Getting over the jet lag!

We made it! After a long flight across the pond we made it to Edinburgh on Thursday (1/29) morning! There were a bunch of us from the program on the flight and we ended up making a pretty big pile of luggage at EDI while we waited for more flights to come in and for our 12:15 bus. We made it through customs and I got my first stamp in my passport (exciting!) around 9:30 am in our new time zone. In our camped out location I probably got the most sleep of the whole journey and I knew that we were going to be allowed to sleep until late that night (or actually early the next morning!). Our new professors and faculty met up with us and we found our bus to take us to Dalkeith.
We parked in front of our new home and were greeted by a true Scotsman greeted us in a traditional kilt and costume and played the bagpipes as we gathered together all our bags. We got into the entrance way and were passed a key for our new rooms. I have three roommates, Jonelle from UWRF, Angie from UW-W, and Kari from UW-S. We have room 111- a long room with high ceilings, four big windows looking at the entrance, lawn, and side, and a secret closet… dubbed ‘the beer fridge’ by the last couple groups residing here. That day we were split into our ‘clans’, groups of students with about 8 or 9 of us in them for different activities and jobs that we will doing throughout the semester. I’m in the MacDonald clan and we did a little orientation and some tours of the house and grounds that evening before we decided to check out the town.
Friday we had some more introductory activities and got to know our faculty and staff. All of them seem very nice and I think the courses should be interesting. Saturday we finally got to leave Dalkeith for a day in Edinburgh, learning how to use the Lothian buses and visiting the Edinburgh Castle. When you get into the gates of the castle you realize how big it is! Many of the buildings now hold displays and serve as museums or memorials. There were amazing views of Edinburgh from the castle that sits on the highest point in the city. We stayed until things were closing down and the sun was setting- around 4:30! A group of us walked the Royal Mile where my friend and I found some lambswool tartan scarves and then we got dinner at Deacon Brodie’s. After dinner we walked down to Princes Street, a very popular street in the city filled with shops, Waverly Station, and the Scots Monument. We walked back up to the Royal Mile and met in front of the St. Giles Cathedral to meet up for with more students for a Haunted Tour of Edinburgh. Our tour guide told us many stories and cleared up some myths and legends for us too. We walked to the cemetery where Bobby the Skye terrier sat at his master’s grave for 14 years! And then she cleared it up that it was the wrong grave and the monument was erected by American Bobby the terrier lovers and Disney made the story into a film. We also were able to walk into the part of the graveyard that is locked to the public because of strange happenings and suspicions of a poltergeist. We stood inside of the Black Mausoleum and the tour guide claims that some people come out with strange scratch marks, bruises, and she even had six tourists knocked out one time. It was cold and creepy and one girl in our group swore something whispered in her ear when no one was there and another felt a tight squeeze at her side when no one was there. I got some stories and history of Edinburgh from it and a good spooky rush but was glad to get out and not find any marks!
On Sunday our clans competed against each other in a version of the ‘Amazing Race’ around Edinburgh. We got to use the buses on our own and find different monuments, streets, shopping centers, museums, and landmarks as we went. We did some good planning on the bus ride over and got some of our bonus questions figured out when we talked with a local on the bus. It was really fun and got us familiar with the town. We ended up at the St. James Center where we made a stop at Orange to pick up our SIM cards for the (ghetto) phones we were given. Then we got some lunch and checked out the mall. We all found something at Poundland, pretty much a Dollar Tree but everything is a Pound instead! Then I browsed at some other stores that had some really cute fun stuff and shoes and boots and sparkly bags, but ‘I need to save my money for trips’, I told myself! Lol! So I took some pictures instead! When we got back to the Dalkeith House I tried out my new phone that somehow ended up eating my credit after I talked to Mom for like 5 minutes! So I had her call the payphone later. We had a Ceilidh in the Dining Hall that evening. Ceilidh is a Gaelic word that you say like ‘Cay-lee’ and is a bunch of traditional dances. We had a professional Celidh caller teach us four different dances and it was so much fun! It was also the warmest we had all gotten in the Palace so far. When we had a break finally I had to run upstairs to take off my Cuddle Duds from the day in Edinburgh! After the Ceilidh we went to Mayson’s where they had the Super Bowl on for us. I didn’t stay for the whole thing though because it was really late when you figure that we are six hours ahead of you guys! It was starting to flurry just a little that evening.
Monday starts off our week of classes and we woke up to about an inch of snow (okay…a couple centimeters it would be). We also have a host family reception this coming weekend, so hopefully they found enough families for us all! We also want to go to Edinburgh again sometime soon. But I’ll try and keep you up-to-speed when I can! ;)