Hiya! (the Brits seem to love this greeting)
This past weekend was good. On Saturday, Ashley and I went into town to run some errands. I wanted to go to the phone shop because I felt like I was going through my pounds a lot quicker than I should be since I've been mostly texting and I'm supposed to have 300 texts with my plan. It turns out our plans were never activated. We had to do that ourselves but the guy that sold us the phones never told us that! The guy acted like I was a total idiot for not knowing I was supposed to do that myself but he did it for me and I topped up while I was there. We ran a few other errands and then headed back to Pollock. That afternoon we hung out with some people we had met in the dorms and met some new people as well. That night was chicken burger night in the dining hall. By far the best meal in the dining hall so far! Finally, not a weird mashup they claim to be casserole! Haha.
Sunday we spent most of the day at the library reading. Then for dinner, we decided to go out for a traditional dinner of haggis, neeps and tatties to celebrate Burns Night, the celebration of the famous Scottish poet Robert Burns. The University was hosting a dinner and dance for only 5 pounds but tickets sold out really quickly. We didn't realize there were only a limited number of spots so we couldn't get tickets. We decided to do dinner on our own and then try and see what other festivities were going on. The place we went had a Burns Night special where we got soup, haggis, neeps and tatties, and a measure of whiskey for 8.50. We were all pretty nervous to finally try haggis. It definitely doesn't sound like the most desirable of treats. Wikipedia describes it as "sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally boiled in the animal's stomach for approximately three hours." Doesn't sound very good right? But, when in Scotland, do as the Scottish do! Well, it wasn't as horrible as we imagined but it wasn't great either. Flavor wise, it was ok, but it had a real rough, grainy texture which was difficult for me to appreciate. The tatties (mashed potatoes) were really good though! We didn't really see to much happening around where we were so we decided to head over to Teviot, one of the student unions to see if we could get into the dance, or ceilidh. We got in, but there were so many people and they had already gone through the demonstrating of the dance so we decided to save it for another time and head home. Ever since we've gotten here, I feel like people have been talking about Burns Night, but it didn't really seem like a very big deal. Maybe we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Oh well.
Monday, I met with my ALG group for English and had Ethnology. After class, I met up with Ashley and we went to grab a bite at my favorite place I've found to eat here so far. It's a place right near campus called Elfalafel and it's delicious! As you can probably tell from the name, it's a falafel place where you can get a falafel sandwhich, chips (fries), and a drink for pretty cheap. After dinner, Ashley and I met up with our other friends and went to the Harry Potter Society's sorting ceremony in Teviot. I think I've mentioned this before but it has been rumored that JK Rowling based Hogwarts off of Teviot so the idea of getting sorted there seemed like a pretty cool idea. The thing was supposed to start at 6 and go until 8. When we got there, they weren't ready and ended up not letting people in until 6:30. Once we got in, they divided us into groups and we had to do different tasks. They scored us on them and depending on how we did they assigned us to a house. The tasks consisted of 2 truths and a lie, where you tell 2 true things about yourself and a lie and the other people in the group have to figure out which one is the lie. I wasn't the best liar but I was good at figuring out other people's lies. It might have helped that I knew half the people in the group though, haha. The next task was taken from The Sorcerer's Stone, or as they call it here, The Philosopher's Stone. There were seven bottles and we had to solve a riddle to determine which was wine and which was poison. I've never been very good at logic or word problems so needless to say, this was not my kind of task! I just guessed and I don't think I did very well (they never told us the answer). After that, they had us do a taste test where we had to close our eyes and they made us sniff things and then put a chili pepper in our mouths. I guess this was supposed to test our courage? I'm not going to lie, my face was quite tingly after that. I don't do too well with very spicy things, haha. The final task was a simulated quidditch match. They split us up into two teams. One person was blind folded and another person on the team had to lead them through a path of dementors to retrieve the golden snitch. The rest of the team members had to throw bean bags across to each other and try and hit the person of the opposing team. If my memory is correct, they call them bludgers? Anyways, I was the blind folded person for my team and we won. I guess all those blind folded trust walks at camp really came in handy! After everyone finished the tasks, we were subjected to the sorting hat and told our houses. I was a Hufflepuff along with probably have the other people there. Most of us were either Hufflepuff or Slytherin, not many Gryffindors or Ravenclaws. They weren't very organized so we had to wait around a lot which was kind of annoying. It was kind of dorky, but cool at the same time. How many other people can say they've actually been sorted? Haha.
