The first thing I did after writing my last post was take a walk up Arthur’s Seat, an extinct volcano in an enormous park right near the city centre that offers amazing views across the suburbs; and on the way back had a look at the ruin of Craigmillar Castle, occasional home to Mary Queen of Scots.
Since then I’ve moved into a uni flat; hung up and sorted out all my clothes and things; met one of my housemates (Ray, chemical engineer, originally from China); been shopping for food; found that the el cheapo supermarket didn’t have soap, coathangers, permanent markers or plastic containers; spent the next half an hour trooping between different supermarkets and bargain shops trying to find those things; gone back to the flat; cooked an enormous pot of carbonara without a chopping board; eaten a large quantity of carbonara; gone out to an international students event where they had a vast number of friendly Americans mixed in with the occasional non-American and free haggis, neeps and tatties (and haggis is extremely delicious!); met a whole load of different people, including Mike (Canadian, sculptor/blacksmith/woodcarver/stoneworker/geological enthusiast, who informed me that Saskatchewan was pronounced completely differently to the way I had ever heard it – those interested, please contact me directly for an attempt to communicate the phonemes); talked with people for lengthy periods of time; slept; got up; eaten Vegemite on toast for the first time since Australia; gone to a very lengthy orientation session prominently featuring a terrifying elderly Scottish former police head of security with a buzz cut and biceps the size of my head; collected many many pamphlets and several free pens at the little clubs and societies expo (representing about 1/10 of the total clubs, which number about 280); seen snow on a city street for the first time (kind of, there was a small amount of small icy things on the road); gone on a pretty uninspiring library tour; gone on a very enjoyable campus tour with different tour guides, passing by all the nearby buildings, Museum of Scotland and (apparently) some extremely good coffee shops; stayed with the fun tour guides for their library tour, which was great; headed back home; bought Historical Scotland membership (now I can go to Edinburgh Castle five times a week if I want to, hahahaha); ordered a SIM card; eaten another enormous bowl of pasta; read a bit of a book; sorted out all my pamphlets; and written this post, while listening to the sweet crooning of The Beards.
Soon I will be heading down to a hangout/orientation/thingy in the accommodation building common room, with board games and lots of new people, so that should be fun.
Plans for this week: get my student card, connect to uni WiFi, choose between clashing UNICEF club and Swing Dance Club meetings, join the Film Society for a showing of The Princess Bride, go Scottish dancing, audition for the student production of The Mikado, and join the Amnesty International Society for their Friday night trivia 🙂
Some photos below:
Please to explain ‘neeps and tatties’
Neeps and tatties: a mash of swedes and potatoes (sometimes also lemon juice or other seasonings), traditionally served with haggis 🙂