Days 1 & 2: Arrival in Scotland

Fortunately, I flew out in the afternoon. I say fortunately, because I was packing literally up to the moment my parents and I (and Odie) left for the airport, and I was still sorting through paperwork in the car on the ride. Upon arriving at the airport, I found out one of my bags weighed over 23 kg, so it was more packing (and unpacking) to distribute the weight evenly between my overweight duffel and underweight backpack. Finally, I managed to get through check-in and security with a little under two hours to spare and a nine-hour flight to London ahead of me.

I had a plan to beat the jetlag. It helps that I normally don't suffer a lot of jetlag, none actually, on the (relatively) short flights between Seattle (home) and Boston (school). But instead of a three-hour time difference, I had an eight-hour time difference to adjust to, and I certainly was not planning on spending my first few days in Scotland and Ireland jetlagged! So I had a plan, and it worked. I'll share my secret: I read a book suggesting that you set your watch on boarding the plane and pretend like its the time at your destination. If I did that, it would be about 2am, which is a completely different time of night. Instead, I set my watch ahead an hour, every hour. With a nine hour flight and an eight hour time change, it worked almost perfectly. Once you mix in the sleep (admittingly bad and uncomfortable sleep), I arrived in London believing it to be about 11am, which it was. The thing that really struck me, that made me say "Goodbye US, Hello UK", happened while we were flying low over London and I noticed the cars were driving on the left side of the street. At that altitude, most cities look exactly the same. Sure, there are differences in architecture, maybe layout, but they are essentially the same- tiny models of cities with cars the size of ants driving through streets. It was the simple fact that the cars were driving on the opposite side of the street from what I'm used to that made me realize I was truly in another country.

Upon arriving in London, I was almost immediately thrown for a loop. I thought I was supposed to transfer flights to Edinburgh and go through customs there, but it turned out I was going through customs in Heathrow. I was still a little groggy from little sleep and unprepared, and I came out of it hoping that I got the correct visa. I had a bit of a wait, so I found a place to sit down. Another thing that really struck me was how many languages were being used around me in a simgle seating area. Sometimes, going through SeaTac or Logan, I hear some languages but mostly American English. At Heathrow, there were more speakers of foreign languages than speakers of English! And the ones who spoke English had a variety of dialects that sometimes made me wonder if they were even speaking English and not some pidgin variety.

My domestic flight to Edinburgh was short. I retrieved my bags and waited for my friend Allie, who had already been in Scotland a week. We had been friends since high school, and I found out in early spring that she was spending a year at the University of Edinburgh, so we decided to plan some trips. I realized my own dependency on cell phones (mobiles, here) when her bus was late and I had no way of contacting her since neither of our American phones worked! After waiting around a little, I went on the internet. At the airport, there was a rugby team flying in, and they marched outside to the sound of bagpipes. I thought that heralded my way into Scotland rather nicely.

It's always nice having someone who knows the city be there for you when you arrive, especially when you've been awake over 24 hours, if you don't count the awful sleep you get on airplanes. Allie knew her way around the buses, grocery stores, and how to get to the place we were staying that night, so my tired brain didn't have to work. Over the summer, the freshmen (freshers, here) dorms are used as a sort of hotel to make money for the university. That's where we stayed. It was only a little more than a hostel, centrally located, and a private room.

That evening, we got some food, planned out the next day, repacked, and slept.