I've got a place to live!

The lease agreement and keys are in my hand, so I officially have a place to live as of yesterday!  The majority of my belongings are safely ensconced there, and the rest are here with me at the hostel.  The day after I get back from this trip, I'm moving into my permanent accomodations, just a few blocks up from where I am now.  Given the circumstances, everything has worked out quite elegantly.  I intended to try to open a bank account yesterday, but they have these little things called bank holidays in this country, and apparently yesterday was one.  Schwoops.  Guess it'll have to wait until I get back.

And now I'm off on a 10-day jaunt around the highlands and islands of Scotland!  My cell phone will likely be off most of the time, and I'm not taking my laptop at all.  I will have plenty to write about when I get back, and also PICTURES!

Cheers, y'all!

"Someone told us we have Elvis under our floorboards!"

Just got back from day-tripping to the Scottish Borders, Melrose Abbey, and Rosslyn Chapel.  I'm going to hold off on doing a full write-up until I'm able to post photos; but for now, I'll say that the Borders are lovely in a way that's completely different from the Highlands.  Something about them reminds me of the foothills of the Appalachians - not the Apps themselves, but the country leading up to them.  Oh, and that in a typical case of Scottish Weather, in literally the time it took for me to climb the stairs to the top of the tower at Melrose Abbey, the weather went from sunny and blue skies, to rainy and windy.  Eff.

Moving into a flat tomorrow!  At least I assume I am, because no one has called or emailed me to say "Sorry, there's been a mistake," or "Whoops, we gave you a flat that's already taken, can you move into this other one on November 19th," &tc.  I'll be convinced this is really happening when I roll up to Balfour Street tomorrow at 10am and Joe Whatshisname is there with a key and a lease agreement.

Marking time.

At Caledonian Backpackers now.  I'm in a 4-bed dorm, where before I was in a 6-bed, which is a nice change.  The hostel has laundry facilities, so I was able to wash all my clothes last night.  I was up until 2am, when someone in my room finally figured out how to close the open window, thereby diminishing the noise from what sounded like an Eastern European bachelor party happening in the street outside.  Even with my earplugs in, it sounded like they were in our room.

I think I'm going to go to the Rabbie's office on High Street and see if there's any room on the day-trip to Melrose Abbey and the Borders tomorrow.  It's probably an unneccesary expense, but I need to get out of the city for a bit.

That's all there is to say at the moment....Yesterday before I moved hostels, I sat in Princes Street Gardens and read, and heard the 1:00 gun fire at the castle.  Methinks I will do the same today.

EDIT:
My Words of Wisdom About Scottish Weather requires an addendum: Scotland is one of the few places on Earth where it is possible to experience all four seasons in one day.  Today was one of those days.  It was cloudy when I got up this morning, but the sun came out while I was out and about, and I passed a pleasant hour or so reading in Holyrood Park.  It continued to shine when I got back the hostel and took an afternoon nap.  When I woke up, it was absolutely pissing down rain.  I have no idea what it's doing now, because I've been watching a movie in the hostel's cinema room with a few other people.  How's this for an incongruous experience: watching the execution scene from Braveheart while "500 Miles" by The Proclaimers blasts on the stereo outside.

In other news, I am officially going on the Rabbie's tour to the borderlands tomorrow.  As I said to the guy who booked my seat for me, all the hustle and bustle and liveliness on the Royal Mile was cool for the first couple of days, but now it's just getting annoying.  The words had no sooner left my mouth than a singing group burst into boisterous and off-key song just outside the office door - for the 27th time this month, according to Booking Guy.  No matter, the festival's almost over.

"Oh, it's good Scottish weather, madam. The rain is falling straight down."

...I spoke too soon about it being a nice day the other day.  No sooner had I walked down to Holyrood Park and sprawled out in the grass with a book, but it started raining and I had to run for cover into the Starbucks on Canongate.

And now, a brief compendium of Words of Wisdom About Scottish Weather:
- There is no bad weather in Scotland, only inadequate clothing.
- If you don't like the weather in Scotland, just wait 20 minutes and it'll change.
- "Oh, it's good Scottish weather, madam.  The rain is falling straight down."

