It is hard to believe I've already been in Scotland for three weeks. Of those three this most recent one was definitely the nicest weather wise. I still had to take my jacket everywhere for risk of showers but the weather was gorgeous. 60s, sun, I almost (I stress the almost) felt like this wasn't the overcast and dreary land that I was warned about (but then again, I've got no complaints.) I live in a school flat near Bruntsfield which is a bit to the southwest of the George Square Campus where I have all of my classes.
My three quarters of a mile walk to classes runs past and through the meadows, a large park. Half, the Bruntsfield links, (which I can see from my window) offers free golf, and the other half is just open land for sports or barbecues. The walk this time of year is beautiful, some of the trees are beginning to change colors while the grass remains a beautiful verdant green. For the 11 minute hike I get to enjoy a warm sun and a stiff westerly breeze while I take in Edinburgh's impressive intermingling of new and old buildings. The trees do warn that it wont always be this pleasant though. As I walk though the center of the park I can't help but notice they all lean quite obviously and somewhat ominously away from the prevailing winds which makes me glad I've got a good jacket for when winter hits.
I've been getting to classes a consistent ten minutes early, which appears pretty standard for the University of Edinburgh. Students gather to wait around the doors for the lecture hall to empty of students from the preceding lecture and almost everyone enters at the same time. Classes are large by my standards, but, being in the honors program at GW has meant that I was lucky enough to avoid a lot of the large lectures that I would have ordinarily been subjected to.
The lecturers have been great. Both of my lecture based classes switch between lecturers so as to allow each one to address their own specialty instead of having just one professor. Tutorials, the equivalent to our discussions seem to be led by people with more experience than the TAs at home. I am taking two lecture based classes, Empire, and Global Connections Since 1450, and one tutorial based Spanish class. So far the work load seems about the same as for a class in the US although I anticipate they will throw a bit more reading on top as time goes on.
I think that both of my lectures are second year (which was the easiest place to fit given their love of prerequisites) but that doesn't seem to effect the quality at all. The lectures have all been top notch and some have been powerful enough to leave the students sitting somewhat stunned afterwards. The Empire class is highly critical of the British Empire and every other type of empire and no holds are barred. The Global connections class has managed to make potatoes and soy beans interesting so far so I'll give them credit for that. Although it's only week three I should begin preparing for my midterm essays soon but I've got a lot of work to do applying for internships back at home (I'm kind of regretting not getting one of them done earlier since I had a chance.)
I've also got a trip to the Isle of Skye and the Scottish highlands scheduled for next weekend. I'm super excited about that. I don't have much other travel planed while I'm here because of a mandatory Friday afternoon tutorial making flights difficult but I'll see what I can do. In addition, I've really got no complaints about spending time in this beautiful city, I'm in no rush to leave. That's about all I've got for this week, hopefully I'll have something great from the highlands next week.