I never thought I'd consider 70 degrees Fahrenheit hot, but there it is. And it's supposed to be equally warm and sunny for the rest of the week!
Second week of class, and the kid gloves are coming off. I've got 70-odd pages of reading to do this week, in addition to two brief assignments. I went to the library and studied today (even though it was really hard because it was so freaking warm in there), and finished basically everything for two of my classes. Unfortunately the majority of this stuff is for the third. Urk.
I've discovered that even though I'm only technically getting graded on the final exam/paper for each of my classes, that doesn't mean that there's no homework. And while not doing the homework won't technically count against my grade, it'll mean showing up to class unprepared and all the teacherly scorn that that entails. Also, the more legwork I do now, the less I'll have to do when it's time to write my dissertation next summer.
Meanwhile, my bank account here is finally up and running, and it's going to be time to think about finding a part-time job soon. Realistically, I don't think I'll be able to work for more than 12 hours per week. I've got enough in the bank that I won't *have* to work for at least several months if I'm careful, but it'd be nice to have some money coming in as a safety net.
Cheers, y'all.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Laddies and lassies, I hae bagged ae Munro!
...Or for the non-Scots speakers out there, today I climbed a Scottish mountain over 3,000 feet in height, namely Ben Vane.
Ten of us from the Edinburgh University Hillwalking Club accomplished this mighty feat, while several others climbed other hills in this area near Arrochar, in Argyll near Loch Lomond. I can say without exaggerating that this was the physically hardest thing I have ever done. It was very tough mentally, as well.
We started on a tarmac trail near Inveruglas, which joined up with a gravel trail which took us to the base of the mountain. The weather was reasonably good when we started, and the views of the surrounding mountains and back toward Loch Lomond were lovely. The first part of the trek up the mountain was over some rather boggy ground, which then gave way to a rocky pseudo-footpath which was quite steep in places, and occasionally required scrambling (using one's hands).
We were a little over halfway up when I started to have doubts about whether I could do this. I very foolishly did not eat breakfast before I left this morning, thinking I'd be able to eat on the bus (only to discover that there was no food allowed). So I set off on this climb with only a few handfuls of cereal and mixed nuts in my stomach. I was able to eat a few more nuts, as well as some candy that got passed around, but at around the halfway point the energy in my legs dwindled and they began to hurt. A lot. This pain traveled up to my arse and lower back as we got higher. In addition to all this, Ben Vane has a lot of false summits - from one's perspective as one climbs the mountain, it looks like the next rocky point is the top. But no. Always no. This played such havoc with my mental state that the mantra I tried to keep up, "I can do this, I can do this," soon gave way to sporadic bouts of mild hysteria - "I *sob* can't *sob* do *sob* this!!!"
I really don't know how I made it to the top. After a while I just able to compartmentalize the pain, and put one foot in front of the other until, somewhere between four and five hours after we set off, I got to the summit. The summit was a letdown on a few different counts. First of all, Scottish Weather being what it is, the clouds rolled in as soon as we got there and it started to mist. So we couldn't even see anything from the summit. Second of all, I only spent about fifteen minutes up there, because I had fallen pretty far to the back and we were on a bit of a timetable. Third of all, I wasn't able to eat my packed lunch. Not because of the time constraint, but because as soon as I got something down, I felt like throwing up. I guess my body, responding to the strenuous demands I was putting on it with shockingly little food, turned off my hunger mechanism. It's now almost 10pm, and all I have eaten today is a few handfuls of cereal, maybe a third of a small bag of mixed nuts, a few pieces of candy, three bites of sandwich, one potato crisp, and one small piece of chocolate. And a whole lot of water.
Going back down the mountain was almost as hard as going up. I had to complete all those steep rocky bits over again in reverse, and the misting that began at the summit soon turned into genuine rain. Luckily it didn't rain the whole way down, but when I finally got to the marshy part near the bottom again, I discovered that it had rained enough to turn the marsh into soup. My waterproof hiking boots certainly proved their worth today - I went ankle-deep (or in some cases deeper) in mud many, many times, but my feet stayed bone-dry. And during all this, I was still dealing with the pain continuing to travel up my back, and legs with hardly any energy left. More "I *sob* can't *sob* do *sob* this" moments happened, but the knowledge that keeping on going was the only way to get off this mountain, short of falling and injuring myself badly enough to get helicoptered off (God forbid), gave me the motivation to finish. The descent took about three hours, plus another 45 minutes on the gravel and tarmac trails on legs with almost nothing left. I was the last person from the Inveruglas detachment to get back to the bus, by a margin of at least 30 minutes, probably more. The hike leader, Claire, stayed within sight of me and even carried my backpack for the last stretch.
I am sore and will be even more sore tomorrow. I'm questioning whether I want to go on more hillwalking trips, because the one I went on today was the second-easiest of the walks on offer, and will be fairly typical of the "Easy" ones on future trips. But I am mega-proud of myself for bagging a Munro.
