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Published: September 12th 2005
Yawn and stretch...I woke up about an hour ago from an 11 hour sleep -- after about 40 hours awake. I did exactly what I thought I would do -- I came to the city and I was completely buzzed from all the excitement that I didn't sleep a wink -- I just let Graham nap while I set up the whole apartment. So we're almost finished, but I am pretty much in a jet lagged haze right now.
I don't even know where to begin. Holy shit -- this place is a thousand times more amazing than I thought it would be. I knew that this would be pretty cool -- but when I said we live on the Royal Mile, I wasn't kidding. We literally live on the Royal Mile. There were bagpipers 100 ft from my front door yesterday. There are cafes and tourists everywhere -- but I am not nearly as annoyed with them yet as I was in NYC. The streets are cobblestone, and there is an historic landmark placque on our apartment building. The place looks like a castle -- old old old stone steps and its drafty and echos when you speak. Our apartment is small, but the setting is more than enough to make up for the lack of space we have. THere is a Starbucks, mercifully, about a quarter mile from the apartment building. If you walk to the top floor of Mylnes Court (where we live), you can see Jenners -- the large department store, Princes Street,-- where all the good shopping is, and just beyond that, the ocean. THE OCEAN!!!! And there are no glass skyskrapers obstructing the view, and there's no smog and the air is crisp and fresh and clean and the sun is shining -- YES THE SUN IS SHINING!!! It has been since we got here. There is not a cloud in the sky -- it is beautiful. And you can see green -- everywhere green green lots of green!!! GREEN!!! Not concrete, not Central Park, but valleys and hills and rolling mountains -- kind of like New England. In fact, a lot like New England.
And we live above Ye Olde Whiskey Shop. Hehehe.
Getting here was not nearly as difficult as I had feared it would be. It was actually quite smooth, with one small but infuriating exception -- it took us nearly 2 hours to check in because there was a problem with my ticket. Someone listed my return date as Sept 25, 2005 -- like two weeks from now -- instead of next year. So the woman at the counter who had no idea what she was doing managed to be as painfully slow as possible. Good news was that there was no boring waiting around the airport.
Really, the whole trip didnt seem like that much of a big deal at all. I actually didnt have to move my bags all that much. During the tricky parts, like getting them onto the train in Glasgow, we had some help from random nice people. Other than that, the bags were checked straight through to Glasgow, we picked them up after an amazing 15 minutes in customs (I guess that's what happens when you don't go into Heathrow), hailed a taxi, and went on our way. It took us all of an hour from the time we got to Edinburgh to the time we stepped foot in our apartment. All in all it was 100 times easier than I thought it would be -- probably because we planned for it to be a difficult and exhausting journey.
It is so weird -- I don't even feel like I am in another country. 75% of the accents I have heard are American -- especially in my own residence hall. I think that the postgrad population is largely international -- and by international I fear it may be largely American. Which makes me slightly less exotic than I had hoped I would be. And it kind of takes away from the coolness of me being an American. I hope everyone doesn't look at us and say 'Another group of dumb Americans coming to Europe to find themselves.' Haha.
But really, I think that Edinburgh feels more like home than Reading did. Everything seemed so different and wierd in Reading. Probably because there wasn't a huge American community in Reading. Things seem kind of like a wierd Scottish/British/American hybrid in this city, just from the little time I have been here. Maybe that's just because I havent started classes yet , and haven't really met any Scottish people at all. But I just don't feel the same way I did when I was in Reading -- or even Lynchburg for that matter. It just feels like my life. Which in a way is good -- cause it doesnt feel like I am all that far from home. I would have to say Graham probably has a great deal to do with it too -- probably more so than the cultural climate of the city.
Its been an enjoyable 48 hours for the most part. I have learned a lot.
Things I have learned:
1. You can't just dismantle your life in NYC and reassemble it exactly as it was in Edinburgh. It takes time. I thought everything would be up and running and I'd be ready to go today. Nope. The gym membership will have to wait, furnishing the apartment will have to wait, even buying pillows had to wait yesterday.
2. When you live on a main tourist street, it is impossible to find a cheap...anything. The nearest real grocery store is about a mile away. And guess what -- we don't have cars. So that means lugging it all by hand. We have decided we have to make multiple weekly trips together. And just try finding a reasonably priced bottle of soda...or (*frowns) cup of coffee.
3. They really don't have peanut butter here. Special thanks to Beth Skinner on that note -- the gift is more than much appreciated at this point. I had thought in the four years since I lived here they would have evolved past SunPat. I was wrong. Which is really bad concidering that I eat Peanut Butter once a day.
4. Its not a lie -- real people wear kilts. I'm not kidding. No official first hand accounts yet (and hopefully never) of what is under those kilts.
5. Pack fewer shoes, more sweaters. Its F***ing cold here! Bollocks. Must get gloves.
6. Could have done without the millions of tampax I packed (what was I THINKING), should have brought more pictures of friends and decorative stuff instead. I am, however, thankful for the curtains I threw at the last possible moment. From my window, I can see EVERYTHING that is going on in my neighbors' apartment.
7. Living with just your man and no one else is GLORIOUS.
Today's agenda involves a hall meeting (hahah -- I wonder if they will make us draft roommate contracts. Hahaha!), and rambling around the city. We are planning a HUGE trip to ASDA -- the walmart subsidiary here in the UK. Then, maybe, I will finally get my coffee maker and hairdryer, things I am SUFFERING without. I won't actually get internet set up in my room until tomorrow or possible Wednesday, so until then no pictures. But we have lots already. I am dying to post about the apartment. I will write an apartment fun posting when we get the pictures uploaded.
Did I mention there are bagpipers outside our apartment. Like right now. Now now. This minute? Hahahahaha.
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MMDeuce
non-member comment
Glad to see your flight went well and your glitch was minor. You know, if you can get peanuts over there you can make your own peanut butter in a blender or food processor. If you can get Graham in a kilt I will bow down to you forever.