Study Abroad at Edinburgh Uni

So I’ve finished the first of my four finals, and I have to say, my first final at the University of Edinburgh was…ROUGH. As I explained in my last blog, my international law final exam was worth 70% of my course mark and was testing me over an entire year’s worth of material. I was given 6 essay questions and needed to answer 4 of them in 3 hours. It was brutal!

I was so stressed Sunday night that I only was able to sleep a few hours—trying to keep UN resolutions, Internal Court of Justice cases and Internal Law Commission Articles in my head wasn’t the easiest thing I’ve had to do in my academic career. I’ve never had to take a test like this before, and by the end of it, I was so worn out that I came home and actually slept for 16 and a half hours straight.
Taking the exam itself seemed like something out of a movie. My exam was held in McEwan Hall, which looks like this:

I was so distracted by how pretty the building was, that I probably spent the first ten minutes of my exam staring at the columns, the paintings, and the ceilings. McEwan Hall is where the graduation services are held--it seats 2000 people, quite a different set-up than Reed Arena, that sits 12,500 people for our commencement ceremonies at Texas A&M University. As far as the actual test taking process went, it was much like any other final, except that there were at least 300, maybe 400 students taking a test at once. Half the room was taking the International Law exam, and the other half was taking (I think) a chemistry exam of some sort. I filled up around fifteen page, maybe even twenty, of that blue book, and I have to tell you, I’m pretty thrilled to be done with the whole thing.

Now just three more to go. I don’t have any tests the rest of this week, just one next Friday (May 8), then one May 15 and one on May 16—then I am done with my undergraduate career! It seems like it’s gone by so quickly. Just need to study two more history classes and one more business class, and I get a three month break before postgraduate work. Phew. Luckily, my other three finals won’t be quite as intense. My two history finals are only worth 50% of my grade, and my business final is two, not three, hours long.
The tricky part will be figuring out how to get all of this credit to apply back to A&M in time to graduate this summer without missing any of the necessary deadlines. Although all my courses will be done as of May 16, I won’t be able to graduate until August because of the time it takes to transfer credit back to A&M. It’s kind of sad that I’m missing graduating with all of my friends, but I honestly am more worried about getting through the end of the semester than worrying about graduation at this point. Finals have never been more stressful, only because I’ve never been this close to being done!

So for all you class of 2009 seniors back home getting ready for your last round of finals, I feel your pain, and wish you the best of luck!

First of all, my mother is fine! If you read my last post, I was going through a bit of a rough patch, worrying about my mom from thousands of miles away. She was in the hospital for bronchitis and they discovered some heart problems, but she’s completely fine! Arteries clear, no surgery needed. I don’t think I need to tell you too much how relieved I was to have that weight off my mind. I’m still worried about her, but it’s nice to know things are on the mend.

Now, I know we’re getting towards the end of the semester, which of course, means finals. For the past three and a half years, this means four days of an intense listing out of knowledge garnered over the previous semester. In Edinburgh, things are running a little differently. Over here, my finals are spread out over 6 weeks…and they’re from the whole year, even the courses that ended last semester. Quite a change from the A&M norm.

What’s even stranger is that I have four weeks off of lectures beforehand. My last lecture was three weeks ago, and I’ve spent that time trying to get a whole year’s worth of material together for my first final next Monday. If you think revising for a final at A&M is tricky, imagine trying to remember everything you learned the first week of September! Not an easy task. Still though, finals are finals. It’s that time when you just have to do your best and hope it works out. At A&M, finals are pretty stressful, but they’re usually only worth about 25% of your grade—I think the most heavily weighted final I took back home was 40%, which I thought was crazy. My final on Monday contributes 70% of my final mark for International Law. One two hour essay based exam over material from the whole year is worth almost three quarters of my grade. Needless to say, the stress is starting to build up a little bit.

