Below is the coastline looking south 
Here's the coastline looking north
Awesome rainbow!
Here's a picture of one of the people surfing - Crazy cold!
Good Morning All -
I slept well last night and am in high spirits today. I'm excited to go register for classes later today!
Yesterday was full of fun exploring. While walking to campus in the morning, I ran into a girl from Chicago also studying here. She's the first American I've run into here. After helping her find the building she was looking for, I took the bus downtown and applied for a bank account at the Hilifax Royal Bank of Scotland. Because of national security procedures, it will take 2-3 weeks to open the account.
Next I went to the Vodafone store and purchased a UK sim card to put in my cell phone. Using it, I'll have a UK number and can make local calls cheaply. However, it's not working correctly and I'll have to go back today to get it fixed. Once it's up and working, I'll post that number.
After that I walked around and explored the many shops and shopping centers in the downtown area. It's amazing how many little nooks and crannies this city has - something that appears to be an alley often leads to several hidden shops. The city's population is very diverse, and there seem to be as many internationals as there are Scottish here. Everyone has been quite kind so far. The phrase "Cheers" is used quite a bit and seems to carry many different meanings here. From what I've picked up, it can mean a friendly "Ok," a friendly "Hello," or a friendly "Goodbye," or even "Thanks."
After exploring downtown I dropped my backpack back and the room and set off on foot to walk to the beach. On the way to the beach I walked along the River Dee. I beleive a few of the pictures above show a bridge over the river and houses on the other side. It took much longer than I thought, but it was well worth it. Luckily, the rain stopped for a few hours while I walked along the beach. There were actually a few people surfing in the water! CRAZY! It was around 40-45 degrees outside, and I can only imagine how cold the ocean would be.
After a three hour walk along the beach, I came back and found that a flatmate had moved in. He's also 22 and is from Kazakhstan. He's a business grad student like myself, but he's studying petroleum exploration and enterprise management. Apparently the oil industry is quite large in Kazakhstan, and he's looking forward to studying here in the oil capital of Europe. He seems very nice, and we had a nice little dinner last night and talked about life. It seems that this experience will provide opportunities to build friendships with people from countries all around, not just Scotland. It's just us two so far in a six-bedroom flat, so I'm wondering if we'll have more roommates coming in.
I'm off to head to campus for registration. Have a wonderful day and thanks for checking in!
Best wishes -
1 comment:
patricia said..... nick, i was wondering, are you taking pictures or photos of the stuff you see there? how? what with? ( if you are.... you really take good shots.) the awesome rainbow photo was beautiful. i can't believe people surf there when it is 40 - 45 degrees outside. i would call that crazy too. like you say... the ocean was probably waaaaay colder than that. i also can't believe it could take 2-3 weeks just to open an account at the bank there. ( soooooo odd. ) i'm glad you found your first american there. ( at least you aren't alone... in that area.) i hope you get your UK sim card working, for your cell phone. ( it will really come in handy, since your local calls will be cheaper.) GREAT! sounds like your new roomate is nice. ( now maybe there will not be a dull or boring moment, since you have a roommate now.)hip, hip, horray! here is the phrase you talked about "CHEERS", so here it is again "CHEERS TO YOU" seems like you are really enjoying yourself there. i'm sooo glad for you, nick. take care. miss you, bunches. best wishes. and don't forget "CHEERS TO YOU" ENJOY!
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