Discovery-

Greetings from my new temporary home in Aberdeen, Scotland! It is with weary eyes and a hungry heart that I finally write this first post from my room at the University. I will attempt to provide as much detail as possible about my first two days of discovery here in this beautiful land.

Getting to Aberdeen was certainly tiring, as I traveled for about seventeen hours. I left from Detroit Metro and flew to Dallas, where I then hopped on a nearly nine-hour flight to Heathrow in London. In London, I took a short one-hour flight to Aberdeen. Along the way, I was blessed with the opportunity to meet some very nice people. On my flight to Dallas, I talked to a woman from Guatamala City, Mexico, who showed me how to get around the airport and to my next terminal. On my flight to London, I sat with a young man about the age of twenty-five who was from Wales. We talked for the first four hours of the flight, which helped settle my nerves and made the flight go by much more quickly, though I slept little. We arrived in London just as the sun was rising, and my first view of the city was one I will never forget. The entire city was beautifully lit, and I observed several major landmarks, including the London Eye which was lit up along the Thames. It was at that moment that the enormity of what I was doing truly hit me, and I had to force myself to sit back and rest my mind. Once I got to Heathrow, I had about forty minutes to catch my next flight. I was nervous that they wouldn't let me into the country, as I had not applied for a visa, but the conversation to get into the UK went something like this:

Customs Officer: "Hello. Passport?"
Me: "Hi. Here you go."
Customs Officer: "Why are you coming to the UK?"
Me: "Studying."
Customs Officer: "Okay." (Stamps passport)

I got through security, and, luckily, my flight was departing from the same terminal (one of five that you get to by bus). As I walked up to the gate, I ran into Andrew Peterson, a friend from Hope who is also studying at the Uni. It was wonderful to see a familiar face in such a faraway place, and we quickly caught up before heading to Aberdeen. Upon our arrival, we took a taxi to Hillhead, where we are both residing for the term, and proceeded to unpack in our separate buildings. I quickly met four of my flatmates, who all are extremely nice, though two are leaving tomorrow morning. After talking to them and unpacking a bit, Andrew came over and we took the bus down to City Centre to do some exploring. We walked around the city for a few hours, popping into some stores, the city library, the city council, and a couple of churches and cemeteries. The buildings were all beautiful, many of the roads cobblestone. The city has a lot of character, and, though I forgot my camera yesterday, I will be sure to take it with me next time I go downtown.

The evening brought rest of sorts and the finishing of my unpacking process. I Skyped until about eleven at night, which brought my sleepless hourly toll to about thirty-six hours. At that point, I fell into a deep sleep until about ten thirty in the morning, when I got up and showered. Erik Westenbroek, another Hope student who had just arrived, stopped by my flat, and we headed over to Andrew's flat to meet with him and eat some breakfast. After a while, I set out with my camera and wandered through Seaton Park toward the campus where I'll be taking my classes. The walk is about twenty minutes long through some trails, through the park, and along The Chanonry and High Street, which are narrow streets of cobblestone. It is a beautiful walk that I'm certain I won't mind taking every day. After looking through the campus a bit, I headed back up past Hillhead and toward the city to get some groceries. As I was walking toward the store, I looked to my right and caught my first glimpse of the North Sea! After buying a few essentials, I headed back to Hillhead, got some money out of the ATM, and ate dinner at my flat. It was a great day.

I am still feeling a little jet-lagged, and the short days here haven't helped that much, but I'm enjoying most everything about Scotland so far. I look forward to learning and discovering much more during the upcoming months, which I will most definitely share with you here. Cheers!