Tuesday and Wednesday were both pretty boring. I spoke up in my English class on Tuesday in our discussion of Aphra Behn's Oroonoko. The lecturer said I made a good point so that was a nice boost in confidence. Wednesday, I spent the day reading. We're starting our first novel in English, Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders. I have to have it read by Monday to meet with my ALG group, so I have a lot of reading to do.
Today, after breakfast, Ashley and I sorted out our plans to travel to Glasgow this weekend! We made arrangements for a bus ride and hostel stay. Once we figured everything out, we got it all sorted out with our friends. We'll be leaving Edinburgh early Saturday morning. It's a little less than and 1.5 hour ride to Glasgow. We'll stay overnight in a hostel and head back Sunday night around 6:30, after the sights close. I made all the arrangements so I hope everything runs smoothly! I've heard good things about Glasgow. The city is supposed to be much more industrial and much more authentically Scottish. They're supposed to have a pretty cool art scene too. A lot of the sights seem interesting and even more importantly, free! It should be interesting to explore another part of Scotland and compare it to Edinburgh. I'm looking forward to it! I had my second history tutorial today. It turns out there is another guy in the group so it's nice not to be the only one. It's kind of frustrating because I feel like half of the people in class don't talk very much. For the second half of class, our tutorial leader divided us into 2 groups and I was the only one in my group that actually talked. It was frustrating, but I hope I'll score some points with the tutor! After class, I met up with some people at Potterow, another one of the student unions. They wanted to talk about figuring out some weekend trips but it was kind of difficult because people weren't totally sure of their plans and people's schedules didn't seem to totally match up. The conversation went to making plans for spring break. I was a little overwhelmed having to think that far in advance but we'll see. I'm just trying to keep my eyes and ears open for cool opportunities. We still have time so I don't want to commit myself to anything definite yet. We'll see what happens.
I need to read more of Moll Flanders but it's difficult to focus. I'm excited about the trip to Glasgow this weekend and it's been a long week of reading. I don't have class tomorrow so I've got all day to get some more reading done before the weekend.
Hope all is well with everyone!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Week 2
Wow, week two! Still seems crazy. I think this week, the fact that I am actually living here and going to school and not just on vacation has definitely set in. With homework and struggling with every day tasks, it's definitely been an eye opening week.
Unfortunately, I didn't accomplish as much over the weekend as I had hoped. We were going to go on a ghost tour on Saturday night, but the weather got bad so we didn't make it. Sunday I spent the day reading for my Subjectivity, Modernity, and the Novel class. I didn't realize that one of the readings was 95 pages. Oops! I didn't have class until Tuesday morning but I had to have the reading done by Monday to be prepared to meet with my ALG group. There is 13 people in the class and we were broken into groups of four and five. Each week the lecturer assigns each group questions to answer before class to help start discussion in class. This past week's readings were John Bunyan's Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners and extracts from The Life and Death of Mr. Badman.
Monday morning I went to the library to finish reading before I met up with my ALG group. I came out of my dorm and it was SNOWING! I thought that wasn't supposed to happen here! Haha!I was pretty disappointed. It was a really thick slushy snow too so it made for a pretty miserable walk to campus. Luckily, none of it stuck. After finishing up the readings, I met up with my ALG group which consists of two girls and one other guy. One of the girls is a visiting student from University of Washington who is studying here for the year. She also happens to be in my ethnology class. The other girl is from Edinburgh and the guy is from Newcastle. We answered our questions and then talked for awhile. Everyone seems really nice which is cool. They all had some horror stories to share about their previous ALG groups for other classes. Afterwards, I had my ethnology class. That night, I spent some time catching up with people from home through Skype (one of the best inventions ever!) I was also able to talk to my friend from camp who lives in London. I'm hoping I'll be able to visit him sometime in February! Maybe even have a mini camp reunion of international staff from the UK?
Tuesday we had our first real Subjectivity, Modernity, and the Novel class. It wasn't too bad. Two straight hours of discussion was pretty intense, but I think I was able to follow everything pretty well. After class, I went to go talk to the visiting students office to see if I could drop my history class to get into the sociology class about popular music. they said since it was a third year class, I didn't have enough previous sociology classes to take it. So therefore, I'm staying in my history class. Hopefully it will pick up. I had history and then ethnology and then I rushed over to Teviot, one of the student unions, to watch Obama get sworn in and deliver his inauguration speech. They were showing it on big screens in one of the bars. I got there and the place was pretty packed. It was exciting to get to witness the inauguration in a foreign country. Everyone seems very optimistic and eager for change. It is cool to see how decisions like this effect not only our own country but others as well. After the speech, I met up with some friends and we got some pizzas and went back to one of their flats to hang out.
