Edinburgh with the Scots

Hello again!


It's been awhile since I last posted, but I'm finally in Europe! Sunday evening I left Austin, Texas around 6:00 PM and didn't stop traveling until 15 hours later, or 3:00 PM Scotland time (9:00 AM Austin time). I'm staying with our family friends from Edinburgh, Scotland for about ten days before I move into my apartment in Florence, giving me ample time to explore Scotland as well as adjust to the time difference. I thought I could conquer jetlag but as it turns out, it beat me, pretty badly. I slept until 12:30 in the afternoon today, whoops.


Jessica Macleod, the daughter and in her second year of uni (uni = college, so she's my age) has her final exams from last semester in the next few days so she's taking the train back up to Aberdeen today to study, a three hour train ride. David (her dad) and I are driving up on Thursday as he has business in Aberdeen, so I'll be staying with her in her flat (apartment) until Saturday. We'll take the train back to Edinburgh on Saturday and I'll be here until I leave for Florence on Wednesday!


Today is Dawn's (the mom) birthday! We're having a nice dinner tonight, I think spicy chicken pasta? Should be splendid. Luke (Jessica's brother) is in his last year of schooling before he goes to uni, and apparently his school looks like Hogwarts. So of course, he offered to show me around sometime in the next few days. JK Rowling's daughter actually went to their school, she's Jessica's age. Coooool, right?


As it turns out, Scotland is wonderful. I can drink legally, the buildings are beautiful, and as it turns out, the news sounds better with a cool accent. Once I explore more I'll post some pictures of the buildings, then you'll see.


Until next time,
Julie

And it begins.

Hello everyone! For those of you who don't know me, my name is Julie Zeitz, and I'm a sophomore marketing major at Clemson University. In the spring of 2012 starting January 15th, I'll be studying abroad in Florence, Italy, at Lorenzo de'Medici (LdM) and I could not be more excited. While abroad I'll be taking fifteen hours, of which include: international marketing, fashion marketing, intro to Italian, art history (antiquity to early renaissance), and my personal favorite, wine and culture. I'm keeping this travel blog not only to share my upcoming, culture shocking experiences with you all, but to also keep some sort of personal record of my time abroad, as I know I won't be able to remember it all like my handy dandy Europadventures blog will. 


So, in preparing to study abroad, I just need to pack for four months, right? Wrong. For the last four months I've been a slave to study abroad paperwork, tasks, and errands, and now it's crunch time. While at school I chose the courses I wanted to take abroad, got the courses I was taking abroad approved by the respective college departments on campus, and applied for a student visa. While being home for the break the list only continues: transferring my funds from Wells Fargo to Bank of America (an international bank as to save money on future transactions), ordering a Go Phone through my school, making copies of all parts of my paperwork/credit cards/passport, buying adapter cords, obtaining a "vacation prescription" for medicine I'll need abroad, and of course, packing.

Sallie Turnbull, my wonderful study abroad advisor, suggested I only take one suitcase. How I'm going to make this happen, I have yet to figure out. One suitcase for four plus months? Sallie advised I take "lots of color neutral colors, and no heels," because American women "cannot walk on cobblestone in heels, as it's just not possible." Sound advice, I owe you one Sallie. 

To everyone reading this now, this is my first time blogging so just bear with me. Hopefully I'll get better at it for when it really counts, when I'm abroad! I thought I'd just start with a trial run before I go, give myself more time to improve on the art of blogging. More to come, so stay tuned! Next stop: Europe.

All my love,

Julie