My flat is not flat.

It's true. It also happens to be at the top of the building where it's located, New Arthur Place.

I moved into my flat on Friday around 3 pm with 4 or so other people from my program, after some morning orientation activities. We were saved by a nice young gentleman who just happened to be passing by. He graciously lugged our 50-pound suitcases up flights of stairs to our flats, simply because he "had nothing better to do". My flat is different than most others in that one bedroom and the common area/kitchen are on the ground level, and then a flight of stairs leads up to 3 other bedrooms and the bathroom. The doors seem to be the opposite of here: they start closing slowly... and then slam shut. No exceptions. One of my flatmates was already there, Camille from the south of France, who is very nice!

Here's what my room is like. Nothing special yet; I'm still getting organized and unpacking/finding places for things. It's a nice size though! I was greeted with the university bedding pack, which I soon discarded for sheets that didn't feel like paper.

After that, I'd arranged with a group of people to head out shopping for food and other necessities. I got the college staples: bread, peanut butter, pasta, and apples. Probably set for life now. Ate food at an Indian place that we all went to, thinking it'd be cheap. The menu outside advertised a 3-course meal special for 8.75. Not too bad. After ordering and eating, we got our check, did some math, and found he charged us 13.75. Apparently the special was from the OTHER menu. What silly Americans we were, not asking to see the hidden second menu.

On Saturday, it seemed like most people headed over to the farmer's market! It was just beneath the castle.

It was your typical farmer's market, with breads, vegetables, jams, meats, cheeses, and some other things. After wandering around here for a bit some of us headed up to see Edinburgh Castle. We wanted a tour, but after seeing the queue (yeah UK words!) for tickets we reconsidered. However, still got a great view of the city.

myself, Brandon, and Ali

Kate, myself, Hilary, Brandon, and Cassandra

We then spent the entire day out walking, wandering, and shopping a bit. After literally walking from 10-4:30, I can't tell you how nice it was to come back to my flat and sit down! Some other pictures from the day:

Today I went to the societies fair (basically the same as the organization fair back at Gustavus) and then got my schedule rearranged a bit. I'll talk more about classes next time since this is getting pretty long! Classes do start tomorrow though, my first one is at 2 pm. Did some more wandering and I'm now fairly confident I can navigate around the city centre! And find my way back home...

I'm off now to make dinner/hang out with a bunch of people from my program who live in a flat about 5-10 minutes away. Hopefully you've been enjoying these updates. I miss home, and my friends back home (skype sometime? yes? yes.) but I'm looking forward to making a new home and new friends over here!