Wednesday, I didn't have class but I had to wake up early to straighten up my room for the maintenance man. Once a week, a maintenance man comes to clean my bathroom, vacuum, and give me clean sheets. It's pretty nice, but I wish he could come on a day that I have class so I could sleep in! Later that afternoon, I went into town to go see an exhibit at the National Museum of Scotland for my history class. The exhibit was called Scotland: A Changing Nation. It was pretty interesting. It explored the change in Scotland since the World War I, talking about everything from industry to pop music. Not knowing much about Scotland, I thought it was pretty informative. I thought it was interesting to compare and contrast the growth of Scotland with that of America at the same time. My favorite part was this video they had interviewing Scottish natives and how they felt about being Scottish and different things about the country. It was cool to see all the different kinds of people and how proud they all were to be Scottish. On the way back to Pollock I stopped at the grocery store to pick up some laundry detergent. Unfortunately Tide has not made it over here to Scotland, nor has any other laundry detergent brand I've ever heard of. So, after standing in the aisle trying to decided between sizes, prices, bio, non-bio for a good 20 minutes, I finally just picked something.
Thursday was probably one of the most difficult days since I've been here. I had a few hours between breakfast and my first class so I decided to do laundry. Little did I know it would be so difficult! Basically, my stuff took much longer than planned to dry so I had to leave it in the machines to finish while I sprinted to class. I was nervous leaving it, worrying someone would just throw it on the floor in order to use the machine, but when I got back from class, it ended up being fine. With having to get change, and tokens, and drying taking so long, it ended up being very frustrating. I definitely have to remember to leave plenty of time the next time. The class I had to sprint to was my first history tutorial (the discussion portions of lectures). I'd say there were 11-12 people in the class. I was the only guy which was kind of awkward, but women definitely seem to out number men by a large amount in the student body here so I guess it's not all that surprising. My tutorial leader seems very nice, so hopefully it won't be too bad. That lasted for about an hour and then I had history and then ethnology after that. After class and laundry folding, I met up with some friends and we went to the grocery store and got all the fixins for a Mexican fiesta of tacos and chips and salsa. Haha, it was really good! Definitely better than the dorm food which seems to get worse and worse. And pretty cheap, only 3 pounds when split between the 6 of us. After dinner, we went on an underground city/ ghost tour. It was pretty cool! The guide had a lot of cool stories and it was very spooky! They do another tour of a graveyard that seems pretty cool. I'd definately be interested in checking it out. When the tour ended, we got a pub recommendation from the guide and went to have a pint. The pub was pretty small, but they had a guy playing live music and it was nice.
Fridays a bunch of us don't have classes so Kendall and Ashley (both from Iowa as well) and myself decided to climb Arthur's Seat, the remains of a 325 million year old volcano. It was a pretty difficult climb, rocky, muddy, and windy, but definitely worth it! We made sure to try and go earlier in the day because the weather seems to start off sunny earlier in the day and then get progressively worse as the day goes on. The whole climb we were able to see awesome views of the city, especially from the peak. I think its the coolest thing I've done since I've been here! After reaching the peak and taking a bunch of pictures, we saw some clouds rolling in so we wanted to get down quickly before the rain came. Making it down wasn't easy. There was a lot of slipping a sliding but we made it before the rain came. Kendall went back to her flat and Ashley and I got lunch from the Pollock store. We ate in her dorm and watched a professional bocce ball tournament, haha! I definitely did not know that even existed as a professional sport! I also tried Irn Brun for the first time. It's a soft drink that's even more popular than Coke here. It's orange but tastes like bubble gum. It's pretty sweet and kind of strange, but interesting. Later today, I discovered a place in Pollock to rent movies. With your student card, you can rent DVDs for only 50 pence! I don't have a TV, but I figure I can watch them on my laptop. It hasn't been too bad not having a TV, but it's nice to have some form of entertainment that's cheap and good for nights when you just want to relax.
Overall, things have been going pretty well. Getting acclimated to the new school system has been difficult. There is a lot to do, but no real schedule set in which to do it, so it's difficult to stay on top of things. For example, for my history class, we were given a packet of documents to read for the tutorial each week. Along with those we are given a secondary reading list which you read however much or little of it you like. My tutorial leader suggested I just read enough to feel like I'm prepared enough for class. With so much going on, it's difficult to do reading you're not technically required to do! I think the more I get used to it, the easier it will get to figure out a schedule.