Yesterday was a drag, because I received some tragic news about the mother of a very good friend of mine.  On top of that, after five days in one hostel, I was getting cabin fever.  The flat-hunt is essentially over, and there's only so many times I can walk up and down the Royal Mile, accumulating fliers.  I can't do anything useful like apply for a bank account or a job yet, because I don't *officially* have an address yet.  Plus, my feet and ankles are sore and I didn't really feel like walking anywhere anyway.

So I took the train to Glasgow.

Glasgow is about 50 minutes from Edinburgh by train.  There's some very nice Georgian architecture around the main square, but other than that, I find it to be a pretty nondescript city.  But it's a nice change of atmosphere from Edinburgh.

The first thing I did was go to the Royal Concert Hall and buy a ticket to the Tori Amos concert on November 6.  This will be only the second time I've seen her live, and the first time since the Summer of Sin tour in 2005, as fate contrived to keep me away from her the last two times she came through NC.  It's a balcony seat, as the only seats left in the stalls are at the very back of the theater.  Then I wandered around Buchanan Street, stopping off at a Waterstone's to buy a book, The Champion by Elizabeth Chadwick.

I had taken the train into Queen Street Station, but opted for Central Station and it's slightly longer, more picturesque train route back to Edinburgh.  I was once again caught in the rain, and nixed tentative plans to go see a comedy show with Morven in favor of sulking at the hostel (it was actually a mutual nix, as she had to do some fliering for her own show).

This morning, I checked out of Art Roch, and I'll be checking into Caledonian Backpackers later this afternoon.  The only thing on my agenda today is finding a launderette and doing laundry, as I think my mood will improve with some clean clothes.  I'm looking forward to moving into a space of my own (however temporarily) on Monday, and I'm REALLY looking forward to the Wild in Scotland tour in Tuesday.  I really need several days of being driven around the beautiful Scottish countryside right now.

I *maybe* have a place to live!

First of all, there was an earthquake on the east coast of the US yesterday and I missed it.  But according to the Facebook news feeds of my NC-dwelling friends, nothing much really happened there.

I walked the 2 miles or so from my hostel up to the far end of Leith Walk to view two flats in Leith yesterday.  I quite liked the first one, on Kirk Street.  The bedroom is huge and has loads of furniture: bed, night table, shelf, drawers, wardrobe, and desk.  Possibly more that I'm forgetting.  The window looks out on the street, but it's reasonably big.  The bathroom is huge, and the kitchen has gas burners, a dishwasher, and a washer.  It's actually a split-level flat with six bedrooms, and each level has its own bathroom and kitchen.  The second place, on Balfour Street, was much smaller.  There seemed to be barely enough room for the bed in the bedroom, and the open-plan kitchen/living room was cramped as well.  But the bathroom had wood paneling, which was nice.

After viewing these places, the one in Abbeyhill was still my first choice, with Kirk Street being a close second.  When I called about the place in Abbeyhill yesterday afternoon, much to my chagrin, it had been taken.  And so, I have settled on Kirk Street!  It's by far the best value for the money out of the places I saw, and it's near a lot of shops.  I'll have to take a bus to school once classes start, but I was expecting to have to do that anyway.

Earlier this morning, I got a call from a guy who works at the leasing company who owns the places in Leith.  To make a long story short, I'm going to be moving into Balfour Street on August 29, keeping my stuff there while I'm on the Wild in Scotland tour August 30-September 8, and then moving into Kirk Street on September 8 or 9.  It's not an ideal situation (ideal would be for me to move into Kirk Street no later than the 29th and have done with it), but it's the best it could possibly be, because I was facing the prospect of nixing the WIS trip in order to be able to move into Kirk Street on the 30th or 31st.  The guy I spoke to on the phone is aware of all this.  But, so many things have fallen through in my search for a flat that I'm reluctant to definitively say "I have a place to live" until my name is on the lease.

