Happy February 1st! - (1/2/18)

Halò my fellow adventurers, happy February 1st!!!

It's a new month, a new day, and i'm feelin' good

Perhaps you may have noticed, if you are from the United States, that I titled my post 'Happy February 1st' , writing the date, 1/2/18?! What?! How can it be the first of a new month yet the way I wrote the date suggest that it's actually January 2nd, whoops, did I make a mistake...?

Nope, I am correct, you did see that date written the right way! As most countries in the United Kingdom/ Europe do, the date is written as Day(1)/Month(2)/Year(18), as opposed to in the United States, we right things a little funky, Month(2)/Day(1)/Year(18). If you really stop and think about it for a second, Europeans may be onto something, they write the date chronologically starting with the single day, to the number of the month, to the year, from small to large, most important to least important (not that the year isn't important, but you get what I mean). So there you have it, today is 2/1/18, and week three of classes has just finished for me!

Now I know it's been quite a while since I last wrote a 'travel blog' category piece, because if you've been following the order of my last two posts, I wrote my first 'excursion' and 'restaurant' category pieces, meaning it's now time to catch up with you on all that is new! Since you last heard from me, I have done a TON of exploring, both with API (the program I am at the University of Edinburgh with) and with some friends, for there is so much to explore, the possibilities are endless!

Currently my list of attractions around the city over the past week include; the Edinburgh Castle (an API excursion which I will expand on later), Holyrood Palace & The Abbey, The Scottish Whiskey Experience (actually I did this the first week I was here in Scotland but I've never mentioned it before so stay tuned for an 'excursion' post coming later), The National Museum of Scotland (which was FREE), St. Giles Church (I even went back after my walkthrough visit, to attend mass), Circus Lane (the most photographed street in all of

Edinburgh, see photo), Hotel Chocolat (a café that has the BEST hot chocolates in town), a TON of coffee shops (to name a few; Brew Lab, The Milkman, Black Medicine Coffee Co. and SO many more), George Street (has lots of yummy restaurants including the famous Dome, a fancy high tea restaurant that a friend and I made reservations at for our Downton Abbey inspired day), survived Burns Night (a Scottish celebration on January 25th, in honor of the famous poet Robert Burns, where people dance and eat haggis all night long), got invited to some new British friends birthdays (that I have yet to attend as they are coming up soon), conquered doing my first load of laundry at my flat (which resulted in my dryer clothes coming out dripping wet), but it’s all part of the process, as its only just week 3 and I have so much more to explore!

Perhaps one of my favorite things to do in life is to travel to coffee shops and go cafe bar hopping! As I'm sure you noticed, I mentioned I have been to quite a lot of coffee shops and cafes since I've been here, so once again stay tuned for those posts coming your way to my 'restaurant reviews' section, I'll call the series 'Meghan's Coffee Bar Crawl', for there is nothing better than a good cup of coffee, dapper Scotsman barista and the decadent aesthetic of a coffee shop!

Aside from the Holyrood Palace, which I previously wrote about a few days ago under my 'excursion reviews' tab, I also visited the Edinburgh Castle with API as a part of one of the Cultural Events that I get to take part in.

Upon arrival to the castle, my API site director, Alexis, greeted our whole group at the top of the Royal Mile, on the bridge right before the entrance to the castle. Now while there is a fee to view the magnificent piece of history, one of the great perks about choosing to travel with API is that they buy all of your tickets for excursions ahead of time so you never have to worry about paying to partake in the events. Once the tickets were handed out, Alexis told our group that we had free reign to tour the castle, to stay as little or as long as we would like, for the rest of the day was free!

So, my amazing new-found friends and I hiked up the bridge to the castle doors, scanned our tickets and then spent about 4 hours walking around the castle walls! Inside the castle grounds there is so much to see, everything from reading historical galley signs to taking break taking photos, I can now tell why Edinburgh is often nicknamed the Athens of the United Kingdom!

Now of course, aside from exploring I do attend class. My three courses include: Scandinavian Civilizations, The History of Edinburgh and Visualizing Scotland, all of which I love and find fascinating! I am really starting to get the hang of things around here a bit, my readings are going well, my lectures great, and I even volunteered to by my Scandinavian Civilisations class representative, which I later found out (after volunteering) that an award marked, Higher Education Achievement Award, will appear on my final transcript that gets sent back to the states!

Oh and wait, I have just one more thing to share with you! As I mentioned once in a previous post, I said that I am currently living with two girls from Malaysia and one from South Korea. Well during the course of this past week, one of the girls from Malaysia's boyfriend came to visit and stay at our flat for the week. The reason I am telling you this is because this Tuesday night (January 30th), the boyfriend COOKED dinner from a Gordon Ramsey recipe (his favorite chef), for me and the other flatmates as a thank you for letting him stay with us!

O-M-G (perhaps the only time you will hear me use those abbreviations), the food he made was SO good, I felt so happy after having dinner that night with all of my flatmates and the boyfriend because it was just the sweetest gesture of all! The recipe he made was a veggie halloumi cheese patty (with cheese, zucchini, carrots, oats and spices), mediterranean chicken and roasted rosemary potatoes, the meal was gone in seconds with very little left overs, only to be followed by dessert, a homemade oreo cheesecake! I don't know how I got so lucky to have such great roommates, once again I find myself saying I love Edinburgh and all the experiences I have gotten to have, this country is just amazing!

!So without further-adieu, there you have it ladies and gentlemen, you are now all caught up with my University of Edinburgh life over the past week and a half! Between now and the next time you hear from me I will have visited the Harry Potter Bridge and the city of Glencoe, gone to Costco’s in Edinburgh (YES that’s right I just found out that they have one here!), chilled at a few more coffee shops and encountered some magical Scottish moments that have yet to be discovered (by me)! I can’t wait to tell you all about my upcoming adventures next time I write to you!

Until next time fellow adventurer...

Cheers,

Meghan Chayka