First Week of School

My first week of school in Edinburgh is complete! Class went smoothly and was relatively interesting for being introductory and syllabus oriented. 

                                                     
                                                                (First day of school)

Hey

In the coming week tutorials will begin and add a discussion based element to my courses. I've attempted to immerse myself in the culture with my studies: Modern Scottish History, Celtic Civilisation (yes, they spell it with an S here), and Comparing Scottish Devolution. I lucked out with all of my course lectures being within a twelve-minute walk of my accommodation; still it's no North Quad to Kravis. It seems walking takes up a good portion of my day, whether I’m going to class, the grocery store, or anywhere else in the city. I've yet to brave the bus system as I haven't had the need. Plus, I enjoy a good walk.

While walking back from an IFSA-Butler (study abroad program) reunion dinner my friends and I decided to stop in on the Edinburgh University Hillwalking Club info session. The Hillwalking Club organizes day and weekend hiking trips to the beautiful and rugged Highlands of Scotland, providing transportation, knowledge of the area and some gear to students. In doing so they enable students to affordably visit and recreate in areas that would otherwise be difficult to access. There was a trip planned for the weekend so my friends and I decided to do it. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up!

On Saturday morning at 6:00 A.M. I walked to the meeting point for the club charter bus.... Within a couple of hours, after passing by the famed Loch Lomond, cue

 Loch Lomond- John McDermott (Includes interpretative information and thoughts about the Loch),

those of us who chose the more adventurous day hike were dropped off at a separate location near the village of Arrochar to begin our hillwalking!

And there I stood walking through a cloud on top of a Munro (a Scottish mountain) in the Highlands!

And then we went back down.

And then back up through the clouds!

 To the top of our next Munro! ( After this break of course)

And some more walking.

Where we reached the top of our second Munro!

And then we headed to meet up with the rest of the club at the pub in Arrochar.

It was a great day full of good fun and lots of walking! We bagged 2 Munros, went 19 km, and ascended 4,500 feet.