A few photos to accompany the last post

Ruby, the golden retriever puppy we played with at the Isle of Arran

 

 

Fire on the beach at the Isle of Arran. Beautiful weather, great fire, and nice sunsets!

Fishing in the bay for our breakfast, mackerel. Perfect blue water, with a nuclear submarine off to my left.

Charlotte and me, looking out the window of an old castle on Isle of Arran

Some of the only sunshine Kevin and I saw on the Isle of Skye! Here, leaving Uig for the Long Walk

Boats moored in the harbor at Portree

Kevin at Eilean Donan. That entrance ticket is worth the £5 or £6 to see.

Overlooking a loch in Glencoe with a mountain reflected in its surface

Cricketing! Padded up to go bat, with Charlotte and two future Tranent CC stars.

 

Long overdue! Scottish travels, dissertation time, and the wonderful game of cricket

So much has happened since May, and I should have written about it sooner because now I have to fit it into one post (or two, because all of the photos have to upload and so are coming in the following post).  After traveling around a few countries in Europe, I finally managed to take advantage of the Scottish country in all of this (uncharacteristically) sunny summer!  I spent some time at the beach on the glorious Isle of Arran with some friends from my course, and then the following week I camped with another friend and walked almost 100 miles around the Isle of Skye and Glencoe.  It was amazing to see the Scottish landscapes, and such a good moment of rejuvenation for my mind, my soul, and my body – soaking up the sun, playing with dogs, and just living out of the city.

The Isle of Arran, as you’ll see in the next post, was beautiful. Apparently some people say that it’s like having all of Scotland’s beauty, in all the areas, contained in one small island – and it’s true. We hiked a mountain, swam in the sea, fished, visited a whiskey distillery and winery, and saw an old castle. It was phenomenal, and we stayed at a bed and breakfast run by my course mate’s family. He cooked us wonderful food, including the mackerel that we caught for breakfast! To top it off, we even saw a nuclear submarine while we were out fishing in the bay. NBD.

That weekend, I went to St. Andrews for a camping trip with my cricket team (awesome!) to camp Friday night and play Largo on Saturday, then camp again. Cricket has been wonderful. I play for Tranent CC 2’s (the real TCC!), which offers me a break from school work. Plus, I get to learn cricket, which is pretty great.

After my weekend hiatus, I left with my friend Kevin for the Isle of Skye, on the northern half. We bussed to Uig, got off the bus with our giant backpacks, and proceeded to walk first to Dunvegan, then to Portree, taking some extra scenic routes to see faerie glens and other sights. We camped every night, usually in the rain, but it was excellent because we got to see some beautiful seasides, landscapes, cows, sheep, faeries, and of course, hundreds of thousands of midges. We went from there to Eilean Donan, which was excellent and a must-see in Scotland!  Then on to Glencoe, where we camped for the last night and saw some beautiful lochs and mountains, including the Three Sisters. Passing Loch Lomond, we (I) broke into the Scottish favourite:

Finally I was back in Edinburgh, …back to writing my dissertation. This process has been strenuous, stressful, and will hopefully end up rewarding when I hand in a final product to the printer in a couple of weeks.  Before lamenting, though, it’s important for me to acknowledge why my project has been a success thus far: my supervisor, Dr Liz Grant. Through my experiences with her, I have come to believe that your supervisor can be a huge factor in whether or not you feel like you have your dissertation under control. That said, I’ve been stressed out to the max trying to get everything done! I was invited to speak at a conference to present my results, though, which was really interesting and an honour, as I was able to meet several Scottish leaders very relevant to my work.

In sum, this summer has been a busy one so far, as I continue to work 20 hours per week. I’m looking forward to experiencing the Festival as soon as August gets here, my mom visits, and I’m finally able to relax once I hand in my dissertation!

Pictures to follow in a post in the next couple of days. Cheers!

Perk #2987: Edinburgh is a great gateway for European travel.

Which is how I came to take a holiday between the end of second semester and starting my dissertation to Amsterdam, Paris, and London for 2 weeks.  (All at reasonable prices, and taking full advantage of friends living worldwide, and considering a couch a really luxurious place to stay for the night. But it was worth it!)

