The journey here was a bit chaotic. Before I even got my air ticket, I spent a month chasing JPA for my scholarship application as there were too many for them to process, and not everything can be efficiently get sorted without some sort of persistence. It's kind of my fault also as I was waiting for Oxford's official reply (erm I was one point short of their conditional offer, which in turn, in one subject I was one mark short of a grade 7...which was extremely disappointing but I won't go into that). So the whole process was dragged even though my IB results came out a month earlier than A-levels results.
Anyway I ended up going to Edinburgh. I won't say I'm not disappointed, because I am since it was missed so damn narrowly, but as I've said in this blog and everywhere else lots of times, applying to Oxford was an unplanned thing and getting the offer was unpredicted, so I guess I'm not feeling as terrible as someone who might have been dreaming of it since they were born.
I might make a post on my whole experience with the application if I remember, but feel free to ask (any Oxford hopefuls lel). Don't ask me about IB though, my grades suck hahahahaha.
Since I'm a JPA scholar I flew with a bunch of people from KL to London, which was a 13-hour flight and terrifyingly boring. I alternated between eating, sleeping, watching movies, playing games and listening to songs, and wishing it's only 13 minutes instead lol. There were two other Edinburgh students with me (we flew four days later than most people). We had to take a transit two-hour flight to Edinburgh from London, which we missed (because the customs check took too long) and then our second flight got delayed because the pilot came in late.
So we reached Edinburgh around 1am.
And I -wonderfully- lost my phone in the taxi.
And I experienced, on my first night, what it's like to run around -in a tshirt- in the freezing cold trying desperately to find my phone (not so much because I need it but more like it's my treasured belonging) and getting lost in the dark.
And what it's like to cry not because I miss home but because I lost my phone.
I also experienced the amazing kindness of some freshers who helped me carry all my luggage and find my room for me. And some who found my House for me when I was struggling to see in the dark.
So my first night was literally bittersweet.
Fast forward- I met a lot of new people from all over the world, the community here is just so, so, SO international. I live in catered residence, so I get buffet-styled breakfast and dinner everyday. Which has a lot of choices but gets boring after nearly a month. But I don't really care about food (no I don't miss Malaysian food) so as long as I don't have to cook to keep myself full I'm happy hahahaha.
I got myself a new phone and try to save for the following month because it cost a month's worth of allowance (means skipping lunch, but now I'm planning to smuggle lunch from breakfast instead :v)
I had rice pudding for the first time and it's as terrible as Enid Blyton said in her children's books.
I wandered around in the beautifully ancient city with its cobblestone streets and old architecture, by myself because I prefer it that way. All the freedom I want to stop whenever I like and change my mind anytime I like.
I got myself a UK number with an unlimited data plan (which is really cool because I can stream songs on youtube without worrying about running out of quota).
I got lost for two hours on the second day of my arrival while walking to campus by myself because I went the wrong direction and couldn't get myself out of that area because I didn't have any internet access. (which scared me into going around with pre-downloaded maps for a few days).
I opened a bank account which took annoyingly forever. I got myself matriculated into my university. I met my Personal Tutor. I went to my first lectures and they were far better than I expected - the lecturers I have (right now) are great at keeping us interested.
Oh I'm taking a joint honours (aka double major) degree in Psychology and Linguistics.
Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind.
Linguistics is the study (sometimes scientific) of speech, language and communication. No it is not the study of any one specific language. It's the study of the technical universal aspects of language. Seriously, even linguistics students confuse themselves (I know people here who study linguistics because they want to improve their English wtf).
why do I always torture myself by involving myself in stuff that are always misunderstood and nobody really knows about like IB and Linguistics? then I have to explain everything to every single person who asks.
I know for a fact that University of Edinburgh has one of (if not) the best linguistics department and undergraduate degree experience in the world. If I remember correctly it topped the UK ranking table for linguistics recently. Also undergraduate because it has a good balance of both theoretical and applied linguistics modules unlike Oxbridge (that focuses strongly on theoretical) But now I think I came to the right place to study Psychology too because it has a huge Differential Psychology department (which deals with areas like personality and intelligence) and I'm super interested in Jung's Psychological Types so yeah it's rather exciting.
I'm also taking an outside course this semester (aka elective/minor) in Japanese (uh it's just the Foundation Level1 for now but if possible I'm planning to master it with higher level courses during my time here).
Why Japanese - because I love the pop culture and I don't have to go out of my way to revise -can just do that in my free time when I watch anime and shiz) and also learning a new language helps me understand Linguistics modules far easier. Like for example there are voiced and voiceless syllables in Japanese (they actually stress this through their hiragana word characters) and this aspect is taught in phonetics in linguistics.
I got myself some new essential textbooks (just two lol I'm super lucky) and two small introductory graphic guides to Jung and Chomsky. I also got myself a new printer -which has proved to be super useful-, and a reusable coffee cup that gives 20p off any drink used with that cup in uni cafes. And I couldn't keep myself off pretty stationeries so I got some too haha.
I think it's interesting how the house fences are more for decoration and to show property boundaries than actual protection because they are all so short (anyone can just climb in lol). I think it's a really safe city to have all the houses look like this.
Edinburgh is also a very pedestrian-friendly (and cyclist-friendly) city as there are dedicated zebra crossings every.where. You don't ever get to see that in Malaysia lol. And yes drivers actually stop at zebra crossings so feel safe to cross haha.
It's also very dog-friendly as there are many parks and gardens randomly among shops for dogs to run in. The city is (as far as I can see) free of modern skyscrapers and most buildings are only a few storeys high (and they all look beautifully old), which is fascinating to note as it is the capital city of Scotland and we know most capital cities are modernised everywhere. It's totally weird how there's only one dedicated Apple store here.
They also have a lot of charity shops (where people donate preloved items which are sold and the proceeds go to a specific foundation) so it's really easy to find cheap preloved stuff like clothes.
I'm not sure if the Scots are any different from the English people from England, but I think they're really friendly and also some of the stereotypes of English people. Like most of them are so polite, to the point of sarcasm if they are offended.
By the way, the United Kingdom is made up of England, Scotland and North Ireland.
Yes I'm in UK. No I'm not in England.
Will post more again~
