The First Two Weeks

I’m here, I made it, and I feel human again! Despite the cancelled flights, delays, and difficulties of communicating with the school, I have finally moved into my flat here in Edinburgh. Lots of things have happened in the past 2 weeks that I’ve been here, and I apologize to both the people reading this and my future self for not being as on top of these blog posts as I wanted to be. I recently found out that a friend of mine had passed away so it has been difficult to keep up with certain things. Anyways, let’s start with the city itself:

The city of Edinburgh is old, reminiscent of taking a step back in time. Every stone emanates wisdom and feels like it has a story to tell. It feels very different from London, much smaller and more charming. Having London be the only other city in the UK that I’ve been to, I’ve found myself making lots of comparisons between here and there. One thing that struck me about Edinburgh is how compact the city is. Whereas London felt like the size of New York, Edinburgh is MUCH smaller and extremely walkable. There’s not underground metro-type transportation, but the bus system is easy to use and affordable! Sometimes, it’s faster to just walk back to my flat from the city centre than to wait for a bus. Weather is a bit drab, lots of rain and clouds, but we’ve had the occasional sunny day and appreciate them even more so because of their scarcity.

Classes are a lot different than what I’m used to in the US. It may just be my particular university, which is hailed as a hands-on type of education, but the class sizes are smaller than 30 people, sometimes around 15, and very practical. I’m used to a lecture a couple of times per week with an occasional test or quiz. Here, there are no tests or quizzes and each class only meets once per week. Each of them are graded by 2-3 big projects that we’ll do throughout the semester.

Three of my favorite experiences that I’ve had so far are as follows:

1. Some other American exchange students and I went Ceilidh dancing, or traditional Scottish folk dancing to live music. The steps were called out and easy to learn. Once the band had finished their set they announced that they had another gig at a different bar later that night. We followed them to that bar and continued dancing! This was the first time that I felt I was doing the whole “study abroad” thing right.
2. I reached out to a local Jewish community about attending a Shabbat service last Friday in honor of my friend. They welcomed me in and it felt wonderful to have located fellow Jews all the way across the world. After the service, the Rabbi took me with him to a Jewish student dinner that he was invited to speak at and I had no clue was happening. It was amazing to meet so many other Jewish students from every country imaginable and make some lasting connections.
3. With one of the friends I had made at the Jewish student event, I went to see a comedy show at a venue called The Stand. I wanted to go here for a while, ever since I did research on the comedy offerings in Edinburgh before I left the states. It did not disappoint. The opener did some of the most impressive improvised freestyle rap I had ever bore witness to, and the comedians that came after had me nonstop laughing with their standup sets. I can’t wait to go back to see some more shows! Afterwards, we went to a small pizza joint near the University of Edinburgh flats for a bite to eat, and ended up chatting and joking around with the two guys working in the shop.

This upcoming week, I plan on getting more solid footing here in Edinburgh and continue forming connections with people. I want to start making solid plans for my first trip, which I would really love to be to the Scottish Highlands. I’m going to see Mamma Mia at the Edinburgh Playhouse on Tuesday, which I cannot wait for, and hopefully will hear back soon from the job I applied for at my university, which is to be an International Student Ambassador.