***

Enough flat talk.  Last night I saw Morven and Julia's show at Kilderken again, and also the act before them.  It was a series of about five guys each doing just a few minutes of stand-up, and the bar manager and I were the only audience members.  As one of the comedians put it, I was just sitting there as a succession of strange men walked on stage and interrogated me.  But a couple of the guys were uproariously funny, and I had a good time.  I went to a bar with Morven and some of her friends afterward, and then called a cab and got to be the one to wake up all my roommates as I toddled in at 3am (hey, I climbed straight into bed without making too much noise).  I actually didn't drink that much - just one beer and a shot of Jura whisky - but I'm still slightly jetlagged, so I felt slightly out of it for most of the evening.

I don't really have a lot planned for today.  I'd kind of like to see the Military Tattoo, so I'm going to look into tickets for that today.  Other than that...it's a nice day.  I'll have a leisurely walk around and see where it takes me.

Flat-hunting: Progress!

First of all, something I forgot to mention in my post yesterday: Getting through immigration at the airport was surprisingly easy.  I was envisioning having to re-experience a lot of the song and dance I had to go through in order to get my visa, re: proving I have money and such.  To that end, I had a folder full of stuff, just in case the immigration people wanted to see it.  I even purposely fell to the back of the line, because I was expecting my interview to take a long time and I didn't want to hold up the people behind me.  But, all they did was ask me for my original offer letter from the university (which I had ready), scribbled a bit on the back of my landing card, and scan two of my fingerprints.  Maybe 2-3 minutes and DONE.  Easy.

Now then.  Yesterday, I had my first significant breakthrough with flat-hunting.  First I called a company which manages some flats in Leith (the northern part of the city, on the Firth of Forth), and arranged to see two of them today at 2:00.  Later on in the afternoon, sitting in the ruins of St. Anthony's Chapel up in Holyrood Park, I called another company with a flat available in Abbeyhill, which is a neighborhood in the east-central part of the city, just north of the Park.  I'm pretty sure I could actually see the place from where I was sitting.  I spoke to a lovely Englishman named Matthew who said I could come that day at 3:30 and view the place, which I did.  It's a 3-bedroom apartment, and the other two people who live in it are a Scottish guy and a Spanish guy, both somewhat older than me and working.  I met and talked to the Spanish guy for a bit, and he seemed very nice, and also seemed to like the flat a lot.  Besides the bedrooms, there was a living room, a bathroom, and a kitchen.  It was all pretty small, and the kitchen in particular was cramped and windowless, but it did have a dishwasher and a washer/dryer, both of which are BIG pros in my book.  Plus, the view out the front door is of Arthur's Seat.  Can't beat that in Edinburgh.  I walked around the neighborhood a bit before I viewed the place, and I saw mothers with strollers, people walking dogs, and a couple of kids playing outside, all of which are pretty reliable indicators that an area is safe.  The building where this flat is located is next to another building of very modern- and high-end looking flats, which means the people who live there are probably pretty affluent, which I've also found to be a positive safety indicator.  And I'd be able to move in pretty much right away.  All in all, I liked it.  I told Matthew I'd call him by the end of the day today, after I view the places in Leith.

So, today's agenda is seeing the places in Leith and then making a decision.  Whoo!

In other news, I moved into a different room in my hostel.  I've never been in a room with thinner windows or curtains in my life.  All the street noise and light from outside came in, as did an Italian family of three at about 1 in the morning.  I didn't manage to fall asleep until sometime after 2am.  So the fire is now lit under me more than ever to find a permanent abode.  But there was one bright side, and take note here Inception fans: I remember the beginning of the first dream I had when I finally fell asleep.

LAND O' THE PURPLE HEATHER

I AM IN EDINBURGH. YAAAAAAY!!!

My flights over were okay, except for the part where we sat on the tarmac for an hour in Newark while maintenance tried to fix the left engine generator, before the pilot finally said "Screw it, we have a backup generator, let's go!" I am not making this up. I finally saw Avatar on the plane.  My assessment was probably the same as everyone else's: stunning visuals and breathtaking music, but unoriginal storyline.

