Day 7

Today was a very filled day. I started out by walking over to merchinson campus to figure out my classes... the line was too long so I ended up just going to the computer lab and figuring it out myself. Great schedule, M T W classes, two of them are pretty serious classes but then the 3rd is counting as an upper division GE - Scottish Culture and Society. Everyone is saying it is the easiest class possible, and we take 3 trips during the trimester, to the castle, distillery, and possibly Glascow for the third? Regardless, it should be a good time, I'd say about half the international students are taking it as well. My other two classes are molecular biology and cognitive psychology. They both have tutorials and proctorials along with the lectures, to help you integrate and learn the material better. It would be too bad though.

After I got all that taken care of Sogol and I headed out to get bank accounts. I am now officially a member of the Royal Bank of Scotland. They were so professional about setting up the accounts, it was pretty good stuff. Then, yes, I finally got a phone! What a deal! Haha, I think I am literally the last person to. It was definitely a different experience without a phone, it had its plus and minuses. We then met up with Emily, Noel, Jordan, Kyle, and Taryn at a place called Shakespeares to have some lunch. I had some Italian Chicken, not bad. Sogol, Jordan, Taryn and I stayed out while the rest of the group went back in. We walked around Princes street and ran into the national museum of art. Strolled around that and checked out all the famous Scottish, Irish and English pieces. After that we headed up to the Royal Mile, I don't really know the whole story, but apparently the royal family of something or another stayed in one of the castles at the end of it. There is landmarks and grand buildings everywhere you can look over here. About halfway down the mile there was a bar which has 212 different types of whiskey, 212! Ranging from 5 years to dirt old. We all got a different kind and had a quick drink.

On our way back we ran into a sign that said "Free Ghost Tour 7pm nightly"! I looked at my watch, 6:55... we had to do it, right? It was us 4, 7 people in total, and a man who was no taller then 5'5'' leading the tour. He had an odd sense of humor and stories were more funny than horrifying, as the sign stated, we quickly realized we were on a tour of wasting our time. I am still wondering if these tales were true as he claimed they would be at the start of the tour, stories of people getting hung and then coming back to life... people having an inn where they killed you and sold your body... etc etc. He did tell us about all the old fashion torture devices though, they were pretty intense. Not to be too graphic, but the worst one was probably the hungry rat put on your stomach with a cage around him so he can't go anywhere but down - that is pretty intense.

By the time we got back it was about 8:30pm, I was literally in my room for probably 5 minutes before I hear the doorbell go off. Apparently it is time to go see a comedy! It started at 9, Jaime, Jordan, Marc and I jumped in a cab and flew over to a local standup comedy club. We met up with Benny, Roman, Shannon and Becca there. There were 5 acts in all, I'd say 3/5 were pretty damn funny - the other two, well, I literally felt myself catching some zzz's while they were attempting to humor us. One of the one's I am talking about was so bad that the next comedian actually spent more time making fun of her than doing his own act! All in all, great experience, I heard accents from all around Scotland, from the Northeast to the South, to who knows where. When the show was over, Sogol told me her and a few others were at a place called Witherspoons on George's street - the entertainment street. We headed that way to join them. As we walked in we weren't really sure what we were going into, it looked like an elegant ball room with high ceilings and sculptures. It turned out to be a giant cafeteria for drinking! There was a decent sized group of us now, Jordan and I got a pitcher of "The Godfather", basically Jack + Coke with a liquor and a few 99p brews. After a hour or two we headed back home, not before we stopped in a local food shop - I resisted and a few of us made pasta in the wee hours of the morning. Now it is time to do it all again...