While I’ve finished my lectures a long time before A&M finishes its lectures, I’ll still be in school while, back home, graduations are happening. My last final isn’t until May 16, and finals run for a few weeks after that for various departments. It’s a very strange feeling, because it feels like school’s been out, but without the happy, carefree feeling of summer or Christmas break as I know I’ve got hugely important tests looming over me.

So the system is completely different, but is it better? In terms of personal taste, I much prefer the A&M system. Yes, finals come at you quickly, but they’re only for the semester that you just studied, you only have about a week to prepare, and then you’re done. Free. Here, you have much m ore time to prepare for your finals, if you don’t slack off or get distracted, but there is much more pressure to do well as the tests are more heavily weighted. The combination of that, the four weeks of stress buildup, and examinations over material that concluded teaching in December is difficult to adjust to. On the other hand, the Edinburgh system does make sense in that it encourages students to learn material and really retain it, as opposed to cramming the info in your brain for three months, spitting it out and being done with it. Either way, it’s definitely the most obvious difference in teaching organization style between my two undergraduate schools, and hopefully I’ll do an okay job of adjusting to the Edinburgh way.

So for all my fellow Edinburghers, good luck going into the last week of revision, and for all my fellow Aggies, start getting ready, because finals aren’t that far away!

When I left home in the fall of 2005, I went through the typical feelings associated with leaving home. At first, I was so excited and only felt elation at growing up. After a few weeks, I started to miss home and the constant comfort of my parents, and then finally got used to living on my own. Three years pass, and I have trouble going home for any length of time, as it invariably ends in fights between my parents and me. Still, though, I was always able to go home on the spot if I needed to—the drive was only three hours from College Station, where I was living and going to University in Texas.

When I moved to Edinburgh in September, I had already made the transition to living on my own without my family, but I had to get used to not being able to text my mom or sister whenever I wanted to, or be there whenever they needed me. I figured out a pretty good system with Skype, but sometimes, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.

A few weeks ago, my mom was hospitalized because she was having trouble breathing. Every year, she gets awful bronchitis and this year it was particularly bad, and she ended up needing the hospital to help her breathe. Needless to say, this was pretty scary for me, but even more so because I’m on the other side of the ocean. In addition, it’s usually my mom that I talk to as my father and sister aren’t really big on the whole communication thing. I felt like I was completely shut off from what was happening with my family, and it was very unsettling. To make things even worse, the doctors found out that there is something wrong with my mother’s heart—they’re not sure what’s causing it, so she has to go back to the hospital tomorrow to get a heart catheter put in. I’ve talked to her every day on Skype this week but it’s not the same as being there, or even being in the same state.

I think as we grow up we get to a point where we think we’re completely capable of leaving our families, and while it may be true that I am completely able to live apart from my family, there’s a big part of me that wants, more than anything, to be home with my mom when she needs me. I physically cannot get to my mom right now, and it is a much more difficult situation than I thought it might be. It’s strange, because even though I’m removed from the situation, I think it actually makes the stress of my mom’s condition harder for me to deal with, because I’m not able to do anything. My sheer impotence is frustrating beyond belief. Of course, my family tells me not to worry, but we all know how that is.

I’ve only had positive things to say about studying abroad, and even living abroad. The new experiences, the opportunities, the complete opening up of yourself that occurs—these are all great, but I’m finding that they may not always make up for this one incredibly powerful negative. Being incapable of being there for your family or loved ones when they need you or are in trouble is HARD. I imagine a lot of people who don’t study abroad deal with this as well, but it’s my first exposure to one of the not so hot aspects of adulthood.

Hopefully, my next blog will be full of exciting news about my mom, and how this whole thing has been an overreaction. Until then, I’ll just leave you with the advice that while life gives you the chance to be around the people you love, you should take as much advantage of it as you can. Sometimes we are granted opportunities that cause us to give up easy access to those we’re close to, and while we should jump at these opportunities, we should remember what we have while we have it.

