It has been a rather busy few days. On Friday we went to De Montfort University in Leicester which is about 90 minutes to the northwest of London. The professor we interviewed was kind enough to give us a rather large walking tour of the city prior to the interview. There were quite a few interesting sites in the city but much of it was in ruin because of bombing in the world wars. For example, the only complete remaining part of the castle was on the campus mall and was only about the area of a small parking lot. Because of the information we have gotten from professors so far we have began to shift our interview questions in a different direction. We have been getting more focused on ethics and curriculum rather than the change because we have gotten the same answers so far.

Saturday we finally left London after two weeks and began to head towards Edinburgh. We stopped along the way in Newcastle to interview a professor at Newcastle University. Like in Leicester, this professor was kind enough to give us a tour of the city as well. It was amazing to hear about the development of Newcastle over time and how much has happened there. What was really cool was the college of business building. The current building was just opened a few months ago and is massive. We were amazed by its size but then he took us to the former building. The architecture was far superior and was hard to believe they would have had to leave this building. So far it was my favorite city visit other than London. Saturday we also had the chance to go out and enjoy the Newcastle nightlife. Since the city has three universities there is a large student population. However, the people and places we were at were far different than any we had been before.

Sunday morning we resumed our travel and arrived at our new flat in Edinburgh. We literally have a view of a castle just across the street. We spent Sunday just getting accommodated and checking out our neighborhood. Monday we went further by exploring the castle across the street, the Royal Mile, and area parks. Today we took a full day bus tour of the Scotland highlands and Loch Ness. The scenery was amazing on the trip because of the mountains and greenery. Loch Ness was cool but unfortunately we did not get to see Nessie. 12 hours on a bus was a bit much but it was still a good time.

Fred Mear, De Montfort University in Leicester

View from our flat in Edinburgh, Scotland