First I'll just say some general stuff about classes, like how things are done differently here than in the US. One of the big differences is that, in the lower level classes at least (like 1st and 2nd year), there's no set professor. Any given class might have 5-10 lecturers, and each will speak on their topic of expertise. To keep a sense of cohesion in the course, there's a course organizer, who keeps track of all the administrative stuff. In addition to the lecturers and the course organizer, there are usually tutors, who are like TAs in America.
The grading system is also quite different. It’s very, very difficult to get an A, and an A is 70% or above. Passing is 40%. There are also very few grades in each class. None of my classes have more than 2 graded things (Either 2 papers or 1 paper and a final exam).
Ok now for the specific classes. The first one I had was Scotland: Society and Politics from 10-10:50. We got a thick course book with all the info like tutorial schedules, reading lists, that kind of thing. There are a couple lecturers but the two that were there today both seemed good. They both have Scottish accents but they're completely comprehensible, which is nice. In addition to having that class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I also have a tutorial for it on Thursdays, and 4 guest lectures on certain Fridays. The first lecturer, on this Friday, is Duncan Macniven, who's Scotland's Register General. Apparently a pretty important guy. This should be a fun class because the paper is a research project about an area of Scotland. In our tutorials we go out and gather data and stuff; it should be pretty cool.
The second class I had was Metaphysics of the Mind. Usually that's from 11:10-1 but today we ended at about 11:45 which was nice. It's definitely going to be a hard class because I don't remember much from other philosophy courses that I've taken, but the professor seems good. He's also Scottish, a pretty young guy, so he should be interesting. It's an upper level class so he's the only professor. It's a fairly small class, about 25 students. We went over some of the main concepts that we should know (dualism, the identity theory of mind, consciousness, and functionalism), which I've learned about several times before, but I don't remember anything. So that will be a hard class. I sat with 2 other international students. One was from Georgia and the other goes to American University (Mormor- He doesn't know Emily Poor but he's heard of her). A lot of the readings that are assigned in that class are written by Wash U professors.
After lunch I had Scottish History Since 1914. That was another larger lecture class, and again, we just did administrative stuff today. That’s from 3-4 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I have a tutorial for it on Thursdays. Half the class was spent telling us how to use the library online resources, which was immensely helpful. It’s pretty much the same thing as the Wash U library, but since almost all of my readings are online it’s pretty important.
I went back to my room after class and signed up for my history tutorial, and I got one on Thursday, so I officially only have class on Tuesdays and Thursdays (except for those couple guest lectures for society and politics which are on Fridays). I hung out in the flat for a while, showered, then went to dinner with my flat mates.
We went to dinner at a place called Frankenstein’s which is a 3-story bar all decked out in Halloween/Frankenstein themed things. Every Tuesday it has Free Food Tuesdays for students where if you buy a drink you get a free dinner. So I got a student card, bought a drink, and got a free hamburger and chips (fries…). It was fun hanging out with my flat mates and we had a good time.
By the time we finished dinner it was about time for me to meet the small group at Starbucks, so I headed over to the Royal Mile. Nobody was there, so I asked the baristas if there was another Starbucks on the Royal Mile, and there was, so I walked down there. It was quite a walk, all the way at the other end of the Royal Mile, but no one was there either! So I don’t know what happened but I had a long, uphill walk back to my flat. I sent a facebook message to one of the leaders; I probably just went to the wrong Starbucks. (Don’t worry, it’s not all sad. Keep reading).
Instead of going back to my flat I went to the Wash U girl’s flat and there were like 6 people hanging out in there so I stayed. One of the girl’s friends knew about a pub with folk music on Tuesday nights so we decided to go check that out. We found the building, but when we went in it was just a small pub and no music. Apparently the girl found out about this place from an email, and the email said to ask the bartender where the music is. Sketchy…. So we asked the bartender and he led us through a locked door, down a really sketchy flight of stairs, and through another locked door to a room where a group of people were just sitting around fiddling. Not, apparently, a place for spectators.
So we were left wondering what to do. Luckily, one of my friends who went to Edinburgh to study abroad a few semesters ago told me about this place called Sandy Bells (http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/edinburgh/pubguide/sandybells.html), which I later read about in guide books. It’s a pub with live folk music every night, so we decided to head over there and it was a great success. We got drinks, listened to awesome live folk music (see video below), and talked. A couple people called friends to meet us there and we ended up with like a 10 person group.
The biggest success of the night was when I found out that one of the Wash U girl’s flat mates is a Christian! We knew each other didn’t drink back home, and we were talking, and I think I asked why she didn’t drink or something, and she started her answer off with “Well I was leading a Bible study…” and I interrupted her and was like “LET’S GO TO THE CHRISTIAN UNION TOGETHER!” and she was like “YOU’RE A CHRISTIAN?!” and we both literally shouted in the middle of this pub. After we explained to our friends that we were bonding and not dying, I told her about the small group so we’re going to do that together, and she had already looked up churches in the area so we’re going to check some out, and basically it was just awesome. We were both so excited to find another Christian. It’s funny because if I had met up with the small group at Starbucks I might have not been back in time to go on the folk music excursion, and who knows if we ever would have found out that we’re both Christians. And here’s the weird part (Mormor pay attention), she goes to American University and knows Emily Poor!
So that night was pretty awesome. Tomorrow a bunch of us are going to do the free, 3- hour walking tour, then who knows what excitement will ensue. Most likely it will entail reading for classes on Thursday.
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