I have moved into my room at Edward Salvesen Hall, Mylne’s Court. It is probably too early to tell whether I’ll be happy here, but here are some first impressions.The location is brilliant, right next door to New College, the home of the Divinity School, where I’m studying. So I have no transport costs, just a few stirs to climb on the way home. Going the other way it is a bout a 15 min walk to the main campus area,and central university library, so that’s handy too. The back door of the Court opens out onto the Royal Mile, the main tourist area which is great for buying postcards and anything tartan. We are not very handy to a decent supermarket, but Sainsbury’s and Tescos have “metro” style shops nearby.
The hall is divided into flats. There are three people in my flat including me. We have a kitchen and dining room and a bathroom and a toilet. My room is small . The emphasis is only on study. The common room is in the basement – I met my second fellow resident there. A texan doing a PhD in theological ethics – same as me. The common room has a big TV and DVD, so it’s god for watching movies. The Hall has organised a few nights out – pub crawls the first two nights and other social occasions, but otherwise we bump into each other randomly.
Some other things I’ve done:
- Seen rugby games at various pubs
- Signed up for far too many clubs on clubs day
- Had numerous orientation and welcome events
- Signed on for a doctor
- Ate lots of muffins at the chaplaincy centre
- Visited lots of second hand book shops and charity stores
- Climbed Arthur’s Sea, the highest point within Edinburgh
- Found a good source of DVDs in the New College library
- Made friends with several people from school and the Hall
- Gone to my first ever rugby test match – NZ vs Scotland at Murryfield
What about study? That’ll have to wait for the another post.