I'm going to try to keep these short so that you don't get too bored, but if you have any questions or want to know more, just let me know!
I arrived in Edinburgh on Monday afternoon and promptly took a nap. In the evening I had my first meeting with my program people, and then we went out for dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant (I think they were trying to avoid Scottish food). On Tuesday we took a wee bit of a walking tour of Edinburgh and then headed up to the Edinburgh castle, which was quite nice.
On Wednesday we headed up to Stirling to meet our host families. My host mom was an older Scottish woman named Anne. She was very nice and had a great Scottish accent. There were a couple of conversations that left me thinking, "huh?" but I guess that's normal. While at our homestays we visited the Stirling castle (there seem to be castles all over the place here!) and the William Wallace monument. William Wallace is the story of Braveheart. I'm not sure how much Hollywood changed the story when they made the movie, but the basic plot line is that William Wallace was a big player in helping Scotland fight for their independence.
Right now I am on campus, and it is quite beautiful. It is, however, very cold. In fact, the loch on campus is frozen over so the swans and ducks have very few places to swim. There are also tons of bunnies hopping around campus, which is something new for me. They're very cute.
Classes start on Wednesday, so wish me luck!!
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