Hey everyone! From my new dorm at Pollock Halls at the University of Edinburgh about 10:30am Sunday, September 12. I don't even know where to begin because the past few days have been incredible. Our program orientation went on for the last few days and ended yesterday when we all moved in to our new places. But wow what a great few days of orientation we had!
On our first day, we had breakfast at 8ish and then orientation at the hotel we were staying at until about 5pm, so it was a long day of orientation, but actually quite enjoyable. Probably one of my favorite parts of the first day's orientation was the Edinburgh police officer who came in to talk to us about personal safety and whatnot. He was incredibly funny and he talked to us for about 30-45 minutes during the middle of the day to kind of break the dry spell of information we were constantly being fed. And then today, the same hilarious police officer is going to be marching affront a parade (I believe for the queen's visit) carrying the royal flag, so a lot of us are going to be going to see him. Anyways, after the day at orientation, we all went out to get dinner and have fun out on the town and it was really a great evening. The next day, our second day of orientation, we did mostly class stuff the whole day so it was slightly dry, but still not bad. However, one of my fondest and most humorous memories so far was at the second day's orientation when one of the women in the Scottish Parliament came to speak to us. She was around maybe 70 years old, but she had more personality than any of us knew what to do with. And to preface this story, I must mention that there are two big football (soccer) teams here in Edinburgh, the Hearts and the Hibs (Hibernians). Each plays on different sides of the city and has traditionally been divided along Protestant/Catholic lines. So during her question and answer portion, one of my friends Max, trying to impress her with his "knowledge" of Edinburgh football teams, asked her if she liked the Hearts. Mistaking the fact that she was actually a die-heart fan of the Hibs, she merely stared at him with a very funny face, kind of scrunched up, and said humorously in quite a thick Scottish accent "Are you a jambo?" Clearly, none of us knew what a jambo was (apparently it's someone who is ugly whose knuckles drag along the ground), so he naturally stood dumbfounded at what he was just called. Then, he mustered up the courage to ask her what a Jambo was and again with the same kind of face, she just looked at him and asked him if he knew what a "jam tart" was. Not quite yet knowing Scottish terms for different things (jam tart meaning something like a tart or pastry with jam on it), she just kind of sat there and laughed and didn't understand that we didn't really know what she was talking about, so everyone was just cracking up at this series of playful insults that she had thrown at Max. Finally, after all of the insults were translated, we had a good laugh and then the real funny thing happened. Max had mentioned that he wanted to go see a local football team play, so she just cheerily asked Max if he wanted to come along with her, a well known and respected member of the Scottish Parliament, to a Hibs game, to which he said he would. So now we all constantly joke about his upcoming "date" with the 70 year old, distinguished member of the Scottish Parliament. So after all the hilarity of that session, it was about 2 or so in the afternoon. We then all congregated at 3 in the hotel lobby (7 or 8 of the guys that I've met) and, in great American fashion, had a fantasy football draft. It was quite funny to see the reaction in people's faces as the walked by the 8 or 9 of us strewn about the lobby with our laptops and a list of all of our players on a large pad of paper in the middle of us all. So after that, we all got ready and went to a Sportsbar for dinner and then when out to see the town, this time more towards Prince's street and the New Town. Needless to say, it was a fun day.
Then, yesterday we all moved in to our new places. I, for one, absolutely love my new place. It's spacious, has it's own sink, is right next to the dinning hall, and fairly near campus. Also, it's really nice living in a dorm style building because then I get to meet all the new Freshers as they're called. So after moving in, we all chilled until evening when we went out with all our new found Scottish and English friends.
Today, I just woke up and am about to start my day. It's the beginning of Freshers' week so today at 12 we are all going on a hike up to Arthur's Seat on Holyrood Hill. I am quite excited as the views from up there are supposed to be breathtaking. So that's about it for now and more to come soon!