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Published: September 11th 2008
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9-9 and 9-10
Hello Hello!
I am finally in Scotland and it is lovely here. Beautiful grey cool drizzly weather. I knows that Brenna agrees with me whole heartedly, and others of you might think I'm nuts, but the rain just goes so perfectly with the architecture, the attitude, the everything that it really feels like your some place else. I'm looking out my hotel window at the most lovely view, a castle on a green and rocky hill, a few blocks of stone houses below it, and gorgeous square with cheerfully lit windows shining across it from another inn, and sidewalk cafes where, in open defiance of the rain a few locals sit and chat over a cup of tea and a pint. But I'm getting ahead of myself... getting here was not so picturesque.
So, in the beginning we knew that JetBlue had delayed the flight to JFK. By 45 minutes. So we decided to get me to the airport at the scheduled time of 12:30 so that in case something changed and things went ahead of schedule, I would be there. Stupid choice. Are you ready for this, watch carefully as the departure time changes
Albanach!
One of my favorite bands is named Albanach which means people of Scotland right before your eyes! My flight was scheduled to leave at 1:50, and had been moved back to 2:30. I went to get a book, some lunch and then sat down ad started reading said book at around 12:45 expecting to be boarding at 2. Now y'all know how I read. I go through books like a hot knife through butter, but when I glanced down and saw that I was already at page 300, without a word from the boarding people, I knew something was wrong. Loooooooong painful story short, I did not strangle the captain that started every "we're delayed by another two hours" announcement with " now today people is a day where you just need to be patient" (my thoughts: i'll show you patience, jerk (ok... so I edited my thoughts)) and I got into New York at 7:30... which is the exact time that my flight TO London was departing. No sooner had the flight attendant announced that we'd landed I was on the phone with a very nice woman at British Airways explaining to her the situation in a voice that I though was very calm, but she kept trying to calm me down
so... well, maybe there was a note (just a note!) of hysteria in my voice. She sid she'd booked me on the next availiable to london and rescheduled my connectng. Feeling better I went to the british Airways place to check in, only to find that she had not in fact managed to do so, and I was left without a seat.
If this had been any airline except BA, I would have been dead. But as it was a very nice ticket agent named Gail took care of me, making sure I was put on stand by for the next flight, taking me over to the club section check in where another nice lady named Kathleen made sure that whatever happened my bags would go with me. Kathleen also took me through the "behind the scenes" part of the baggage claim which was a trip, mostly because of all the glares I got for being an unauthorized person. Once I got on the (surprise!) delayed flight, I was in the middle seat, so I dozed fitfully, but I watched two great movies, Pride and Prejudice and Forrest Gump. I didn't think my brain could handle anything new. I
arrived in Edinburgh around 3, met a girl at the airport named Margie who shared a cab with me. She's very sweet and goes to Bowdoin. I got to the hotel, collapsed for about a second before forcing myself to get up. Since my roommate wasn't there yet I decided to go for a walk. a wonderful walk reacquainting myself with the city.
There is nothing more spectacular than the blackened spire of the Sir Walter Scot memorial towering across a grey sky. I wanted to take pictures of all the great names and sights but my camera was out of charge and I had no charger! Problem.
But it is now charged, and my lovely roommate Jaime (from Northern California, college:Williams) and I and a few other girls are going out, but not too late as we have to be out the door on a tour thing at 8:45 AM tomorrow and most of us are jetlagged.
I'm having a great time already! I miss you all very very much, and I'll probably write more at some point. You did say you wanted to hear about it! PS- Forgive me please if nothing makes sense, I
have had no sleep.
9-11
So I decided to just go ahead and combine this entry with the last one. Last night was fun, unfortunately everyone had the same idea, but about halfway to the pub, a group of about 9 of us broke off deciding that being part of a crowd of 30 some Americans descending on a pub was not how we wanted to spend our first night. We walked up to the royal mile, the street that stretches from Edinburgh Castle to the Queens palace at Holyrood House. And we found a small pub called the Jolly Judge, where there were just a few locals and us. We each got a pint, and just sat and talked for about an hour getting to know each other. Then, exhausted and jet-lagged we headed back for the hotel.
The hotel itself is great. There's an amazing view, comfortable beds and even a rubber duck in the bathroom! Today we got up and went to another hotel for presentations on culture, home stay, safety, and all that good stuff. I went to get a new phone, just like everybody else... and when I say just like, I
Roommates!
For two days, but what the heck... mean it. It seems that every person on the program has the same phone, as it's the least expensive of the many choices. After that we had a great bus tour that acquainted us with the city. we drove up to near Arthur's Seat and got some great pictures of the landscape. Then tonight a few of us went out to dinner at an italian restaurant, and came back here to rest from a very intense day of walking. We move in on Saturday, and everyone I've talked to agrees that we can't wait. Another thing to look forward to is Freshers' week, where University Edinburgh has a lot of wonderful activities planned for the freshmen (freshers) including free ghost tours and a coffee crawl to the cafes where JK Rowling is reported to have written Harry Potter. So much to do! Its a little overwhelming, but that's a good thing.
Love and cheers!
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Patty
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OMG!
OMG -like, just how much fun are you having??!! My eyes were misty reading your blog, darling!!! I am so proud of how you handled your travel ordeal -- you can go anywhere and do anything now, lassie! You can thank your dad for getting you to Charlotte Douglas in plenty of time :)!!! I can't wait to hear more...have you had a "black and tan" yet? I liked those over in England. Your friends look great, too. Get some rest and soak it all in...it sounds like you are doing the latter anyway! Cheers my sweet niece!! Love, Patty