I started university in 2005, and planned to graduate in 2009--wait, it’s 2009 this year…doesn’t that mean I’m supposed to graduate and…sniffle…leave the safety of being an undergraduate?? As in, make a decision about my future?

Over the past few months, as I’m sure most other senior have been, I’ve been stressing out about what I’d be doing after graduation. Because I’m studying abroad during the spring semester of my senior year, the credits won’t be applied to my A&M degree in time for a May graduation, meaning I’ll be done in August. To make the general unease about graduating more intense, I also had to worry about whether or not I was staying in the United Kingdom or flying home in August to graduate and staying in Texas, as well as coordinate all my graduation from across the Atlantic.

I had a few ladles in the pot, from taking a gap year to applying to the Peace Corps, but my Plan A was attending graduate school at the University of Glasgow for an MSc (Master of Science) in Human Rights and International Politics—and I recently found out that I got in!!

So, I will officially be moving to Glasgow at some point during the summer and getting ready to be a graduate student. The program is a year long, so I’ll be finishing my MSc in September 2010. Glasgow is only about 40 miles away from Edinburgh, but is such a completely different type of city. Edinburgh may be the capital of Scotland, but we only have about 500,000 people—Glasgow has over 2 MILLION. This also means that I’ll be changing my city label from “Edinburgher” to “Glaswegian,” or “Wegie” for short. I’m so excited to start graduate work, and really focus on my specific interest—what’s so intriguing about this particular program is that it addresses human rights from both the legal and political viewpoints, which leaves a ton of options open for me for post-academic work. I’m not sure where I’ll be living in Glasgow, or when I’m moving, but I know I’m going!

In other news, I’m in a bit of a limbo at the moment. The University of Edinburgh has finished giving lectures for the year, so I’m completely done with undergraduate lectures. Here’s the funny part—four weeks from now, finals begin: a month and a half of them. I have four weeks off, then four tests over three weeks. Not only do I have finals from this semester, but a final for my year long course, and a final from a course that ended last semester! I may have four weeks off from lectures, but I certainly have a lot of work to do. This type of format is so unfamiliar to me. Back home, we have finals for each semester at the end of the semester that the course was given in--these finals are also close to the end of the semester and are only given over four days. It's very difficult to revise for exams that, in some cases, are six weeks away yet I have all the information that I need.

Prediction: Lots of hours in the library for me. But even though I’ve got a ton of work ahead of me, at least I have a plan for next year! For all you Aggie seniors—if you haven’t found a job or grad school or a plan yet, keep looking! Something will work out, and once you’ve made a decision, life gets just a little bit easier.

In the past two weeks, I’ve had an interesting run of dancing. I’ve had a black eye from a night of Scottish folk dancing, an international blues event that ended at 3:00 in the morning with actual bagpiping, and jaunts across Edinburgh doing the Shim Sham about 20 times for a video project.

The best way I heard a ceilidh described was by one of my fellow Texans studying in Glasgow, who put it as “like country western dancing but with the intensity of a rock concert.” This particular ceilidh was actually a Diabetes UK fundraiser, put on by the good friends of the President of the Edinburgh University Swing Dance Society who passed away last semester due to complications from the disease. I actually was djing the night when the ceilidh band (my flatmate’s band, actually) wasn’t playing.

The gig was a huge success, and a fitting way to honor Duncan. Everything was going great, lots of dancing, both swing and Scottish, until the last dance of the ceilidh, which is Strip the Willow. It’s hard to describe, but involves a TON of spinning at high speeds. Somehow, even though I’d never done it, I ended up at the front of the line and starting spinning my way down the line. Because of the high speeds and my complete inexperience, I somehow ended up getting hit full in the face by one of the other dancers. It seemed fine at the time, just a painful jolt, but the next morning, I woke up to a surprise. I thought I had washed all my makeup off, so when I saw some black around my eye, I was confused, but tried to wipe off what I thought was eyeliner and mascara. Much to my surprise and dismay, it didn’t come off and HURT—my first black eye, and from Scottish dancing. Well on, Scotland, well on.

