The airport is known for giving bad exchange rates, but I needed pounds for the airport shuttle and the taxi cab to the residence halls. The exchange rate actually dropped two cents today to $1.95/1 GBP, but I paid $2.14. Oh well, I imagine I can only get a better rate when I enter Edinburgh.
I was surprised to discover that the 20 GBP notes don’t quite fit into my wallet the way I would like them to. They end up getting clipped by the zipper, so I will most likely have to buy a new wallet. Add it to the expenses, eh? 1 GBP comes in a heavy gold coin, but the 1p, 10p, and 20p coins I got after buying a Chedder & Tomato Chutney sandwich just confuse me. Why are some coins round and some octagonal? I’ll get the hang of it in no time, but right now I’m a total foreigner who has to sort through each coin before making proper change.
(On a side note, I had never tried chutney before and had no idea what it was, but it tastes very good. At least my taste buds are daring.)
I’m siting in the Manchester airport, and four boy scouts and one Scottish equivalent just walked by! My first kilt sighting! No, I don’t know if he was wearing any underpants and there’s no way I could ask anyway – he’s gone now.
I am so grateful for my laptop right now.
I am leaving for Edinburgh on Tuesday, meaning I have three full days after today to enjoy family, friends, California, sunshine, American dollars, cheaper prices….
I thought I would be balking from fear, and a part of me is certainly very nervous about navigating three airports, going through customs, adjusting to a new climate and time-zone, starting a bank account, buying school clothes, making it through orientation, and everything else on the list of “don’t forget!” that has been accumulating since May or so. But I’m so darn busy packing, buying supplies over here, and saying my goodbyes that here I am, three days from leaving the country for several years, and I don’t think the gravity of this situation has yet to hit me. I think only after I graduate from Dick Vet will I realise what I’ve done!
In the mean-time, I’m trying to figure what is absolutely necessary and thus deserving of a place in my suitcases, and what’s worth storing for four years. I’m so glad I have my parents’ storage unit to use, because it would break my heart to have to get rid of all of my kitchen supplies. It should all be waiting for me when I return.
But before I can think about returning, I need to think about getting over there! Thank goodness I have my laptop: now I can keep my family updated between planes and upon arrival. I’m leaving my phone in the States because it won’t work in the UK, and I’m going to get a phone plan over there, so in the meantime it’s just Skype+Internet that will keep me connected with the U.S.
I’ll be updating like crazy when I touch Scottish soil. Until then, safe journey to my fellow GEPers, and I’ll see you there.
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Yesterday I sent off my information for my visa. I am keeping my fingers firmly crossed that I submitted all of the information they needed, and processing is speedy on their end. I leave in 25 days and I don’t have time to resubmit! The thought of not getting my visa in time leaves me feeling sick to my stomach, and I don’t know what I would do. If you pray, add my name in, and if you don’t, send me some positive vibes that everything works out.
The university sent me my joining packet in the mail, and although I already had access to all of the information online using the vet school’s internet portal, EEVeC, getting that official package in the mail for my soon-to-be-school is very exciting. My mother commented on how the packet sounds like I’m getting ready to go to Hogwarts, and she’s quite right. The list of clothing and books sounds very similar to the beginning of The Philosopher’s Stone, and of course the pictures of the old university looks like something out of the films.
Plus, now I’m acquainted with the Dick Vet’s “Mummies and Daddies” programme, which sounds suspiciously like a S&M bondage group…really it’s a orientation plot, where older students “adopt” a fresher (freshman) to help them adjust to school. As a foreign student, this sounds like a great idea, because the nerves are already starting to embed in my stomach, reminding me that I’ll be very, very far from home and starting a very challenging course. Assuming, of course, that I can get my visa on time.
Must think happy thoughts, must think happy thoughts….
Things for Edinburgh are starting to move slowly, but surely along. My transcripts were finally available on June 25th, so I rush ordered those and then sent them express mail to Scotland. The school received them and I was officially updated to Unconditional Firm, meaning I have satisfied all of my pre-requisites!
Now I have to secure my visa. Unfortunately I’m going out of town, so I couldn’t make a biometric appointment to be fingerprinted and face-scanned until the day I get back – July 10th. It’s later than I had hoped, but I will send off all of my necessary paperwork to the visa-issuing centre in LA either after the appointment or on Friday, and hopefully it will arrive on time to be processed before I leave! It has been very stressful graduating from a university that is on the quarter system, because deadlines for Edinburgh correspond with semesters which tend to end a month earlier than my school. This means transcripts were due June 30th and mine weren’t even available until June 25th! I’m getting very anxious that I leave in just over a month and I do not have a visa, but I couldn’t get one any sooner. Anyway, I’m glad I’m that much closer to school.
I’m also very excited about the clothes we have to buy:
This is what I wear for fieldwork. Vet schools in the US require scrubs but it seems that UK and Australian schools use boiler suits in their place. As a heavy girl, these will be an extra fashion faux pas, but also think they’re a little bit fun. They certainly identify you for what you’re doing: field work with stinky, unclean animals.
They’re 40 USD each, which isn’t terrible considering that, with perhaps a jacket or vest, that’s your entire outfit planned out. I think it would be nice to have at least 5 pair, so I’d have one for each day of the week, but considering that I also need to buy wellington boots (80 USD) and waterproof jackets, trousers, and lab coats (about 40 USD each) we will see how fashionable of a vet student I shall be.
I also came across a very nice image of the front of Summerhall, where lecture occurs.
More updates as they occur!
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