Ten of us from the Edinburgh University Hillwalking Club accomplished this mighty feat, while several others climbed other hills in this area near Arrochar, in Argyll near Loch Lomond. I can say without exaggerating that this was the physically hardest thing I have ever done. It was very tough mentally, as well.
We started on a tarmac trail near Inveruglas, which joined up with a gravel trail which took us to the base of the mountain. The weather was reasonably good when we started, and the views of the surrounding mountains and back toward Loch Lomond were lovely. The first part of the trek up the mountain was over some rather boggy ground, which then gave way to a rocky pseudo-footpath which was quite steep in places, and occasionally required scrambling (using one's hands).
We were a little over halfway up when I started to have doubts about whether I could do this. I very foolishly did not eat breakfast before I left this morning, thinking I'd be able to eat on the bus (only to discover that there was no food allowed). So I set off on this climb with only a few handfuls of cereal and mixed nuts in my stomach. I was able to eat a few more nuts, as well as some candy that got passed around, but at around the halfway point the energy in my legs dwindled and they began to hurt. A lot. This pain traveled up to my arse and lower back as we got higher. In addition to all this, Ben Vane has a lot of false summits - from one's perspective as one climbs the mountain, it looks like the next rocky point is the top. But no. Always no. This played such havoc with my mental state that the mantra I tried to keep up, "I can do this, I can do this," soon gave way to sporadic bouts of mild hysteria - "I *sob* can't *sob* do *sob* this!!!"
I really don't know how I made it to the top. After a while I just able to compartmentalize the pain, and put one foot in front of the other until, somewhere between four and five hours after we set off, I got to the summit. The summit was a letdown on a few different counts. First of all, Scottish Weather being what it is, the clouds rolled in as soon as we got there and it started to mist. So we couldn't even see anything from the summit. Second of all, I only spent about fifteen minutes up there, because I had fallen pretty far to the back and we were on a bit of a timetable. Third of all, I wasn't able to eat my packed lunch. Not because of the time constraint, but because as soon as I got something down, I felt like throwing up. I guess my body, responding to the strenuous demands I was putting on it with shockingly little food, turned off my hunger mechanism. It's now almost 10pm, and all I have eaten today is a few handfuls of cereal, maybe a third of a small bag of mixed nuts, a few pieces of candy, three bites of sandwich, one potato crisp, and one small piece of chocolate. And a whole lot of water.
Going back down the mountain was almost as hard as going up. I had to complete all those steep rocky bits over again in reverse, and the misting that began at the summit soon turned into genuine rain. Luckily it didn't rain the whole way down, but when I finally got to the marshy part near the bottom again, I discovered that it had rained enough to turn the marsh into soup. My waterproof hiking boots certainly proved their worth today - I went ankle-deep (or in some cases deeper) in mud many, many times, but my feet stayed bone-dry. And during all this, I was still dealing with the pain continuing to travel up my back, and legs with hardly any energy left. More "I *sob* can't *sob* do *sob* this" moments happened, but the knowledge that keeping on going was the only way to get off this mountain, short of falling and injuring myself badly enough to get helicoptered off (God forbid), gave me the motivation to finish. The descent took about three hours, plus another 45 minutes on the gravel and tarmac trails on legs with almost nothing left. I was the last person from the Inveruglas detachment to get back to the bus, by a margin of at least 30 minutes, probably more. The hike leader, Claire, stayed within sight of me and even carried my backpack for the last stretch.
I am sore and will be even more sore tomorrow. I'm questioning whether I want to go on more hillwalking trips, because the one I went on today was the second-easiest of the walks on offer, and will be fairly typical of the "Easy" ones on future trips. But I am mega-proud of myself for bagging a Munro.
 |
| wikipedia.org |
Thursday, September 22, 2011
August 28, 2011: Scottish Borders
This is now many weeks in the past, but I'm going to recount it as accurately as I can. None of the pictures are mine, for obvious reasons. I found them on various places on the internet and I've done my best to credit them all appropriately. Now, onward!
On the morning of the 28th of August, I left Edinburgh from the Rabbie's office on High Street with eight other people plus the driver, Emily. We were Americans, Germans, South Africans, and an Aussie, if I'm remembering correctly. It was a sunny and extremely windy day as we wended our way south to Walter Scott country.
The Scottish Borders (that is, the southern part of Scotland, bordering England) are often overlooked, quite unfairly. The Borders are mountainous, but differ in quality from the highlands in the more northerly part of the country. They're less rugged and more wide-open and rolling. They're also more forested than other areas of Scotland. For those reasons, they reminded me a bit of the Appalachian foothills in North Carolina.
Our first stop of the day was Scott's View, a scenic point near Earlston overlooking the three peaks of the Eildon Hills and the Tweed Valley, with the Cheviot Hills of England visible to the south.
I was lucky enough to arrive in Scotland right at the height of the heather blooming, so the hills were almost completely purple.
