I finally got to visit the inside of Edinburgh castle! (Pictured) (Insert cliché study abroad phrases here: It was so amazing! I can’t believe how old it was! Etc.) I learned that any prisoner being held in Edinburgh castle received a daily ration of: 1.5 pounds of bread, 3/4 pound of beef, 1/4 pound of butter, and 2 pints of beer! I also got to see the crown jewels of Scotland. They are encrusted with over 20 gemstones, over 20 precious stones, pure gold, a whole mess of diamonds, and no I could not borrow them for the weekend. I did take a wildly dramatic picture of Edinburgh weather. The weather here is insane! Yesterday it was sunny and warm, then the sun disappeared and it got cold. Then it rained, and then it hailed. All in the span of about 4 hours!
This week marks two months in Scotland! I can’t believe it’s been so long! I feel adjusted to school and life here, though most of it is pretty similar. It is very strange that there are four weeks left of classes and I still have received no grades. I’m used to having a general idea of what final grades to expect by this point, but I am clueless! Hopefully, I’ll get back two essay grades within the next week or so. There are four more weeks of classes, three weeks of spring break, and six weeks of exams (I only have 3 exams), and then I come back home! I was worried about exams, since the only grade in my Developmental class is the final exam, until someone showed me that all the exams from the last 10 years are all online, so I can use those to know what to expect. Score! I am working on making plans for spring break and then more travel plans during exams, since obviously it does not take a month and a half to take three exams!
Thoughts/ Observations from the past 3 weeks
- British cinema’s shop at the same tacky carpet stores as theatres in the States. Yay for blue carpet with neon planets and stars!
- I forget that I have an accent. I know that everyone else does. But it’s easy to forget that I sound weird to my friends. Well, it’s easy until Rebecca reminds me by yelling, “Oh my Gawwd!” Valley Girl style every time she sees me, because apparently that is what I sound like!
- Laundry detergent and laundry soap look surprisingly similar. This of course, turned out to be a fragrant mistake, my clothes smelled very strongly of "sunshine". You take a look at the bottle and YOU tell me where it says “fabric softener.”
- It’s much more difficult than I anticipated to determine the difference between what characteristics in a person are motivated by culture and what are motivated by their own personality. It's hard to tell, and I am trying so hard not to make assumptions about an entire culture. Am I, Katy Black, loud and outgoing because I’m an American or simply because I’m Katy. The world may never know!
- No one shares a room with anyone else. All rooms on campus, in the dorms or flats, are singles.
- I can imagine that studying abroad now is very different that studying abroad 10 years ago. Sure email and facebook makes life a lot easier. But Skype has been the most preventative measure to not catching homesickness. Skype is a free online videoconferencing service. On Saturday I watched my seven-year-old brother open his birthday presents. It looked exactly like I was sitting across the table from him
- They don’t wear bright colors here. Red stands out in a crowd. I wore a pink sweater into the JMC last weekend and was the only person in anything that bright. Maybe it will change in the summer, but the hot pink sweatshirt my grandmother sent me ensures that I won’t get lost in a crowd!
Lately, I’ve found that my propensity toward homesickness is directly correlated to my level of country music consumption. I think what I miss is the patriotic mood behind it. The culture of overblown patriotism portrayed in lots of country music is so unique to us that I cant help but kind of be the tinniest bit proud of just how ridiculously in love we are with our country, even if it is a bit blind. Only in America would songs like "God Bless the USA" and “Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue” top our charts. I asked my Scottish friend if they had songs like that in Scotland, and she kind of laughed and said no. But she noted that maybe it’s that we are still so excited about independence and that if Scotland gained independence maybe they would be the same way. While I know that the U.S. is not perfect, I must admit that I kinda miss that unashamed American pride.(I am not sure who the guy pictured is, but he seemed to have a lot of American pride!) The JMC (my dining hall) continues to bring new clarity to the term “fine dining.” A few weeks ago they served “Cajun Chicken.” I was so excited! Finally some food real flavor! I was ready to break out the crawfish and jazz music in celebration. My elation did not last long. “Cajun chicken” turned out to be chicken smothered (there’s a good Cajun word!) in marinara sauce (mysteriously we had spaghetti with tomato sauce the night before… hmmm…) and chickpeas. Now, I have been to New Orleans and I never encountered any marinara sauce or chickpeas! I was so disappointed that I didn’t want to eat it, but it was either a plate of cultural disappointment or Cauliflower and blue cheese soup… and no, I’m not kidding.
On Wednesday my MWF Literature class meets in the Geology Annex 10 minutes off campus. Don’t ask me why, I have no idea. The building is foreboding and ancient and it impossible to find a bathroom. I finally found one a few weeks ago and I encountered the sign pictured to the left of the door.
First of all, what a terrible place for an alarm. If I had not been able to read the sign there is a good chance I would have made the mistake. Can you imagine the embarrassment! This got me to wondering what sort of alarm would sound if I were to mistakenly pul the red chord. A proper fire alarm or a simple “I’m trapped in an elevator alarm” ? Would the alarm alert the police? This led to the obvious next question… What was the alarm to be used for? What sort of emergency could one possibly encounter while using the toilet in the Geology Annex that required an alarm? Fires don’t typically start in the bathroom, and Geology buildings tend not to be particularly dangerous. The probability of a disaster such as noxious fumes seeping under the door was small, which might be more likely in a Chemistry building. What bathroom catastrophe would cause me to shout with elation, "Thank God someone put an alarm here!”? Even if I fell into the toilet (which would be impossible since only women use this restroom and therefore no one would be leaning the seat up) and were stuck, I seriously doubt that I would sound an alarm in my distress. I wish I had a witty explanation for this unfathomable sign, but I am hoping that one of you will be able to offer a plausible justification.I hope that you all have a wonderful week!
