With the exception of a few small things and, you know, a group of friends, I basically have everything that I need here taken care of. So I can get into actual impressions of the city and whatnot, now that all of the boring stuff is off of my mind.
I honestly and truly love it here. It might actually be my ideal environment. Once I have people to go out and do stuff with on a regular basis and I can take advantage of the pubs and nightlife, this will probably be the perfect city. It's hard to really say why. I love the people, always hurrying somewhere, but not like we do in the US. Hurrying because if you're outside too long, your nose will freeze. They're all remarkably cheerful, despite the weather. The city is beautiful, old and impressive but still thriving. It's really sobering and cool to look up and see a castle from certain places. There's a sense that the city is nothing so much as solid, and it makes the rest of life seem a lot more stable. Everything around me has been in existence for hundreds of years, and it's hard to imagine that it won't be here for hundreds of years more. It's nice to be able to make dumb mistakes (which I do) and not have people look at you like you're a complete idiot, also.
And then there's the university itself, with its mix of old and new buildings, the type of place where the past and the future collide. Again, totally dumb, but it's what I imagined a university to be when I was young. A place where thousands and thousands of people have learned all sorts of things so they could go out and make the world a better place. Or not, but I was an idealistic kid
Overall, I think this semester is going to go by really quickly. Too quickly, I'm sure. I still have a lot of things to get used to, little things that don't matter much, but it's nice to be settled. I haven't been able to feel this calm since last summer, because calm and band season don't really go hand in hand. Now all I have to do is force myself to join a club or something so I can go out drinking every night like you guys do (p.s. holy shit, people).
Then maybe I can take pictures of boys and pubs and whatever else you guys want. And have some scandalous behavior to write about, which, as we all know, totally my style. As you may have noticed, I have a single bed. I'm tempted to scientifically determine whether that or an air mattress is more awkward for certain activities. I have no hypothesis, any opinions would be welcome.
And Lena, my flatmate being Russian (actually from Russia) is amusing because I have a friend from back home with whom I vowed to live in Edinburgh one day. She is also Russian. So I am, in fact, living with a Russian in Edinburgh, it's just the wrong one.
And I should probably go to bed now, since I have class at 9am. Sweet.
- C
Showing posts with label first few days. Show all posts
Showing posts with label first few days. Show all posts
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Friday, January 11, 2008
Now with internet.
I could wait and do this post on Sunday when I have nothing to do, but I'll probably forget stuff and have enough for another post then anyway. So I'll just do the big "first few days" post now. Get yourself a snack or something, this'll probably be long.
I left my house at 1:45pm on Tuesday, in order to make it to Newark for my 6:55pm flight. Newark is about the same distance from my house as NYC, minus the Lincoln Tunnel traffic, so I got there about 3 hours before takeoff. Yeah, awesome. My mom and dad both went to drop me off, and they were both crying when we said goodbye. It was terrible. I tear up thinking about it. Shut up, I'll bet a million dollars you've never seen me cry (unless we've watched Rome or certain movies together), and I've done it more in the last few days than in the last 20 years combined. I have a reputation to uphold. Anyway, I got to the airport, got through security in record time even with an "extra security check." Yes, I was chosen by the airline to get frisked. Whatever, I'm so threatening, I know. Then I sat at the gate and called people/read for 2 hours, until the plane started boarding. I have exactly $7 in American currency, so I didn't buy any food or anything. My grandmom had given me a bag with two chocolate covered pretzels, two or three packages of peanut butter crackers, and four Twizzlers, so I was obvs covered for days.
I got on the plane, sat in my window seat, and tried really hard to fall asleep. The plane left an hour later than it was supposed to, but the flight to London from Newark is slightly less than 6 hours, not the 7 that I was expecting. That was a nice surprise. Also, because it was a Continental flight going overseas, there were TVs in all the seat backs, with lots of movies and games and TV shows etc. That was entertaining for awhile. But yeah, I was completely unable to fall asleep, which sucked, because I lost 5 hours on that flight and got into London at 6:30am. In case you're wondering, I watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and most of Swingers while in transit. Skinny Vince Vaughn is terrifying. For dinner, I had some beef with noodles nonsense and salad and a roll. Breakfast (these two meals were served like 4 hours apart) was a fruit salad and a croissant, of which I ate half. That stuff doesn't really matter, except it's basically all that was sustaining me for the next 2 days.
