Student Bloggers

I have actually been in Scotland since January 4^th, but I thought it made a lot of sense to try to recount my experience in the order that it happened. The first few days really felt like an eternity, but that wasn’t a bad thing. Before leaving for Scotland, another girl on my trip - fellow blogger Melissa - emailed a bunch of the other students also going on the trip, and we arranged to meet each other at the airport, as we were arriving pretty close together. This was great, because I didn’t have to try to figure out how to get around by myself, and had a couple people to spend the long day with.

On the very first day we went to the hotel we were staying at in Edinburgh for orientation and dropped off our bags. After that we had about 5 hours to kill, so we went and got lunch and explored a near the hotel. After a short nap, we had out first orientation event. It was pretty relaxed, and a good way to start breaking the ice with some of our fellow students. That night I believe we went to the Christmas Markets because it was the last night for them, and it made me wish that we had been there to see them in full swing. If you’re going in the fall semester, I recommend going to any Christmas markets you can, they seem like a great way to get into the holiday spirit!

The next day was full of helpful orientation information, as well as some free time for us to get lunch and wander around the city. After lunch we met and went for a tour of the National Museum of Scotland, and most of the students staying in Edinburgh went to a campus tour of the University. If you are going to Edinburgh, I highly recommend the museum! I will probably try to go back if I can, because we didn’t get to see nearly everything there is to offer at the museum. It was a very nice way to learn a lot about the history of Scotland. I particularly enjoyed learning about the early peoples of Scotland. I had very little knowledge in this area, and the museum did a wonderful job of showing the visitors about life as an early Scotsman or woman.

The next day was our last day in Edinburgh, but it was still a good one! We had a short orientation sessions, then the Aberdeen group had plenty of time to kill that day, so I got the chance to visit Edinburgh Castle, which was really awesome. My family actually took a trip that included Edinburgh about 10 years ago, so it was really fun to see what I remembered about the city. I quickly realized that my memory was pretty selective, and also made me realize just how much time had passed since I had been there. But it also made me remember how much fun I had with my family, and made me excited for the fun I would have this semester!

I really liked having orientation in Edinburgh. It was a fun way to see some of the city, and helped us get acquainted with it for future trips there this semester. It was also a great way to meet some of the students studying abroad there, who we can go back and visit. I think that Arcadia did a great job with giving us essential information, but also making it fun, and giving us plenty of time to go off and do some exploring. Even just being in Edinburgh for a couple days made me really excited to be able to go back there, and for the rest of the things I would be doing and seeing while I am in Scotland.