School and Campus

Back for more, ha. It's now the end of the month, September has come to an end. I've officially been here for a month and let me tell ya, I am missing home. There are so many things to do here, sadly most of which need car access. So, I have some limitations for the time being but everything is becoming more familiar. Since I last wrote, I have done a few things that are worth the mention. For starters, I climbed a hill. The first two pics are of that hill. It's called Dumyat and it's roughly 1300 feet tall. It was a heck of a climb but getting to the stop was so worth it. I couldn't believe all that I could see. I keep forgetting just how small Scotland is. I could see Edinburgh in the distance, or roughly where it should have been, and the ocean too. And then on the other side, I could see the Highlands. 

Oh, I want to go there so bad. It's actually crazy. Though, because I don't drive, it makes things hard. However, I heard this story when I first arrived at this place called Curry's. It's pretty much the UK version of Visions (I bought a computer woot) and one of the workers there goes to the University as well and she told me about this thing called the Young Scot Card. It's pretty much a free bus pass for anyone under 22. So simple story, one of this girl's friends decided to get the bus (for free) and took it around Scotland. From West to North and then home. There and back again. 16 hours on the bus and although that sounds like a horrible experience... I so want to do it. It's just so pretty here to not try. Even walking to campus every day is still spectacular. My flat is about 15 minutes away from the main building and 20 from the other so it is a small walk to get there but Dumyat is literally my backyard. And there's this perfect moment when you pass the trees and the loch comes into view as well as the main building and every time I see it I just think to myself 'I'm in Scotland'. And just like that, I'm in awe. There are often swans on the lake, ducks too, crows fly all around here as well, and squirrels too. the wildlife is incredible and so not dangerous which is great.

Getting down to more specifics though, I love my dorm. My room is big enough that it can still feel like the place I'm living rather than just where I'm staying. The kitchen is massive and most of us are pretty good with its use. Most people here are great. We are Flat 69 in the townhouses and as a townhouse, we've already done a night out at a restaurant. It was a nice experience, it made everyone feel not just like people that we're living with but actual human beings who can celebrate something together. Everyone in the flat is Scottish except for me and the American. I was hoping for a little bit more diversity but honestly, there are not many people here other than Scottish people. I have not met a single Canadian here yet. I've heard rumors that they exist but I am still searching. I have 8 months so one day. There is a whole bunch of Americans here from North Carolina. They are all here only for the semester as an exchange program but it's still nice talking to people that I can actually understand.  Have met a few jerks though but that's alright. It's not like I could avoid them entirely just because I moved to a different continent. Shucks though.

 

As for the actual school part... I am enjoying it. Most of my profs are pretty good. Some are more human than others but it's still nice. What's especially amazing is that I have no exams come December. It's only assignments that make up my grade and most of my profs have claimed that they are pretty much impossible to fail unless I don't do them. So I'm probably going to do them all in the next few weeks here just to get them done and out of the way. Most of them are research in your own time so it's not like I would be missing anything from the lectures and if I do, I'll just add it in later. There are certain things I feel like I am missing out on though. For example, we were talking about Mary Queen of Scots and her husband, and my professor got a little off track and abruptly cut herself off basically saying "Oh, and then he got murdered but we all know how that happened after" and I stopped typing, shocked. I did, in fact, not know what happened before or after this so-called murder but everyone else laughed and found it super funny and she just.... kept talking about other things. I couldn't pull my attention back because I had to search on the internet for the 

whole story of what had happened. Just little things like that really show how interesting their high-school curriculums are. And on that note, I'm finding out that there are... not a lot of castles in Scotland? Yup, so my history class is all about the Reformation of Scotland and how they changed from Catholic to Protestant, and during that, there were hundreds of incidents of the Protestants destroying churches and castles and many other buildings. Which has therefore left our modern-day day lacking in castles. Now, in my eyes, there are hundreds of castles. I see new ones every day. Some are obvious and others are tucked into trees. Some are tourist attractions, others have been abandoned for centuries. And yet, there should be more. I would love to know how Scotland looked back then. It would actually be so interesting to see the difference between then and now.

But enough on that, school has pretty much been the main focus of my life for the past few weeks. Tomorrow I am going somewhere, not sure where yet but that's the cool thing about being adult. Now that I have my feet on the ground and know how to manage school I can post more often so the next blog will be quicker ha. For now, I say goodnight.

-Syd