Landed in London, got through immigration, reclaimed my bags. My flight from London to Edinburgh was a 10:30am flight, so I had some time to kill. How you're supposed to kill time in the entry area of an airport, I have no idea. Even if that airport is Gatwick, which is a ridiculous place. Fortunately, check-in for my flight started early, so I checked my bags (after paying $72 more because my bags were over the 45lb. weight allowance) and got my boarding pass. I then proceeded to sit in this weird limbo area for people on flights without gate assignments for forever. I was looking at all of the duty free shops (one of which was entirely devoted to whiskey!!) and being generally bored and dazed. Finally, a little TV told me to go to gate 1, so I did. Mostly that day was like wtf am i doing. Written exactly like that in my head.
The flight to Edinburgh was uneventful, mostly, except we had to go out on the tarmac and climb those rolling stairs to board the plane. That was exciting. It was a short flight, and I got the one hour of sleep that I had since Monday night. Reached Edinburgh, where it was damn windy, as I could tell because the plane was blowing around. I had a list of things that I had to accomplish that day, number 1 being "get keys to flat." The plane landed at noon, all of the things that I had to do would be impossible after either 4 or 5:00, depending. Okay, totally doable. Took my bags, got a taxi. The driver was young and cute and looked like Billy Boyd. Also, he called me "love," and, had he asked, I would have married him right off. It didn't take long, folks. I tried to be charming, despite my lack of sleep induced retardation. Went to the main residence halls, where I had to fill out paperwork, assure them that USC would be paying for my rent, etc etc. Finally got my keys and had to pay another taxi (this driver female and not as charming, though cheerful) to take me to my flat. Found the front door, after some questionable moments, through an archway that also happens to be the hangout for the local hooligans and right behind a mini-Tesco. Figured out which of my four keys was for which door. Couldn't get the door to my bedroom open, scared my flatmate by trying her door. Found out that she is Russian and named Marina. Got the key for my door to work, dropped off my stuff, asked Marina for directions to the main square of campus, headed out. It was lightly raining/snowing this day. Found the office of my Director of Studies, who is basically my academic adviser. Officially registered for classes and then went to the Registry to handle more paperwork. I also went to the art history office to pick up some stuff and get contact info/class locations/whatnot. At some point in those hours I ate a packet of peanut butter crackers as lunch.
All that taken care of, I needed to handle buying stuff for my flat. Namely, sheets, towel, pillow etc. Basically, the things that I would need to sleep and shower, because those were the foremost things on my mind. I wandered down my street to a store called Edinburgh Bargain, which seemed promising. Got the stuff I needed, though it required two trips. I also started the set-up of my internet at this point, because it is an involved process requiring the registration of your computer and whatnot. I bought an Ethernet cable and an adapter for my laptop plug, because I hadn't thought about doing that before. I unpacked my stuff. By this time, it was 6pm, and I just wanted to go to bed. So I did. Marina woke me up at 10pm to see if I wanted some of the soup that she made for dinner, which was really nice, but no. I ended up sleeping until 11am. At that point, I woke up and showered, and then I went to the library to find a computer. I should note, all of the door handles are the same in the library, whether you have to push or pull. Of course, I end up looking like an idiot every time that I have to use them. Still. I also went to the Re-Freshers Fair, which is the student activity fair, to see if there were any societies that I wanted to join. This being me, the answer was no. Insert the last packet of peanut butter crackers at this point. It was actually snowing, which was awesome. However, it was also raining, which meant that I was really just wet and cold. Hooray for "winter mix." I attempted to find the class and, as I said before, failed. So I went back to the library and waited for my 4pm tutorial (which is a discussion section). I knew for sure where that was supposed to be, since I had gone to the art history office the day before.
That went well. I'll talk about classes in a later entry, since I haven't had most of them, and it's just way too much for this novel. I went home and stopped at the Tesco to buy cereal, milk, juice, and water. After that, there was a welcome dinner for the USC study abroad group here at an Indian restaurant. Free food woo! A ton of food, actually, making it the best meal I'd ever eaten. Haha, mostly because it was my first meal in two days. And there was wine, which made me tipsy and conversational after one glass. Met some people, which was nice. After that, we went to this tiny pub called Bannerman's, which had Strongbow cider on tap. Again, free. So I went home, passed the hooligans outside of my front door smoking pot, attempted to call my parents (who weren't home) and then took two hours to fall asleep.
