Walk around town

I managed to get some time to walk around parts of Edinburgh when the rain stopped for the first time this year. It was also perfectly cold with frost on the grass and the smaller puddles frozen. It was nice to get some fresh air and to think about something that I find relaxing for a morning. I posted the photographs in the Edinburgh gallery.

I also got conned this week. I actually fell for an Ebay scammer, offering way above the price for an iPad that I am selling. I am not sure why this din't set alarm bells of in my head... I had actually dropped the package off at the post office, such was my delight at selling the iPad. It wasn't until I checked the the (fake Paypal) email later that I realised that I had been 'had' so to speak. I am usually very careful and often worry about people close to me falling for this kind of thing, but to have it happen to myself was very humiliating. I am not sure who I was more angry at, myself or the scammer.

Thankfully, I managed to run to the post office that I posted the package from and the guys that worked in there were very understanding and actually gave me the package back. Had I been ten minutes later it would have been gone with the post. So, good news, I have an iPad for sale if anybody is interested. :-)

 

Semester down

It has been a while since I last wrote a journal entry, which is personally disappointing, mostly because I like to have some photographs to update it with with but alas my free time for wandering has been severally restricted, this is not a complaint. It has been restricted by something that I am enjoying. In saying that I still update Instagram frequently. 

In the first week of the course I am pursuing I was told that it would pass by fast. Apparently, by fast they meant at neck breaking speed. Shockingly two blocks of courses have been done, several assignments, a long weekend field trip with little sleep and to top it off, four exams.

Wow. Exams. What fun! I swore that my viva would be the last exam I would  take, but apparently there isn't much call for glacial geologists in the real world.

Living in Edinburgh has been interesting. It is nice living somewhere where (most) everyone speaks English again, in saying that my last visit to the apple store was done mostly in Dutch as the assistant was studying linguistics and could speak Dutch. I spoke more Dutch to him in Scotland than I have done to any store assistant in The Netherlands. Perhaps, I actually know more Dutch than I thought.

 

 

Kindrogan and Christmas

A few days out of the city. Normally this would turn out to be a time to recharge batteries and catch up on reading. This trip turned out to be a coffee fuelled marathon of data collection, processing and presenting. A "fun" coffee fuelled marathon of data collection processing and presenting.

Time has marched on in my education and the first block of classes went past faster than I could possibly imagine. The distant memory of being told that we would be going away for a long weekend 'at the end of October' suddenly appeared. As I start the second set of classes I would like to think that I have a better handle on time management and organisation but I think I may be kidding myself on.

The excitement of Object Orientated Programming, Distrubuted GIS and Remote Sensing is driving me for the next five weeks into the exams and the potential of a Christmas Break.  I think this is the earliest I have ever thought of Christmas.

The trip to Kindrogan was for project management. It was to see how we would cope under a certain amount of pressure which would be directly linked to how organised we were before the trip and how our strategies held up under real life situations.

I didn't get to take as many photographs as I would have liked when I was away, but that wasn't really the point of the trip. I did get a few candid and posed photographs though. I am open to captions for some of these :-)

 

Castles, Coffee and Citylife

Two weeks of living in Edinburgh and a grand total of one photograph that I have taken that I am pleased with, taken with my iPhone, when I was slightly drunk (more about that later).  I keep reminding myself that I have at least an entire year here to take photographs and " DON'T PANIC ". I am also told by my tutors that the year will fly past at lightning speed. Who said anything about panicking?

The city is impressive, there is no denying it. It is busy, so very busy, with tourists, students, politicians, business people and of course those cheeky lads from Trainspotting. My coffee consumption has increased at an almost alarming rate. Can you believe that coffee isn't one of the major food groups? Starbucks' seem to appear at an exponential rate and there are amazing coffee shops at every corner in this city. My local favourite (to where I study) being Black Medicine Coffee Co., their website is out of 1996 but I'm putting that down to how busy they are.

Heriot Place, Edinburgh

 

It's been an interesting (side?) step, entering the M.Sc., the real course choices start next week and I am constantly questioning myself as to whether I am good enough or have I prepared enough and I think nervous energy is powering me through this initial introduction week. I also forgot how nice it is to meet lots of new people who are in a similar position. I do catch myself looking at them to see if they have similar nerves or doubts about themselves; or is it just me?

 I am off to a treasure hunt this afternoon, with drinks afterwords. I should probably go and prepare with some coffee. :-)