As promised, a real update.

My avid readers-

Okay, so I think I might have somewhat gotten the hang of things around here. Sort of. When I got in at around 11:00 pm yesterday, I couldn't get any money using my debit cards. My credit cards didn't work in the tube ticket vending machines. I was freaking out, and having an attack etc, etc, etc. That was quite the way to start my study abroad experience... however, I feel a little better knowing it can only go uphill from here. Last night was spent on skype with my wonderful and supportive parents until almost 04:00 London time, trying to sort out how I can get some money, and it ended up with me being able to get enough to last at least the next 4 or 5 days. So, the grand total of sleep I have had in the last 48 hours or so is maybe 9 hours on the high end. However, I've found a lovely chain with 99p coffee and free wi-fi, so that solves that problem.

I wanted to go to the British Museum, but there was apparently some sort of gas leak, and it had to be evacuated earlier in the day. Hopefully it will be open tomorrow! So, instead, I checked into my hostel and quickly learned that you get what you pay for. for £16.00 ish, I was pretty happy just to have a place to stay, but I really wonder what kind of backpacker's hostel doesn't have lockers big enough to hold backpacks! So, I put all my valuable stuff into my rucksack and threw it in, and hoped for the best on the rest of it. I don't think anybody would want to steal my suitcase full of old shoes and underwear. The hostel smells intensely like BO, and the mattress is approximately 3 inches thick, but the bed has a curtain so I can have a little privacy. And there's a free breakfast. Tomorrow, I go to a different, and most likely better hostel, so I can definitely deal with this for one night. I wish CouchSurfing had panned out for London!

After settling into the hostel, I made an attempt to find a place to get a SIM card, but failed miserably. I ended up wandering aimlessly for a while, which was interesting, though the blisters on my foot from wearing bad shoes yesterday are getting pretty painful. I ought to find some moleskin or something before I explode in a pus-filled mess. Yuck. The plus of that escapade was the fact that I found a place to get a passport style photo to use to get a 16-25 discount railcard. Being a moron, I presumably left my photos in America. I walked into a store with a sign outside, got my 4 pictures for £3.99, but then they messed one up and gave me a pound back, which was lovely, considering that most places seemed to be charging £5 for 2 pictures! The picture is terrible, but it doesn't matter. The next step is getting to a rail station to buy my railcard and a ticket for the Stansted express and one for Edinburgh. Then, I'm going to take it easy for the evening, since I am EXHAUSTED.

Monday is the Notting Hill Carnival, which I hear is a pretty huge deal. I'm going to meet up with a bunch of Couch Surfers at a pub (P.S. Responsible grown-ups reading this blog: note that though I am of legal drinking age here, and have gone through several ordeals since arriving, I have yet to purchase an alcoholic beverage. That's restraint.) and then watch the parade and listen to the Caribbean music. I am very excited for that. That leaves tomorrow to move my stuff to the new hostel, hit up the British Museum, British Library, Science Museum, and Museum of Natural History (or, you know, whichever of the above I have time to visit. They're all FREE!). I'll probably end up at the British Museum since it is just a hop away from the hostel.

Okay, this novel is over. I have a few hours in which to get to a T-Mobile store and get phone service, then figure out if I can take care of my rail stuff on a Saturday.

Over and Out.

P.S. I'm trying to think of a way better sign off. We'll see if that ever happens.

Arrival

Hi all-

I arrived in London about 12 hours ago. I had a lot of problems, but I think now I am going to be okay. I would write a more substantial entry here, but I have to get going to check out of my hotel in 15 minutes. There are some places with free wi-fi around my next hostel, so expect an update sometime soon!

C

stuff... literally

I'm flying out of here in one week, and I have yet to start packing. I've thought about it, but I haven't gotten around to the physical act of separating what is coming and what is going. I know that what is coming with me is going to fit in a 70-liter backpack, and I know that I own a lot more stuff than that.

