London Calling

Good afternoon from Edinburgh!

Today I am going to share an experience from earlier this month, and I hope you won't mind that it wasn't in Scotland.  See, I may be studying in Edinburgh (and attending classes here daily), but this is my first time in Europe and there's a ton of stuff I have wanted to see on this continent.  So, expect to see posts from even further abroad than I already am - my travels outside Edinburgh, outside Scotland, and eventually outside the UK.

The first of these travels I have to share is London, England.  I spent 3 days there, as a stopover on my way to Edinburgh.  It was my first experience of the UK, and of Europe in general, and though I was jet-lagged and luggage-bound, each day was full of activity.

Some recurring themes of the weekend were getting used to the new currency, having my first stay in a hostel, and enduring what seemed to be constant rain.

I got to do some incredible things, like seeing Shakespeare's As You Like It at the National Theatre, going on a 3 hour walking tour of the city, going on a pub crawl in historic Camden Town, eating some very British food, attending Mass at Westminster Cathedral, and exploring palaces, parks, cafes, monuments, & world famous stores on my own.

Some of these experiences are shown below (sorry for the poor quality - for the moment I can blame that on my phone!), though most are not.  Something about myself: I enjoy photography and I try to use it to capture moments and their respective sensations.  But I often prefer to simply enjoy a moment without taking pictures, either because doing so would lessen my own experience of it, or because a photo just wouldn't do the thing justice.

The last photos below are from my train ride to Edinburgh, which went along the east coast of Great Britain.  It was a chance to see a lot of the country and to rest before adventures started here at university.  Stay tuned to hear about some of those!

Introduction

Hey, my name’s Derek and this is officially the first post of my blog, Derek in Edinburgh!  I thought I would kick things off with a short introduction, for those who don't know me or what I am doing this semester.

Long story short, I'm a 3rd year mechanical engineering student from San Diego, California.  My home university is in Washington, D.C., but I’m studying abroad for the 2016 spring semester in Edinburgh, Scotland, at the University of Edinburgh.

The purpose of this blog is to document as many of my abroad experiences as possible – from the university life, to the pub culture, to my travels outside the city.  My hope is that my readers can get an idea of life in Scotland from the perspective of an American – one who may be average overall and less than average at writing, but one who is interested in finding beauty and cultural differences nonetheless.  

I thought a good way to distract you from that less than average writing would be to include a lot of photos, so I hope that strategy works.  All photos will be my own unless stated otherwise, so don't be shy about giving feedback!  Stay as long as you like, and feel free to comment on posts or get in touch if you have questions, suggestions, or anything.

Thanks for stopping by!