My dissertation supervisor was exceptionally generous, which made my trip even better.  She told me to take the time off, I deserved it after hard work, and not to worry about any dissertation things while I was away.  I’m working hard now to keep myself on track, but it really made my trip exceptional not to have to worry!

First on my trip, with my good friend Jenna, was Amsterdam.  We managed to make it for Queen’s Day, and this year she was abdicating and crowning her son King (read:

Jenna and me on Queen’s Day in Amsterdam, in front of a canal full of boat parties

biggest citywide party ever, huge national pride, and so fun).  I met up with some friends from Edinburgh, and we all had a wonderful time. It’s a gorgeous city, the canals are lovely, and the people are all welcoming and helpful. It’s nice that everyone also speaks English with their Dutch, so I didn’t even manage to get lost. We also ventured to Kukenhof, the national park for the national flower, tulips, which is only open for 2 months of the year. Perfectly manicured gardens, and fields of tulips, too. Very pretty! 

Eiffel Tower by night

In Paris, I enjoyed Montmarte and seeing the city by night.  The Eiffel Tower is definitely more impressive during the night time, and prettier too when it starts to sparkle at 10pm.  Incredibly, the weather stayed perfect again while we were in Paris for 4 days.  I  also made it to Versailles, which was in my opinion the most impressive part of France that I saw – everything is over the top, but so cool to see.  I had never been to Europe before coming to Edinburgh, so traveling was a great experience for me and I was so lucky to get to see all of these things.

 

London at night, from a 39th floor!

After Paris, my last stop before Edinburgh was London.  I found another friend of mine there, and we got to do lots of sightseeing (by foot, no tours, please and thank you).  Loved that city!  Additionally, I was able to see THE QUEEN, and Charles and Camilla, while they were on parade to Parliament to open its session for 2013.  That was pretty rare, but also pretty awesome.  More importantly, I coerced a royal guard (with the big fluffy hats) into speaking and smiling to me while he was on duty. I consider my entire trip a success based on this encounter.

In sum, my trip was phenomenal, and I was only able to do it and afford all the travel because I started in Europe already, in Edinburgh.  My total travel costs were under £200 for all of my journeys.  My experiences and photos will be with me for a long time.  And best of all, I had no worries on my trip for school! …and now, back to work on my dissertation, analyzing data, and getting a presentation ready for July.

A very good reason to come to the UK…

…is that sometimes, you can run into Tom Daley, the charming Team GB diver, at Starbucks. He might even give you an autograph, too!

Tom Daley, in case you missed the 2012 Olympics…

1 month from part 1 to part 3, but worth the wait for spring!

The Meadows

March: Assignments galore and eternal winter (but it’s nice out now in April!)

I think it’s safe to say my monthly blog posts come at the end of each month.  I always wait to make sure I can get everything in from the month that might happen, and end up missing the end of the month deadline.  But March ended up not being very eventful, so this post might be short anyways and maybe lacking in photographs.

Big events in my day include nicely designed hot chocolates while writing assignments!

The month of March is the start of stress season for semester 2 for the Master of Public Health Programme.  All of us had at least two essays worth 100% of course marks due on the 21st of March, and some people had up to 4.  We all are now working to two more deadlines on the 18th and 25th of April for the remaining 10-credit and 20-credit courses, respectively.  I turned in Systematic Reviews and Global Burden of Mental Illness assignments in March.  For the 18th I have Epidemiology for Public Health and Communicable Disease Control, and the 25th I will turn in Resource Allocation & Health Economics.  It is safe to assume that my social life has taken a nose dive and I’m on a first name basis with the employees at my favorite Starbucks, on Forrest Road.  I think I’m there almost as many hours as in my own flat.  That being said, I have been productive lately and just have two more essay to finish before commencing work on my dissertation.  It’s strange, but the end is actually in sight!

