Foreign Correspondent

As a former News Editor for The Student Life newspaper back at Pomona, I happily agreed to contribute to a new column this semester of correspondences from abroad. See, Pomona sends about 300 students (mainly third years) abroad every semester to far-flung locales--everywhere from Nepal and South Africa to, well, Edinburgh. Not having written anything since this in early August, I was a little bit rusty...and my task was to sum up my experiences here in one coherent swath. Here's what I came up with, pre-chopping block:

Edinburgh is the only city I know with buildings the same color as its sky. While it has been a little difficult for me to forego the sunshine of a Southern California Fall, the unpredictable downpours and perpetual grey of the Scottish capitol have, for me, become an integral part of the city’s charm.

The mixing of the historical and decidedly modern is shockingly pervasive here. My walk to class each morning sends me straight through the heart of old Edinburgh, a few blocks of Reformation-age cobbled streets and stone buildings interspersed with ad-plastered pubs and swanky townhomes. And, adding to my growing list of things I’ll never see in Claremont, I pass both a medieval castle and a McDonald’s anytime I need to go to the ATM.

American fast food and modern conveniences aside, there’s an odd air of history in the city that gives an added sense of importance to, well, everything. Coffee is not just coffee when you’re sitting in the same café where JK Rowling penned ‘Philosopher’s Stone.’ A weeklong freshman orientation is not just an orientation when it’s Fresher’s Week, the largest, loudest and drunkest university-sponsored party in Europe. And a university is not just a university when its alumni include Adam Smith and David Hume.

Dating all the way back to 1582, the history of the University of Edinburgh has not been lost on its marketing department. Where Pomona boasts Roy Disney ’51 and Bill Keller ’70, the University of Edinburgh’s list of noted alumni is a who’s who of really smart people with names like Alexander Graham Bell, Darwin and Robert Louis Stevenson. It’s a list, I’m guessing, of people that matriculating students are supposed to think they might end up like if they study here.

Truth is, with the hands-off academic policy on assigning and evaluating work, I’m impressed that they were motivated to get as much work done as they did. Unlike the American system of required reading and regular assignments, the Scots take a laissez faire approach to education. Reading lists tend to be three times as long as they are in the States, encouraging you not to read more, but to choose what interests you. It’s a system of self-guided education that students here find liberating, and I am still adjusting to. In addition, class sizes at the University of Edinburgh are, by liberal arts standards, jarring. Two of my classes have upwards of 250 students, filling all seats in their Little Bridges-sized lecture halls that take 15 minutes for everyone to shuffle in and out of. It’s education en masse.

Despite the sheer scale of the institution, however, there is plenty chance for person-to-person interaction. Navigating the long queues (that’s Brit-speak for lines) and the University’s fumbling bureaucracy with new Scottish friends has been one of the greatest parts of the experience, not to mention the time spent picking up on Glaswegian slang and the subtleties of discount cider with the flatmates.

In a university of 24,000 students, it’s easy to feel like a number (mine is s0895928). And while sitting in on 300 person philosophy lectures and partying with 2,000-Freshers is still slightly disconcerting, I’m beginning to feel like I am taking part in something big. It’s oddly rewarding to know that, just by being here, I am playing some role in the University’s history. And if not, at least the haggis, Strongbow and IRN BRU are tasty.

Language Barriers

Aside from my struggles deciphering the Scottish and, more specifically, Glaswegian accent, British English is not all that different from what I'm used to back home. There are some weird variations in language, however, that still perplex me from time to time. Here are some examples:

Firstly, there is an obvious difference in the spelling of words that is sometimes surprising. I feel there's an odd fascination with unnecessary vowels:
Medieval --> Mediaeval
Skeptical --> Sceptical
Defense --> Defence
Theater --> Theatre
9/28/2008 --> 28/9/2008
Color --> Colour
Maneuver --> Manoeuvre

And some terms are, well, just incomprehensible from the American English. These are all terms that I feel really self-conscious about both saying and not-saying when conversing with my peers here.
Line --> Queue
Bathroom --> Loo
Dinner --> Tea
Cigarette --> Fag
Stove --> Hob
Z --> Zed
Dish Soap --> Washing-Up Liquid
Fries --> Chips
Chips --> Crisps
TV --> Telly
Cell Phone --> Mobile
Trailer Trash --> NEDs
Vomit --> Sick
Sketchy --> Dodgy
Cup of Tea --> Cuppa
Little --> Wee
Shrimp --> Prawn

For a more academic approach, turn to the ultimate linguistic source.

TV, Not Telly.