After spending some time at Scott's View (so called because it was supposedly the favorite viewpoint of Sir Walter Scott), we descended from the hillside into Earlston, and walked through a forested area to the Wallace Monument. This is a different, less well-known monument than the famous one near Stirling, and features an unaccountably Roman-looking William Wallace:
After that, we made our way to Melrose, following a picturesque route along the River Tweed.
Melrose Abbey is a ruined abbey, famous for being the resting place of Robert the Bruce's heart (the rest of him is buried in Dunfermline). We all wandered around the abbey ruins, and around the town of Melrose itself, for an hour or so. This was also our lunch stop. I sat in a little cafe and had my first Orkney ice cream in two years. Oh, how I missed it...
This is the part where the weather turned on us. In the single most impressive reversal of Scottish Weather that I have personally witnessed, it was sunny when I began climbing one of the abbey towers, and had clouded over and begun to rain by the time I got to the top about two minutes later.
After Melrose Abbey, we went to our final major point of interest for the day, Rosslyn Chapel. Made famous by The Da Vinci Code, it's got some very interesting architecture on the inside: Celtic and Masonic symbols galore. Included in the entrance fee was a talk by a lady whose exact relationship to the Chapel I cannot recall, but she had a lot to say about the supposed Masonic secrets Rosslyn Chapel is supposed to contain. No one is allowed to see under the floorboards, and theories abound as to what's down there: the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant, Elvis Presley, etc. This picture is deceptive because it's actually quite a small church:
It was very cold, rainy, and windy by this point, so I was glad to get back on the minibus and head back to Edinburgh. All in all, it was an enjoyable trip, if not as active as the Wild in Scotland trips I've been on, and it covered ground I hadn't seen before, which was the main attraction. I'm glad I went.
This has not been nearly as detailed as I would have liked, but my journal notes about this day are scanty and I've lost a lot of the fine detail. Photos of the Wild in Scotland trip are making their way onto Facebook, so I'm going to post about that trip soon.
Cheers, y'all.
On the morning of the 28th of August, I left Edinburgh from the Rabbie's office on High Street with eight other people plus the driver, Emily. We were Americans, Germans, South Africans, and an Aussie, if I'm remembering correctly. It was a sunny and extremely windy day as we wended our way south to Walter Scott country.
The Scottish Borders (that is, the southern part of Scotland, bordering England) are often overlooked, quite unfairly. The Borders are mountainous, but differ in quality from the highlands in the more northerly part of the country. They're less rugged and more wide-open and rolling. They're also more forested than other areas of Scotland. For those reasons, they reminded me a bit of the Appalachian foothills in North Carolina.
Our first stop of the day was Scott's View, a scenic point near Earlston overlooking the three peaks of the Eildon Hills and the Tweed Valley, with the Cheviot Hills of England visible to the south.
 |
| goscotlandtours.com |
I was lucky enough to arrive in Scotland right at the height of the heather blooming, so the hills were almost completely purple.
After spending some time at Scott's View (so called because it was supposedly the favorite viewpoint of Sir Walter Scott), we descended from the hillside into Earlston, and walked through a forested area to the Wallace Monument. This is a different, less well-known monument than the famous one near Stirling, and features an unaccountably Roman-looking William Wallace:
 |
| myfinepix.com |
After that, we made our way to Melrose, following a picturesque route along the River Tweed.
 |
| bordercabs.co.uk |
Melrose Abbey is a ruined abbey, famous for being the resting place of Robert the Bruce's heart (the rest of him is buried in Dunfermline). We all wandered around the abbey ruins, and around the town of Melrose itself, for an hour or so. This was also our lunch stop. I sat in a little cafe and had my first Orkney ice cream in two years. Oh, how I missed it...
 |
| undiscoveredscotland.co.uk |
This is the part where the weather turned on us. In the single most impressive reversal of Scottish Weather that I have personally witnessed, it was sunny when I began climbing one of the abbey towers, and had clouded over and begun to rain by the time I got to the top about two minutes later.
After Melrose Abbey, we went to our final major point of interest for the day, Rosslyn Chapel. Made famous by The Da Vinci Code, it's got some very interesting architecture on the inside: Celtic and Masonic symbols galore. Included in the entrance fee was a talk by a lady whose exact relationship to the Chapel I cannot recall, but she had a lot to say about the supposed Masonic secrets Rosslyn Chapel is supposed to contain. No one is allowed to see under the floorboards, and theories abound as to what's down there: the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant, Elvis Presley, etc. This picture is deceptive because it's actually quite a small church:
 |
| annerobertson.com |
It was very cold, rainy, and windy by this point, so I was glad to get back on the minibus and head back to Edinburgh. All in all, it was an enjoyable trip, if not as active as the Wild in Scotland trips I've been on, and it covered ground I hadn't seen before, which was the main attraction. I'm glad I went.
This has not been nearly as detailed as I would have liked, but my journal notes about this day are scanty and I've lost a lot of the fine detail. Photos of the Wild in Scotland trip are making their way onto Facebook, so I'm going to post about that trip soon.
