Recap of my time so far...

Hey everyone! Thanks for stopping by. For my first few posts on here, I am going to try to get everything that has gone on in the past week and a half or so on here so please bear with me!

27-28 August:
These were my travel days. I left bright and early (around 8:00) on the 27th from MSP, and flew to New York-JFK. There I had the longest layover of my life! It was ten hours long. I mostly kept busy chatting and emailing on my computer because I bought an Internet pass for $10. Mom and Mike helped to keep me entertained. I ended up charging my laptop three times, and I have a good battery!

My plane was delayed leaving JFK. We sat on the runway for over and hour and a half, without even a word from the pilot. We actually arrived within a few minutes of our scheduled landing on the 28th, Scotland time, so that was not really and issue. At the Edinburgh airport, I met up with a large group of us all waiting to take a coach bus to the palace. I met Patty, our resident director, and John, our assistant resident director. They are both super nice.

Once we arrived at the palace, we had a true Scottish sight waiting for us:

This bagpiper was playing for us. It was really cool. Right after this, we got settled in our rooms. I have three roommates: Misty, Deanna (or D) and Leah. D and Leah are both also 21 and go to RF. I didn't know either of them before getting here. The three of us get on really well, and are already known as the troublemakers (but, of course, we don't actually cause trouble. We are more so fun loving).

After we got settled in, we went exploring Dalkeith, the town we live in, a little bit. We mostly just walked and took some pictures. It is brilliant. It is nothing at all like the States, and it is crazy just to think that the palace alone is older than our entire country. We stopped and got some lunch at Baguette Express, which is my second favorite take away here (its not quite fast food, but there are usually no tables to sit at and eat. It is all take out). I'll let you know my first favorite later.

I'll post some of the pictures here now:


The pictures are, starting from the top: a sign on a Pub welcoming us (actually, I think they were welcoming last spring's group, because the pub is now closed, and no one washed it off), a picture of a building on High Street, the craft store in town (I thought Mom/the aunts would like that), a view of the street as you walk out of the palace grounds gate, my beloved Baguette Express (its like a sub shop, but you can have it on a bun, bread, toasted, panini, etc. Its so good! They have a lot of toppings, but you are only supposed to choose a few, not like Subway where you load up the whole thing), and a pretty church right next to the grounds.

Beyond that, we stopped at the local drug store and stocked up on toiletries. Then we went to a local pub for dinner with a small group from the house. I had a delicious lamb curry. It was really good! I had an early night trying to get over the jet lag (6 hours difference!) and went to bed at 21:30.