As my black eye was wearing off, my first big event as a dance organizer was coming up. Lucky Skillen is one of my favorite teachers out there, and is part of the reason I started to blues dance in the first place. When I saw that he was going to be in the UK doing a teaching run, I organized an event for him and his dancing partner at the time, Rhoni Blackenthorn, to come up to Edinburgh and give a blues workshop. It was a huge success, a complete sellout. I spent the day last Thursday showing them around; we even went out to Rosslyn Chapel, of the Da Vinci Code fame. The funny thing was that during the entire day we didn’t hear one single bagpiper. This is very strange for Edinburgh; usually you can always find someone piping along the Royal Mile or Princes Street. After the workshop and dance, we took them out to a pub, where they kept commenting on the fact that they had come all the way to Scotland and hadn’t heard a piper. At this point, my flatmate jumps in and reminds us that she has a set of bagpipes at the flat. Since Lucky and Rhoni were flying out the next morning, this would be their only chance to hear some authentic Scottish bagpipe playing. Even though it was well into the wee hours of the morning, we trekked out to a local park and had ourselves a mini-Scottish bagpipe session. At 3:00 in the morning. Nice.

One of the amazing things about swing dance is its ability to transcend nationality, age, class, race, gender, or any social constructs you can apply. It can connect people all across the world, and is doing so this week. Frankie Manning is sometimes called the great-granddaddy of swing, and was one of the founders of lindy hop. He started dancing in New York in the 1930s, and is still teaching and dancing today: he is turning 95 in May. NINETY FIVE. In addition to the enormous party being held in New York City (which I will be attending!!), swing scenes around the world are collaborating on a video project. The Shim Sham is basically a line dance, but a swing stroll, which is way cooler . One of the things the global swing scene is doing for Frankie is having as many swing scenes as possible film the Shim Sham and upload them to YouTube—several of these will be compiled and shown at the Frankie Festival in May. Here’s a link to Frankie leading the Shim Sham in Houston, Texas, in 2007—when he was 93:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obIGsb-IZMo&feature=channel_page

Of course, here in Edinburgh, we had to film our Shim Sham! We ended up doing the Shim Sham around and on top of the Salisbury Crags, which are 150 foot high cliffs in the middle of Holyrood Park. The video’s not up yet, but it is going to be epic, just epic. At the end of the day, I was very tired, and very wind-swept!

So, after some pretty eventful dancing here in Edinburgh, you’d think I’d be worn out for awhile, right? Not in the slightest: travelling down to England this weekend for a swing workshop and performances! Watch this space for more!

Okay, now that the combination of jet lag and epic dancing has worn off, have I got a story for you!

Last Thursday, I made my ninth cross-Atlantic flight from Edinburgh to Washington, D.C. As amazing as it would have been just to fly to my nation’s capital, I actually was flying with a purpose. Over a year ago, I started doing some research with Dr. Roemer Visser and Dr. Lesley Tomaszewski, examining whether or not gender based differences in peer performance appraisals existed. After a TON of work, we submitted a research abstract to the Academy of Human Resource Development for their 2009 International Research Conference in The Americas, and it was accepted! We had submitted our work before I left for Scotland, so I had no idea what would happen if our work was positively reviewed, but I was fortunate enough to be sponsored to fly all the way from Scotland to help present our work to other human resource development professors, graduate students, and professionals.

The conference, though I have attended many before, was my first where I was involved in presenting anything. It definitely gave me a different perspective than previous conferences. In D.C., I still attended other presentations, but was more focused on networking and building on the ideas that we had come up with for own research than simply absorbing new material as I had in past conferences. I was not incredibly familiar with human resource development; at Mays Business School, I had studied human resource management, but not development. In my mind, I had grouped the two together. When I looked at the conference program, however, and saw other presenters from Texas A&M, individuals that I knew were not from Mays Business School, I learned that human resource development is actually in the College of Education rather than Business. For me, this is a little counterintuitive; shouldn’t the study of how to manage your human resources and how to develop your human resources be looked at collectively?