Cheers, y'all.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Class evals and recent activities.
I am officially a student again.
There are about 20 people in my degree program: 12 from Scotland, England, and Ireland; two from the US (including me), and one each from Canada, Barbados, Finland, Slovakia, Singapore, and Thailand. We have all the same classes at all the same times, so I'm sure we'll be a tight-knit bunch by the end of the year.
My program director is also the professor for two of the three courses I'm taking this semester: Research Methods I and Stress & Coping. He is very long-winded and prone to go off on tangents, but seems like a nice enough guy so far.
Research Methods I: This is a short course (only 5 weeks long), and it's shaping up to be a general review of the statistics and research methods classes I took in undergrad. We're sharing it with the Strength and Conditioning students, so there are 40 people in it rather than 20. I'm not anticipating this one giving me much trouble.
Planning and Instruction for Performance: The British equivalent of a TA is teaching this class, because the actual professor is about to go on paternity leave. The title of the class is dry and misleading - it's mainly going to be about all the different theories behind successful performance. Yesterday's lecture was all about experts vs. neophytes, for example. A lot of the reading is on studies relating to music performance, so I'm REALLY going to like this class.
Stress and Coping: As I said, long-winded teacher is long-winded, and this is going to be the class that requires the most outside work. But this is a topic that I potentially might want to do my dissertation on, so I'm trying to get the most out of it that I can.
***
In other news, on Sunday I climbed to the top of Arthur's Seat, an extinct volcano in the middle of Edinburgh, with my flatmate Mandy. The ascent, 823 feet, took much less time that I thought it would - about half an hour, including a couple of rest breaks - and the view up there is amazing. I could see all of Edinburgh, and into East Lothian and across the Firth of Forth to Fife (say that ten times fast).
I'm signed up to go to Arrochar, near Loch Lomond in western Scotland, with the Hillwalking Club on Saturday.
I bought a guitar off of Mandy and her brother Roy for 15 quid yesterday, and I've already managed to break a string while trying to tune the thing.
I've already broken my resolution not to do any schoolwork at my flat, as that's precisely what I'm doing now, in between writing this post. My excuse is that it was pouring down rain earlier and I didn't feel like going out into it (although, in a typical case of Scottish Weather, it is now gloriously sunny). That resolution has now been amended to "No paper-writing or project-doing at my flat."
Those are all the items of note for now. Cheers, y'all.
There are about 20 people in my degree program: 12 from Scotland, England, and Ireland; two from the US (including me), and one each from Canada, Barbados, Finland, Slovakia, Singapore, and Thailand. We have all the same classes at all the same times, so I'm sure we'll be a tight-knit bunch by the end of the year.
My program director is also the professor for two of the three courses I'm taking this semester: Research Methods I and Stress & Coping. He is very long-winded and prone to go off on tangents, but seems like a nice enough guy so far.
Research Methods I: This is a short course (only 5 weeks long), and it's shaping up to be a general review of the statistics and research methods classes I took in undergrad. We're sharing it with the Strength and Conditioning students, so there are 40 people in it rather than 20. I'm not anticipating this one giving me much trouble.
Planning and Instruction for Performance: The British equivalent of a TA is teaching this class, because the actual professor is about to go on paternity leave. The title of the class is dry and misleading - it's mainly going to be about all the different theories behind successful performance. Yesterday's lecture was all about experts vs. neophytes, for example. A lot of the reading is on studies relating to music performance, so I'm REALLY going to like this class.
Stress and Coping: As I said, long-winded teacher is long-winded, and this is going to be the class that requires the most outside work. But this is a topic that I potentially might want to do my dissertation on, so I'm trying to get the most out of it that I can.
***
In other news, on Sunday I climbed to the top of Arthur's Seat, an extinct volcano in the middle of Edinburgh, with my flatmate Mandy. The ascent, 823 feet, took much less time that I thought it would - about half an hour, including a couple of rest breaks - and the view up there is amazing. I could see all of Edinburgh, and into East Lothian and across the Firth of Forth to Fife (say that ten times fast).
I'm signed up to go to Arrochar, near Loch Lomond in western Scotland, with the Hillwalking Club on Saturday.
I bought a guitar off of Mandy and her brother Roy for 15 quid yesterday, and I've already managed to break a string while trying to tune the thing.
I've already broken my resolution not to do any schoolwork at my flat, as that's precisely what I'm doing now, in between writing this post. My excuse is that it was pouring down rain earlier and I didn't feel like going out into it (although, in a typical case of Scottish Weather, it is now gloriously sunny). That resolution has now been amended to "No paper-writing or project-doing at my flat."
Those are all the items of note for now. Cheers, y'all.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Class Schedule!