I've started an online album of pictures. I haven't taken many yet, but there's some pretty good one's from Arthur's Seat. Check them out! http://picasaweb.google.com/NedPix/NEDINBURGH02?authkey=Xk_DqPcaT3c#
Hope all is well with all of you!
Unfortunately, I didn't accomplish as much over the weekend as I had hoped. We were going to go on a ghost tour on Saturday night, but the weather got bad so we didn't make it. Sunday I spent the day reading for my Subjectivity, Modernity, and the Novel class. I didn't realize that one of the readings was 95 pages. Oops! I didn't have class until Tuesday morning but I had to have the reading done by Monday to be prepared to meet with my ALG group. There is 13 people in the class and we were broken into groups of four and five. Each week the lecturer assigns each group questions to answer before class to help start discussion in class. This past week's readings were John Bunyan's Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners and extracts from The Life and Death of Mr. Badman.
Monday morning I went to the library to finish reading before I met up with my ALG group. I came out of my dorm and it was SNOWING! I thought that wasn't supposed to happen here! Haha!I was pretty disappointed. It was a really thick slushy snow too so it made for a pretty miserable walk to campus. Luckily, none of it stuck. After finishing up the readings, I met up with my ALG group which consists of two girls and one other guy. One of the girls is a visiting student from University of Washington who is studying here for the year. She also happens to be in my ethnology class. The other girl is from Edinburgh and the guy is from Newcastle. We answered our questions and then talked for awhile. Everyone seems really nice which is cool. They all had some horror stories to share about their previous ALG groups for other classes. Afterwards, I had my ethnology class. That night, I spent some time catching up with people from home through Skype (one of the best inventions ever!) I was also able to talk to my friend from camp who lives in London. I'm hoping I'll be able to visit him sometime in February! Maybe even have a mini camp reunion of international staff from the UK?
Tuesday we had our first real Subjectivity, Modernity, and the Novel class. It wasn't too bad. Two straight hours of discussion was pretty intense, but I think I was able to follow everything pretty well. After class, I went to go talk to the visiting students office to see if I could drop my history class to get into the sociology class about popular music. they said since it was a third year class, I didn't have enough previous sociology classes to take it. So therefore, I'm staying in my history class. Hopefully it will pick up. I had history and then ethnology and then I rushed over to Teviot, one of the student unions, to watch Obama get sworn in and deliver his inauguration speech. They were showing it on big screens in one of the bars. I got there and the place was pretty packed. It was exciting to get to witness the inauguration in a foreign country. Everyone seems very optimistic and eager for change. It is cool to see how decisions like this effect not only our own country but others as well. After the speech, I met up with some friends and we got some pizzas and went back to one of their flats to hang out.
Wednesday, I didn't have class but I had to wake up early to straighten up my room for the maintenance man. Once a week, a maintenance man comes to clean my bathroom, vacuum, and give me clean sheets. It's pretty nice, but I wish he could come on a day that I have class so I could sleep in! Later that afternoon, I went into town to go see an exhibit at the National Museum of Scotland for my history class. The exhibit was called Scotland: A Changing Nation. It was pretty interesting. It explored the change in Scotland since the World War I, talking about everything from industry to pop music. Not knowing much about Scotland, I thought it was pretty informative. I thought it was interesting to compare and contrast the growth of Scotland with that of America at the same time. My favorite part was this video they had interviewing Scottish natives and how they felt about being Scottish and different things about the country. It was cool to see all the different kinds of people and how proud they all were to be Scottish. On the way back to Pollock I stopped at the grocery store to pick up some laundry detergent. Unfortunately Tide has not made it over here to Scotland, nor has any other laundry detergent brand I've ever heard of. So, after standing in the aisle trying to decided between sizes, prices, bio, non-bio for a good 20 minutes, I finally just picked something.
Thursday was probably one of the most difficult days since I've been here. I had a few hours between breakfast and my first class so I decided to do laundry. Little did I know it would be so difficult! Basically, my stuff took much longer than planned to dry so I had to leave it in the machines to finish while I sprinted to class. I was nervous leaving it, worrying someone would just throw it on the floor in order to use the machine, but when I got back from class, it ended up being fine. With having to get change, and tokens, and drying taking so long, it ended up being very frustrating. I definitely have to remember to leave plenty of time the next time. The class I had to sprint to was my first history tutorial (the discussion portions of lectures). I'd say there were 11-12 people in the class. I was the only guy which was kind of awkward, but women definitely seem to out number men by a large amount in the student body here so I guess it's not all that surprising. My tutorial leader seems very nice, so hopefully it won't be too bad. That lasted for about an hour and then I had history and then ethnology after that. After class and laundry folding, I met up with some friends and we went to the grocery store and got all the fixins for a Mexican fiesta of tacos and chips and salsa. Haha, it was really good! Definitely better than the dorm food which seems to get worse and worse. And pretty cheap, only 3 pounds when split between the 6 of us. After dinner, we went on an underground city/ ghost tour. It was pretty cool! The guide had a lot of cool stories and it was very spooky! They do another tour of a graveyard that seems pretty cool. I'd definately be interested in checking it out. When the tour ended, we got a pub recommendation from the guide and went to have a pint. The pub was pretty small, but they had a guy playing live music and it was nice.
