Amherst to Edinburgh

It’s snowing in Edinburgh!

-Nateene and Don

I am going on my first Scottish field trip tomorrow. I am going to meet half of my (Rubens and Van Dyck: Master and Pupil in Europe) class at 10am in front of The Queen’s Gallery at the Palace of Holyroodhouse (I say half because there is also a later section in the afternoon but since I have another lecture at 2pm, Bramante and High Renaissance Rome, I will be joining the first group). We will be seeing Bruegel to Rubens: Masters of Flemish Painting. This should be the first of what I believe to be four field trips between the two afore mentioned classes. Art people like their museums. Thank goodness Edinburgh has so many great ones to choose from – that are all within one mile of me!

Peter Paul Rubens
Self-portrait 1623
oil on canvas
91.3 (h) x 70.8 (w) cm

-Nateene

By this point in time, I was hoping to have a great many (astoundingly beautiful!) photos to post, but as I have learned, the opportunities to take pictures here are fewer than was hoped. I suppose some would argue that there are plenty of opportunities, but I am rather reluctant to risk my camera in the wet and windy. Anyway, here are a few of what I have managed to snap so far. There will be many more to come, promise!

This is the view from the stairwell window outside of my flat: the College Wynd courtyard.

This is Don on the stairs up to Chambers Street. We use them a lot. They are the pathway to all of our classes and to the grocery stores. And the Jazz Bar.

This is taken from the corner of Chambers Street and George IV Bridge. A little further down the street is Frankenstein.

This is just outside of George Square. Potterow, the Student Center, is located in George Square. Just a bit further beyond George Square are David Hume Tower (where all of Don’s classes are located as well as one of my lectures), the main Library, and the Meadows just to name a few.

Finally, I don’t know if this drink has hit the US or if it is unique to the UK so far, but we were rather amused by their advertising campaign.

Our addresses here:

Don: Flat 1 Room 5       Nateene: Flat 5 Room 5

3 College Wynd
203 Cowgate
Edinburgh
EH1 1JH

-Nateene

Last night was Burns Night. It’s a celebration of Robert Burns and his poetry, which included the all-time smash hit “Auld Lang Syne”. Nateene and I went out to a Frankenstein-themed pub and then a jazz bar, which were almost directly down the street from one another. The were named, respectively, Frankenstein and the Jazz Bar. Both did a pretty good job with the themes, although the music at Frankenstein was some bizarre mix of genre hits from the last five years. The band at the jazz bar had a great rhythm section, but a lot of trouble playing as an ensemble. We’ll probably go back on a night when another group is playing.

Because we went out to clubs, we missed going to a Burns Supper. As such, we missed the recitation of “Address to a Haggis”. The first verse goes like this:

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o’ the puddin-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o’ a grace
As lang’s my arm.

Too bad. I think the keyboard player from the Jazz combo should have recited it in place of one of his solos.

- Don

I kind of crashed a graduate seminar today. It was good. The professor I’d been in contact with over email, Till Vierkant, turned out to be an extremely large and good-natured man who figured out how my informal audit would go in about two minutes. Because I am neither a graduate student nor receiving credit for the class, I’m going to go to the seminar, submit questions for the seminar, write the response papers for the seminar, and NOT write the big scary paper the master’s students have to submit at the end of the seminar. It sounds both excellent and reasonable, and I’ll have something tangible (the response papers and questions) to include in my Div II portfolio.

My Advanced Phil. Sci. class had roughly the same character as my Philosophy and the Environment class yesterday. It was strange to realize, though, that instead of coffee I started off my day with a discussion of the character of science, quantum mechanics, and evolution. Following that, it was even stranger to realize that I ran my way up to a room full of international masters students who seemed perfectly content to let some out-of-breath undergraduate into their discussion. It was a pretty successful morning.

I also found out something truly magical about being a visiting undergraduate here: a student in my philosophy of science class revealed that normal University of Edinburgh students may only take one honors option class each semester. As only third and fourth year students can take them, this means that they can take only four honors option classes in their University career. I’m taking three as a visiting student– Philosophy and the Environment, Advanced Topics in Philosophy of Science, and Modern Continental Philosophy. On top of that, I’m participating in my strange unofficial way in a graduate class. I’m feeling the privilege, and it is good. Thank you, Hampshire exchange program.

-Don

There’s 23 people in my seminar on Philosophy and the Environment, most of them University seniors. A few other Americans are also in the class, and maybe some other visiting students which I was unable to identify. The accent I share with the other American students makes us really easy to pick out, although its equally easy to distinguish between Scottish and British. I also found out, from talking with one of the Scottish students after class, that it’s easy to know of Boston but hard to know of Massachusetts–

“I’m sorry, you said you were from Massachusetts in the US, but… where is Massachusetts?”

“It’s… um… north of New York? Boston is in Massachusetts.”

“Ohhh… Boston, right.”

Because the class is an honors philosophy class, the professor didn’t waste much time. She explained the format (kind of), revealing that because of the class size it would be run as half-lecture, half-seminar with student led discussions. I signed up to lead a discussion in 6 weeks when I have a better idea of what’s going on. All of the class mechanics were done in about twenty minutes, and the remaining hour and forty minutes was given over to a lecture with lots and lots of interruptions and discussion. It was one of the best first days I’ve ever had– the people in my upper level class certainly seem qualified for it. I hope I’m as up to it as some of them seem to be.

Nateene and I already have reading for all of our first classes– I’ve got to get going on my reading for day one of Advanced Topics in Philosophy of Science. Too bad the sun has been down for about two and a half hours and it’s only 7, and we’re both kind of jet lagged.

-Don

5:27AM : I wish I could sleep. First class in about six and a half hours.

We were up early enough to see the sun rise yesterday as well.

Don and I are packed. We’re leaving for the airport in roughly an hour and will arrive at Frankfurt International at noon tomorrow and Edinburgh by 1pm. (You’re welcome to do all of the time zone math yourself).