Day 1

Well, after about 25 or so hours of traveling, 4 different planes, a lost bag and a cancelled flight - I arrived in Edinburgh. The actual travel experience wasn't all bad though, I met about 8 people also traveling to Edinburgh in the midst of the cancelled flight chaos. We hungout with some beers in the Amsterdam airport, a few of us actually ended up booking the same flights to Edinburgh through London City and are planning a night out in the near future.

When I arrived in Edinburgh I was picked up by the welcome service, I walked to the right side of the car to get in, as usual -- only to soon remember that the steering wheel is now on that side. Then on the way to my flat, the driver and I were talking (or more like I was going into deep states of concentration to try and understand what he was saying!), he had the thickest Scottish accent I have ever heard in my life. Some sentences were blended together like one long word. It was a good learning experience though, no better to start anywhere but the hardest, right?

I got to my flat soon thereafter, I live on the very top floor, with a great view over looking Scotlands oldest public golf course. Ok, it's actually just a giant piece of flat ground covered in snow at the moment, but, so I am told. Anyway, I live with two other guys, Rob - who is from Canada, and Malcom - from Ireland. They seem like pretty stand up guys so far, we chatted a bit before we started the nights festivities.

Off to the Old Golf Tavern, which is LITERALLY next door to my dorm complex. It is in between the two Wrights house buildings. I guess they were intent on showing us a good time when they built this place. When I arrived at about 11pm, there were probably 40 international students @ the pub drinking. I quickly mingled around meeting as many people as I could in the time being. I ran into Dave, who set up this event and who I have been in contact with asking questions before I arrived in Scotland. Then I saw Jaime! The only person I knew before Scotland, we shared some stories and laughs and then we met up with Dave and a few others. Throughout the rest of the night we went for a walk through the golf course in the snow, then headed to a popular place which serves "chips and cheese" - french fries with cheese on top. I didn't get them at the time, but I am sure I will soon enough. After that a group of 15 or so of us went to a nearby flat to hangout and spend the rest of the night until we got back to our flats.

I think it is already safe to say I am going to have a great time here. I have met a solid group of people my first night out, and am looking forward to what awaits.

... If I only could get my damn suitcase