A new home from home

Well, just 7 months after I heard I was coming here, I finally am: in Edinburgh! It's been of course slightly hectic! I flew out of London on Friday, arrived in Glasgow in the weekend lapping up some of the Commonwealth Games (hearing a whole stadium shout "Scccaaawwwtttt-luuuunnnnnd" is not something to forget!), catching up with old friends, having haggis and potato scones for breakfast (apparently that's how an English breakfast becomes a Scottish one?) and then by Sunday evening I was here in my new home :D

I was apprehensive, about the room I'd seen once, the new housemates half of whom I hadn't yet met, the hospital I'd also laid eyes on only once, the place I had visited just a handful of times. But it's all panned out really far better than I could have asked for!

For starters, my housemates (despite heated discussions over Whatsapp regarding who was taking which room for what price) are all very agreeable and already I can see the support that undoubtedly we will each rely on when we really start work, is blossoming. Tomorrow will be our first house meal out :)

The flat itself is also situated in a wonderful part of Edinburgh (Bruntsfield) - peppered with quaint cafes, two ice cream parlours a stone's throw away and the sorts of restaurants which you know must only serve home-made food - all my kind of thing! ;) And also lots of lovely shops you wouldn't find on a drab English high street.

Yesterday we all met the 190 or so doctors starting here for the first time. It felt remarkably like being at your first day of school except already there were many cliques! Of course all the Scottish universities had a cohort of representatives as expected, and I was relieved that I at least knew my housemates!

Then today was our first day at the hospital at which I will be spending a good part of 8 months this year working at. It's not too fancy, not too big and not too small and importantly whilst slightly disorganised people seemed friendly enough! I also met my fellow juniors who will be working along side me and they were all lovely :) It makes me slightly less dread the two 87.5hour weeks I have ahead of me!

This afternoon I had some time to cook for the first time in a while, and also move about the furniture in my room. I always find I feel much more at home once I've added a spot of me to a room - and it's true, it now feels like mine :) There are two tartan (of course) throws on the bed, but union jack bunting on my fireplace... my desk looks out towards my only narrow but tall window, and a few photos sparsely colour the walls. In a few weeks, when my parents kindly bring up the rest of my belongings that wouldn't fit into a suitcase (queue bike, kitchen utensils, printer, the list goes on...) I'm sure this room will resemble the tip of a room I very almost left in London! Then it'll definitely feel like my own ;)

Down Time

I think "down time" is such a rare thing in life. When are we not working/studying/preparing for exams...? Even holidays require planning, and can be very intense once you're enjoying them! I guess there is always something to do on our endless to do lists.

At the moment, I'm at one of those rare points in my life where I expected there to be, if I'm honest, quite a bit of down time... that transient period between two important phases of your life: university and work. I thought it would be a bit like being between school and university again - except then I had the luxury of many months rather than just one. But, of course, it hasn't quite panned out as expected!

Instead, I find myself trying to maximise on what could be my down time ;) mainly spending time with my family or seeing friends, plus the organising necessary of anyone about to move city/country for the first time! (More on that later?) But then the list of everything I'm putting off grows simultaneously longer...

For example, as I type, I am surrounded by far too many items that the hoarded in me deems to precious to throw out... My room has been a complete tip since coming my back from my world trip, and is unlikely to become much neater anytime soon I fear! Every time I start to move things back where they should be, something else crops up!

Perhaps, part of me doesn't want to start clearing it and packing everything into boxes... perhaps that slight fear of a new place, a new job, new people, becomes more real when I think about why this time when I finally clean up the mess, it's not simply because it was unbearably so, but because there is a new phase of life creeping up on the horizon. And one with probably far less "down time"...!