Sunday August 13th I traveled all day– the flight from Nice to Edinburgh included a delayed flight and a long-ish layover in Dusseldorf, Germany. I got emotional in the plane and in the taxi ride to meet up with Camille– it was such a beautiful city and it was going to be mine. It felt so good to be there, too good to be true. How was this real? This city and me in it?

That night I got in and met up with Camille who had brought my three massive suitcases for me from the States and not only checked them and gotten them to and from the airport, but had lugged them up the three flights of stairs up to the Airbnb I booked (whoops!). She is an angel. We went out and walked around that night and realized that the festivals were all going on so the place was packed with tourists and street performers. The next morning we got my suitcases settled in a storage unit, walked around University of Edinburgh main campus, found my apartment, and then went over to the Divinity School. We were able to sneak in and I knocked on the door of Alison Jack, the professor in charge of my program and she graciously let us come in and chat and quickly showed us around. It felt like a dream. She invited us to a poetry reading that night for some poets who wrote spiritual themes into their poetry and we went and it was lovely. We walked up to Calton Hill and enjoyed the sunset, we toured the castle, we went into St. Giles Cathedral, wandered through the National Portrait Gallery, and ate fantastic food. Our last night we went to the military tattoo performance and enjoyed the bagpipes.

The whole time I bounced between feeling like none of it was real and tearing up because I felt like it was real. What a journey to get me there! And what a life! I am the luckiest girl in the world. Also in an amazing turn of events, it didn’t rain the whole time we were there!