Finally here!

Greetings from Scotland!

After four days of craziness, I think I'm finally pretty much settled into my dorm (New Hall), just a twenty (ugg) minute walk from the heart of St. Andrew's.

We started off with a pretty long trip from Atlanta to St. Andrews. I passed the time by catching up on some trashy movies: Valentines Day, Avatar, and The Backup Plan. We spent five hours in the Gatwick airport in London (basically a huge mall with airplanes flying out periodically). I had my first hula-hooping lesson from Emily (another Bobby Jones Scholar). And then hopped on a final plane to Edinburgh, Scotland. By the end of the trip, I felt like Lady Gaga at the VMAs, what with all the change of clothes I had gone through by the end of my journey.

The Cast of Characters: (clockwise) Surabhi, Emily, Walt, Philip, and ME!

Aside from the boring matriculation stuff, I experienced my first Ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee), which is like the Scottish version of a how-down (substitute jeans for kilts and fiddles for an accordion); taste tested all of the traditional scottish foods (I'm ashamed to say that I enjoyed haggis); went on a pub crawl tied to a complete stranger; and won ten pounds speed dating at the union.

Traditional scottish foods: irn bru (basically scottish orange soda), caramel bar (kit kat meets milky way), haggis (i don't even know, but with enough spices it's not too bad), mashed potatoes and turnips, salmon, strawberries, brown sugar squares, and some candy that has stale shortbread, caramel and chocolate.

I tried my hand at a variety of English sports at the "Give it a go" fayre (yeah, fayre! just wait until we get to shoppe). I realized quickly that polo would not be my forte; or I could play "back" on the rugby team; or a serve as a batsman on the cricket team. But then I went over to the golf course to meet with the Golfsoc (pro: Golf-sock), where I fell in love with the wood paneled driving range and the amazing landscape of the "old course." So I think I'm gonna stick with that.

Straight out of a Polo photo shoot.

Reppin' Emory Track and Field around the world.

I'm gonna leave you all with a little intro to Scotland, brought to you by Danny Bhoy. Cheers.