On Wednesday morning, we had to
pack up all our things and check out of the hotel before 9am, which wasn't too
bad. I accidentally packed my camera
though, so, unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures from that day. But that was alright because we spent most of
our time at Arcadia’s study center talking about important stuff we needed to
know about going to the University of Stirling. Even though I already knew how
different the academic system was from my own research, it was still pretty scary
to hear about the specifics. Apparently,
the grading system goes by percentages, but it’s essentially impossible to get a
90% or over because essays at that level are considered academic journal
material. So the average score is around 60%, which would be awful in the U.S.,
but isn't really that bad here. It seems kind of ridiculous and mean to have an
unattainable percentage that points out how imperfect your writing is. I mean, what is the point of having a grade that nobody is going to receive anyway? I guess
some people might be encouraged by it to do better, but personally, it would just make me
feel awful.
However, the program directors
told us that most students do just as well in Scotland as they do at home, and
I hope that’s true for me. I’m still not extremely confident in my ability to
write a twenty page paper that counts for literally half of my grade, since I
have never written one that long before.
There are aspects of the system
that I like, however. For example, two of my classes only meet once a week for
about fifty minutes, and I have Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, totally
free. I also get to choose when I want
to schedule my tutorial classes, which are kind of supplements to the regular lectures
that allow you to ask questions and discuss the material with other students and a teacher, since you aren't supposed
to ask questions during the lecture. Focusing your knowledge on one main thing is also big at British universities, so you get to focus your final paper on something very specific that
interests you, although I have a lot of freedom to do that a lot at Denison too, so
that’s not totally different for me. I've
heard that you should look up past essay exams at the start of the semester and
then start planning your essay right away based on those prompts. This worries me a bit because, even though
the prompts are always almost exactly the same every year, I do not love timed
essays, even if I do get three hours.
I think the main reason I'm so apprehensive of the new system is that I'm so used to the way I do things at my own school and don't want to change my habits. But I know that I’m a good student and that I have good writing skills, so even if I don't do quite as well as usual here, I
don’t think I will totally fail. I just have to stay up on the reading and writing, and maybe I can even get my papers done way ahead of time. Apparently, we only have about eleven weeks
of class total, and we get the majority of May off for exams, so hopefully I
can finish everything early and use that extra time to travel.
On a somewhat related note, the guy who gave us the academic presentation is from South Carolina, but I would never have guessed because his mannerisms seem so British and he has a really strong, rather British accent that he's developed from living here for so long. Moreover, the other Americans who work for the program have slight Scottish accents, which is also interesting. I highly doubt that I'll gain an accent in only four months, but I think I'll at least get better at understanding the thicker accents that I hear.
There was also a presentation about what to expect when living on campus, which wasn't very in depth but was encouraging after the unnerving description of the academics. I found out that I can actually get a discount on gym membership, and since Stirling has a huge, world class gym where the national rugby team has practiced, it should be worth the extra money anyway. I’m also considering joining the
University’s women’s rugby club. I’ll have to buy new cleats, spandex, and rugby
shorts, but there are a few stores that sell rugby equipment around here, so it should be easier to find everything than it is in the U.S. I’m going to make sure the team actually has a spring season before I buy anything though. I hope they do because I’m really excited to play again and to meet
people. Plus, traveling with the rugby team will help me see more of Scotland, so I’ll have an opportunity to go places I might not make it to otherwise.
Anyway, after the presentations, we had some free time for lunch, and I went with some other people to a cheap Indian restaurant, which actually had pretty good food for the price. After that, we went on a short walking tour of Edinburgh and saw some interesting things like the Greyfriars Cemetery, which is supposedly the most haunted cemetery in the world. I was excited to go there because I'd seen it on Ghost Adventures, a terrible, yet often hilarious show. The cemetery wasn't scary at all, at least in the daytime, although I know you can sign up for ghost hunts at night. It's also associated with a cute, kind of sad story about a little dog called Greyfriars Bobby. After the owner died, the dog waited on his master's grave in Greyfriars every day for him to come back until he eventually died too. I was told that the story isn't true, but there's a statue of the dog and a grave at the entrance where he is supposedly buried.
