FIVE DAYS IN EDINBUR-AH!

If I'm not mistaken, I created this blog several weeks ago for the sake of recording my adventures whilst in Edinburgh and the greater UK. I appreciate wholeheartedly how it has taken me this long to sit down and write an entry. I just keep getting distracted by...everything!

I got into Edinburgh airport last Friday. The flight wasnt too terrible (note: I just got up from my desk to peer outside and try to determine what that ear-splitting rumble was. Thunder? nah, just the wind. If you didnt know, the wind here is particularly garish), but at a certain point I wished that my life was like a montage. Why couldn't the image of myself of sitting on a plane last a mere seconds, as opposed to 12 hours? A gal can dream. My father and I smoothly went through customs, and I received my visa. We hopped into a cab, and my attention was immediately drawn to a strange crinkling sensation in my nose. After disposing of my hypochondriac thought, "Am I dying?" I assumed it was my snot freezing...my sister later confirmed that I was not dying, and indeed the aforementioned sensation was merely my snot freezing. Well, that's pleasant.

And the snow! oh the snow! I've lived in Los Angeles my entire life! So much that I have been missing in my life. Everywhere was a winter wonderland; snow carpeting the ground gently atop the rolling hills and cobblestoned streets. Upon arriving at the hotel, we slept for a few hours, but then around 1pm we ventured out into the city. It was cold. I was not used to the feeling of the wind and chill biting at my legs through the flimsy material of my leggings. But I could not deny that I was wandering within a medieval city--and that thought alone was enough to keep some of my misery at bay. We wandered through The Meadows, but everything was covered in a thick blanket of snow. We walked through the University, and eventually discovered my flat, Robertsons Close.

The Scottish call an alley a "close" or a "wynd." This is the close that I have to walk along in order to achieve my flat.

Tricky, eh?

The next day, Saturday, we did a bit of shopping and moved all of my stuff into my flat. I have my own room (fancy that, I'm sitting there right now!), which is rather pleasant, especially after last semester where I had three other roommates in ONE ROOm! (I love you all, though). We wandered up to Edinburgh Castle, which was built in the medieval period. I don't know much about the castle, but this might be due to the fact that I was incredibly jetlagged and didnt really pay attention to any of the placards. Oh, and it was snowing. Special. But Mary Queen of Scots lived in this castle, and she was imprisoned in this castle, and you can even see the room where King James the VI of Scotland was born! He later became King James the I of England after Queen Elizabeth died without an heir.

Later that night my father and I dined in one of the nicest/coolest restaurants in Edinburgh, called The Witchery. Its located in a building from the 16th century!

And then, he dropped me off at my flat, and went back to his hotel room to get a few hours of sleep before returning home to Los Angeles. I finished packing and tried to not think about the fact that I wouldn't see him until late March.

Sunday I attended my orientation. I headed over with my friend Cara who goes to USC as well, and met a few of her flatmates. Long story short, during the orientation I received a rather dull tour of the university (it's spread out through the city, sort of like NYU, but not thaaat spread out. Also, the city is A LOT smaller than Manhattan), and learned a bit about the university. Oh, and I met some peoples. After orientation I walked over to Prince's Street, which is one of the main shopping streets, with a few of the people I had met. Afterwards we went to Pizza Express om nom nom.


Classes are a bit..different. I am taking three English Literature classes--a second year course on Scottish and English writers; a third year honours course on Shakespeare; and another third years honours course that examines the emergence of the 17th century novel and the impact of subjectivity, modernity, etc. on said origins. I have a ridiculous amount of reading for these classes--I read twelve plays for the Shakespeare course; 11 books for the 17th c. class, and I dont even want to count how many for the Scot/English class. I bought 18 books today, that's more than 100 pounds, and I didn't even buy all of the books that i need. So if you're not an English major, don't ever complain to me about how many books you have to read (true, just one science or math book MIGHT be more expensive than the combined list of mine...but still...shut the fuck up).

It's actually rather pleasant attending a university where people take you seriously for studying English. The English department here is the third best (after Cambridge and Oxford, I'm assuming) in the UK, and the university itself is one of the 20 best in the world. I'm starting to see what a proper education is. And sadly, I'm realizing that USC might not have been the school for me academically speaking. Of course, there isn't really anything I can do about it. But honestly the only great departments are for the business and film schools--or at least that's how I feel. I like being here--the people are all incredibly intelligent, and they seem to take their education a bit more seriously. I think. I don't know..I'm rambling. All i know is that I wish the classes that I'm taking here I could also take at USC. I just don't feel challenged anymore at my home university. And I'm sick of the comments that people make, that English is an easy major. You go read Chaucer in Middle English or Joyce's Ulysses and tell me what the hell each of them authors is on about.

Well, I ought to get going. I'm going out to a pub perhaps for dinner tonight with a group of people, and then we're heading over to another pub called Bannerman's to meet up with some other international students. It's cool to be an international student!


Oh! I like my flatmates. I have two--one of them is Ines; she is from France, and she goes to school in Paris at Sciennes Po. She is going to make me and our other roommate, Olenka, crepes tomorrow night! Olenka is American and goes to Wellesley. I've made friends with another girl, Bri, who goes to Wellesley as well. And a few other people who go to Brown. I met a Danish 'model'; a girl, Mirjam, who is from the Netherlands, as well as a smattering of Scots and Brits. My goal: to know the difference between all of the accents, or "brughs" as they're referred to in Scot-talk!!

OOOO and one last thing. I had lunch today at Elephants and Bagels!!! Apparently it's owned by another coffee shop, The Elephant House, which is where JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book!!! AWESOMEEEE. Im going to that coffee shop asap!

Missing you all. AXOXO.

Special note to my lovely achio ladies: I miss you all and I wish I could be there right now! Keep me posted on EVERYTHING.