From the Book that was Near-Impossible to Find

"As though his tears had flooded it his mind was filled with knowledge and he knew that his life was kin to all the life around him, even to the beasts that grazed in the fields, and to the very fields themselves. Live was the flowering of a single land, and love of country was of virtue but stark necessity. Patriotism and the waving of flags was an empty pride, but love of one's own country, of the little acres of one's birth, was the navel-string to life. His life, as the life about him, was the vigour of his own blood, and life could not be whole save in its own place. Now he knew why, in far parts of the world, he had often felt the unreality of all he saw and descried a foolish artifice in his own business there. The far parts of the world were fine roving for pirates who had a secrete island whither they might bring back their booty, but to roam the world without a haven or a home was to be lost as a star that fell to nothingness through the ordered ranks of heaven. Now he knew why, in late months, time had passed so simply and untroubled. This soil was his own flesh and time passed over him and it like a stream that ran in one bed. Here indeed he was immortal, for death would but take him back to his other self,and this other self was so lovely a thing, in its cloak of snow, in the bright hues of spring, in the dyes of the westering sun, that to lie in it was surely beatitude."

- Magnus Merriman, Eric Linklater

A Regular Day!

A regular day in Edinburgh is spent at the library. Two, actually. I started my morning off in the New College Library, which indeed looks like a "boy gingerbread version of Denison." Then I went to class, grabbed some lunch, went to the Main Library, read a ton, and was about to squeeze my eyes out of their sockets by the end of the day, and then went to class again. Another girl on the Butler programme is in my later class, and she lives in my block of flats, so we walked home together.

Highlights of the day, though, were running into acquaintances and friends in the street and on campus. Even if it was no more than a quick "hello," it was really nice.

Everything is always and forever nice.

And We're Off - First Day of School!

Modules have officially begun! It has been a long time coming, and it’s a relief to have some place to be and something to do with spare hours. After my first lecture in my Scottish Literature class yesterday (which introduced us to the overview of the course), I wandered around campus for an awkward hour between until my Greek Civilization lecture, trying to figure out what to do and where to go, and wondering how everyone seemed to have a bunch of friends that they automatically paired off with no matter what time of day it was or where they were going.

I thought I would have all three of my courses yesterday, but I ended up only having two. To give you an illustration of what administration at Edinburgh University is like, I will share this story: I found my classroom on the second floor of a real hole-in-the-wall building – literally. The entrance to the building was right next to two other doors, and it led immediately up a flight of steps because there wasn't enough space for an entire building. I opened the door to my classroom, and there was another student sitting at the corner of the gigantic seminar-like table.

“Fiction in Edinburgh?” I asked tentatively, and he said yes. It's surprising how quickly a wave of relief spread over me. I had found the right place, or if I was incorrect, then I wasn’t alone. The other students began to trickle in, and we exchanged awkward glances and smiles at our classmates. A redheaded Scottish student whipped out a copy of one of the books on our reading list, and the student sitting next to her followed suit with the same copy. Another student brought out a third copy, this time stamped with “Edinburgh University Library” on it and little pastel-coloured sticky flags jutting from the pages like a multi-colored stairway, telltale signs of having read the material. I began to be a little worried.

Another one of the visiting students – we stick out like sore thumbs – asked if were supposed to have read that. The other students, the Scottsish ones, said they had received an email from the instructor saying which parts they should read, and also some reading questions. I felt like an ostrich with no place to hide her head, awkwardly sticking out in a mass of black, white, and gray feathers.

The instructor came in, and was taken aback at the number of students patiently awaiting his erudite tutelage. He called this a typical “Edinburgh blunder,” saying that it was like the University to make the students come to the same class, when there’s really another section on Wednesday for the visiting students. I’m a bit bummed about that – I won’t get to have a seminar with Scottish students – but it means that instead of meeting twice a week for two hours, Fiction in Edinburgh will only meet once a week for two hours, which is much more reasonable, I feel, and more typical of the Scottish system. Needless to say that the confusion I felt when looking at my course schedule earlier today has been resolved.

I've spent most of today in the library, doing the required course reading and letting myself get distracted by perusing secondary sources. All of the instructors not only want us to read the material, but they want us to read commentary on them, which is something that is very interesting to me. As I understand it right now, we have a long list of suggested books and reading, but it's nice because I feel I have a lot more time and autonomy in figuring out what I want to read and when I want to read it. Also - I'll keep you updated on how that's going.

It has also been really nice to sit almost all day in the library, although I wish  I had a library buddy or two so that I could leave my stuff more easily in one place, go pick out a book, and then come back without having to load all of my stuff up. And I feel kinda bad blogging in the library - but I saw one girl on Facebook a few minutes ago, so I won't feel guilty.