Anyway, we gave our presentation on Saturday morning, and while the audience was not huge at 8:30 in the morning, we did have some fantastic feedback about ways to advance our study. The really exciting part was that I felt like we were being given some serious affirmation; beyond our research being accepted by the Academy, here were these professionals getting excited and involved in what we had to say. Based on that dialogue and some additional data we’ve collected, I’m hopeful that we will be able to produce a full paper in the next few months or so.

Well, surely that must be the end of the story—I mean, I had this amazing professional development opportunity with great results, right?

But then that would be a short story, and suspiciously void of dancing.

If you haven’t read any of my previous blogs, I am a wee bit obsessed with any and all forms of dancing. I teach swing dancing two nights a week in Edinburgh, dj as often as I can, am on two performance teams, and am helping promote a swing dance company through the management side. So, when I was in D.C., I naturally headed over to the local lindy hop scene to check out the scene. I met some great people and had some good dances, but had expected a little more out of our capital. At this point, my swing levels were dangerously low, and I was needing some excellent dancing.

Not to worry, though, I had a backup plan!

Once we had given our presentation and I had the all clear from Dr. Visser and Dr. T., I headed back to the airport and flew north, across the border, to chilly and snowy Montreal to catch the second half of a blues dance exchange, Montreal Bagel ‘N Blues! The whole theme of the exchange was bagels, which meant lots of delicious treats all weekend.

The swing dancing community is incredible mobile, so many of my friends from Texas were at this exchange, in addition to the dozens of close friends I’ve developed through my years of traveling and dancing. There was so much snow in Montreal, but we mostly kept inside, dancing until 7:00 in the morning. Besides the wonderful dancing and sightseeing, I received even more affirmation on this trip…

…I won a blues contest! Around 4:00 am Sunday morning, the organizers announced an impromptu blues contest. My friend David from Santa Fe and I looked at each other, shrugged and said, “Why not?” and proceeded to have a good time on the dance floor. Much to our surprise, we won the contest! Besides a spiffy bagel medal, I now have free passes to BABBLE, or the Big Apple Balboa/Blues/Lindy Exchange in New York City in April; whether or not I can actually go is a whole ‘nother matter.

David, two other friends and I were meant to be flying to our respective homes on Monday, but not out of Montreal due to cheaper ticket prices in various places in New England. In order to make it in time, we decided to leave the late night dance in Montreal around 3:00 in the morning, drive three hours across the border, catch three hours of sleep in a hotel in Vermont, and keep driving to Manchester, New Hampshire, and Boston, Massachusetts. Phew. That was a tough trip. It was snowing so hard that we could only drive about 30 miles an hour at some points. After we dropped Rachel and Patrick off in New Hampshire, though, David and I had plenty of time before our flights, so we walked around downtown Boston before heading to Logan Airport. Of course, while there, we HAD to blues dance in the middle of the terminal. I’m not entirely sure what the airline officials thought of us, but it was a lot of fun.

After all that, I still had to fly to D.C., catch a connecting flight to London Heathrow, then one more to Edinburgh. For the first time in my many flights, I slept through all of them. This turned out to be incredibly fortunate, as I had to run immediately to class when I got back into Edinburgh, then head over to Zoot Swing for three hours of lessons—and the one I was teaching started at 9:30 pm! Needless to say, I was pretty tired!

So there you have it—one of the busiest weekends of my life. It involved crossing 10 time zones, 6 flights, and a 7 hour road trip, academic development and dancing joy. Give me another week to recover, and I’ll be ready for the next one!