Being in the UK, or just out of the United States for that matter, means that I cannot stream full TV episodes from American sites like nbc.com and mtv.com. Apparently, they have their software read your IP Address to determine whether or not you're accessing their copyrighted material from abroad. That means, no new episodes of Chuck, The Office or The Daily Show. Darn. It also means that I've had to get slightly more creative in getting the TV fix that I need. Yeah, I know that I'm supposed to be seeking out local media and immersing myself in all that's British, but frankly shows on the Telly are really not that impressive. I mean, have you seen British Deal or No Deal? Seriously.

Aside from the stuff that I can access via Megaupload and Rapidshare links of blogs, here's a list of the top 3 sites that have been keeping me current:
http://www.surfthechannel.com
http://www.hulu.com
http://www.megavideo.com

Any other suggestions?

I've Got Mail!

Checked the mail today and was pleasantly surprised to see a postcard from my good friend C.S.H. (You can read her stuff here and here). It's from the Body Worlds exhibit that she recently went to in Los Angeles and, disturbingly, shows a rabbit's Circulatory System in 3D. It's interesting, but a bit jarring to see on my wall everytime I look up from my computer screen. In any case, it was great to hear from a friend...

If you want to join in, here's my mailing address:

6/1 Darroch Court
St Johns Hill
Edinburgh
EH8 9TS

Never Bet Against America

I was chatting with a former co-worker living in Los Angeles yesterday and was asked -in a tone you'd expect following a natural disaster, an earthquake, a flood, not during casual conversation - how my family was doing. Thing is, being insulated here from what's going on back in the States, it seems that the credit crisis and the potential collapse of the stock market may be weighing just as heavily on the collective American mind.

Perusing internet news about $700 billion bailouts, the WaMu buyout and imploding cross-aisle talks has been, to say the least, frightening. With so much of Wall Street in free fall, it's not difficult to imagine a bleak economic future rivaling, as some pundits have suggested, the Great Depression. Although I doubt that conditions will ever get that bad, I'm certain that the economic environment that I return home to and will eventually enter into will be vastly more different than I, just a year ago, could have imagined.

And amidst all of this, political theater seems to have dominated what should be a period of rapid crisis prevention. While McCain attempts to play White Knight and Obama begrudgingly is forced to follow suit, real progress is being hampered. The Paulson Plan, I believe, may be flawed and may be too interventionist, but I believe that action needs to be taken. I'm disappointed in the splinter group of Republicans who have turned their backs not only to the (in this case) agreeable Democratic core, but their own party leadership and constituency. Yes, we shouldn't ever rush into things, but we must begin to see that something needs to be done now. The details can be ironed out once things settle down -- perhaps that is when it'll be all right for us to drag the issue through the political wringer.

Like Obama said earlier this week: "When you inject presidential politics into delicate negotiations, sometimes it's not helpful. Right now, the key is not people worrying about who gets credit or who gets blamed, but just getting things done."

Above you'll see some clips of Clinton on Letterman getting to the core of the issue. Yeah, the interview definitely has some interesting political implications, but I'm most impressed with his stance on the crisis.

Student Journalism Alive & Well In Edinburgh

As a student journalist for Pomona's The Student Life, I have been interested for some time in getting involved in student journalism here.

The University of Edinburgh's student paper, Student, has been an Edinburgh institution since the 1870s and was founded by famed author and alumnus Robert Louis Stevenson who later went on to pen "Treasure Island" and "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." I recently attended one of their staff meetings last week and hope to write for the Features section over the course of the next semester. Coming from a hard news background, though, I'm not sure whether or not I'll be able to pull off the wit and candor necessary for proper feature writing.
Emerging just last year, The Journal, is a growing student-led publication bringing together young journalists from across Edinburgh's many university and college campuses. I applied for an editorial position in the 'Comment' section and have an interview in the coming days. Unlike Student which tends to focus on Uni-specific topics, The Journal seems to take on a larger scope, including everything from student and Edinburgh-centric news to what's going on nationally and globally.

Music!

Courtesy of last.fm and my good friends at POP!Music, I'm slowly beginning to compile a list of bands I'd like to see that are rolling through Scotland (that would be Edinburgh and Glasgow) over the next few months. The list, as expected, is not as saturated as say a list of bands playing back in Los Angeles might be, but it's decent...

Note the lopsidedness in the concert distribution between Edinburgh (the city I live in) and Glasgow ( a city about 30 minutes to the West by train). It's a good fall to be in Glasgow, I guess.

