study hard, do your best...

And to prove to all of you who don't believe I am actually in Scotland (ahem, Grant), here is a picture taken by my friend Jillian yesterday at the start of our hike up Arthur's Seat. Notice my wildly appropriate hiking gear.
That's Luke in the background searching for Nessie. No actually he was my "unofficial" safety coordinator, since my usual safety coordinator could not be here :)

My mom sent me a text message this morning before my first day of classes in Edinburgh:

Study hard, do your best, and don't forget I love you.

I can't remember the first time I heard that, it's been said for so long. Both my parents have said this to me and my brothers as we rushed out the door to the bus each morning before school. And even though I was halfway around the globe, today was no different.

Scottish school systems are quite different than the ones in the US, and it didn't help that Napier (my Scottish university) restructured their entire academics just this year. We are the guinea pigs, if you will, as if I wasn't already confused enough. Unlike the MSU, Napier students with the same "major" (they call it programme) take ALL the same classes, at ALL the same times with ALL the same students, for ALL four years. I felt like I was back in elementary school. They all ate lunch together, took breaks together, discussed the other classes that they are ALL in together. Like an academic cult, or something. I felt much like an outsider, but I can tell that the course materials will be interesting, challenging, and hopefully useful for my career, which is more than I can say for any MSU class I've taken so far.

And then I rode the bus home at the end of the day... like a Scottish school girl, except more posh.