I suppose I could blame my lack of updates over the past month on the amount of reading I've had to do for my courses, but I've also been avoiding writing a new entry because so much has happened that the thought of trying to sum up my new life in any sort of succinct way seems a daunting task. But here we go! I've decided to break it down into sections:
My Flat:
I live in a university-owned flat called New Arthur Place with four other girls; two Scottish girls (Trisha and Caroline), an English girl (Kate), and another American (Cora). We're on the fifth floor, and our flat is somewhat unique compared to other flats in New Arthur Place in that it takes up two floors. I really like the location; it's right next to the student societies center, Pleasance, which, in addition being the typical spot for societies to meet, has a bar and a cabaret venue where comedy nights are apparently held every Tuesday.
New Arthur Place is also only a 5-10 minute walk from George Square, which is where all of my classes are held, and it's close to so many cool places while at the same time being away enough from the action that we don't have to deal with tons of noise at night (i.e. one block of university flats is directly above a bar...I don't envy them!)
Note: All of these pictures were taken on move-in day, which is why everything is so bare. Trust me, everything looks much more 'lived-in' now :)
Our kitchen!
My Courses:
I'm taking three courses, which to an American sounds like very little, but is actually a full course load here as courses are more intensive in the UK and require far more reading outside of class. The three classes I'm taking this semester are:
1) English Literature 2: a full-year module, normally taken in the second year. Because English literature classes are so popular here, you're only allowed to take one course at a time from third year (called Honours courses), so I'm taking this in addition to my Honours course. I chose the second year module because the first year covers mainly medieval and renaissance literature, whereas the second year continues chronologically and covers the period of literature I'm more interested in; specifically, the rise of the novel in the eighteenth and nineteenth centures.
2) Edinburgh in Fiction/Fiction in Edinburgh: my third-year Honours literature course. Okay, in the interest of full disclosure, I'll admit that not only was this not my first choice, I really only enrolled in it because it was the only one that had space left, since visiting students don't have priority for classes. But it is a pretty cool concept; discovering a new city in person while you're discovering through literature. And this week we're reading The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which I've always wanted to read. So maybe it'll end up being fortuitous that I wound up in this class! Also, this one is only a semester-long course.
3) British History 1: This, in addition to English Lit 2, is a full-year course. Not only does this complement my studies of British literature well, but I've always wanted to take a British history course- and where better to take it than in Great Britain?
In the spring, my Edinburgh in Fiction course will be replaced by "Shakespeare: Modes and Genres" which I am SO excited for, as I am a huge Shakespeare freak.