One thing I’d like to comment on is extracurricular activities here in Edinburgh.  As a masters student, I’m not very active in the student societies and neither are my classmates, but a couple of things I’ve done have been really worthwhile, manageable, and productive.  First, this blog, because I can catalogue my experiences and give some student insight to anyone interested in Edinburgh.  Second, I’m a class representative for my MPH programme.  This role varies by programme, but it’s been really nice and not very demanding.  I run a feedback session once per semester without any staff there so that my classmates can tell me how they really feel and I pass it along anonymously to the programme director.  I also serve as a liaison for problems that arise during the semester.  I’m fairly good at organization and advocacy, so it’s a good role for me.  Third, I’m a student ambassador for the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine.  I am invited to do feedback sessions for the University, and it’s nice to have a voice on campus like that.  Fourth, I work part-time (my Tier 4 visa allows me to work up to 20 hours per week) for the Edinburgh University Student Association (EUSA).  I really like it, because I get to do something other than my school work, and I make some money, and I’m frankly happier when I’m busier.  So if you’re thinking about whether you’ll have time for a job, from my experience, the answer is yes.

My last comment for this month is that the weather has been less than pleasant (far, far less).  We had one sunny week where we thought spring was coming and all the people who say Scottish weather is gloomy must be real whiners.  And then winter came again, this time colder and windier and blowing snow and rain and hail and sleet around everywhere.  For the most part, the cold and raw winter that lasted from November to February was bearable, but March was just abominable.  However, it’s important to note that since Easter on the 31st, the weather has been GORGEOUS.  Hoping it stays that way – we’ve had some great sunsets, and I’m trying to catch one from Arthur’s Seat this weekend!  That’s all for now. I’ll post another photo that I was really waiting for to put into my March entry as soon as I can.

My baby daffodil plant was so happy to see the April sun!

February: Reality strikes, spring makes a temporary appearance, and things get really busy again

A labyrinth in George Square, which I walked on a warm February day.

Plenty happened in February, despite how quickly it went by.  In a note of closure from the past posts, I did finally, at the very end of the month, have my exam marks returned to me.  It brought a sense of finality to the first
semester, and let me feel like I could really focus on the present and my current courses. I’m glad we aren’t still waiting until June!

A beautifully sunny day in the Meadows!

About the second week of February, when 4 of my 5 final essay assignments were handed out in my courses, a startling reality set in: I am 5 essays and dissertation away from having my Masters, at which time I will have to get started in the real world.  Now, this is a tribute to the University, because really I wish I could stay here for two years and not have to start a career (not that I have any real clue how, so I might just still be here come September).  So, I immediately stopped thinking about any assignments and commenced a career search, which made me realize that I have zero plan about where I want to be after this: Boston? DC? Peru? The UK, despite the impossibility of a non-EU person landing a career? Africa, with the Clinton Global Initiative? There’s just no way of knowing at the moment, so after a week of that, I decided to just write my essays and think about it in March (I haven’t).  On the plus side, there is a career service center, so I’ll have some guidance when I’m ready to tackle careers again!

Chinese lanterns are lit on the ground before flying away.

I thought spring had sprung for sure in Edinburgh, with a week straight of no rain, days on end of sunshine and warmth and flowers and children playing outside in the Meadows, not having to wear a jacket, and it being light when I left class at 4pm. It turns out that I was wrong, because after that week it was cold, rainy, and even snowy, but it was a beautiful week while it lasted. It even resulted in these nice tulips.  Another interesting thing that happened was the Chinese Lunar New Year. I accidentally saw that celebration as I was walking over to a friend’s place, and it was really nice – in the pitch dark of the Meadows, huge Chinese lanterns were lit and floated away.  It was a peaceful, quiet evening, and I was lucky to snap a couple of pictures of the night.

I have also enjoyed spending some time with my classmates before the bulk of our work picked up for the semester.  We have explored some different areas of the city, tried to go to a free movie at an old cinema (it was already full), and learned the importance of chippies that are open at all hours (namely Franco’s, which specializes in chips and cheese).  So, February was a great month, albeit a short one.  And here’s to March: may the essays flow, may the weather improve, and may the Boston Bruins move ever closer to a spot in the NHL playoffs!

A few friends in my program!

Second semester – things get serious

I have purposely waited until the end of January to write this post because so much has gone on this month – coming back to Scotland, wrapping up first semester, choosing second semester courses, eating haggis, and, somewhat terrifyingly, picking a dissertation topic and advisor. While it has been stressful, it’s been an overall good month, just to be clear.

