First Week

The first week of classes was a little confusing. Not because of the material, but just trying to get registered and finding the class. The way it works is that there is a tutorial with every class. The tutorials are when you meet with a smaller group of students from the class and talk about what you are learning in more detail. At least that’s what I understand them to be like, I haven’t actually gone to one yet. All I really know is that the first time you try to register for them they are a lot harder than they need to be.
The classes themselves have been going just fine, though. Art may be the hardest class, because I do not know any of the terminology yet. I’m hoping that once I figure out the meaning of things like naturalism, realism, mannerism, etc. (the list is longer than you might think), I will be able to follow little easier. My English class should actually be fun. The professor is pretty funny and the books should be interesting to read. I mean the class is called Controversial Classics, so obviously they interested somebody at some point. Finally, Organic Chemistry is just Organic Chemistry. It really doesn’t change much no matter where you go. The first class was just review, and I should be just fine since I knew everything that was taught. The lab is a little different. Its twice a week and only goes until Easter break, which will make the last six weeks amazing. It will make Tuesday class from 11-1 and 2-6 to 11-1 and 2-3. And Thursday gets even better. Instead of class from 12-6, I only have class from 12-3. Like I said…exciting.
It looks like we brought the snow over with us, as well. It snowed about 2 inches over the past couple days, and that’s unusual for Aberdeen. My lab professor was even trying to rush us out as we were cleaning up because he didn’t want to get snowed in. I took a few pictures of my walk to campus everyday because it was really cool with the snow.
Tonight’s the Bobbin, they have a really good dinner special, and tomorrow we are going to go see a castle! It should be a good weekend. Hopefully it isn’t raining too much so I can take a lot of pictures.

Tea

I can't believe how much tea I have had in the past few days. And it's really good tea too, but what makes it even better is adding a little bit of milk. I've never heard of adding milk to hot tea, and if you haven't either I highly recommend it. Most of my tea drinking has taken place in the Catholic center (Catholic Chaplaincy). In between classes, I have the choice to either walk 15 minutes back to my room or about a minute to the Chaplaincy. It's a pretty easy choice. At the Catholic center, they have a common room with a couch and 7 or 8 chairs where anyone can come in and grab a cup of tea and a biscuit while waiting for their next class to start. So far, I have gotten to meet people from all over the world in this room. There have been people from England, India, Paris, East Timor, Canada...I think you get the picture. It's a little strange because I haven't really met many Aberdonians, but I'm sure I'll be able to meet one before I leave.

downtown

I made my first excursion to downtown today (about a 40min walk), so I could run a couple errands and it turned out to be a little harder to navigate than I thought. After stopping to read my own map twice, I finally found a city map that actually told me where I was. This was a huge help and got me going in the right direction. Once I picked up my railpass from the railway station, I was pretty sure I knew how to get to the grocery store. Eventually, however, I ended up having to ask for directions. Oh yeah, just in case you didn't know, you have to pay for plastic bags over here, but you are also allowed to bring in your own bag. Since we were given one cloth bag by the Scotland Program, I decided to make sure everything fit into that one bag. This made for one heavy bag to carry back. The groceries may have only cost 10 pounds but it must have weighed 40. The only thing that got me through the whole ordeal is the cadbury egg I bought as a reward for making the journy. I don't know if it was the walk or the fact that I'm so close to the cadbury chocolate factory, but I'm pretty sure it was the best egg I've ever eaten.
Not only did I walk through downtown, I got to go on a free bus tour of Aberdeen today. We started at the harbor and got to walk through a really cool, old fishing village. The last fisherman to live there died about 3 years ago but people do live there still. We made it a lot further than I would ever go on foot where, all the granite mansions are. Most were converted to private schools or offices, I'm pretty sure none of them are still used as housing. If people do live there, they were split up into multiple flats. It was upsetting because my camera's flash didn't work through the bus windows and the pictures were almost always blurry without a flash.
I am just about to leave for Mass in the awesome church that was built in 1509. I'm pretty excited, I'll let you know how it goes.

First days

Fortunately, my overall traveling experience went very smoothly. The only bad part was the 8 inches of snow that fell the night before my flight. Other than that, there were no delays, lost luggage, or screaming babies. Also, Customs only took a few minutes. Jetlag really hasn't been giving me too many problems. Except for almost falling asleep at the introductory dinner, I've been pretty alert. In my defense though, we were sitting on very comfortable couches. All of the people that came over through the Scotland Program have gotten acquainted pretty well, so it should make for an easier transition, hopefully.
I can't believe how much walking I have already done! Wabash has definitely spoiled me. It takes twice as long just to reach campus as it normally would take to walk my farthest Wabash class. At least I will be getting some good exercise. I have, however, gotten to see some cool things on my walks, such as the church on campus, which is the oldest building at the university. Everything is made from grey granite. At first, it made everything seem gloomy, but the sun came out today and changed that feeling. I took some pictures so I won't try to explain it here. Since the sun is out now I think ill go take advantage of it. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep this blogging thing going and write some more.