We landed at about 9am local time yesterday, and I took a cab to my hostel, rather than the airport bus.  The reason: I brought an embarrassing amount of luggage with me.  Two checked bags and two carry-ons.  One of my checked bags is carry-on sized, but the other is a ginormous wheeled duffel bag that was barely within the weight limits when packed.  I wish I had started packing sooner than the day before I left, because maybe if I'd had more time I could have contrived to not bring it...but what's done is done.  At least the people at my hostel are letting me keep it on the storage room for the duration of my stay there.

After dropping stuff off at the hostel (Art Roch, on West Port), I went across the street to the Fiddler's Arms for breakfast.  I had a full Scottish breakfast, consisting of eggs, bacon, sausage, blood pudding, baked beans, mushrooms, tomatoes, and bread.  The only difference I could detect between the full Scottish and a full English was that the Scottish cook their bacon more thoroughly.  I finally got up the courage to try the blood pudding, and it's actually quite tasty.  It reminded me of haggis, but with a smoother texture.

After that, I walked down the Royal Mile, making a detour to the Vodafone store on Princes Street to buy a SIM card for my phone.  The Royal Mile was crammed full of performers, what with the Fringe Festival going on.  Musicians, singers, actors, balloon artists, and everything in between.  I must say, in spite of how expensive it makes everything, I'm SO glad I arrived in Edinburgh during the festival.  It's such a fun atmosphere.  Also, the weather's nice so far.  It was overcast when I arrived yesterday, but the sun came out in the early afternoon, just as I completed my walk down the Royal Mile and arrived at Holyrood Park.

Holyrood Park is my favorite place in Edinburgh.  I suppose it's because I, like most people, associate Scotland as a whole with gorgeous wilderness and mountains.  Holyrood Park brings a little of that to the city.  I had forgotten until yesterday how high those crags are, and they were all covered in green.  I sat in the sun and read a book and watched people play with their dogs.

Then I went to an internet cafe on Blackfriars Street (the same one I'm in now, actually), checked email, and wrote down phone numbers of flats I want to call.  By then it was about 2:30, so I went back to my hostel and checked in at 3:00.  By this point I was desperate for a nap, but when I got to the room, I discovered that the ladder to the top bunk I had been assigned was broken.  Joy of joys.  I got them to assign me to a different bed, and then I napped a bit, to the sound of a jazz band playing outside in the Grassmarket.

After about an hour and a half of napping, I got up, showered, and read a bit down in the hostel lounge.  Then I walked back down the Royal Mile to Canongate to see my Australian friend Morven perform stand-up comedy at a bar called Kilderken, as part of the Free Fringe.  Morven and I met on a Wild in Scotland tour in April 2010 and kept in touch, and it was great to see her again.  I also met her friends Julia, who was also performing, and David, who is an English guy from London who she went to University with.  By the end of Julia and Morven's act, I was about to fall over from sleepiness again, so David walked with me back up the Mile as far as Cockburn Street (he was catching a train to Paisley), and I returned to my hostel.  I ate a sandwich in the lounge and talked to my Brazilian roommate Felipe for a bit, and then went to bed.  Besides, Felipe, I shared the room with two Swiss (I think) guys, and two girls of indeterminate nationality.  I'll be in a different room tonight.

SO.  Today's primary mission is apartment-hunting.  I've already called one agency, who said they will call me back later.  Morven directed me to a different website than the one I had been searching on, so I'm about to try that.  Hopefully it works better, because I would really, REALLY like to be moved in somewhere before the 30th.  Wish me luck!

2 days to go.

Much has happened over the last couple of days.

On Tuesday night, I played first oboe on Stravinsky's Rite of Spring with the Durham Symphony summer reading orchestra, and I had a fantastic time, despite the fact that we didn't have nearly enough strings and most of the brass kind of sucked. We woodwinds rocked (all 20 of us), and the percussion were also quite good. This is a piece that I have ALWAYS wanted to play, and I didn't want the rehearsal to end.



