"I've Always Depended on the Kindness of Strangers"

So I've been in Edinburgh for 3 days now and I already love the city.  You can walk everywhere, there are pubs on every street corner, the stores are so much more unique and fun than anything in America and the people are some of the nicest I have ever met.

I landed in Edinburgh around 8 a.m. and since I obviously couldn't sleep on the plane  I was almost comatose by the time I got in the cab.  Fortunately my cab driver was this amazing guy who basically gave me an audio tour of the city as we drove.  Did you know that anything younger than 400 years old is considered a new building in Scotland?? Its insane, the United States didn't even exist 400 years ago! The friendly cab driver also told me his life story.   Apparently he runs a successful golf tour company in Scotland (he named all these famous golf courses that I obviously had never heard of, so I don't think I represented America's golf enthusiasm well, oops) and this company is very profitable for him, but he drives a cab because he loves meeting people and traveling around the city.  I was in awe.  Like seriously can you picture a cab driver in L.A. or New York that just does it for fun??


Once I got to my flat I realized I had no idea where I was going so I wandered around with my massive suitcase for five minutes until a construction worker at the building next door took pity on me and asked if I knew where I was going.  When I tell him what I'm looking for, he kindly takes my biggest suitcase from me and walks me the block to the accommodation office.  Seriously, favorite person ever.

After dragging all my bags up two flights of stairs (hardest thing I've ever done), trying my key in the wrong flat door for ten minutes and struggling with the door handle on mine (the handles all open the other way here which is very weird) I managed to make it into my flat.  It's a five-person flat and we all have single rooms and share a common area, kitchen and bathroom.  I love it, and my flatmates are all so nice.  Heather is from Yorkshire, Alex from Glasgow, Emily from some place in England that I currently can't remember and Victoria is from Miami. They had all arrived before me and were nice enough to take me to some of the local stores to get the necessities.

My room!

                                                              

I pretty much spent all of my first day in Edinburgh sleeping as I am totally not one of those people that can pretend jet lag is all mental and just ignore it (Julia Nethero I'm looking at you), but that night I ended up hanging out with a lot of American students from all over the country.  The plan was to go to a party the international society was throwing, but I was so excited about the 18 year-old drinking age I didn't actually think I needed an ID to get into the pubs since I'm obviously 18.  Like clockwork I was asked for my id as soon as we got to the door.  So after walking all the way to Malone's Pub I was forced to turn around and go back to my flat because of a rookie mistake.  I was a bit upset, but luckily I had made friends with the Americans and they were nice enough to walk me back.

That night, about half an hour after I fell asleep, I awoke to the scariest sound ever.  It turns out someone had pulled the fire alarm and we had to exit the building.  Needless to say I was quite grumpy as it turns out that anytime a fire alarm goes off in Scotland the fire department is legally required to come and check it out.  Can you imagine if the LAPD had to come every time a fire alarm went off at USC?? I think we'd all be arrested.  But the fire department arrived in like under five minutes which I found very impressive but apparently is pretty standard, and the firefighters were once again SO nice.  They actually thanked us for waiting on them! I was in shock considering we were the ones who made them get out of bed at one in the morning.

On Tuesday I got up late and then met up with Lindsey to do a little shopping.  Her roommate Hannah took us to PoundStretcher, a.k.a the best store ever.  It pretty much saved me as far as room supplies go.  We then went to the grocery store where Lindsey and I bought our first ever bottle of wine.  It was great handing the cashier my ID that says under 21 all over it and it not mattering!  Unfortunately however, on my walk back one of my bags split and the wine broke all over the sidewalk :(  However a random guy on the street saw it all happen and came over and helped me clean up and then threw the bag away for me. Just another example of how nice Scottish people are.

So after the minor wine incident Lindsay and I went to dinner at this really yummy tapas place where we were given a free meatball dish by the waiter.  Clearly Scotland knows the way to my heart.
That night I went out with Lindsey's flatmate Hannah and some of the guys from across the hall.  It was an incredibly fun night and I was introduced to Scottish cider (my new favorite drink), British dance clubs (so packed and awesome), and cheesey chips with gravy ( fries smothered in cheese and covered in gravy, I am now addicted).

All in all its been a pretty incredible two days.  I cant wait to start my program on Monday but until then I'm looking forward to more Scottish adventures!!!