On May 26, I left Newark Airport at 8:53pm and arrived in Edinburgh, Scotland on May 27, 8:26am (3:26am PA time). So the flight was about 6.5 hours and 3329 miles. The trip was pretty uneventful. I was able to meet up with a few of the other students going on my flight before hand and met up with them again after the flight so we could go through customs together. While on the plane I: watched two episodes of How I Met Your Mother, read some Aristotle, took a short nap (I don't usually sleep long on airplanes), watched Young Adult (really dumb movie, don't ever watch it), and watched The Never Ending Story (a Korean drama with English subtitles which was cheesy, but pretty good). The food was pretty decent as well (they served us dinner and breakfast). 

Once in Scotland, the Oatridge people were easy to find, waiting for us right outside of customs, and it was not too long of a drive to the college. The college looked more like a farm than any college I've seen. They have lots of cows, sheep, pigs, and of course, horses. It's so beautiful here and so far the weather has been great. It has been sunny and a bit hot (but not bad) during the day, then towards the evening it starts getting a little chilly with the breeze. Perfect weather I say. First thing we did was get our room keys and unpack. The girls are all in one building, including the girls in the ecology program happening at the same time as us. There are four flats, two on each floor (I'm on the second floor). Each flat includes 6 rooms and a kitchen. And each room has it's own bathroom! It's a really nice room, except for the fact that the shower is in the same part as the toilet, only separated by a shower curtain, so the whole bathroom gets wet when I take a shower! I have plenty of storage space; my drawers are so empty it feels like I should have brought more stuff. I did forget a few things that I bought at the store the next day though (more on that in the next entry). 

After unpacking, a small group of us went exploring the campus. There was a jumping show going on in the indoor ring that we watched for a bit and then after lunch we hiked up the small mountain/hill. The peak was in a sheep field, and there were other fields in our way trying to get too it. We tried finding a path that would take us too it, but had to jump a few gates (we were told we were allowed to do that if we didn't disturb the animals, don't worry!). The peak was pretty steep at one point, but it wasn't too bad, and the view was amazing. It was a clear day so we got a good view of the whole campus and the town. I took so many pictures of the view, and they probably will all look the same to you, so I'll try not to post too many! Though at this point my camera battery did run out. :( On our way back down the mountain we went through a horse field that had three very friendly horses in them. They were all big, and one was definitely some sort of draft or draft cross. I wish I was able to get some pictures of them! I'm here for four more weeks though, so I'll have time to go back with a charged battery.

After this, I took a much needed nap. Up to that point I was feeling pretty awake because of all of the excitement, but after the hike I was definitely feeling the lack of sleep set in. It was a short nap (I didn't want to be awake all night!) and then we had dinner. Also, speaking of naps, my stuffed tiger Orion decided last minute that he wanted see Scotland too and jumped into my backpack, so that makes my feel a bit more at home here. :) Dinner is currently in a large conference room while their cafeteria is being renovated or something, but they said it would be done before we leave. The food was still good though. 

After dinner, around 8:30pm, we went to the bar that was on campus (sorry Mom! Haha, please don't worry about me though). I was able to buy my first legal drink (but they didn't even card me). It was "Magners Irish Cider" (since Erica told me to either drink a beer for her, or hard cider, and I don't usually like beer. So that one was for you Erica!). The students that go to this college are not on summer break yet, so we got to talk to some of them and exchange slang words and talked about our different accents, haha. 

I headed to bed around 11, and was planning on updating this last night, but I was too tired. Also, the internet was not always working properly for us, but it seems like they've fixed it now. 

And that was my first day in Scotland! It has not rained YET, but there is chance of rain tomorrow and the next day, so I'm sure it will.