Following my last post about tips for your first week as an international student, I will like to write about something that seems obvious, and yet everyone struggles with: mobility in the city!
How do I get to the campus?
Well, if you are lucky enough to arrive in Edinburgh during Welcome Week you will have plenty of time for getting lost in the city (which is not that bad after all because you get to know the city better). But when the classes start and you need to get on time you must have another approach. So first things first, be sure that you know where your different courses will be held because in the most likely scenario they will be in various buildings around the city.
After that, you can either get a physical map (they have plenty of them in the Advice Place, located in Potterow) or you can just enter the information on any maps application. I recommend downloading a good app that can show you the time that will take to get to any building, in that sense you can program your day considering how much time you need to get to the university. One piece of advice here, always leave you home earlier because you never know what is going to happen. It is also a good idea to use an app that shows different bus lines, this is really helpful if you are not sure which bus you need to catch. That kind of apps also includes the time that will take you to arrive at your final destination.
A final piece of advice
Last but nevertheless really important: get a UK number! There are plenty of different options to choose and grand contract plans depending on your own needs. Besides, one excellent thing about Edinburgh is that almost every place offer WIFI signal for free, so you don’t have to rely only on your gigas to navigate!
Cheers,
Sara