A Visit With Becky. Official Matriculation. New Friends...

So, I spent the afternoon with Becky, Nick and their son John yesterday. They arrived at the house and I showed them around a bit. For a minute there, I thought Becky was going to drop everything and move into the house because she enjoyed it so much. It is a very nice house. We headed past the Summerhall veterinary building and then walked through the Meadows. From the Meadows, we headed up the Royal Mile towards the castle. It was the first time I had been to the castle in 2 years. I haven't gone to it since I have been here this year. It is always a pleasure to see and walk around inside of the castle and look at the views of the city. Once we were finished at the castle, we headed to Deacon Brodie's Tavern. He is the original Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The story was based on him. However, the story over-exaggerated a bit. Deacon Brodie was a politician during the day and a thief by night. I really didn't get how a politician and a thief were any different...

I had lamb and potatoes, which was excellent. Nick, John and I had a pint of Belhaven's Best ale. After that, we headed back to the house and we said our goodbyes. They should have gone to the Argyll Forest today, don't know if they got lost though. Today was the day that I became an official student of the University of Edinburgh. Everyone met at Summerhall and we had to go through all of the introductory stuff such as fire safety, crime prevention, etc. We then all met up in the main hall for coffee/tea and cookies. There were a HUGE number of Americans there (California mostly, Massachusettes, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Arizona (2 including me), and Texas). The ratio of guys to women is pretty low. I think there are only about 6 guys in the class for now. I met several girls that I had originally met in San Francisco at the University of Edinburgh reception. It was nice because we all recognized each other. I am meeting Rachel, Ashley and Shannon at The Crags pub tonight. Apparently there are going to be a number of students there. So I will take the advantage of going out and meeting more students. Later this week, the four of us are going to do the underground tour of the old city. Should be fun. I also signed for my loan money today, woohoo! In a few days I will be rich! I also learned of a program that is amazing. It is a program called IBR, read what exactly it is below:

Income-Based Repayment
Income-Based Repayment (IBR) is a new payment option for federal student loans. It can help borrowers keep their loan payments affordable with payment caps based on their income and family size. For most eligible borrowers, IBR loan payments will be less than 10 percent of their income - and even smaller for borrowers with low earnings. IBR will also forgive remaining debt, if any, after 25 years of qualifying payments.

What about interest? In some situations, your reduced payment under IBR may not cover the interest on your loans. If so, the government will pay that interest on your Subsidized Stafford Loans for your first three years in IBR. After three years and for other loan types, the interest will be added to the total amount you owe. While your debt may grow if your affordable payments are low enough, anything you still owe after 25 years of qualifying payments will be forgiven.


Yes, that is right, FORGIVEN. This is predominantly for Veterinarians, MD's and other medical professions where the student loans are massive. Sonia told me about it today and I was all excited about it. Well, we head out to the Easter Bush Veterinary Centre tomorrow for the official tour (even though I already had one) and then finish early (around noon). I think I will go see a comedy show tomorrow at The Fringe festival. Oh, one more thing. There is a show at The Meadows right now called "The Lady Boys of Bangkok". It is a pretty big show and lots of people go see them. So I was talking with someone yesterday and they were telling me that it is a bunch of transexual males from Thailand that do the show and that this is very normal in Thailand. Apparently there is a large transexual population in Thailand. Who would've thought? Well I hope everyone is doing well back home and enjoy the rest of your week. I will keep the posts coming. I start Anatomy this week and will be back at Langhill Farm next week. I guess I will be showing the other students how to milk the cows since I have already did that for a week.

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