This is the start of my third week in Edinburgh and I honestly could not be happier here. I chose to come to The University of Edinburgh because I wanted to go to an English speaking country in Europe that was a vibrant city full of culture yet still different from DC and NY. I was a little nervous at first about understanding the Scottish accent, getting all of my suitcases up the stairs to my flat, and meeting new people. Aside from the suitcase situation, everything worked out fine and I got all worked up about nothing.
I am living on South Clerk Street- it’s full of cute little cafes, tiny supermarkets, and small thrift stores. My flat is five levels high- I am on the fifth level- but the elevator oddly only goes to the fourth floor and then you have to walk up a flight of stairs. I have my own little room with a slanted ceiling and a view of the street if you stand on the desk. I am living with four other girls, Emily, an American from UMass, Gabrielle, a Canadian from McGill, Emma from Finland and Linn from Sweden. I already feel close to all of the girls here and feel so fortunate that we get along so well. We have a cute little kitchen that has a great view and our fridge is stocked from the girls’ previous purchases of black pudding, marmite and hard cider.
Im on my third week of classes and it should be an interesting semester academically. All of the students here are on courses- so if I went here full time I would be on the Psychology course and take almost all Psych classes. There arent really general requirements outside of the major but there are classes that you take each year- many of the courses are labeled “Year One Course” etc. My Scottish literature class is going to prove to be interesting- everyone in the class seems very well versed in literature and I already learned that English and British are not the same thing. For my lit class and my psych class we meet three times a week for lecture and then also have a tutorial which is like a discussion section. I now understand why people take fewer classes here!
The nightlife has also been pretty awesome- people go out ALL the time and its fun to check out different bars and pubs and hear the mix of nationalities everywhere. It's hard to soak up everything without getting overwhelmed!