Remember when you turned 16? For me, it was a magical number—all the Disney princesses were 16—plus, I could finally legally drive. 18 rolled around, the official age of adulthood, when I could legally sign myself in and out of school, sign release forms, or whatever else. 21…Americans all remember 21, the last big birthday of our youth, where all the strict guidelines of what we can and can’t legally do are lifted and we’re able to fully participate in all of society’s rules. Then comes 22.

I just turned 22, and for the first birthday ever, I didn’t feel any different on my birthday.

I woke up, saw that I had about 800 Facebook notifications of people (many that I hadn’t talked to in years) wishing me a happy birthday, and went about my day. It just seems like I’ve hit my last ‘growing up’ birthday and now have moved on to adult aged land. It’s like, okay, I’ve hit 22, time to be a grown up. Which is scary beyond belief!

I did have a nice birthday, though. I am amazed to report that the quality of Tex-Mex food over here is…surprisingly good. One of my friends works at this Mexican food place, and I begrudgingly agreed to have my birthday dinner at her restaurant. Don’t get me wrong—I LOVE Mexican food. It’s one of the things I miss the most about home. I love it so much, in fact, that I assumed that the food would be terrible here and didn’t want to have to sit through a horrible rendition of familiar, homey, comfort food. But it was delicious! It wasn’t as good as Texas, but then what is, right? Still, it felt like home, with enchiladas and margaritas and guacamole. Yum. It was delicious!

In addition to my birthday celebrations this past weekend, I had the opportunity to observe the Valentine’s Day goings-on of my friends and neighbors here in the United Kingdom and I have to say, it seems like a much bigger deal in Texas and the rest of the United States. I don’t think it’s Valentine’s Day in particular that is a bigger deal back home, but all commercial holidays. None of my friends, that I know of, did anything at all for Valentine’s Day; only a few even did a special dinner with their significant other. None of my single friends passed out cards or candy, and storefronts were noticeably lacking in the pink and red hearts display cases normally seen in overabundance back home. In Texas, Valentine’s Day was celebrated by all my friends, single and taken alike—one of my friends is even sending me a Valentine’s Day package all the way from home! It seems to me that the United States is way more into the commercial side of holidays, the buying gifts and decorating and all the wonderfully cheesy stuff that we love so much, whereas over here, it just wasn’t that big of a deal. Remembering back, it was the same with Halloween, and even Christmas; holidays are more obviously and more ostentatiously celebrated in the States than in Edinburgh.

I think that this is also reflected in the general cultures of the two countries that I have called home at one point. Americans tend to be more open, brasher, more in your face, and generally ‘bigger’ in personality than the British. This is not necessarily a bad thing, just very different than the polite, more refined, more personal characters of our friends across the pond. One of the biggest thing I’ve noticed in the past few weeks is that on British television shows, the host always consoles the losing team or individual, saying things like, “You just didn’t get the right questions,” or “You tried your best, well done.” The tone is so different than back home, where at times, winning is so much more important than the process to get there.

So there you go. Not yet a week as a 22 year old, and already I’m seeing new things about my home of six months. Maybe I am growing up—but 23 is still a year away. And besides, I won’t really be a grown up till at least 25, right? We’ll just have to see.

There are things, events, that are typically American. Holidays, traditions, ceremonies, that are specifically meaningful to those who belong to the United States. This past year, I’ve spent Thanksgiving in Europe. I spent the presidential election, race, campaign, and night itself, in Scotland. Martin Luther King Day was spent in the United Kingdom, and all the Aggie football games I normally follow religiously, in person at Kyle field, were seen not in the student section of that familiar football stadium, but on my computer screen. All of these I managed to still celebrate, still managed to feel like I was a part of, but the American event that I felt strangest not being in the United States was…the Super Bowl.

That’s right. More than turkey and cranberry sauce, more than electing the 44th President of the United States, I miss the Super Bowl.