Fridays a bunch of us don't have classes so Kendall and Ashley (both from Iowa as well) and myself decided to climb Arthur's Seat, the remains of a 325 million year old volcano. It was a pretty difficult climb, rocky, muddy, and windy, but definitely worth it! We made sure to try and go earlier in the day because the weather seems to start off sunny earlier in the day and then get progressively worse as the day goes on. The whole climb we were able to see awesome views of the city, especially from the peak. I think its the coolest thing I've done since I've been here! After reaching the peak and taking a bunch of pictures, we saw some clouds rolling in so we wanted to get down quickly before the rain came. Making it down wasn't easy. There was a lot of slipping a sliding but we made it before the rain came. Kendall went back to her flat and Ashley and I got lunch from the Pollock store. We ate in her dorm and watched a professional bocce ball tournament, haha! I definitely did not know that even existed as a professional sport! I also tried Irn Brun for the first time. It's a soft drink that's even more popular than Coke here. It's orange but tastes like bubble gum. It's pretty sweet and kind of strange, but interesting. Later today, I discovered a place in Pollock to rent movies. With your student card, you can rent DVDs for only 50 pence! I don't have a TV, but I figure I can watch them on my laptop. It hasn't been too bad not having a TV, but it's nice to have some form of entertainment that's cheap and good for nights when you just want to relax.
Overall, things have been going pretty well. Getting acclimated to the new school system has been difficult. There is a lot to do, but no real schedule set in which to do it, so it's difficult to stay on top of things. For example, for my history class, we were given a packet of documents to read for the tutorial each week. Along with those we are given a secondary reading list which you read however much or little of it you like. My tutorial leader suggested I just read enough to feel like I'm prepared enough for class. With so much going on, it's difficult to do reading you're not technically required to do! I think the more I get used to it, the easier it will get to figure out a schedule.
I've started an online album of pictures. I haven't taken many yet, but there's some pretty good one's from Arthur's Seat. Check them out! http://picasaweb.google.com/NedPix/NEDINBURGH02?authkey=Xk_DqPcaT3c#
Hope all is well with all of you!
Friday, January 16, 2009
Week 1
Hey everybody!
I've actually been in Edinburgh for almost a whole week! It still feels so crazy, but I'm having a great time so far!
I left Chicago late Friday night (January 9). Another student from Iowa was also on my flight. It was nice to know I'd have someone to travel with. Luckily, we were able to make it out on time before too much snow came in. The pilot introduced himself and I swear he said his name was David Bowie. The girl sitting next to me and I thought that was pretty cool. On the plane, everyone had their own personal television so you could pick from a selection of movies, TV shows, music to watch or listen to. It definitely made the flight go pretty fast. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get much sleep. We arrived in London on Saturday morning and were supposed to have a 3 hour layover at Heathrow, but when we got there, they said the plane we were supposed to be taking was running late due to bad weather and we wouldn't be leaving until another 4 hours after the time we were originally supposed to leave. Fortunately, the plane came in earlier than expected so we didn't have to wait around for too much longer. When we got to Edinburgh, there was a welcoming service from the University that was there to direct us to the shuttle that would take us to our residences. I'm staying in the Pollock Halls, which are their version of college dorms. My room is pretty decent. I have a double bed and my own bathroom. It kind of looks like a (kind of worn) hotel room. There is a dining hall and store on the premise. It's about a 15 minute walk to campus, but I'm hoping the more I get used to it, the shorter it will seem. I dropped of my luggage and decided to go to the visiting student pizza party at Teviot, one of the student unions. By the time I got there, all the pizza was gone, but I got a drink from the bar and socialized with some people there. Two girls from Iowa who had gotten there earlier introduced me to the people they met. After the party, we decided to walk around a bit and check out a local pub. We also stopped to get food and I got fried pizza. It sounds weird but was pretty good.
