Ok, I haven't been the best about updating. But really, there is too much going on all the time.

For example, last weekend I decided to put off doing my homework and instead went to Ireland with a friend for the weekend. We flew into Dublin on Saturday morning, and spent the day wandering around Dublin, which is just like Boston only with fewer Irish people.

We walked around for the day checking out the museums (BOG PEOPLE! SO MANY BOG MUMMIES!) and seeing the Book of Kells (and proceeding to get lost in Trinity College...eventually we just gave up and watched the rugby practice). In the evening there was a big soccer game between Ireland and Italy, and so my friend and I went to a pub to watch it. Ever been in Boston during a Red Sox game? Yeah, it was just like that. Except everyone was wearing green, not red.

On Sunday we took a day trip across the country. We stopped in Limerick for a little while and hung out by the banks of the River Shannon.
Before driving out to Blarney to check out the Blarney Castle.
Afterward we drove back to Dublin and flew back to Edinburgh just in time to go to classes today.

As far as classes go, the transition to a new school was actually pretty easy. Because of the Five College Consortium I was already familiar with adjusting to campuses and academic systems of other colleges, so settling in here was just like settling into a few classes at UMass. I say UMass because the class sizes are about the same. So far the main differences I've noticed are the incredible lack of assignments (we are expected to keep up with reading and course material, but ultimately the only things that get graded for each class are a couple of lab write ups, a paper, and the final exam), and lack of familiarity with primary literature and lab technique (I had to teach people in a third year honors course how to use a pipet). However, the theory that these classes present is fairly challenging, so I'm not completely wasting my time here.

So when I'm not in class or hanging out with the people here I'm off doing things like climbing Arthur's Seat,


and taking day trips to places like Stirling

and Cairnpapple Hill (For more info on what exactly that is see http://www.cyberscotia.com/cairnpapple/)
Coming up in the next couple of weeks:
Touring a brewery
Traveling to London
Couresework (?)

I'll try to be better about posting. It'll be easier than telling everyone the same story individually. However that would make too much sense and therefore I probably won't do it.