First Semester:
Research Methods I
First five Mondays, 6:00-7:50pm
Professional Skills
Last five Mondays, 6:00-7:50pm
Planning and Instruction for Performance
Tuesdays, 2:00-3:50pm
Stress, Coping, and Control
Tuesdays, 6:00-7:50pm
Second Semester
Professional Skills (continuing on from Semester 1)
First five Mondays, 6:00-7:50pm
Research Methods II
Last five Mondays, 6:00-7:50pm
Dynamics of Performance Teams
Tuesdays, 2:00-3:50pm
Peak Performance
Tuesdays, 6:00-7:50pm
* Dissertation due: August 17, 2012*
I'm waiting for the catch, as 6 hours per week seems like awfully little time to be in class. I'm thinking that for every hour of class time, there'll be 12 hours of outside work or something dreadful like that. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to Monday!
"A professor is the only person on earth with the power to put a veritable frame around life - not the whole thing, God no - simply a fragment of it, a small wedge. He organizes the unorganizable. Nimbly partitions it into modern and postmodern, renaissance, baroque, primitivism, imperialism and so on. Splice that up with Research Papers, Vacation, Midterms. All that order - simply divine. The symmetry of a semester course. Consider the words themselves: the seminar, the tutorial, the advanced whatever workshop accessible only to seniors, to graduate fellows, to doctoral candidates, the practicum - what a marvelous word: practicum! You think me crazy. Consider a Kandinsky. Utterly muddled, put a frame around it, voila - looks rather quaint above the fireplace. And so it is with the curriculum. That celestial, sweet set of instructions, culminating in the scary wonder of the Final Exam. And what is the Final Exam? A test of one's deepest understanding of giant concepts. No wonder so many adults long to return to university, to all those deadlines - ahhh, that structure! Scaffolding to which we may cling! Even if it is arbitrary, without it, we're lost, wholly incapable of separating the Romantic from the Victorian in our sad, bewildering lives..."
- Marisha Pessl, Special Topics in Calamity Physics
Research Methods I
First five Mondays, 6:00-7:50pm
Professional Skills
Last five Mondays, 6:00-7:50pm
Planning and Instruction for Performance
Tuesdays, 2:00-3:50pm
Stress, Coping, and Control
Tuesdays, 6:00-7:50pm
Second Semester
Professional Skills (continuing on from Semester 1)
First five Mondays, 6:00-7:50pm
Research Methods II
Last five Mondays, 6:00-7:50pm
Dynamics of Performance Teams
Tuesdays, 2:00-3:50pm
Peak Performance
Tuesdays, 6:00-7:50pm
* Dissertation due: August 17, 2012*
I'm waiting for the catch, as 6 hours per week seems like awfully little time to be in class. I'm thinking that for every hour of class time, there'll be 12 hours of outside work or something dreadful like that. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to Monday!
"A professor is the only person on earth with the power to put a veritable frame around life - not the whole thing, God no - simply a fragment of it, a small wedge. He organizes the unorganizable. Nimbly partitions it into modern and postmodern, renaissance, baroque, primitivism, imperialism and so on. Splice that up with Research Papers, Vacation, Midterms. All that order - simply divine. The symmetry of a semester course. Consider the words themselves: the seminar, the tutorial, the advanced whatever workshop accessible only to seniors, to graduate fellows, to doctoral candidates, the practicum - what a marvelous word: practicum! You think me crazy. Consider a Kandinsky. Utterly muddled, put a frame around it, voila - looks rather quaint above the fireplace. And so it is with the curriculum. That celestial, sweet set of instructions, culminating in the scary wonder of the Final Exam. And what is the Final Exam? A test of one's deepest understanding of giant concepts. No wonder so many adults long to return to university, to all those deadlines - ahhh, that structure! Scaffolding to which we may cling! Even if it is arbitrary, without it, we're lost, wholly incapable of separating the Romantic from the Victorian in our sad, bewildering lives..."
- Marisha Pessl, Special Topics in Calamity Physics
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Life's Rich Tapestry
The ceilidh (pronounced "CAY-lee," if anyone's wondering) was completely awesome. I probably sweated off about five pounds, and I'm still sore from one dance in particular that required the guys to lift the girls and spin them around for an extended period of time. The music and dance steps were supplied by the most attractive ceilidh band I have ever seen (KILTS GALORE), and I met and danced with a lot of cool people. I'm SO glad I went.
Last night there was a disco for the postgrads, and it was every bit as cheesy as the word "disco" implies. Hits of the '70s, '80s, and '90s mostly, with notable highlights being "Take On Me" by A-Ha (with absolutely everyone singing along to the chorus, including the high note), "You Spin Me Round" by Dead or Alive, and "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls. They may have eventually gotten into the early '00s, but I left with two girls I met there before it was over. One of the girls and I discovered that we are practically related: we both have Slavic family origins, as well as family origins from the same area of England, the same middle name, and we are both into knitting. I also met a very drunk Norwegian girl, who I am sure was very confused when she woke up this morning to find my name written on her arm in ballpoint pen.