Sunday was the orientation for visiting students. They had us all in a lecture hall and talked to us about the University and living in Edinburgh. They had a visiting American who got here in September come and talk about what it was like adjusting to the city. They also divided us into groups and took us on a tour of the main part of campus. Our group was led by a visiting student from Singapore who had arrived in September. She seemed to know more about the pubs surrounding campus than actual school buildings, haha. After the orientation, myself and Ashley, another student from Iowa who is also staying in the Pollock Halls,and some kids we met the night before, decided we wanted to get our phones. We walked down to Princes Street, the main shopping area that divides Old and New Towns. We had met some kids who came through the Butler Program and had arrived earlier in the week. They gave us advice on where to get the best deals on phones, so the whole thing was pretty easy. After that, we came back and ate our first meal in the Pollock Halls. It was ok, nothing too special. The dining hall is under construction so everyone is kind of squeezed into a small area, so meal times can be pretty hectic. We spent the rest of the night trying to sort things out with our laptops and the internet which has been a pretty stressful experience. I wasn't able to finally get internet in my room until Thursday night.
Monday was our first day of classes. I only had one class which wasn't until 4:00 but I decided to wake up early to get some breakfast and head over to campus. I had to make a meeting with my advisor or as they call it here, director of studies or DoS for short, and I also wanted to walk around campus and get a better idea of where everything was. I decided to walk up the Royal Mile but I came down a different way and ended up getting kind of turned around but I was able to make it back in time for class and I only had to whip out my map once. My class was Scottish Ethnology which is basically Scottish Culture. Its a lecture class with what seems like mostly visiting students. It seems like it will be interesting.
Tuesday, I had to wake up early. My English class Subjectivity, Modernity, and the Novel starts at 9:00. It was kind of intimidating. It's a third year class, so it's smaller and more discussion based. There were 25 of us, but the professor split us up into two different sections so for the rest of the semester there will only be 12 or 13 of us. I'm hoping I will be able to keep up with everyone not being too used to the system. After that class, I met with my DoS. We didn't talk for long, but he seems nice. Later I had my Scottish History since 1914 class. He just talked about the class and good resources for things. I'm thinking I might try and change that class to something else. I'm thinking there will probably be overlap between that and Ethnology so I think it would be interesting to try something else. There is a sociology class about popular music that a friend of mine is in that seems pretty interesting. After that, I had Ethnology again. When that was done, we ate dinner and a bunch of us decided to check out the International Student Center's pub night at one of the local pubs. It ended up being pretty fun! I ran into a few familiar faces and we did karaoke.
Wednesday I didn't have classes, so I slept in. I met the guy that comes to clean my room. They clean it once a week and empty the trash everyday. He seemed nice, but I didn't realize he was coming so I was pretty startled when he showed up. It was nice to have a day to sleep in since I'd been pretty busy everyday since I'd gotten here. I did eventually wake up to go on the International Student Center's tour of historic Edinburgh which was pretty neat. Unfortunately, it didn't start until 3:30 and it gets fairly dark around 4:00 or 4:30 here so we couldn't take many pictures, but the stuff was still cool to see and it was nice to walk around town and get more acclimated. That night, some of us hung out in the lounge of Ashley's dorm and met a real Scottish person! It was cool, since none of us have really befriended any British kids yet. It's been hard coming in second semester when a lot of people already have their friends and people don't socialize as much in the Pollock Halls as they do in the dorms at home. The girl's name was Rhona and she was real nice. She talked to us for awhile and answered a bunch of our questions and taught us some Scottish slang. It turns out she's in my Scottish Ethnology class. We made plans to hang out Thursday night.
Thursday, I went to the "Refreshers Fair." The first years here are referred to as "freshers" so the fair was basically for new students to walk around and see different societies students can get involved in. I ran into some people I knew there and we checked out some of the different societies. Then, I had Scottish History and Scottish Ethnology. It turns out some kids Ashley knew from Iowa were traveling around Europe and were in the Scotland so they came down to Edinburgh and we all hung out. We went out to a club in town and went dancing. It was a lot of fun! Rhona was supposed to come and introduce us to some of her Scottish friends, but she wasn't feeling well. I'm hoping we'll get to meet them soon though.
Today I didn't have class, but was awoken by the cleaning guy again. I had a meeting with my English professor to discuss the readings and structure of the class. He was very nice and assured me that if I kept up with the reading, I should be able to keep up with everyone. After that, I went to Blackwell's which is right across from campus and supplies many of the University's books. It pretty much looked like the overseas version of Borders. I got the anthology I needed for my English class. From there, I walked down to Princes Street again to explore and bought a new scarf to help shield the wind.