Today, I set my alarm for 11am, just because it can't be healthy to sleep as much as I have been for the last week. I actually woke up at 12:45. It's really hard to get yourself out of bed when the sun never comes out. I ate a lunch of cereal and juice, which was 20 times better than peanut butter crackers. I went to the library and sat on the computer for 3 hours. I then returned home and had dinner with another girl from the program. We walked to the city center and ate at a pub; I had pork sausage and mash and Guinness
Tomorrow, we are going to Edinburgh Castle. So excited. I will take pictures.
I know this entry is mostly boring, but it's all just logistical stuff. I'll get into actual impressions of the city and the people and post pictures later, probably tomorrow night or Sunday.
But here, have a picture of my bedroom:
Yes, my blanket is pink. My top sheet is purple, and the bottom one is teal. My pillowcase is tan. I grabbed what was cheap. I also have an armoire and a bookshelf that I keep all of my clothes on, which happen to be on the side of the room that you can't see.
Okay, I'm going to bed. I have shit to do tomorrow.
- C
I left my house at 1:45pm on Tuesday, in order to make it to Newark for my 6:55pm flight. Newark is about the same distance from my house as NYC, minus the Lincoln Tunnel traffic, so I got there about 3 hours before takeoff. Yeah, awesome. My mom and dad both went to drop me off, and they were both crying when we said goodbye. It was terrible. I tear up thinking about it. Shut up, I'll bet a million dollars you've never seen me cry (unless we've watched Rome or certain movies together), and I've done it more in the last few days than in the last 20 years combined. I have a reputation to uphold. Anyway, I got to the airport, got through security in record time even with an "extra security check." Yes, I was chosen by the airline to get frisked. Whatever, I'm so threatening, I know. Then I sat at the gate and called people/read for 2 hours, until the plane started boarding. I have exactly $7 in American currency, so I didn't buy any food or anything. My grandmom had given me a bag with two chocolate covered pretzels, two or three packages of peanut butter crackers, and four Twizzlers, so I was obvs covered for days.
I got on the plane, sat in my window seat, and tried really hard to fall asleep. The plane left an hour later than it was supposed to, but the flight to London from Newark is slightly less than 6 hours, not the 7 that I was expecting. That was a nice surprise. Also, because it was a Continental flight going overseas, there were TVs in all the seat backs, with lots of movies and games and TV shows etc. That was entertaining for awhile. But yeah, I was completely unable to fall asleep, which sucked, because I lost 5 hours on that flight and got into London at 6:30am. In case you're wondering, I watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and most of Swingers while in transit. Skinny Vince Vaughn is terrifying. For dinner, I had some beef with noodles nonsense and salad and a roll. Breakfast (these two meals were served like 4 hours apart) was a fruit salad and a croissant, of which I ate half. That stuff doesn't really matter, except it's basically all that was sustaining me for the next 2 days.
Landed in London, got through immigration, reclaimed my bags. My flight from London to Edinburgh was a 10:30am flight, so I had some time to kill. How you're supposed to kill time in the entry area of an airport, I have no idea. Even if that airport is Gatwick, which is a ridiculous place. Fortunately, check-in for my flight started early, so I checked my bags (after paying $72 more because my bags were over the 45lb. weight allowance) and got my boarding pass. I then proceeded to sit in this weird limbo area for people on flights without gate assignments for forever. I was looking at all of the duty free shops (one of which was entirely devoted to whiskey!!) and being generally bored and dazed. Finally, a little TV told me to go to gate 1, so I did. Mostly that day was like wtf am i doing. Written exactly like that in my head.
