Fresher's Week Begins

On Sunday, a few of us walked back to Teviot. Teviot is in the Central Area, where most of the classes are. But David Horn is close to the King's buildings, where science classes are. This means that we are a thirty to forty minute walk from the main part of campus. Still, we walked to campus to get our fresher's passes. Fresher's Week is essentially a Welcome Week, but it's full of different types of activities hosted by the student association and the societies. Some of the events cost a few pounds, so it makes sense to get a Fresher's Pass for £35 instead of spending more on individual events. This would later turn out to be the biggest ripoff possible because the tickets were impossible to get for most of the events. 

After we picked up our passes, we went to the international student welcome centre. There they gave us information on bus schedules, bank accounts, etc. and some free Scotland stuff, like pens and paper. They have an organization set up just to help students studying abroad at Edinburgh and Edinburgh students returning from studying abroad somewhere else.

After getting a bag of free stuff, we walked back to David Horn. A few hours later, we walked back to Teviot. (All this walking back and forth will be a theme for the whole term.) We were trying to go to the Whisky tasting, since we figured that would be a fun Scottish event. Unfortunately, it was full before we even got there. But there was free food! Which turned out to be traditional Scottish food. It was really cafeteria style haggis, mash, and turnips. Since I'd already eaten a full dinner, I just tried the food before giving it away. The haggis was very salty, and I thought the salt covered up any distinctive taste it might have. I'll definitely give it another try. 

We decided to grab a pint and head over to the Welcome Ceilidh. A Ceilidh (kay-lee) is traditional Gaelic folk music and dancing. Once we were adventurous to join in, it seemed a lot like square dancing. It was exhausting though and we all headed off to find water. This might have been the biggest challenge of the night, and it's still a challenge. It's easy enough to find beer or whisky, but there is very little water to be had. We're the only ones who ask for it in restaurants and there are no water fountains anywhere in the school buildings. Instead, we headed home where there was plenty of water.