When traveling, especially to a new place, I’m so focused on making sure I remember all the major things, that I often forget the smaller things.

Like taking pictures.

With the camera I buried in the middle of my luggage.

And therefore couldn’t have gotten to anyway.

Which unfortunately means I don’t have any pictures of Heathrow or Edinburgh airport.

Heathrow was possibly the strangest part of the trip because it wasn’t like any other airports I’ve been to. To start, it was bigger than Sea-Tac (the airport I am the most familiar with), but I think the part I found strangest was the way it didn’t feel like an airport. Instead it was more like a mall that decided to include international flights as one of its services, provided malls had a 50/50 ratio of normal shops to duty free ones. The thing I most wish I had gotten a picture of was the children’s play structure that I ended up sitting next to, not just because it existed (really, more airports should have them) but because it was simple unobtrusive colors of muted purple and grey rather than the bright, gaudy colors that structures in places geared towards children tend to be.

Edinburgh airport by contrast was very much an airport, with a lower concentration of shops that where very clearly geared towards things that travelers might need. Not much time was spent there beyond waiting for the shuttle driver who took me and the other international students from my flight to the student accommodations where we would be staying.

 

( House 28 is separated from House 34 by a Tavern. I’m curious what happened to Houses 29 through 33, but I feel I’d get lost if I went looking for them. I’m not all that interested in what happened 1 through 27 though. Also, Word Press won’t let me add my descriptions of my pictures as a caption right now, so I’m going to have to add them this way until the Deities of the Internet decide to smile upon me again. )

This is the point where I wanted to just go to sleep since I had slept a grand total of not at all on the plane, but I was also hungry and the site director for my program had set up a dinner at The Blackbird so everyone here with CIS could meet each other, so I ended up going to that.

 

( Their fish stew was more a pile of fish and potatoes and some shellfish than a thick soup, which is what I thing of as stew, but it was tasty. Also, I found out I have no idea how to eat mussels. )

I wasn’t really able to retain much information from the conversations over dinner since it was loud so I couldn’t hear anyone, and I was really tired, but it was fun none the less.

After that there wasn’t much to do but go to bed so I could get up for orientation in the morning.