I've finally gotten settled, moved out of my hotel in the quiet part or old town, into a very lively section of the city. It's gorgeous here. The locals are all extremely friendly and helpful, overall they seem a lot happier than the people you usually interact with in other cities. They seem to like Americans here, some are even fascinated, but they seem to be turned off by groups of Americans. I've been with my Arcadia group the entire time and was able to experience the pubs and different areas of the city with them, but now I'm moved in and trying to interact with more locals, although they are hard to come by. For the first few days it seemed that Edinburgh was invaded by Americans, where about 60% of the people I met were from the U.S. Luckily the rest of the students returned yesterday and George square (the main area of campus) is buzzing. I haven't done too much exploring, but hope to go out this Saturday and take pictures considering I have yet to take a single photo.
As for my housing...I have three lovely flat-mates: one is from California, another from Malaysia, and another from northern England. All of them are extremely nice, the one from California and Malaysia seem to be very independent and aren't really into going out, but Rachel (from England) has been able to introduce me to a lot of students in our building. Our flats are very different then usual apartments...long corridors are covered with massive green doors for every room. Each room is a single, sharing one bathroom and a kitchen/common area. I'm not used to having my own room but it can be nice. I still don't have internet, and unfortunately Edinburgh doesn't let you get away with not paying for it. It's been a complicated process to have my internet installed but hopefully it will be up and running soon.The wether here....well it's weather. Not as cold as Boston, just very windy and rainy so far. The weather overall is very similar to what I'm used to so there's really nothing to complain about. I have my first class today so right now I'm in the library but will probably leave early in order to find the building okay.
Things I've learned:
- The U.K. has a yellow light at intersections before it turns green...so cars are allowed to come very close to hitting you before they even have a green light
- my building had somewhere between 15-20 fire alarms last semester, and the students here are not weary of breaking that record.
- Edinbuggers is a term used to point out non-native habitants that seem to be rather annoying...such as large groups of Americans
- No one has ever heard of Emmanuel College no matter where they are from (i.e. England, Massachusetts, etc.)
- They don't like to cook here (everything's frozen and premade)
- The terms freshman, sophmore, junior, senior, mean nothing.
- People here like Obama almost as much as democrats back home...mostly becuase it means once he's in office George W. Bush is gone for good.
I will update everyone soon on any new developments, hope all is well!
-lisa
