Hey, guess what? I’m in St. Andrews! I go to school here now! Pretty cool, right? A quick rundown of my last week of travels and settling in.

Last Monday: left for DC to visit sister, ate burrito, attended Georgetown basketball game.

Tues.: hung out in DC, went to lunch with sister, got stuff ready to leave for Scotland the next day.

Wed.: Flew to Newark, ate cheeseburger during layover, flew to Scotland. On flight: read Freedom by Jonathan Franzen and watched Grand Budapest Hotel. Highly recommend both. Ate cheese lasagna. Do not recommend.

I got into Edinburgh at about 7:30 Thursday morning and hopped in my shuttle to school, where the first Study Abroad meeting was set to start in a couple hours. I got to my dorm and, after pulling for several minutes on the front door that was meant to be pushed, entered said dorm and dropped off my stuff before running to the meeting that I was already running late for. Great start, right? But a true baller doesn’t worry about things like punctuality, thus I was not worried.

I fought off jet lag to stumble through the meetings and icebreakers, and passed out at 8. Seriously, I’ve never slept better in my whole dumb life. If this whole semester ends up being super lame, I will always have that glorious night of sleep.

The next couple days were a nice combination of socializing and getting ready for classes. My roommate is also a student abroad from Trinity College. Like a lot of abroad people, he’s with a program (IFSA Butler), and has been nice enough to let me tag along with his group to hang out and whatnot.

My classes started Monday, and they seem like they’ll be interesting. I’m taking “Country and City in Scottish Literature” and “Civil Wars on Page and Screen.” Professors seem smart, reading list is good, etc.

Also, super cool thing: my classes are pretty close to the coast, and are right across the street from St. Andrew’s Castle. My classes back at Whitman were across the street from the Beta house. This is an upgrade.

In general, the amount of beautiful, old buildings and beautiful natural scenery is pretty staggering. The other day I took a jog by the castle and St. Andrew’s Cathedral; today, I took a jog along the beach and the Old Course, one of the most famous golf courses on this earth. And that’s all just a couple blocks from my dorm.

Anyways, things are pretty good. The food is slightly better than people say, the weather is colder than I thought, and the pubs are as ubiquitous as advertised. It is a little lonely being here without my lovely family and friends, but I’ll be alright. I’m just happy to be here.