As much as I told myself, "I am totally ready for the cold and grey and wet"... Yah, that was a dirty, dirty lie. I've been hiding in my room refusing to go out because it is cold and wet and where is the sun?! It's still kind of fun, but I can see where this will get old. I think if I actually liked my flat it would be better, but it's just so tiny that it's not comfortable. I guess that means I should get out more, but it just involves me huddling in here, cursing my flat. I'm looking for a new one, but that's going to be a sloooow process. I'd also love to be able to get a cat. And a fire place. Living the dream.

Classes continue to be alright. I don't think we all know each other well enough yet for the atmosphere to be truly relaxed. I blame the lack of name games, and the fact that we're all in this strange standing of being first years, but actually being graduate students, and also having these lives that expand beyond school. Well, some of us anyway, not including myself. My social life appears to be- classmates, archery, zoosoc. Sometimes I go to the library! But I'm not exactly the type of person who goes to bars and pubs and clubs by herself, so when I do go, I go with people I already know.

Speaking of pubs! I went with some friends to my first ever pub quiz, and we won, somehow. We thought we hadn't placed at all, since there were more teams than places, and then they said we were in first, and I think we all just about pissed ourselves laughing because how the hell did that happen? Team Tequila Mockingbird 4 lyfe. But really, we were just bullshitting and not taking it too seriously and we somehow won, and I think everyone hated us because we were obnoxiously loud and laughing like idiots the entire time, and then we were those idiots that /won/. Next stop- pub quiz domination, perhaps?

Ramen and Classes

I've survived my first week of classes, which sounds pretty monumental until you realize I only have three classes, and one didn't meet this week. Class three days a week, for two hours each class. That's /nothing/. It's supposed to give us time to write, but I think I'm going to have to find a job because I am beyond broke and I am not sure I want to live on ramen for the next year.

I had my first workshop, and I volunteered to submit my work. The format was really similar to CCS, so it wasn't new to me, but others seem to be quite confused about what a workshop entailed, and what they were supposed to say and mark down on the paper. I can bask in my confident superiority of 'been there, done that'.

There are two other UCSB grads in the creative writing program alone, which is a bit crazy. Never met them before though, and they're both at least a year older than me, if not more.

I haven't really adventured lately so I can't say much about it, and I am awful at this blogging thing.

It still feels like I'm on an extended vacation here, though I did have my graduate school induction, and I'll start classes on Tuesday. On Saturday I went out to St Andrews, which is an absolutely stunning, really small town. Their university may in fact be prettier than mine, so I'm slightly jealous. I saw the big, famous golf course too, but it was wasted on me. It looked like any other golf course to me, only with even more old white men than usual.

Today (Sunday), I went pony trekking in the Pentlands, an area just outside of Edinburgh proper. It was really beautiful. I rode an Exmoor pony and cantered through a copse of trees to the sound of a creek running nearby. How is this real life?! At one point, there was even a sheep following us, baaing and running alongside. I'm pretty sure I briefly became a Disney princess, even though I was soaking wet from the rain and covered in horse hair.

I have to confess that I'm insanely homesick though. I've been to a few of these freshers week events... and I've been the only postgrad every time, so people haven't been too interested in getting to know me. What the hell are my fellow postgrads doing all day? And why won't they invite me? Hopefully things will get better when class starts, because I am most definitely lonely right now. Also, poor as hell, because my loans still haven't gone through, so I'm pretty much living on cheap sandwiches until I get my money.

All I want to do is babble on and on about how much I'm already in love with Edinburgh. Of course, I haven't started classes (I don't even know where campus is), but after just over 24 hours in the city, it's love. My view is truly astounding- I truly lucked out.

This is the view from my bedroom window:

I have a lovely view of some beautiful historical buildings, and I think that may be the castle up there on the upper left hand corner. It's green and filled with trees. I'm on the sixth floor (the British fifth), so it's the very top of our building, higher up than most of the rest. It's a newly built, modern building. I wanted a historical exterior, but I can't complain, because the view and how nice the space is inside more than makes up for it.

This is the view from our tiny living room.

Ignoring those kind of hideous apartment buildings, it's also pretty spectacular. That's St. Arthur's Seat. I want to climb it, but I won't have time during the next week. I can watch tiny little figures climbing it all day though. It's pretty wild looking. At least,  I think that's St. Arthur's Seat. My geography is pretty bad, and I've been too embarrassed to ask.

My roommates seem really nice. Pui is from Thailand, Grigaria (I just butchered her name, I am so sorry) is from Greece, Veronika is from Cypress by way of Russia, and I think the last girl is British (I haven't really talked to her). We all agreed that we should share certain kitchen stuff, so that's less to buy. But these are mundane details and I'm still not sure what time or day it is.

The move begins on Friday

Friday I'll be taking off, leaving on a jet plane, assorted song lyrics here.

I'm nervous as hell. I want to know who my new flatmates will be. I hope they're nice and normal. I want to know what my professors will be like, what my classmates will be like. Too many worries and hopes. The journey starts soon.