Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

Hello everyone. So I've been doing some wandering around the city- hence the post title. Monday, I opened a bank account- fancy shmancy! It was way easier than I thought it would be once I had the official Edinburgh University letter. They even offered me some Irn Bru (official soft drink of Scotland) but it was flat. For those of you who have never had Irn Bru, I'd suggest it because it's DEEEELICIOUS.

It tastes something in between orange soda and bubble gum. I don't make this stuff up, but that's what multiple people have said. I've actually seen an ad for it on the side of a taxi. They love it here. It sells more than Coca-Cola- the only country in the world with such an occurrence. Crazy. Later Monday night, my friend, Katie, and I went to Chocolatesoup, which is a yummy cafe specializing in chocolaty goodness. We went with the Chocolate Society, and I ordered a hot chocolate sundae, which was pretty much hot chocolate with a mountain of whipped cream and chocolate sauce. I'm pretty sure they're known for their sundae soups though (I think that's just basically a milkshake). I need to go back and try this stuff out.

So on Tuesday, I had no classes and I decided I would apply for a job. The major thing I noticed was that in the UK (or maybe all of Europe), they don't have applications, you need to bring your CV, or resume. I wasn't really prepared for that. After going around to 5 or 6 coffee shops on my street, I went home and revised my resume for the job position and returned within an hour to the three which might have positions, with my CV in hand. They all said by the end of the week, I'd hear back. I'm going tomorrow to bug them a bit since, again, I don't have classes.While I was looking for jobs I took some pictures of the city and campus.

My street (South Clerk/Clerk/Nicholson/South Bridge)

You can kind of see Arthur's Seat in the background

Beautiful park on campus

Teviot House, or Hogwarts

Yesterday, I met up with my friend Lara, who I met at orientation last Sunday. She's also a visiting student and is from Holland. At home she goes to university in Leiden, so that's pretty cool. She also has a long term boyfriend so we bond over that. We went to the society (or club for the American readers) fair. I signed up for the Language Society, Harry Potter Society, and History Society. I'm pretty excited for LangSoc since we don't really have anything like that at home. Harry Potter Society is throwing a Yule Ball on Wednesday, so I will definitely be attending that. Afterward, Lara and I both realised that we had nothing to do so we wandered around the city some more. We decided to go to Holyrood Park. This park surrounds an ancient and extinct volcano in the middle of the city- Arthur's Seat- and also has two or three lochs. Lara and I climbed halfway up until it started getting dark. It was already icy and muddy so we were lucky to make it without falling down. Of course, I forgot my camera, but here's a picture I found online of Arthur's Seat. My goal is to climb to the top on a drier day.

That's really all for now. I had a class today and investigated the library already. I did some grocery shopping and overall had a pretty uneventful day. This weekend should be a blast though. I'll charge my camera, so don't worry!
Safe travels :-)