I've also heard there's a gravestone in Greyfriars that says "Tom Riddle," and that JK Rowling was inspired by it when she was wandering the cemetery as she was writing Harry Potter. The Elephant House where she wrote the first book is right down the road from Greyfriars, but we didn't get to eat there. Our tour guide took us past it and the National Library of Scotland, which contains every book ever published in the UK and has tons of floors that stretch beneath the building. We also saw St. Giles Cathedral and Holyrood Palace where the Queen stays when she visits Scotland. I was frustrated not having my camera with me, but I'll definitely return to Edinburgh at some point, at least to see the National Museum and the underground vaults, so I can take pictures then.
Holyrood Palace
At the end of the tour, we headed back to the hotel, from which we finally departed for Stirling. When we got there, we met up with our host families, and I ended up staying in a house with two other study abroad students, which made staying with a host family much less awkward. The first thing I noticed when we met the family was that they had a Bichon Frise, and I found out his name was Leo, which is almost Rio, the name of my aunt's Bichon. The family has been really nice so far, although I find it hard to understand what Frances, our host mom, is saying sometimes because she has a surprisingly thick accent and talks very quickly, adding lots of extra words and phrases like "aye," and "right then, that's good." For our first dinner at the house, we ate chicken burgers with baked beans, french fries, and Heinz ketchup. I really enjoyed talking over dinner with Sarah and Bailey, who are other study abroad students I'm living with.
After dinner, we watched TV and found out that Britain broadcasts a lot of American TV shows, way more than I realized the last time I was here. I even found a broadcast of NHL Tonight (though they don't actually have NHL Network), and the moment I turned it on, they were recapping the Penguins vs. Islanders game. After I watched that, we found The King's Speech on TV and talked with our host sister Staci, who's sixteen, about her favorite shows. She watches all of the same reality shows that most American teenagers watch and knows a lot about American pop culture. She's really nice and fun to talk to, and she also told us about the shopping in Stirling and this store called Americandy that sells all kinds of American sweets that you can't buy here normally. I'm definitely making it a point to find that place, although I'll bet everything is stupidly expensive. I also found out there's a record store in Stirling called Europa Music, and it has great reviews online. I'm putting that on my list of must-sees, as well.
We stayed up pretty late talking to Staci, (we still haven't officially met her older sister Stephanie, though she did say hi to us while she was walking through the living room once), so the next day I got tired kind of early. We had cereal for breakfast and then went to visit the Smith Museum, which is dedicated the history of Stirling. It's really small, but I took a lot of pictures anyway to make up for the other day. Afterward, we walked up the hill into town and all the way to Stirling Castle at the end of the road. It was definitely bigger than Edinburgh's, probably because it was used to house royalty rather than just serving as a military post. The views from Stirling are really great, but different than Edinburgh's because Stirling is so rural. Instead of a ton of buildings, we saw more green fields and the snow-covered Highlands in the distance, which were awesome. I really hope I get the chance to get closer to them.
(obviously not my pictures)
The most interesting thing about Stirling Castle is that there's a courtyard that served as the lion's den, meaning that when the royal family received a lion as a gift (which was common in the Middle Ages), they would keep it there.
When we left the castle, we received free Historic Scotland calendars and key chains that had a picture of a famous tapestry from the castle on them. It's from a set of tapestries about a unicorn hunt, which are actually currently at the Met in New York, but they had reproductions hanging in the castle. I learned that together they tell the story of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. It's cool to read about the symbols used in ancient paintings and tapestries and how the people who lived back then would have immediately recognized the hidden meanings that seem so obscure to us today.
By the way, the unicorn is the official animal of Scotland, and the red lion also pops up a lot too because it's on the alternate flag of Scotland:
The next thing we were supposed to do was visit the Old Jail, but it was closed for some reason, so we all went bowling instead. I was too tired to care much about bowling and honestly would have preferred going to the jail. After the game was over, Bailey, Sarah, and I called our host mom and had her pick us up at the bowling alley.
When we got home, we had mince and tatties, which is a traditional Scottish meal that basically consists of ground beef, carrots, onions, and potatoes (tatties). The potatoes were really good and perfectly cooked. Our host mom told us that we're having lasagna for dinner tomorrow, which is exciting, although I'm also looking forward to cooking my own food when I move into the University.
That's about everything that happened today. Tomorrow we're going to see the Wallace Monument and then to check out the rooms we'll be moving into on Saturday.
Song of the Day (because we're in the country now):
More Tennessee than Scotland, but still.
No comments:
Post a Comment