I hear bagpipes, guys. We must be in Scotland.

Guys. I’m actually here.

Like, really truly honest-to-goodness here.

It only took a 7-hour train ride to DC (which could honestly have been the subject of its own blog post), a four-and-a-half hour car ride to Newark (aka Aunt Cindy is the coolest, and I NEVER want to get semi-lost in Jersey EVER again), and a 7-hour international overnight flight (during which I found out just how small a space I could force myself into)…..but I’m officially here in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The plane ride over was surprisingly painless, despite the fact that I really didn’t move for 7 hours. Since we were flying over at night, we were rewarded with some really killer views of the city lights of Newark and New York; we could even see a game going on in Yankee Stadium—so cool! However, the nice aerial views were soon over due to the majority of the flight being spent over the Atlantic Ocean. Luckily, all of the seatbacks had touchscreens TVs, essentially, so we had all sorts of movies and TV shows and games to choose from to keep ourselves occupied. I ended up watching all of Prince of Persia (shut up – it was great in that hokey, summer popcorn-munching kinda way), trying to fall asleep to my iPod for the next three hours, and then watching the first half of Casablanca before we finally landed in the Edinburgh airport.

It was about 7:15 AM Scotland time when we arrived (we’d left Newark at about 8:00 PM Eastern Time), and it was surprisingly chilly at about 57 degrees Fahrenheit. Considering that a few days ago I was sweltering in shorts and a t-shirt, this is a nice change of climate, especially because now it really feels like autumn is coming. Anyhoos, some IFSA-Butler people met us at the airport and bussed us over through downtown Edinburgh to the (4-star!) hotel that we’re staying at for orientation. And let me tell you…

The city is absolutely GORGEOUS.

All of the buildings look like they’ve been stacked up on top of each other, and it’s really beautiful to see where the old architecture mingles with the new—for example a green-painted door to an inn pub founded hundreds of years ago, right next to a neon-signed Chinese restaurant, or the National Gallery of Scotland just down the road from a sleek glass H&M. It’s absolutely FASCINATING, and I can’t wait to do more exploring around the city—visual aids are coming. I forgot my camera in my bookbag, so I couldn’t really take pictures today, but they are coming!

Anyways, not much else really happened today, since most of the day was spent either eating at the hotel or waiting to get into our rooms (of course, I was one of the last ones to get their keys…it was awful). Or sleeping. Sleeping is wonderful. The jet lag isn’t as terrible as I’d thought it would be, but it was still rough there for a while. However, a few of us decided to go get our cell phone situation sorted out, and we meandered down across the Royal Mile to Princes Street, which is apparently a main thoroughfare of Edinburgh, to a phone store. Most of us ended up getting a super-cheap pay-as-you-go phone—ie 20 pounds for a phone and a first-month plan that’s pretty respectable, and then you can just add minutes and texts as you go. Also, for those of you who know what my American cell phone looks like – this phone is so much nicer. I kinda want to keep it after I come back.

Also, on the way back to the hotel, there was totally a bagpiper busking near the Princes Shopping Center. WE ARE SO IN SCOTLAND.

I guess that's it for now...so apologies for the novel that I have written for my inaugural blog post—I’ve never really kept a regular blog, so this is going to be a new, exciting (and difficult) experience for me. I also apologize in advance - I’ve noticed that I tend to type as idiosyncratically as I speak. Bear with me.

LOVE.