I am officially done with final exams at The University of Edinburgh. It’s very relieving but also kind of crazy that I only have one more year left of university. The past three have gone by so quickly! My plans for the rest of the semester include a trip with my good friend from GW, Diane, to Munich, Budapest and Prague and a trip with my flatmate, Gabrielle, to Isle of Skye. Just because I am done studying abroad doesn’t have to mean that I am done travelling abroad!

Finals were an interesting thing for me to experience in Scotland. All of my exams lasted three hours which is significantly longer than any of my finals have been at GW. My final today for Scottish Literature was in the gym… I felt like I was taking the Regents (state tests) in New York again. They are also a lot stricter here about the actual exam… you can’t have your bag or coat anywhere but the side of the room, you can’t have anything in your pocket, you must leave your student ID card at the top of your desk so they can check that it is actually you taking the exam, and you have to fold over the part that says your name because all of the exams are graded blindly. It all feels very official and intense… I kind of like it.

Not much has been going on this week… it’s all been a flurry of finding a computer in the library, dying of heat in the library, and crossing my eyes from being so bored in the library. Studying for exams in Edinburgh really isn’t that different than studying for exams in Washington!

As soon as I stepped out of my exam today I felt a weight lifted off of my shoulders. I am now free to roam the rainy streets of scotland, bother my flatmates to hang out with me, and wonder why my room is still so cold in May. And also get really nostalgic about leaving this incredible city with it’s amazing people. Oh well, I can always come back :)