Edinburgh

My first two and a half days in the UK were spent in Edinburgh. It was a fantastically beautiful area and I wish I could have spent more time there. The entire purpose of this short trip was study abroad orientation. My main concern in attending was that I would not get along well or be liked by my fellow UC people. Turns out we got along very well. There are thirteen of us attending Leeds from the UC's. Our orientation was nice because we got to know each other and it allowed us a way to slowly ease our way into our new playground instead of being pushed in head first. We were introduced to the food by going to typical UK restaurants and were allowed to have some time to explore.

My first day was nice because I arrived early in the morning at the airport and grabbed a taxi. My driver was really kind in talking with me on our long drive to the city. He informed me of some of the local places and really encouraged me to explore as much as I could. He also talked to me about his life and his family, which was nice because it let me feel like I knew someone in Edinburgh even though I will probably never see him again. After my cab ride, I dropped off my bags and headed out into the city. I explored for a few hours and really got a nice view of the area. Unfortunately I wasn't quite prepared for the weather because it started out sunny, so I was just in jeans and a tshirt, but then it started raining really hard. Needless to say, I got completely soaked and began to head back to send my parents an email telling them I had safely arrived. Of course, once I reached the UC Study Abroad Center, the rain cleared up. Typical for me and the UK I am afraid. The rest of the day was just meeting the coordinators and the other students.



My second day was spent half in orientation, which was not very exciting, and then at the Edinburgh castle. The castle was really cool. I would have liked to explore it more, but unfortunately we only had about two hours there. The view from the castle was amazing. I wish I could have spent the entire time sitting and looking out.

The next picture was of a part of the castle that they were using as a memorial to all who had fallen in all the wars the Scots were involved in. It was very beautiful. The four girls closest in this picture are the ones I was hanging out with.

The castle also had a recreation of what the prisons looked liked and had some of the original carvings that the prisoners made. There were so many different prisoners. We also got to see some of the jewels that belonged to royalty.

Traveling from Edinburgh to Leeds was more stressful than I had originally anticipated. I had bought my train tickets online, but needed to change the travel time. I thought it would be similar to Amtrak, but I was dead wrong. It was a pain and instead of letting me trade tickets, I had to buy an entirely different ticket, which was ridiculously expensive. The day of travel was annoying and overwhelming, but eventually I got to Leeds and my accommodation!