My First Week in Edinburgh, Part II

Where's Part I, you ask? It's in my previous post, The Lull? Uh, bye: Before the Storm, but I couldn't be bothered to change the title. So here's the continuation of my first week in Edinburgh.

Tuesday 13/9
After all the walking I did and big meal on Monday, I used Tuesday morning to sleep in and relax. It's quite possibly one of the last times I will be able to do so all year, so I appreciated being able to take things a little slower. Especially since that afternoon I went to the Postgraduate Welcome event, where current and former students talked about what it means to be a student at the University of Edinburgh. It was good to get that perspective but it was also a little daunting; from what they said--one of them an Informatics student--it's definitely going to be a stressful year. But I've already made (and caught up with) so many wonderful friends, that I know we can help each other through it and come out the other side stronger, more capable human beings... with a higher blood-alcohol content. I say that mostly in jest, but with all the pubs and bars in Edinburgh, it might be a fairly accurate assumption. Also, that night I went to one of the bars and met my friend from Norway for a trivia night and a couple drinks. Despite many of the questions being meant for residents of the UK, we won 2nd place and a bottle of wine! Woo!

Wednesday 14/9

Informatics Forum interior

After staying up rather late the night before, I wasn't particularly keen to get up for the Informatics Welcome event but did anyway. And I was glad I did! It was wonderful to meet so many people doing the same course as me and interested in the same specialisms. It makes registering for classes a little scary, especially since the registration system here is so different from at my old university. I didn't "officially" pick my classes until a few days ago, and even now (as I'm writing this on Saturday) I'm not so sure I'm registered. They tell us it's all done automatically through the online system I've been using but I haven't seen any official confirmation or anything about class size or if there's a limit to the number of students who can take it or what. And from the people I've talked to it sounds like they're almost as confused as I am. I'll just hope for the best and stay flexible.

Thursday 15/9
I woke up planning to climb Arthur's Seat but one look out the window at a wall of fog halted those plans. So instead I went to lunch with a friend I bumped into on my way to the restaurant. Later that afternoon I went to a talk on the UK job market and applying for jobs. (Don't worry, mother. I'm still planning to come home after my studies.) The fog was pretty much gone by the time the talk got over at 16:30 so I decided I would go climb Arthur's Seat but wanted to be back in time for Mid-autumn Mooncake festival held in the house common room. So I ended up essentially running up Arthur's Seat and all around Salisbury Crags. I did so because I wanted to have plenty of time to just sit and enjoy the view and sunset from the highest point in Edinburgh. Instead of trying to describe it, here are some pictures:

My building from Arthur's Seat.

Arthur's Seat from my building.

Birth Place of Modern Geology -- It is here, from the years 1726-1797 that James Hutton looked at these rock formations
and said, "Huh, that's interesting." And determined that the rocks had been formed from molten material.

From the top of Arthur's Seat

Friday 16/9
Again I took it pretty slow in the morning but was jolted into action when the fire alarm went off... and kept going off. It wasn't a drill. In addition to student housing, my building has apartments people can rent for short amounts of time. And it was apparently in one of these apartments that somebody burnt some toast. So everybody--many of us still in our pyjamas--had to stumble outside and wait for the fire brigade to come and tell us it was okay to go back inside. The rest of the day was much less eventful. I just went to a meeting with my Personal Tutor for Informatics, which really is just a fancy name for an advisor. Then that night in the common room, the RAs put on a movie night with free pizza! The movie, The Angels' Share, was very Scottish and quite good.

Saturday 17/9
Today I hiked up Arthur's Seat again with a bunch of people from my building. Even though I'd just done it a couple days ago, the weather was perfect! Plus, I'm not sure how much exercise I'll get the rest of the year so I need to get it while I can. We came down from Arthur's Seat a different way, so I still got to see something new--the ruins of St. Anthony's Chapel. I'm planning to go to a movie--Kingsman: The Secret Service--a bit later in the Old College Quad and after that maybe a jazz bar with some friends. But that's about it for today.

The white spiky building on the left is Scottish Parliament,
on the right is Holyrood Palace, where the Queen stays when in Scotland,
and in the background you can see Edinburgh Castle on the left and Carlton Hill on the right.

You're all caught up! With classes starting on Monday, I'm not sure when I'll next be able to post. I'm hoping to put an update up every couple of weeks but, if I get swamped with coursework, it might be longer than that. But until whenever that is...

Stay informed. -NLD