The Flood Arrives

We started the day making sure I was all packed to move into my dormitory, eating a quick breakfast, and driving the luggage to University Hall. I was embarrassed at first of how many suitcases I had (I packed a lot of craft supplies- a very Nathalie thing to do), but soon saw many others had the same amount if not more. My dad and I waited outside the hall for it to open, they were strict about when they were letting everyone in. Once we got inside, we were able to make it to the check-in counter before the horde of people amassed.

We went straight up to my room, and had no crowds to deal with in the hallways. I didn't really know what the room would be like, as the only pictures I had seen were on a past student's Flickr account I found through "The Student Room" website. Luckily, the room ended up looking almost exactly like the student's pictures, so it wasn't too much of a surprise. The room is about 5 Nathalie paces long and 5 Nathalie paces wide, so is a pretty nice size. There are many places to store things, and I even have leftover room in many drawers! The room also has a sink, which is very helpful for when I just want to brush my teeth or wash my face without walking to the bathroom. The mattress on the bed is also pretty nice- it's not soft, but it's not exceedingly hard either. The only real downside to the room is the odd smell and the bedding pack that I paid about $35 for to get through the school. The pillow was worse than you would get on an airplane, the "duvet" was so thin I might as well use a newspaper for a blanket, and the gender-neutral sheets were hideously patterned.

Bed After (bought new bedding pack to replace school's)

Bed Before

Desk Before

Desk After

Bulletin Board

As soon as we unpacked the bags, we went to get a snack in the dining hall (there is a really odd picture of Eisenhower in Palm Springs in the hall, which my dad thinks was given to the university as a gift and they had nowhere to put it but the cafeteria) and went on a little tour of the rest of the hall buildings. There is a few nice study rooms, a TV room, laundry room, a venue for events, and many kitchens, maintenance rooms (irons, brooms, etc.), and showers.

The Dining Hall

Eisenhower in Palm Springs painting

We ended up finishing before many others had even started, and were soon on our way driving South to go shopping and go to a car show. First, we visited a town called Leven, which had a mall with various discount stores. I went around searching for the items on my list, having my dad help scout out some things to make the process faster. Despite the exchange rate, we thought the prices were very good (maybe even better than US prices)- for example, I got my face towels for 29p ($0.47) and a set of 24 pieces of silverware for about £4.00 ($6.41). We also stopped at a place like OSH or Home Depot to look for a small safe, but couldn't find one. I wanted to get seeds there to make a thimble garden, like I saw on a blog about college gardening, but decided to wait in case they have some rule about growing plants in your room.

Next we drove to a town called Bo'ness on the other side of the Firth of Forth, to go to a car show and hill race. It was difficult finding the track itself, but it was really amazing and beautiful once we got there. My dad was really excited to see a car carrier he'd heard of since he was a boy for the Scottish racing team Ecurie Ecosse.

Ecurie Ecosse

We continued on to Falkirk, to get a sim card for my phone. It was nice because all the phone companies were in the same square, so we could easily compare which ones we thought were best. Finally, we drove around Sterling and past the William Wallace monument back towards St. Andrews.

When we got back to town, we realized it was much, much busier than it had been previously. People were everywhere- large groups of college students, pairs and trios of parents and their children, and the locals just trying to go about daily business. After dinner, my dad walked with me up to my dorm, where we Skyped my mom and sister. We said our goodnights then he went back to the apartment and I stayed in the dorm for the first night.

dorm exploring freshers week travel