Day 1: Beautiful Views, Strange Plumbing, and Chocolate

My flights both went well and I arrived safely at the University of Stirling campus yesterday around 11:00 am (6:00 am Michigan time).  It was raining when I got off the plane and has been raining on and off since I have been here, but the beautiful scenery makes up for the rainy weather.  The campus is absolutely beautiful.  You can see the Wallace monument from almost anywhere on campus and there is a great view of a big hill.  I'm pretty sure the hill has a name, but I'll have to figure that out later.  There is also a loch in the center of the campus and a castle.  It is a bit of a long walk to get to all of the buildings from my flat, but I don't think I'll mind too much because the view is amazing. 

Airthrey Loch

When I arrived at my flat I unpacked and met a few of my flat mates (there are seven of us).  The flat consists of seven bedrooms, two toilets and two showers, a kitchen area with a small cabinet for each of the residents, and a small sitting area.  The plumbing here is a bit strange.  The first time using a Scottish toilet was confusing.  It had a lever like usual, but when I pressed it only a little bit of water went into the toilet.  I kept trying but eventually just gave up and hoped that my flatmates wouldn't think less of me for not flushing the toilet.  Later another student told me that you just have to flush it really fast.  I tried that later and it seems to work.  The shower was also interesting.  It has two knobs to adjust the temperature and power level and a button to turn it on and off.  At the lowest power setting the water was ice cold no matter what temperature it was set to.  It seems like it has to be set to high in order to get hot water.  It will definitely take some time to get used to the plumbing here.

The shower in my flat

After a few hours of getting settled in and resting we all walked to Airthrey Castle for a reception.  At the reception there was a bag piper and they served us all wine and shortbread.  They let us mingle with the other students for a while and then let us all figure out what to do about dinner.  They offered a cab service to take us all to a restaurant in the city, but they could only take a few people at a time.  Me and another girl decided to walk to the store on campus and pick up a frozen pizza and chocolate.  We have Cadbury chocolate in America, but apparently it is made differently back home.  It is everywhere here and it tastes ten times better.  I bought something called Twirl Bites that are made by Cadbury.  They seem kind of like chocolate shavings pressed into little bite size pieces and covered in chocolate.  They are hard to describe, but they are delicious.

Twirl Bites=Amazing

I decided it was best to go to bed early because orientation was early the next morning.  It was still bright out with no signs of getting dark when I went to bed at 9:00.  Apparently the sun doesn't set here until about 10:30 pm and it rises at about 3:00 am.