Today was productive. I joined the mailing lists for the Hillwalking Club and the Wind Band. I made the difficult decision NOT to audition for either of the orchestras, because the Symphony Orchestra rehearses on Monday nights when I have class, and the Sinfonia rehearses on Saturday mornings, which will preclude me ever going away for the weekend. The Wind Band rehearses Wednesday nights and is non-auditioned, so I'm going to check them out. Getting my name out as a freelancer is a moot point now, because I found out today that I can't take freelance work because it qualifies as self-employment, and I am not allowed to be self-employed while I'm in school as a condition of my visa. Frick.
I also found out today that the UK's Tier 1 Post-Study Work Visa, which would have allowed me to stay in the UK for an additional two years after finishing school in order to find a job, is being discontinued in April. This means that if I want to stay in Scotland after I finish my degree, I have to have a job offer by the time my student visa runs out in January 2013. Double frick.
But there is some good news! I had a very helpful talk with one of the people at the finance office today, and it turns out I have more time to pay my tuition fees than I thought I did! This is handy, because my bank account is still not up and running, and it may be next Tuesday before it is. I also got the university's own bank account info, so if worst comes to worst, I can get my parents to do a bank transfer directly to the university from the US, rather than waiting for my bank to get its act together here. This is a HUGE weight off my shoulders.
The weather has been gorgeous for the last few days - sunny and...not warm exactly, but tolerable. It's been so clear that I've been able to see the Firth of Forth from Princes Street. My mood has had its ups and downs over the last week, but I've made new friends, started to get comfortable with the school, and things are coming together. To borrow a line from The Mighty Boosh, I just have to remind myself that even the rough spots are "all a part of life's rich tapestry," and things have a way of working out.
Cheers, y'all.
Last night there was a disco for the postgrads, and it was every bit as cheesy as the word "disco" implies. Hits of the '70s, '80s, and '90s mostly, with notable highlights being "Take On Me" by A-Ha (with absolutely everyone singing along to the chorus, including the high note), "You Spin Me Round" by Dead or Alive, and "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls. They may have eventually gotten into the early '00s, but I left with two girls I met there before it was over. One of the girls and I discovered that we are practically related: we both have Slavic family origins, as well as family origins from the same area of England, the same middle name, and we are both into knitting. I also met a very drunk Norwegian girl, who I am sure was very confused when she woke up this morning to find my name written on her arm in ballpoint pen.
Today was productive. I joined the mailing lists for the Hillwalking Club and the Wind Band. I made the difficult decision NOT to audition for either of the orchestras, because the Symphony Orchestra rehearses on Monday nights when I have class, and the Sinfonia rehearses on Saturday mornings, which will preclude me ever going away for the weekend. The Wind Band rehearses Wednesday nights and is non-auditioned, so I'm going to check them out. Getting my name out as a freelancer is a moot point now, because I found out today that I can't take freelance work because it qualifies as self-employment, and I am not allowed to be self-employed while I'm in school as a condition of my visa. Frick.
I also found out today that the UK's Tier 1 Post-Study Work Visa, which would have allowed me to stay in the UK for an additional two years after finishing school in order to find a job, is being discontinued in April. This means that if I want to stay in Scotland after I finish my degree, I have to have a job offer by the time my student visa runs out in January 2013. Double frick.
But there is some good news! I had a very helpful talk with one of the people at the finance office today, and it turns out I have more time to pay my tuition fees than I thought I did! This is handy, because my bank account is still not up and running, and it may be next Tuesday before it is. I also got the university's own bank account info, so if worst comes to worst, I can get my parents to do a bank transfer directly to the university from the US, rather than waiting for my bank to get its act together here. This is a HUGE weight off my shoulders.
The weather has been gorgeous for the last few days - sunny and...not warm exactly, but tolerable. It's been so clear that I've been able to see the Firth of Forth from Princes Street. My mood has had its ups and downs over the last week, but I've made new friends, started to get comfortable with the school, and things are coming together. To borrow a line from The Mighty Boosh, I just have to remind myself that even the rough spots are "all a part of life's rich tapestry," and things have a way of working out.
Cheers, y'all.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
These kids are so much younger than me!
After a two-year absence from academia, I did feel a little bit of trepidation about going back to school. While being a member of the working world comes with its own grumbles and groans, I at least had my evenings and weekends to do with as I pleased, guilt-free, for the first time since I was about five. So as the beginning of classes has been looming closer, I've been worrying a bit. Will I be able to get back into the routine of doing homework, writing papers, taking tests, managing my time efficiently, etc?
I went to two induction meetings today: one for everyone in Moray House (which is my school within the College of Humanities and Social Science), and one for all the people starting Taught Postgraduate programs.
And I was amazed at how much I felt at home.
Being in a huge lecture hall, surrounded by fellow students, listening to the person with the microphone talk, feels as familiar and comforting as a favorite hoodie. So did being one of the multitudes streaming in and out of the various buildings I visited on various errands today (I am now officially registered, and have my student ID - yay!). Living in a foreign country, even this one that I'm utterly familiar with and love so much, is taking some getting used to. But what I experienced today was a dose of real familiarity that I didn't realize I needed until now. As the speakers at the Taught Postgrad meeting said today, twelve months for an MSc program is a fast pace, and four months to write a dissertation is even faster. I know I'm in for stress and sleepless nights and tears this year, but you know what? It's nothing that I haven't dealt with and handled before, and I will handle it again.
