FIRST DAY! (morning post)

GREETINGS!

Well, it is my first day here in Edinburgh. As I speak I am sitting in a cafe on Canongate, which is a main thoroughfare (though only two lanes) in Central Edinburgh. It is quite chilly because it is early (9am), but I think I have already adjusted to the time because I got a LOT of sleep last night.

Much to my surprise, the ‘Cafe Culture’ is much like it is in America: a couple sits in the corner eating a hearty breakfast, a family with a young boy sits and chats about nothing at all, and a businessman in the corner enjoys his daily espresso and croissant. Not knowing that there were some fine breakfast places around town, I got a shoddy one at the hotel for £4.5. I have come to understand that there is another national drink in Scotland: Irn-Bru. It rivals Coca-Cola for the top soft drink here, but I have not yet tried it. The music at the cafe is American! Right now they are playing Red Hot Chili Peppers, and before that it was Modest Mouse and Interpol.

The accents here are not too hard to understand (and are quite charming), but I think something that will take some getting used to is the way things work; unlike at Starbucks, you are served your tea or coffee. I had my tea the British way, with cream, an I actually am enjoying it this way. Seeing double-decker buses is nothing new for me because we had some in Davis that served as School Buses.

Thus far, I have made no friends, but hopefully that will change tonight when I meet with the rest of my EAP group. The people here seem friendly and all of them have a distinct look to them. They always seem to walk with a purpose and never seem to be able to sit down and enjoy life except at the pub and cafe. Even more then walking with a purpose, they drive with even more of one. The streets are always filled with cars and it always seems the Crazy Taxi is going to hit that poor pedestrian using the crosswalk. You can tell this is not the tourism town that London is.

The sights here are marvelous. The streets are laid with cobblestone and the buildings with centuries-years-old brick. Almost every store on the street has a coat of arms (I suppose representing who owns the place) and it makes me feel like I am in the company of royalty. I cannot wait to explore what there is to see at the museums. I think after my cup of tea here is done, I will goto the Edinburgh Museum (FREE!) down the street and see what there is to see.

I AM SO EXCITED TO FINALLY BE HERE!

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