There's no place like home

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So I finished up the fall semester of my junior year at the College of New Jersey exactly a week ago, and I have only ten days till I get on a plane to go to Scotland for five months!

And so I'm prepping to be off to the University of Edinburgh. I'm so excited! I've travelled a bit before -- to London for a week with my family a few years ago, and to around Bosnia for two weeks every summer for the last four years -- and I've loved every second of it.

So I've been reading the guidebooks and looking up all sorts of information online, trying to ready myself to be immersed in a wonderful new place. I'm a huge anglophile and I adore Scottish accents, so I'm stoked to be in the UK and hopefully to have a chance to travel elsewhere around Europe during my breaks. I have friends studying in Germany and Newcastle the same semester, a cousin who will be studying in Ireland, and a good friend who lives in Sarajevo who I'm hoping to meet up with, so I'll have a few destinations where I wouldn't have to worry about accomodations!

I can't wait to find out what a Scotsman really does wear under his kilt, and yes, I'm excited even to try haggis! And, nerd that I am, I'm just as excited to study philosophy at the institution that was home to David Hume. Alas, no basket weaving classes for me -- I'm taking Meta-Ethics, Moral and Political Philosophy, and Dogmatic Theology! Woo-hoo!

At the same time -- it's going to be a bit scary to be by myself in a new country for such a long time, and sad to think of all the things I'll be missing at home, and especially at school. I'll miss my friends dearly, and it makes me feel so loved to realize that they will miss me, too! Whenever I get down about missing my friends and the fun times they'll have at school next semester, I remind myself that I will have reliable internet access, and I'll be back to TCNJ again next year!

And so, I'll leave you with the song that my 85-year-old grandmother started belting out in the middle of a restaurant a few months ago when I told her I was going to Edinburgh:

"What does a Scotsman wear under his kilt? A wang! A wang!"

XOXO ~ Alida

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Countdown till I leave for Scotland!

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Photos

The Loch Ness Monster!
maybe I will find Nessie?

I hope I meet these guys
my grandmother was right!

It's whiskey, okay?
You're not allowed to call it Scotch in Scotland, apparently