I came back to Scotland just several days before the start of the second semester, and I was relieved to find that it was much easier than the first time around – I had a taxi service number, keys to a flat, and some expectation of the cold front awaiting me in the UK.  The hardest part was leaving these two guys, Buster and Bruin, at home, but thankfully there was some snow and everything when I came back to school to make Edinburgh look like home!

Once my Master of Public Health class returned from holiday, we were anxiously awaiting our marks from our first semester assessments, all worth 100% of our grade for each course.  Disappointingly, we have only received five our seven marks still, and it’s the end of January – we are hoping for the remaining two by the end of the week! The University kindly explained that there are many students and two markers have to read each essay, but it has been quite frustrating to wait over a month to know of our marks.  It would have been helpful to know where my strengths were in the first semester because I may have changed a few of my second semester course choices.  It seems as though the delay in returning grades is a University-wide problem, though, and not just a reflection of my program.  This is good to know, though not reassuring for anyone.

Despite this, I am really happy with my second-semester courses, comprised of Epidemiology for Public Health, Communicable Disease Control, Global Burden of Mental Illness, Resource Allocation and Health Economics, and Systematic Reviews.  We look at issues in deeper detail rather than a simple overview, and it really feels more like a Masters program than it did first semester.  I think I speak for most of my program when I say it’s a welcome feeling!  The professors and lecturers are interesting, accomplished, and passionate about public health, which makes all the difference in class each week.

I recently became aware of a Scottish holiday(?) called Burns Night, celebrated on or around the 25th of January.  Robert Burns wrote an ode to haggis, so haggis neeps and tatties is the meal served across Scotland that night.  My flatmate is Scottish, so we hosted a Burns night, and I ate my first haggis ever. I was expecting to hate it, but he cooked it so well that it turns out I love it and we’re having it again soon.  In addition to Burns Night, we have also begun a weekly pub quiz in the MPH program to hone our trivia skills.  We managed to place fifth on our first night, so we’re expecting to do great things by the time August rolls around.  We still need to brush up on Scottish music, but other than that we’re killing it.  Also to note on the social scene, I have now been to a ‘Latin Night’ of salsa dancing right near Edinburgh Castle.  You wouldn’t think many could salsa this far from Latin America, but in fact they can, quite well, and I was humbled (but had a lot of fun anyways).

Perhaps most importantly this month, I went through the process of choosing a dissertation topic.  I was shocked at how early our choices were due, just 2 weeks after returning from holiday, but in the end it was manageable.  I had seven face-to-face meetings with different potential dissertation advisors in the span of 12 days, which goes to show exactly how accessible professors make themselves here in the Medical School.  I appreciated that, because I had no idea what I wanted to study for my dissertation.  I settled on a topic in palliative care and its implications on resource allocation, which I’m hoping will end up being useful both in the country and in any first world country with an aging population.

All in all, January felt like a pretty accomplished month.  So for now, we’re on to February, which brings with it Shrove Tuesday, an innovative week of classes, hopefully more Scottish discoveries, and maybe more European travels!

A December blog post, uploaded in January…

To clarify, this post was drafted in December, and my tech-savvy self somehow failed to post it correctly!

This month, I have discovered why graduate students say that finals periods are the worst.  While I managed to get everything in on time and made it through exams, essays, and the crowded library in one piece, it was no walk in the park.  I had 5 essays due on the same day, and my lone exam, in Statistics no less, two days prior.  At the start of all of these assignments, I spent a lot of time looking for space in the library to post up for the day.  Word to the wise: don’t bother!  There are plenty of cafés with free Wi-Fi to study.  They are much less crowded, the atmosphere is more festive, and there’s automatically coffee/hot chocolate involved.  Find those places instead, and save the time looking in the library!

View from the side of the skating rink, looking up at the Scott Monument and the ferris wheel.

I did need breaks from studying sometimes, and I was so happy to be in Edinburgh when I took them.  I have not been in a more festive city during the Christmas season.  Even the University is decorated with real Christmas trees, lights in the Teviot student union building, and there are garlands and wreaths all over.  The happiest place of all, though, is Princes Street and the Princes Street Gardens, which are transformed into Christmas market stalls and a small carnival, complete with outdoor ice skating under the Scott Monument.  It’s beautiful, especially when it lights up the night, and all of the food stalls and little trinket stalls really make it seem like the end of finals period is in sight.  Definitely a wonderful city for study breaks!