Yesterday I ran a lot of errands. I dropped another load of stuff off at Goodwill, and then went to get a second opinion on my laptop. The guy at CompUSA came to the same conclusion as the guy at Intrex - that the power jack has come loose from the motherboard - but he seemed to think that a new power cord might be a good cheap/temporary fix. I think I'm just going to take the thing with me as is and see if I can manage, or else get a cheap little Netbook over there or something. Also bought a charger for the international phone, a power adapter (good for the UK, Europe, AND Australia!), and some underwear, because hey, you can never have enough underwear. Picked up a couple of boxes of contact lenses, and finally went to the bank to ask about buying pounds. It takes about three days after ordering for them to arrive, so that was a no-go. I'll just make a big withdrawal at an ATM when I get there, and put as much stuff on my credit card as possible.

On today's agenda: canceling my Verizon contract, and setting up a PIN for my credit card.

Things are finally falling into place, and I'm finally getting excited about leaving IN TWO DAYS!!! Before I was just nervous and stressed about the stuff that hadn't been sorted yet, but now that all the smaller stuff has been taken care of, I can get excited! True, I still don't have housing and banking settled, but I'm letting go of that and trusting that those things will get taken care of once I get there.

More farewells, and annoyance beyond belief.

My mom's side of the family came over to my house yesterday for a farewell party.  My mom's side of the family is huge.  My cousin Ev took a group picture - there are 20 of us in it, and that's not even everyone.  Everyone signed a photo frame too, and I'm going to take it and the photo with me.  I also hung out with my friend Tracey the other night, and she gave me an orange towel as a farewell present.  I was actually very excited about the towel, because per The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a towel is the single most important thing a traveler can possess.

In other news, the flat I wanted and the girl I was talking to about living together have both fallen through.  Most of the properties I've emailed haven't answered me back, and I'm incredibly annoyed about that, but I don't feel like there's a whole lot I can do.  :/

 5 days to go...

7 days to go; or How Spectacularly Unready I Am.

One week until I move to Scotland. I am so not ready.

Things I Haven't Yet Sorted Out, in order of most worrisome to least worrisome:
a) A flat. I really thought I'd have a few viewings lined up by now, but people and properties aren't emailing me back. D:< I have roofs over my head sorted out through September 7, but I'm facing the prospect of Being Homeless Oh Noooezz after that.
b) Money; specifically how I am going to move my money from my American bank account into a British one, which I can't do until I have an address in Scotland anyway. The tentative plan right now is to transfer everything except what I'll need for the first couple or three weeks into my parents' account, and then have them do a wire transfer. I'll pay for everything I can with my credit card in the meantime.
c) My laptop. The battery has quit completely and the power cord only works if I manipulate it just so. Computer Shop Guy says that the power jack has come loose from the motherboard, and the repair will cost a couple hundred dollars and ten to twelve days, neither of which I really have to spare right now. Dad took my laptop apart when I got home and attempted to fix it himself, and it's behaving itself a bit better at the moment. Do I take it to Scotland as is? Do I shell out the money for the repair and have the thing shipped to me later? Do I say "screw it" and just buy a new laptop? Do I eschew modern technology altogether and just be laptop-less this year?
d) A phone. I have an unlocked phone, but the charger is missing, and has very possibly been thrown away. Do I order a new charger? Do I buy a new pay-as-you-go phone when I get there?
e) Oboe reed cane. I need to stockpile a bit before I leave, because I am out.

My paperwork is in order.

My visa came today!  It is essentially an official-looking piece of paper affixed to one of my blank passport pages, with my photo and vital stats and so forth.

I'm getting excited now.  Cleaning my room continues to progress, and today I brought a load of clothes and several loads of books to my parents' house at the beach, to be left there.  It feels like Moving: Part One.

YAAAAAY!!!!

My student visa has been issued!  I CAN OFFICIALLY GO TO SCOTLAND NOW!!!

Seventeen days to go, and I feel like I have far too much left to do.  I cleaned out my closet the other day, and today's big project is cleaning out my room.  I suppose I feel uneasy because the Really Big Stuff - finding a place to live and opening a bank account - can't happen until I actually get there.  The thought of landing in the place I'm going to be living in for the next year without a fixed address, a bank, or a job, is both terrifying and exciting.  Mostly terrifying.  But, "It'll be an adventure."