***
Now for the more quotidian part of the update. I didn't actually get anything done yesterday. First I went to Adam House to get my registration stuff sorted, and was promptly told "If you've done it online you're fine, you can come back tomorrow to handle whatever, OH GOD THERE ARE FAR TOO MANY PEOPLE HERE PLEASE GO AWAY." Because, being the first day of Freshers Week, it was a madhouse. So then I went to the main library on George Square, to go to a meeting on how to find a part-time job. When I got there, I found out that I couldn't get past the lobby without my student ID, and I wouldn't be able to get that until the next day (today). And so, grumbling about how dysfunctional this university is (not unlike my alma mater, good old UNC), I caught a bus back to my flat, made a cup of tea, and read a book in the living room as the remnants of Hurricane Katia lashed down. But there's another of those job-finding meetings on Thursday, so no harm done in the end.
For most of yesterday and the first half of today, the end of the song "I Wish I Could Go Back to College" from Avenue Q was playing in my head on a continuous loop. Specifically:
I walk through the quad,
And think "Oh my God,
These kids are so much younger than me!"
Aside from wading through all the 18-year-olds cluttering George Square yesterday, this morning's Moray House induction was geared mainly toward the frosh. But tonight there's a ceilidh specifically for thegrown-ups postgrads...
I went to two induction meetings today: one for everyone in Moray House (which is my school within the College of Humanities and Social Science), and one for all the people starting Taught Postgraduate programs.
And I was amazed at how much I felt at home.
Being in a huge lecture hall, surrounded by fellow students, listening to the person with the microphone talk, feels as familiar and comforting as a favorite hoodie. So did being one of the multitudes streaming in and out of the various buildings I visited on various errands today (I am now officially registered, and have my student ID - yay!). Living in a foreign country, even this one that I'm utterly familiar with and love so much, is taking some getting used to. But what I experienced today was a dose of real familiarity that I didn't realize I needed until now. As the speakers at the Taught Postgrad meeting said today, twelve months for an MSc program is a fast pace, and four months to write a dissertation is even faster. I know I'm in for stress and sleepless nights and tears this year, but you know what? It's nothing that I haven't dealt with and handled before, and I will handle it again.
***
Now for the more quotidian part of the update. I didn't actually get anything done yesterday. First I went to Adam House to get my registration stuff sorted, and was promptly told "If you've done it online you're fine, you can come back tomorrow to handle whatever, OH GOD THERE ARE FAR TOO MANY PEOPLE HERE PLEASE GO AWAY." Because, being the first day of Freshers Week, it was a madhouse. So then I went to the main library on George Square, to go to a meeting on how to find a part-time job. When I got there, I found out that I couldn't get past the lobby without my student ID, and I wouldn't be able to get that until the next day (today). And so, grumbling about how dysfunctional this university is (not unlike my alma mater, good old UNC), I caught a bus back to my flat, made a cup of tea, and read a book in the living room as the remnants of Hurricane Katia lashed down. But there's another of those job-finding meetings on Thursday, so no harm done in the end.
For most of yesterday and the first half of today, the end of the song "I Wish I Could Go Back to College" from Avenue Q was playing in my head on a continuous loop. Specifically:
I walk through the quad,
And think "Oh my God,
These kids are so much younger than me!"
Aside from wading through all the 18-year-olds cluttering George Square yesterday, this morning's Moray House induction was geared mainly toward the frosh. But tonight there's a ceilidh specifically for the
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Time for an update!
I've been in a pretty unhappy place for the last few days, owing to the loss of my camera and the clusterfuck with my matriculation stuff. But I spent all of yesterday morning and into the early afternoon running around Edinburgh doing everything in my power to fix said clusterfuck, and I *think* it's going to be okay. My paperwork is filled out and emailed back to the Registry, and I'm going to go to the Registry in person tomorrow with hard copies of the stuff, just to make sure everything is ship-shape. I tried going yesterday, thinking that with Freshers Week nearly upon us they *might* be open, but no. I did encounter a human being near one of the main quads off of South Bridge, who was very nice and helpful and told me to come back on Monday, so that's what I'm doing. The wording on the bit of paper he gave me, and on the Freshers Week website itself, leads me to believe that all of this registration stuff is eminently fixable in the coming week. Also, I had a good talk with one of my flatmates (who just happens to be a psychologist - SCORE!) last night about all this anxiety I'm feeling about school starting, and felt much, much better afterward.