Tomorrow I'm thinking we might go to a football match which seems like it will be pretty exciting! Or there was talk of climbing up to the top of Arthur's Seat. Both seem like interesting possibilities.
So far, things have been going really well! The people I've met are pretty cool and I'm looking forward to meeting some more interesting people. The weather has not been too bad. When we first got here, it was windy and rainy which proved to be a pretty bad combination, but ever since the weekend, it's been pretty nice. It's windy but doesn't get colder than 30 degrees which isn't exactly warm, but definitely nicer than the negative degree weather in the Midwest right now! Sorry guys, I hope you're keeping warm! And it rains here and there, but never for very long or very hard (knock on wood). One thing that's been really difficult is learning how to cross the street. It sounds simple enough, but not here! With the windy streets of Old Town and cars driving on the wrong side of the road, it's definately difficult to remember where to look to make sure you won't get hit by a double decker bus! But anyways, the city is beautiful! So much history and culture and beautiful architecture. I've been telling everyone that it's basically like living in Harry Potter land. Haha. JK Rowling lives and wrote the book here and we've been told that she drew inspiration from many things around the city. I think this is going to be a really awesome opportunity to grow personally and academically.
I'll try to update this at least once a week. If you want to reach me, the best way is probably by email: edward-mccully@uiowa.edu. I'm also on Skype: ned.mccully, or a Facebook message is always nice!
Hope everyone is doing well at home! I'd love to hear from you!
I've actually been in Edinburgh for almost a whole week! It still feels so crazy, but I'm having a great time so far!
I left Chicago late Friday night (January 9). Another student from Iowa was also on my flight. It was nice to know I'd have someone to travel with. Luckily, we were able to make it out on time before too much snow came in. The pilot introduced himself and I swear he said his name was David Bowie. The girl sitting next to me and I thought that was pretty cool. On the plane, everyone had their own personal television so you could pick from a selection of movies, TV shows, music to watch or listen to. It definitely made the flight go pretty fast. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get much sleep. We arrived in London on Saturday morning and were supposed to have a 3 hour layover at Heathrow, but when we got there, they said the plane we were supposed to be taking was running late due to bad weather and we wouldn't be leaving until another 4 hours after the time we were originally supposed to leave. Fortunately, the plane came in earlier than expected so we didn't have to wait around for too much longer. When we got to Edinburgh, there was a welcoming service from the University that was there to direct us to the shuttle that would take us to our residences. I'm staying in the Pollock Halls, which are their version of college dorms. My room is pretty decent. I have a double bed and my own bathroom. It kind of looks like a (kind of worn) hotel room. There is a dining hall and store on the premise. It's about a 15 minute walk to campus, but I'm hoping the more I get used to it, the shorter it will seem. I dropped of my luggage and decided to go to the visiting student pizza party at Teviot, one of the student unions. By the time I got there, all the pizza was gone, but I got a drink from the bar and socialized with some people there. Two girls from Iowa who had gotten there earlier introduced me to the people they met. After the party, we decided to walk around a bit and check out a local pub. We also stopped to get food and I got fried pizza. It sounds weird but was pretty good.
Sunday was the orientation for visiting students. They had us all in a lecture hall and talked to us about the University and living in Edinburgh. They had a visiting American who got here in September come and talk about what it was like adjusting to the city. They also divided us into groups and took us on a tour of the main part of campus. Our group was led by a visiting student from Singapore who had arrived in September. She seemed to know more about the pubs surrounding campus than actual school buildings, haha. After the orientation, myself and Ashley, another student from Iowa who is also staying in the Pollock Halls,and some kids we met the night before, decided we wanted to get our phones. We walked down to Princes Street, the main shopping area that divides Old and New Towns. We had met some kids who came through the Butler Program and had arrived earlier in the week. They gave us advice on where to get the best deals on phones, so the whole thing was pretty easy. After that, we came back and ate our first meal in the Pollock Halls. It was ok, nothing too special. The dining hall is under construction so everyone is kind of squeezed into a small area, so meal times can be pretty hectic. We spent the rest of the night trying to sort things out with our laptops and the internet which has been a pretty stressful experience. I wasn't able to finally get internet in my room until Thursday night.
Monday was our first day of classes. I only had one class which wasn't until 4:00 but I decided to wake up early to get some breakfast and head over to campus. I had to make a meeting with my advisor or as they call it here, director of studies or DoS for short, and I also wanted to walk around campus and get a better idea of where everything was. I decided to walk up the Royal Mile but I came down a different way and ended up getting kind of turned around but I was able to make it back in time for class and I only had to whip out my map once. My class was Scottish Ethnology which is basically Scottish Culture. Its a lecture class with what seems like mostly visiting students. It seems like it will be interesting.