This year marked the first time that I can remember NOT celebrating the Super Bowl. Usually, every year calls for friends, chicken wings, unlimited chips and salsa, and a television binge of hilarious commercials and watching grown men hurl themselves at each other in a bloody race for the ultimate American victory. I never really follow the NFL all that closely, but when the Super Bowl rolls around, I’ve always had to watch the game.

I think it was the strangest American thing to ‘miss’ because of the lack of international following. That may seem obvious, but let me explain. The Presidential election was not limited to the States in terms of audience reach; friends of mine from all over the world tuned in the night/early morning to see the outcome, to participate in the discussions, and to either celebrate or not celebrate the result. Even though I was across the Atlantic Ocean, I felt like people around me were still engaged. Thanksgiving was less so, but still part of the cultural calendar in the United Kingdom. No, there weren’t Pilgrim and Indian plays, and not everyone made turkey dinners, but a fair number of my British friends wished me a “Happy Thanksgiving” and turkey dinners did pop up around my friend circle.

The Super Bowl was another matter. I have perhaps two friends over here who even follow the National Football League at all—these friends did watch the Super Bowl, but didn’t throw a Super Bowl party. The International Office at the University of Edinburgh was rumored to have thrown a party, but I never saw flyers, signs, or any Facebook advertisement for anything whatsoever. With Thanksgiving and the election, I at least felt like I wasn’t the only one participating—the Super Bowl was almost completely absent from conversation this year. Which was weird.

It got me to thinking—how much of ourselves is defined by where we grew up and how much is defined by where we are now? At what point do we lose our old habits, cultures, and traditions and take up those of the new place? Is there ever such a thing as true integration, or is it one or the other? I don’t know if there’s a simple answer to this. I’d like to think that I’ll always have some pretty strong Texas parts in me, but if I end up somewhere where no one around me knows about or is willing to hear about my home town or home country traditions, I’m worried those parts of me might disappear.

I haven’t met a single Aggie (people who attend or attended Texas A&M University) in Edinburgh yet, and still, when someone mentions something exciting, I whoop, much to the surprise of those around me. "Whooping" is an Aggie tradition, in which we loudly and in a high pitch "whoop"--pretty much exactly what it sounds like. If you visit the A&M campus, you can randomly hear whooping all around. I’ve been away from Aggieland for over 6 months now, and I’m still whooping—but will I be audibly whooping in another year? I guess we’ll just have to see, but maybe it’s about choice, about making the definite choice to retain or let go of old parts of yourself.

Anyway, that’s the latest in my series of pseudo-introspective insights from living abroad. More to come!

Peace, y’all.

Okay, so I know I’ve been away for awhile, but I’m back! Back in Scotland, back on blogging, and back to school! Yes, yes, I have been away from the wonderful world of blogging, but I have been one busy almost 22 year old, let me tell you!

My very last final at the University of Edinburgh wasn’t until December 19—far later than I’ve ever been at school. Usually, I go home to see my folks around December 8th, but not this year. I took my final in Gaelic, jumped on a plane after a hectic swing dancing weekend, and didn’t get home to Texas until the 22nd—THREE DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS. In addition to the craziness that Christmas brings to everyone, I had to be fitted for my maid of honor dress for a wedding on January 3rd. In order to get it all done in time, I actually tried on my dress in the bathroom of Abuelo’s in Dallas on my way home from the airport. But there’s more! I got into Texas on that Monday, and Saturday I was throwing my best friend (the same one I was the maid of honor for) a bachelorette party. It was far more difficult getting used to Texas again to begin with, but with the combination of Christmas and maid of honor duties, it was darn near impossible. I think I didn’t let myself start to relax until after January 3, once Daniel and Michelle were safely away on their honeymoon.