The flight to Edinburgh was uneventful, mostly, except we had to go out on the tarmac and climb those rolling stairs to board the plane. That was exciting. It was a short flight, and I got the one hour of sleep that I had since Monday night. Reached Edinburgh, where it was damn windy, as I could tell because the plane was blowing around. I had a list of things that I had to accomplish that day, number 1 being "get keys to flat." The plane landed at noon, all of the things that I had to do would be impossible after either 4 or 5:00, depending. Okay, totally doable. Took my bags, got a taxi. The driver was young and cute and looked like Billy Boyd. Also, he called me "love," and, had he asked, I would have married him right off. It didn't take long, folks. I tried to be charming, despite my lack of sleep induced retardation. Went to the main residence halls, where I had to fill out paperwork, assure them that USC would be paying for my rent, etc etc. Finally got my keys and had to pay another taxi (this driver female and not as charming, though cheerful) to take me to my flat. Found the front door, after some questionable moments, through an archway that also happens to be the hangout for the local hooligans and right behind a mini-Tesco. Figured out which of my four keys was for which door. Couldn't get the door to my bedroom open, scared my flatmate by trying her door. Found out that she is Russian and named Marina. Got the key for my door to work, dropped off my stuff, asked Marina for directions to the main square of campus, headed out. It was lightly raining/snowing this day. Found the office of my Director of Studies, who is basically my academic adviser. Officially registered for classes and then went to the Registry to handle more paperwork. I also went to the art history office to pick up some stuff and get contact info/class locations/whatnot. At some point in those hours I ate a packet of peanut butter crackers as lunch.
All that taken care of, I needed to handle buying stuff for my flat. Namely, sheets, towel, pillow etc. Basically, the things that I would need to sleep and shower, because those were the foremost things on my mind. I wandered down my street to a store called Edinburgh Bargain, which seemed promising. Got the stuff I needed, though it required two trips. I also started the set-up of my internet at this point, because it is an involved process requiring the registration of your computer and whatnot. I bought an Ethernet cable and an adapter for my laptop plug, because I hadn't thought about doing that before. I unpacked my stuff. By this time, it was 6pm, and I just wanted to go to bed. So I did. Marina woke me up at 10pm to see if I wanted some of the soup that she made for dinner, which was really nice, but no. I ended up sleeping until 11am. At that point, I woke up and showered, and then I went to the library to find a computer. I should note, all of the door handles are the same in the library, whether you have to push or pull. Of course, I end up looking like an idiot every time that I have to use them. Still. I also went to the Re-Freshers Fair, which is the student activity fair, to see if there were any societies that I wanted to join. This being me, the answer was no. Insert the last packet of peanut butter crackers at this point. It was actually snowing, which was awesome. However, it was also raining, which meant that I was really just wet and cold. Hooray for "winter mix." I attempted to find the class and, as I said before, failed. So I went back to the library and waited for my 4pm tutorial (which is a discussion section). I knew for sure where that was supposed to be, since I had gone to the art history office the day before.
That went well. I'll talk about classes in a later entry, since I haven't had most of them, and it's just way too much for this novel. I went home and stopped at the Tesco to buy cereal, milk, juice, and water. After that, there was a welcome dinner for the USC study abroad group here at an Indian restaurant. Free food woo! A ton of food, actually, making it the best meal I'd ever eaten. Haha, mostly because it was my first meal in two days. And there was wine, which made me tipsy and conversational after one glass. Met some people, which was nice. After that, we went to this tiny pub called Bannerman's, which had Strongbow cider on tap. Again, free. So I went home, passed the hooligans outside of my front door smoking pot, attempted to call my parents (who weren't home) and then took two hours to fall asleep.
Today, I set my alarm for 11am, just because it can't be healthy to sleep as much as I have been for the last week. I actually woke up at 12:45. It's really hard to get yourself out of bed when the sun never comes out. I ate a lunch of cereal and juice, which was 20 times better than peanut butter crackers. I went to the library and sat on the computer for 3 hours. I then returned home and had dinner with another girl from the program. We walked to the city center and ate at a pub; I had pork sausage and mash and Guinness
Tomorrow, we are going to Edinburgh Castle. So excited. I will take pictures.
I know this entry is mostly boring, but it's all just logistical stuff. I'll get into actual impressions of the city and the people and post pictures later, probably tomorrow night or Sunday.
But here, have a picture of my bedroom:
Yes, my blanket is pink. My top sheet is purple, and the bottom one is teal. My pillowcase is tan. I grabbed what was cheap. I also have an armoire and a bookshelf that I keep all of my clothes on, which happen to be on the side of the room that you can't see.
Okay, I'm going to bed. I have shit to do tomorrow.
- C
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