Welcome to Edinburgh, Scotland! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Hello everyone! I’m Christina, a student in the Revelle in Edinburgh Program! I am so grateful for this amazing opportunity and I can’t wait to share with you all!

As someone who has never flown before, or even traveled past California or Nevada, the great feat of traveling seemed daunting at first. The idea of getting through TSA, finding my flight, boarding my flight on-time, and even knowing how to correctly store my carry-on seemed like impossible tasks at first. However, with the support of my family and newfound friends on my program, the entire process of arriving to Scotland was much easier than the idea I had imagined for myself. 

I am very fortunate to have been able to get in touch with some of the girls in my program who were also taking my same flight! While very proudly representing our UCSD gear, it was easy to get to know each other and pass the time in between flights, we have been exploring the city together almost every day!

After arriving in Scotland, the following day, (Monday), was our first day of classes! Professor Lyon is an amazing professor who clearly cares deeply about the humanities program and Scotland as a whole. Some of our coursework is also tied to the history of Scotland and poets from Scotland, which makes studying here even more special! After class, some of my friends and I went to explore the National Museum of Scotland. It is a gorgeous museum, that is completely free, and has 7 levels filled with amazing information and artifacts (they even have a F1 car simulator). The prize of the museum for me, was the 7th floor rooftop, which has an unbeatable view of the castle. 

On Tuesday, the weather was a bit windier and chillier than the past two days, but as I’ve quickly learned, the weather is anything but predictable in Edinburgh. Nevertheless, after class, our Professor invited the entire class to lunch. After spending some time there with delicious food, a smaller group and I headed to the University of Edinburgh and the park located behind it. This is where we found more breathtaking views and much needed coffee. 

Wednesday and Thursday were days with no class and were spent with studying at the University of Edinburgh’s Library, a walking tour, walking up and down the Royal Mile, souvenir shopping, and the writers museum! These days were also the busiest because King Charles and Camila are in town! Very exciting to be in the midst of royalty (even if it takes longer to get to my newfound favorite coffee shop). 

Friday, about of our class decided to take a day trip to Glasgow, Scotland where we had a blast! We were able to visit the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, the University of Glasgow (which was where Hogwarts was based on and has always been a dream of mine to visit), Pollok Park to see Highland Cows, and finished the night with Italian food! It was a wonderful day filled with scratching items off the bucket list!! Can’t wait to see what next week has in store for us! 

Cheers!

-Christina <3