Rather than packing, I have been (under parental orders) cleaning my room, which, to give you an idea of the volume of stuff in there, I probably haven't thoroughly picked up since 1999. In addition to sheer time, I am a packrat, so there are just layers and layers of crap on the floor. I have thrown away at least 4 garbage bags of stuff, donated probably as many bags full of clothes to Goodwill, and filled up probably two large, Chicago-sized recycling bins, yet there is still more of it.

So, let's get back to how for the next four months, I will be carrying all of my possessions on my back. I think this will be an incredibly enlightening exercise in simplicity. Every time I return to Minnesota, I think to myself, "I am going to bring less stuff with me," yet, I continue to fill my car and then some. I own way too much, and I sincerely believe that my study abroad experience is going to significantly improve 1) my pack-rat habits, and 2) my school packing habits.

So, I need to conquer the mountain of stuff still remaining in here so that I can get my butt out to the store and buy the rest of the things I need for my trip. I have confidence that when I actually purchase things, they will fit in my backpack.

setting the scene

I know that having a blog for a study abroad trip is pretty cliche, but I'm doing it anyway. I will be spending my fall 2010 semester at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. "Why Scotland?" you might ask. Because I love dreary, rainy, cold places. I do choose, after all, to attend the University of Minnesota on a regular basis. But seriously, when I was probably in fifth or sixth grade, I read some historical fiction book about Mary, Queen of Scots. From there on out, I read everything I could find about her, and I knew one thing: I wanted to go to Scotland. I wanted to see the castles at Sterling, Craigmillar, the Hermitage, Loch Leven, and obviously, Edinburgh.

Scotland appeals to me not only because there are places of great historical significance (going all the way back to Roman times!), but also because I hear the landscape is phenomenally beautiful. I mean, there is an extinct volcano in the middle of Edinburgh! How cool is that? So, when I was looking to study abroad, I took the facts that A) I do not speak any languages other than English, B) It would really help me eventually graduate if I could take a Latin class, and C) I wanted to enter a university, not just a study abroad center, and C) I wanted to be in a city, and arrived at the conclusion that Edinburgh was the place to be. Since I have trouble understanding accents, I figure that being in Scotland will be sort of like being in a non-English speaking country, but one where I'll be able to read signs directing me to the bathroom. Unfortunately, I have to wake up so early for that I haven't been able to keep up with my Late Late Show habit for most of the summer, and so I haven't been hearing the accent every day, though I assume that 1) Craig Ferguson's accent is not too thick, since he's been in America for quite a while, and 2) a Glaswegian accent is far different from an Edinburgher accent. After reading American on Purpose, I'm sort of bummed out that I won't be in Edinburgh for the International and Fringe Festivals, but at least I shall be there for Hogmanay.

Academically, I am very excited to be in Edinburgh, known as the "Athens of the North." I will be taking an oral folk history class (hopefully, as fun as my storytelling class at Minnesota!), Archaeology of Scotland, and a Latin class in which we will be reading early Vergil. I am looking forward to only having three classes, so that I can really get into each one, and have a bit of a break from trying to spread myself thin over all my science classes. I have had so few opportunities to do real reading and writing (aside from the Wilde 90's), so it will be nice to be doing the more liberal-artsy thing again.

In three weeks, I will be in London. On August 31, I am going to Copenhagen, spending a few days there, and then taking the train to Stockholm. I will be stopping in Malmo in between those two destinations, and maybe learning a bit about my ancestry, while I am at it. I won't be able to get all the way up to Norbotten (where we, at least fairly recently, had some distant cousins), but that's okay. I'll return to London on September 6, take the train to Edinburgh on the 7th, get oriented on the 8th, and then start school. This pre-Scotland trip is going to be an adventure of epic proportions. I am scoping out places to go, though I will not have huge amounts of time in each city, but aside from points of interest, the only things I have are a backpack, and transportation from London to Copenhagen, Stockholm to London. I will hopefully meet a lot of interesting folks, see some enlightening things, and have a fantastic time.

I have a lot to do before I leave, but I can't do most of it until after next week, when I finish my internship. It's all starting to seem so real now, and it's hard to believe that the trip starts on August 27! I will update again closer to my departure.