Katy
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ReplyDeleteWhoops, I'm still computer illiterate! Sorry Katy :)
ReplyDeleteLet me just say I love your blogs! They are always entertaining :)
I have also made this frustrating mix up with fabric softener. I was thinking "...this Polish detergent is all in English and it doesn't say softener anywhere!" WRONG. I knew there was a reason it was so thin and smelled like no detergent I have ever smelled before..
Also, I get pathetically homesick from listening to country music. I don't even listen to it in the states! It's forbidden on my iPod when I'm abroad :)
I'm glad that I'm not alone in these things :)
By the way, you were talking about stereotypes and being recognized as a stranger from clothing, accents, etc. Do people treat you differently when they know or is it something new and interesting to them?
It was interesting to read your comments about patriotism in Scotland vs. in America. I've been thinking about the same thing as well in Ireland. Even though Ireland is a free state, the only real patriotism I've seen is when I watched the Ireland/England rugby match. I've noticed more animosity towards the Brits than I have love of Ireland--the Irish like to make fun of their country more than they profess their love of it. But I think the Irish are in general more cynical than Americans, and maybe that's just how they express their patriotism.
ReplyDeleteI love reading your blog, and I hope we get to meet up sometime!
Katy,
ReplyDeleteI still miss you dearly but love that you're having so much fun. I think its funny that you're trying to figure out individuals from cultural stereotypes while being cultrualy stereotyped yourself about talking like a Valley Girl (as all American girls do, of course). I know some of us are trying to make the same distinction with our DEL partners, how much of their personality can we assume from their home culture and how much is simply them?
I'm sure the next few weeks are going to be a whirlwind with ending classes and all your free time to travel and experience new things. I can't wait to hear about all of them, especially the fun quirks like the bathroom alarm.
Have a blast!
Sarah
Hey Katie!
ReplyDeleteI do not have an answer to your toilet alarm question. Although if you have been in the May Beach bathrooms lately you maybe would have said "Thank God for this alarm." ugh. I love reading your blog, it goes by too fast and your studying abroad makes me count the days until I go to Guatemala with the leadership program! I got a hold of my friend he attends the University of St. Andrews, not Edinburgh. He told me I should just fly over to say hi to visit and he would let me stay in his flat. Anyways, I was wondering how interactive professors are compared to Marietta? I know a lot of professors here are really engaging and even know about your personal life... But how are the professors there? Do you have TA's? We have been reading about different cultures and I was curious as to how professors engage their students in-class as well.
Wow, sorry. That was a lot of questions. Anyways, keep having fun and let me know if you want to Skype in to a DW staff meeting. (I know how tempting that sounds!!!)
-Jake Verdoorn
Jake,
ReplyDeleteProfessors are not very interactive. Mostly because each course has a "course organizer" who may only lecture a few times. Other than that we have a guest lecturer every day. So it is impossible to get to know the professors. They take questions at the end of the lecture, but I honestly don't even really know the lecturers name most of the time.
I had a question about an essay I had to write about a month ago. I emailed my course organizer and Dr. Sullivan, who I had a class with once freshman year. Dr. Sullivan replied hours later, I still havent heard back from my Edi professor.
We have TA's that lead the tutorials (a small discussion group that meets once a week for each course). They are varying degrees of helpful. It depends who you get. One I have is fairly useless, the other is brilliant!
Hey Katy! I'm glad to hear things are going so well! Besides the awkward "sunshine" scented unlabeled softener, of course. I was wondering, do you find it difficult to not stereotype people based on culture? And do you think that you will stereotype less when you return to the U.S.?
ReplyDeleteAlso, about the patriotism, you said you found it strange to be in a culture without it, but do you think you are adjusting to it enough that things will be strange when you come home? Will you miss parts of the culture in Ireland that the U.S. lacks, or will you be glad to return to what you are used to?
Now, about the bathroom alarm...I read the sign in the picture before the rest of your post about it, and it blew my mind that there would be an alarm in a bathroom as well! Did they expect the ceiling to fall since the building is so old, and trap you in the bathroom maybe? So many conjectures about what it could be for!
Katy,
ReplyDeleteHow do the Scottish see the portrayal of William Wallace by Mel Gibson? I know that the movie isn't entirely accurate but it is decent. Do they think that Gibson's portrayal of their national hero brings honor to the country. I really like that movie by the way. It's one of my favorites.
If they don't have that kind of pride in themselves and their country such as you say, how do they view themselves?
Justin Robb
Julie,
ReplyDeleteJust like when you return home after being at school all semester, there will be things I am soooo happy to get home to, but there are certainly things I will miss as well : )
Justin,
The Scots are generally fond of the film, eve though the inaccuracies of it are out f control! I think they are a bit put off that Wallace is played by a puny Australian though. Apparently he was huge in real life!
The Scots have great pride in their country, they're just not as over-the-top obnoxious about it, the way we can be : ) I would say they love their country just as much, but the British tend to be more reserved about everything. And just the feel of the patriotism is different, i cant describe it better than that. Sorry : (
Katy,
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting to hear how little nationalistic pride the Scottish people have. Its something we do not even pay attention to, but when you look out your window you can typically see at least two American flags waving in the wind. I think your friend was right, that if they gain their independence they will take more pride in their country. I found that to be the case in Pakistan, a relatively new state, the people there take much pride in anything Pakistan related. But this is also increased because of their dislike for India.
I also find it strange that they take so long to get grades back to their students. According to Lewis, Scotland would fall under a Linear-Active culture which is punctual and job-oriented. Remind me to never got to school in Scotland because never getting a grade back would practically kill me!