Today, I plotted out which Freshers week activities I'm going to go to. Tomorrow's main priority is getting this registration/matriculation stuff sorted out, and then I'm going to a seminar thing for international students on how to get a part-time job. A decision I really need to make in the next day or two is whether to audition for the university orchestra. I haven't played the oboe since I left the States, and I need to very quickly get back in playing shape if I'm going to do this. Thing is, I don't think I'll be able to play for the top-tier orchestra, because it rehearses during my Monday classes. But I think I'm going to do it, because hey, I dragged my instrument and reed-making tools and sheet music all the way across the Atlantic, so I might as well make use of them. And even if I'm only playing for the sinfonia, it'll be an avenue to get my name out as a freelancer.
One final word: This morning, I discovered that the angle of my bed to my window is perfect for watching the sun come up. And come up it did this morning, brilliantly.
Today, I plotted out which Freshers week activities I'm going to go to. Tomorrow's main priority is getting this registration/matriculation stuff sorted out, and then I'm going to a seminar thing for international students on how to get a part-time job. A decision I really need to make in the next day or two is whether to audition for the university orchestra. I haven't played the oboe since I left the States, and I need to very quickly get back in playing shape if I'm going to do this. Thing is, I don't think I'll be able to play for the top-tier orchestra, because it rehearses during my Monday classes. But I think I'm going to do it, because hey, I dragged my instrument and reed-making tools and sheet music all the way across the Atlantic, so I might as well make use of them. And even if I'm only playing for the sinfonia, it'll be an avenue to get my name out as a freelancer.
One final word: This morning, I discovered that the angle of my bed to my window is perfect for watching the sun come up. And come up it did this morning, brilliantly.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Oh God, I'm an idiot.
So it's the Friday before Orientation Week, and I've been getting a bit nervous because I haven't really received anything telling me what to do, how to matriculate, etc. So today I took a very close look at my original offer letter, and on the very last page, there's a little website link that says "How To Matriculate."
I'm going to go ahead and make a long story short, and just say that today I discovered that I have a student email account, and an email with my matriculation form has been sitting in it for the last 4 weeks waiting for me to print it out, fill it out, and mail it in; or alternatively, scan and email it back. All it took to find this email account was a little bit of digging in the MyEd portal. Dumbass, party of one.
Since I don't have a printer, I'm going to go to my favorite little internet cafe on Blackfriars Street tomorrow (or maybe even tonight - I think they're open until 10pm) and print the thing out. Hopefully they'll have a scanner too, so I can scan the finished thing and email it off quick-sharp. I have a feeling that this is also why I haven't gotten a tuition bill. Ohgodohgod, hopefully this can be fixed. D:
***
In other news, I am now moved into my permanent abode. I'm still putting clothes away, but the initial grocery shopping is done. I need to go back out and buy a duvet and pillows though, because I took a closer look at the existing ones, and they're pretty gnarly. I also took the initial steps to open a bank account today. It should be up and running on Tuesday.
I'm going to go ahead and make a long story short, and just say that today I discovered that I have a student email account, and an email with my matriculation form has been sitting in it for the last 4 weeks waiting for me to print it out, fill it out, and mail it in; or alternatively, scan and email it back. All it took to find this email account was a little bit of digging in the MyEd portal. Dumbass, party of one.
Since I don't have a printer, I'm going to go to my favorite little internet cafe on Blackfriars Street tomorrow (or maybe even tonight - I think they're open until 10pm) and print the thing out. Hopefully they'll have a scanner too, so I can scan the finished thing and email it off quick-sharp. I have a feeling that this is also why I haven't gotten a tuition bill. Ohgodohgod, hopefully this can be fixed. D:
***
In other news, I am now moved into my permanent abode. I'm still putting clothes away, but the initial grocery shopping is done. I need to go back out and buy a duvet and pillows though, because I took a closer look at the existing ones, and they're pretty gnarly. I also took the initial steps to open a bank account today. It should be up and running on Tuesday.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
RIP camera. :(
I'm back from my trip around the highlands and islands. It was as lovely and spectacular as I knew it would be, and I will once again use this blog to pimp Wild in Scotland - this is how it's done, people. I'm hoping to do a big write-up about this trip (as well as the Rabbie's trip from a couple of weeks ago), but for the moment two things are holding me back. Firstly, my power cord has taken it into it's head to misbehave more than usual and I'm currently typing one-handed while the other hand holds it *just* so. Secondly, I dropped my digital camera over a waterfall at our final stop before Edinburgh today. Nearly 800 photos, documenting my first three weeks in Scotland: GONE. Admittedly, I have other pics of most of the places I went from other, previous visits to Scotland, but not all of them. In particular, there were some outstanding pics from the Eildon Hills, a couple of walks on Skye and Lewis, and all the documentation of my personal Triple Crown of Lunacy Involving Very Cold Water, which I am not going to be able to replace, and which I'm completely devastated to have lost.
SO. I'm holding off until I can borrow some pics from my new friends from the trip, because I would really like to accompany my trip entries with photos.
And now I'm going to go grieve my camera some more.
SO. I'm holding off until I can borrow some pics from my new friends from the trip, because I would really like to accompany my trip entries with photos.
And now I'm going to go grieve my camera some more.
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