For my final essays, I ended up with two papers on similar topics, so I was in fact able to condense some of my research.  It helped, but it was also a little bit confusing when I went to write the papers and had to keep reminding myself of the two different prompts surrounding the general topic of road traffic fatalities.  My other assignments were to write a critical appraisal of an epidemiological paper, write on the role of ethical guidelines, and write about reflexivity in the qualitative interview method.  Needless to say, these were really fun to write…but it made the holiday break that much better.

I am heading back to the US for the holidays, but many of my friends are staying here in Edinburgh or traveling through Europe to take full advantage of their year in Scotland.  The New Years Eve party in Edinburgh, known as Hogmanay, is supposed to be a really big event, so plenty of my classmates and other friends have already bought tickets to the street festival and will be returning in time to attend.  I have a flight to catch tomorrow morning, and then I will return to Edinburgh in January, and I will write about the start of my second semester!

The lower part of the Edinburgh Christmas markets, with the carnival rides and skating rink

Crunch time…and some traveling on the side!

The most surprising discovery here in the past month is how early it gets dark in the Scottish winter!  When I leave class at 4pm, it’s already dark outside.  I suppose that just makes the library a cozier place…

Since October, school has really picked up the pace.  I have 5 essays and 1 final exam all due within 3 days of each other.  Thankfully, I am feeling well prepared by my professors, tutors, and classmates to tackle each one. Grad school is different than my undergraduate, though, because all of these papers are really open-ended and forcing me to explore several different research pathways before I can formulate my theses.  However, I am glad for that, because I think grad school should be a challenge for me.  I have turned in one essay so far, have one more ready to go, and am working on the final three in my last several weeks of the semester.  I can’t express how helpful my professors have been – they all make themselves open to office hours, are very responsive to emails, and are willing to answer most of our questions.

School’s not all I’ve been able to do for the past month, though! I couldn’t let an American holiday slide by unnoticed, so I celebrated Thanksgiving, complete with a roast chicken, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, and the works.  Luckily, my family was here, so they made it feel just like home.  I also have been traveling a bit throughout Scotland.  I made it to St. Andrews for a day-long visit, and then also to Crail and Anstruther, which are two fishing villages on the east coast of Scotland. So beautiful!

On the side of University of Edinburgh, I have been exploring different study spaces around campus.  While I was originally frustrated that my own building isn’t open over the weekend, I now have plenty of areas where I can study.  If I get to the library early enough, I can have a seat there for most of the day, and I’ve also used the group study pods with my fellow classmates.  They are great, because we can coordinate assignments, collaborate on readings, and use each other as resources and sounding boards. Almost all of the buildings that I’ve visited on the main campus at George Square have rooms or other areas where you can find space to sit down and work for awhile.  So now, study space isn’t an issue – only my own procrastination vs. motivation.  Just keep swimming…

Perhaps the most meaningful forum at the University thus far has been the value placed on student feedback in my program.  Partway through the semester, my programme director for the Master of Public Health, the programme administrator, and another course coordinator met with myself and 2 other student representatives.  For over an hour, we had a candid discussion about feedback that other students had passed on through us, and all of the faculty involved were open, attentive, and appreciate to hear what we had said.  We even had extensive conversations about how we could implement some of our suggestions.  A great example of that is our suggestion for a central calendar for the program, where students can see all of our events and deadlines in one place rather than on each course’s website.  The director made a note, and a week later made an announcement to our entire programme about a central calendar feature he had worked out to make our suggestion a reality.  It’s really nice to know that people are listening to our feedback!

So, that’s all for now. I have felt overwhelmed at times with all of the assignments due, but thus far, my professors and classmates have been great, and we’ve all been helping each other out to deal with the workload.  I have made sure to make time for myself to keep enjoying this beautiful country, and to be able to spend some good time with my family when they were here – time management paying off! More to come in December, when I can look back on the assignments after having turned them all in.

This is a photo of the coastline at Crail, Scotland. A gorgeous evening in the small fishing village.