So then after the wedding, all was great, right? No. Stressful America visit continues! I flew to Portland, Oregon, just after the wedding. Portland Fusion Exchange was incredible, though. Three days of solid lessons and social dancing, where we took the fundamentals of blues dancing, swing dancing, and tango, broke them, and then combined them to create new ways of dancing to all sorts of different types of music. After Portland, I needed to deal with some family issues in Texas, then I flew back to Edinburgh, and I started classes last week without really having had a chance to catch my breath!

Until now.

So, now that I’ve gotten myself back together, let me just say that it is HARD to jetset off between countries. I did not expect to feel that different in Texas; it’s where I’ve grown up and spent most of my life, but things were just…off somehow. Nothing dramatic, nothing big, just…off. By the time I felt like I was getting my Texas legs back, so to speak, it was off to another city and another life. The interesting thing is that in my mind, I will always consider myself a Texan. In my Scottish flat, I have a Texas flag on my wall next to my Edinburgh snapshots, I have my boots above my bed, and my ‘Howdy’ necklace looped around my beck. And yet, going back to Texas didn’t feel as welcoming as I thought it would. I’m not sure why this was, but somehow I feel that I won’t be returning to Texas full time just yet. I think I have far too much exploring to do first.

The new semester in Edinburgh looks to be a good one—I have resolved to learn Argentine tango after my experiences in Portland, and have made progress on my grad school applications. I’m flying to Washington, D.C., in a month to present research, and I have good friends who continue to teach me new things about Scotland every day. The tricky part is getting back into the groove. Getting back into the mindset of essay writing, exam planning, and tutorial preparation is always a tough one after any sort of break, but it’s just part of life. So I’m off to get my notes together for my first international business class tomorrow, and will hopefully rock the house off this new year of 2009.

Peace, y’all!

Hey everyone!

I have not written here for a long time, 3 or 4 months I think, but I have made a new years resolution to start writing again. So here we go!

As a quick recap, last semester was one of the best experiences of my life. My classes blew my mind, changing many of my ideas about my subject, Philosophy. Surprisingly, I got to know my lecturers very well not in the classroom or during office hours, but in the pub or during chance encounters on the street. The Pub culture in Edinburgh is fantastic, and I tend to go to pubs many times a week. Also, I have met people from all over europe, traveled up to the highlands and taken weekend trips to england. However, because last semester I focused on my classes so much, I have yet to do very obvious things, such as visit the Edinburgh castle, so I will do those things this semester. I put a youtube video up http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=J9Z-F_a1YIk. The audio is bad, but you can get a birds eye view of Edinburgh, so it is worth watching.

Anyway, this semester is already looking promising! My classes look good and I am planning a few trips around the UK and Ireland. Also, I am excited to explore edinburgh a bit more. There are a few scenic walks I've heard rumors of recently that go through the city all the way out to the coast. I also want to explore the surrounding area. Apparently there is a very nice castle just outside edinburgh that most people don't know about. And other than Edinburgh and the UK, I have a few friends who want to take advantage of low airfares (and I mean low), so I might take some weekend trips to places like Italy and Spain. There are some things to look forward to when the Scottish weather gets too much.

I went home for winter break, but couldn't wait to return this semester. The plane ride back wasn't too bad. I spent most of the trip missing my family and watching movies. The flight from Heathrow to Edinburgh was a little scary though. The Scottish wind blew the plane around like a leaf and there were some people crying. However, we landed softly enough and I caught the bus into the city center. The city was completely barren compared to how was just before I left in late december. The German Christmas market and ferris wheel were gone, and so were all of the people. Somehow the silence was comforting though, after the holiday bustle.

The last few days I have spent cleaning my room and getting ready for the new semester. My first class was cancelled, so I went out with my friends and met some of the new international students. I went to the first Philosophy Society meeting at the Meadow Bar, which was fantastic as usual. The topic was Forgiveness. What is forgiveness and when is it appropriate to forgive? Is it ever wrong to Forgive? Interesting questions, and a perfect warm up for the many pub experiences that are bound to happen.

Till next time.
~sean