October 2008:
1 - The Hold Steady - ABC Glasgow - Glasgow
11 - British Sea Power - ABC Glasgow - Glasgow
12 - CSS - Liquid Room - Edinburgh
18 - Jenny Lewis - Queen Margaret Union - Glasgow
21 - Fall Out Boy / Boys Like Girls - Queen Margaret Union - Glasgow
- Mogwai / Fuck Buttons - Edinburgh Corn Exchange - Edinburgh
23 - Tilly And The Wall - King Tut's Wah Wah Hut - Glasgow
29 - Vampire Weekend - Barrowlands - Glasgow

November 2008:
4 - Oasis - S.E.C.C. - Glasgow
6 - SIGUR ROS - Carling Academy Glasgow - Glasgow
9 - Okkervil River* - Oran Mor - Glasgow
- MGMT - Barrowlands - Glasgow
14 - Death Cab for Cutie - Edinburgh Corn Exchange - Edinburgh
16 - Kanye West - S.E.C.C. - Glasgow
25 - McFly - S.E.C.C. - Glasgow

December 2008:
5 - Coldplay - S.E.C.C. - Glasgow
7 - Kings of Leon - S.E.C.C. - Glasgow

*I apologize to Okkervil River for the faux pas that I am about to commit, but their new album, The Stand Ins, is just so good it deserves sharing! Get it on RapidShare here. Stand-out tracks include 'Lost Coastlines' with its bubbly melancholy, and, a personal favorite, 'Bruce Wayne Campbell on the Roof of the Chelsea Hotel, 1979', an epic ode to an '80s glam rocker lifted off too soon.

Finlay MacDonald Band

When you think Scottish music, you generally turn immediately to bag pipes and fiddles. Coming across many a street performer piping 'Amazing Grace' in his finest kilt in my first few weeks in Edinburgh, I was beginning to think that it was more of a novelty to the Scots - say what the Hula is to some in Hawaii. (There are, I've been noticing, a lot of parallels to be drawn between the fight to preserve Highland Culture in Scotland and the fight to preserve the culture of the Hawaiian Islands...but I'll post on that later.)

A couple days ago, however, while playing cards with a couple of my flatmates, Brit rock and other assorted tunes humming from one of their iPods, the twang of bag pipes blast through the room. It wasn't the New York funeral type music we're used to. Not the wafting, melancholy of a lone Scotsman...but a lively, almost jazzy melody underscored by pulsing beats not so far from the techno I'd grown accustomed to in Spain. While I suspect there are a number of outfits making neo-Scottish folk akin to my first taste of the genre, the band I'm most interested these days is the Finlay MacDonald Band. (Check out their MySpace page for more samples.)

Brilliant stuff coming straight outta Scotland.

Storming the Castle.

As part of Fresher's Week, student groups have been making daily trips up to Edinburgh Castle - one of the city's supposed must-see attractions. And despite the huge demand to get in, a friend and I were able to sneak in with a Uni group, saving £12 in the process (which, I must admit, is a bit pricey).

Aside from Arthur's Seat and the Salisbury Crags, Edinburgh Castle is without a doubt the most recognizable blip in the city's skyline. Seen from the streets of Edinburgh, the castle, perched upon it's Castle Rock, has quite a majestic presence. Rising about 400 ft. from the Princes Street Gardens immediately below, it's a fortress inhabited by a shifting cast of Scottish royals and military figures dating back to the 9th Century BC. Featured on the premises is the birthing room of Mary Queen of Scots and an exhibition of the Scottish Honours, one of the most complete set of crown jewels anywhere in Europe.

While the history of the location was very interesting to learn about, I really felt that the charm of the castle had been slightly diminished by contemporary attempts to draw tourist business in. Take for instance the "vaults" (read: dungeons). Just being down in the cellars is definitely illustrative of what being a POW must have been like back in the days of the American Revolution, but with the added hammocks, cheesy prisoners-talking-in-accents soundtrack and prop food rations, everything down there just sort of felt like Disneyland. I don't know if it's just because I'm more used to seeing replicas than originals in SoCal and Vegas, but everything just seemed a bit too commercialized there for my taste.

Pirates of the Caribbean flashbacks notwithstanding, a very interesting location. The historical center of the city...and for free!

1 Month And Many Miles

It's been exactly a month since my plane touched down in Zurich on August 19, so I've decided to pause here, as I do from time to time, to reflect on where I am, where I've been and where I'm headed.

Travel, I have found, is much more about perspective than actually going places. Yes, the architectural triumphs, mammoth museums and bustling metropolises have been worth seeing, and I will definitely take with me a wealth of stories, photographs and knick knacks to boot. But my journeys through Europe have proved so much more than that.

Being half-way around the world has an odd way of shedding light on to the places you've left behind. America, for me, seems a much different place than it was when I left. I'm slowly learning to see the positives and negatives, and although I sometimes long for familiarity, I'm genuinely thankful for this almost surreal opportunity.

A month ago, I had no clue what to expect. And, a month later, I still don't know what's to come. But maybe that's the point.