really tired around 8 or 9 and fall asleep for an hour or two and then can't fall back asleep for a while. Hopefully this won't be a problem long.

I should have a large part of Tuesday afternoon free, so I'm hoping to walk around the city more and take some pictures. We walked up to the Royal Mile today and I got to see a lot more of the city. Yesterday I really only saw the part right around my flat. I must say, Edinburgh is even more beautiful that I imagined. It probably helps that it was sunny today, but still. All of the cobblestone alleys and winding streets and gorgeous old buildings. It seems like it's going to be a really fun city to explore and get to know.

So think happy thoughts for me as I try to find my classes (I think I know where I'm going) and adjust to getting back into the rhythm of school. I'll try to write more soon.