Mind the Gap

To say that I 'cut it close' with my move to Scotland this weekend does not do justice to the sheer volume of things that happened last-minute. We left on Sunday, and the following things happened in the days leading up to it:

1. On Thursday, I finally accepted that I needed to pack another suitcase. I was still packing on Sunday morning.

2. On Friday, after too many frantic calls to my pharmacy and doctors, my asthma & anxiety medications were filled.

3. Also on Friday, we set up a payment plan for my tuition, which needed to be done before I could start class. The payment went through today (Monday).

But the worst one of all was the visa.

I called a hotline a week before our departure to ask about my visa status, since all my paperwork and my passport were still at the application center in New York. They couldn't give me details over the phone, but I was assured that a decision had been made and my documents should be on their way back to me. Monday went by, then Tuesday, then Wednesday, then Thursday, and no sign of my visa. On Friday morning I called them again, but received no new information. After that, there was nothing more I could do, because I spent Friday evening and all of Saturday celebrating the wedding of two of my closest friends. Thankfully, my travel plans were saved by the arrival of two superheroes: my parents.

They tracked my package, drove out to the UPS distribution center, which was technically closed, and stayed there for a good three hours while they waited for someone to dig the envelope up. What was already a sweet and beautiful day with my friends was made even sweeter and more beautiful by the news that we would be leaving for Scotland the following day after all.

You read that right. We got my visa on Saturday. We got on the plane on Sunday.

As you can probably imagine, I was so stressed about that for the entire week that I couldn't hold a single coherent thought in my head for longer than two seconds. I showed up to the wedding rehearsal on Friday without my guitar, which was a problem because I was the musical accompaniment. It felt like I was standing outside of a train waiting for someone to hand me my ticket, and the whole time I'm watching a clock count down the seconds, until finally someone puts the ticket in my hand and shoves me through the doors right as they're closing. Like I said, we cut it close.

Anyways, now that the most stressful part is behind me, I've really been able to enjoy the trip to Edinburgh. My mom flew over with me, and graciously let me use her checked bag. We flew from Pittsburgh to Newark to Edinburgh, no problems. No sleep, either, but they did give us dinner and breakfast on our overnight flight, so by the time we got off the plane, it felt like a new morning.

I could do a whole post just about the architecture. Scotland is old, and the buildings are all made of stone. They look like they should be the city apartments in a Jane Austen novel where young women are sent to live with their Aunts and Uncles in the hopes that they'll find a wealthy man to marry. Instead, they're occupied by Starbucks, pharmacies, and ATMs. The mix of ancient and modern is wild.

After lugging my suitcases to my mom's B&B, where my dad will join us later in the week, we checked out ENU's campus and found my apartment. I'm living on Slateford Road, which is less than a mile from Merchiston campus, where I'll be studying. It's about a twenty-minute walk through streets lined with old stone houses that have beautiful gardens and wrought-iron gates, and my goal is to walk to campus every day instead of taking a bus. It helps that I don't know how to navigate the bus lines yet.

After an all-too-brief afternoon nap, my mom and I walked through a lovely park to the old city, where we found an Italian restaurant for dinner. Mom ordered Fish & Chips, as any good tourist would, and I got Hawaiian pizza. When in Rome...eat Hawaiian pizza, because it's delicious everywhere.

Day one draws to a close, and I have seen at least three castles. My legs are sore from walking, my shoulders are sore from carrying around my backpack, and my cheeks are sore from smiling. It's going to be a good year.

Book recommendation: The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen. Set in the kingdom of Carthya, the story is narrated by a young boy named Sage, who has a talent for finding trouble. I love this book because it's funny, and tense, and the ending totally surprised me.