From exploring the highlands of Scotland on a guided tour we booked at the last minute (and getting to see the Jacobite Steam Train, Highland cows, Glencoe, and various other beautiful landscapes while receiving an in-depth retelling of Scottish history by our tour guide) to spending time trying the local restaurants in St. Andrews, my six weeks in Scotland were a transformative experience. 

One and a half months was far from enough time to explore everything that Scotland offered, but the other Duke scholars and I did everything we could. One of my favorites was landyatching on the far end of East Sands beach in St. Andrews, where we rode the wind in rickety vehicles while, admittedly, stopping and waiting at times for our instructors to help us get moving again when we got stuck in place. We tried Himalayan Putting next to the famous St. Andrews Old Course and laughed when we couldn’t get the ball into the hole despite being two inches away from it. We jumped off the pier while other tourists watched, and asked whether the water was cold (it was). We explored Edinburgh, where we got to wander the streets of Old Town (my favorite was Victoria Street, which was said to have inspired one of the streets in Harry Potter) and have brunch at a French spot in New Town. We wandered through art galleries holding paintings by Van Gogh and Monet, as well as Scotland landscape artwork. We listened to street performers with bagpipes and in kilts fill Edinburgh with music. We went to a ceilidh (twice!) with other St. Andrews Laidlaw Scholars, who invited us along for fun nights full of learning the steps of folk dances and tripping over our own feet. We tried every food we could, from haggis to steak and ale pies to, of course, fish and chips. 

This was also my first taste of what it was like to live on my own. Of course, as a college student, there is some degree of independence, but my family lives an hour away from Duke University, so I can visit them frequently during the school year. In Scotland, which was, on the other hand, separated from North Carolina by an entire ocean, I learned how to cook for myself and search for the grocery stores with the best deals. I learned to schedule my time so that I could get my research work completed, plan what I would cook and eat, as well as call home and recount my experiences to my friends and family. As an over-packer, I struggled with the task of only bringing enough supplies and clothes to fit in a single suitcase with some overflow to my already full backpack, and I was forced to learn the lesson that simple is better. I learned how to navigate Scotland using the extensive bus system and learned that bus rides are the best times to listen to good music and podcasts, and that while routes often took us the long way, it is nice to be able to look at the scenery.

Overall, I would not trade my time in Scotland for anything else. Everything about it taught me something new and broadened my perspective on what it means to experience another culture. Even when I had to roam throughout various buildings in search of a water-filling station and had seagulls eyeing my food, Scotland was an amazing place that I will most definitely return to again.