Tuesday, I had to wake up early. My English class Subjectivity, Modernity, and the Novel starts at 9:00. It was kind of intimidating. It's a third year class, so it's smaller and more discussion based. There were 25 of us, but the professor split us up into two different sections so for the rest of the semester there will only be 12 or 13 of us. I'm hoping I will be able to keep up with everyone not being too used to the system. After that class, I met with my DoS. We didn't talk for long, but he seems nice. Later I had my Scottish History since 1914 class. He just talked about the class and good resources for things. I'm thinking I might try and change that class to something else. I'm thinking there will probably be overlap between that and Ethnology so I think it would be interesting to try something else. There is a sociology class about popular music that a friend of mine is in that seems pretty interesting. After that, I had Ethnology again. When that was done, we ate dinner and a bunch of us decided to check out the International Student Center's pub night at one of the local pubs. It ended up being pretty fun! I ran into a few familiar faces and we did karaoke.
Wednesday I didn't have classes, so I slept in. I met the guy that comes to clean my room. They clean it once a week and empty the trash everyday. He seemed nice, but I didn't realize he was coming so I was pretty startled when he showed up. It was nice to have a day to sleep in since I'd been pretty busy everyday since I'd gotten here. I did eventually wake up to go on the International Student Center's tour of historic Edinburgh which was pretty neat. Unfortunately, it didn't start until 3:30 and it gets fairly dark around 4:00 or 4:30 here so we couldn't take many pictures, but the stuff was still cool to see and it was nice to walk around town and get more acclimated. That night, some of us hung out in the lounge of Ashley's dorm and met a real Scottish person! It was cool, since none of us have really befriended any British kids yet. It's been hard coming in second semester when a lot of people already have their friends and people don't socialize as much in the Pollock Halls as they do in the dorms at home. The girl's name was Rhona and she was real nice. She talked to us for awhile and answered a bunch of our questions and taught us some Scottish slang. It turns out she's in my Scottish Ethnology class. We made plans to hang out Thursday night.
Thursday, I went to the "Refreshers Fair." The first years here are referred to as "freshers" so the fair was basically for new students to walk around and see different societies students can get involved in. I ran into some people I knew there and we checked out some of the different societies. Then, I had Scottish History and Scottish Ethnology. It turns out some kids Ashley knew from Iowa were traveling around Europe and were in the Scotland so they came down to Edinburgh and we all hung out. We went out to a club in town and went dancing. It was a lot of fun! Rhona was supposed to come and introduce us to some of her Scottish friends, but she wasn't feeling well. I'm hoping we'll get to meet them soon though.
Today I didn't have class, but was awoken by the cleaning guy again. I had a meeting with my English professor to discuss the readings and structure of the class. He was very nice and assured me that if I kept up with the reading, I should be able to keep up with everyone. After that, I went to Blackwell's which is right across from campus and supplies many of the University's books. It pretty much looked like the overseas version of Borders. I got the anthology I needed for my English class. From there, I walked down to Princes Street again to explore and bought a new scarf to help shield the wind.
Tomorrow I'm thinking we might go to a football match which seems like it will be pretty exciting! Or there was talk of climbing up to the top of Arthur's Seat. Both seem like interesting possibilities.
So far, things have been going really well! The people I've met are pretty cool and I'm looking forward to meeting some more interesting people. The weather has not been too bad. When we first got here, it was windy and rainy which proved to be a pretty bad combination, but ever since the weekend, it's been pretty nice. It's windy but doesn't get colder than 30 degrees which isn't exactly warm, but definitely nicer than the negative degree weather in the Midwest right now! Sorry guys, I hope you're keeping warm! And it rains here and there, but never for very long or very hard (knock on wood). One thing that's been really difficult is learning how to cross the street. It sounds simple enough, but not here! With the windy streets of Old Town and cars driving on the wrong side of the road, it's definately difficult to remember where to look to make sure you won't get hit by a double decker bus! But anyways, the city is beautiful! So much history and culture and beautiful architecture. I've been telling everyone that it's basically like living in Harry Potter land. Haha. JK Rowling lives and wrote the book here and we've been told that she drew inspiration from many things around the city. I think this is going to be a really awesome opportunity to grow personally and academically.
I'll try to update this at least once a week. If you want to reach me, the best way is probably by email: edward-mccully@uiowa.edu. I'm also on Skype: ned.mccully, or a Facebook message is always nice!
Hope everyone is doing well at home! I'd love to hear from you!
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