Fire Safety

When you visit the UK it becomes apparent almost immediately that there is great concern about fire safety.  Its not that surprising considering the age of the majority of buildings and the large fires that have hit their cities in the past.  Electrical maintenance vans are a common site -- maybe the different electricity here is part of the problem.  School fire alarms are tested often, even weekly at one of my university buildings.  To me, this is a bit much.

Derek and I live in student accommodation, and so of course the university's safety concerns are filtered through accommodation services to us.  Our building isn't "purpose-built" for accommodation -- it's an old (likely 19th century) tenement building with private businesses on the ground floor and university owned flats on the first, second and third.  We're close to campus, but not on it, and so while we must call university security if there's ever a problem, there isn't anyone on site to help.

Fire safety stickers, signs and posters are all over businesses, school building and our place. We have a fire blanket in the kitchen and an extinguisher in the closet.  Our kitchen door and living room door are fire doors that we are required to keep closed at all times.  It is so annoying when I want to have a conversation with the cook (ie Derek) or shout something from the bedroom to the living room.  Plus they slam shut, annoying the neighbours below.  But we've been sent pointed emails warning us about facing possible charges if we prop them open at any time, and we can't risk jeopardizing our visas!

The good thing is that we all pay close attention to this issue and feel quite safe.  But I think the university might want to pay attention to our deadly stairwell if they are truly concerned about fire safety.  

The steep, uneven steps of our narrow spiral staircase (which had inadequate lighting until I complained twice to accommodation services) would not provide a safe exit in smokey conditions in my opinion.  

Anyway, the inspiration for this post was the latest email telling me about the quarterly fire alarm testing that'll be happening on Wednesday.  You might think this is nothing particularly interesting, but what's notable is that they just did a round of testing last Wednesday, going into several flats and setting off the alarms throughout the building (quite annoying since I was marking essays at the time).  I've been sent a schedule from the university justifying these intrusions by reminding us that these tests must be done four times a year, but they're actually going to be done weekly until the end of January.  With only 6 flats to test and several being entered per week, I don't know what to think.  

Edinburger Bureaucracy

Those of you who I've chatted with on Skype over the last few months might have heard my story of working for the university without pay, but as the audience for my blog is infinitely wider, it also gives me a larger chance to rant.  I'm half kidding.  To be honest, there's now a light at the end of the tunnel, which is why I finally feel okay sharing this experience.

Last year I either spent my days in court (as a clerk, not a criminal) or applying for every award I could find.  Attending a university as an international student is a very expensive undertaking, with fees being up to three times that of home students.  And I was successful, winning a Graduate Teaching Assistantship and, at the last minute, a College Studentship.  The studentship meant a significant part of my costs would be covered by the university, but the opportunity to teach is too great an opportunity to pass up.

I began leading seminars on British History One, a first-year survey course covering four centuries, in September.  I teach 3 seminars per week, ten students per seminar.  Over the year there's 22 seminars to plan, prepare and lead, 4 2000 word essays to mark per student, and a final exam to mark.  Its a significant time commitment.  And I love it.  Plus its a great chance to brush up on my British political history.

The problem lies in the award itself.  This is the first year the School offered teaching placements as an award.  Instead of being an employee, we're award winners and are therefore paid a set amount monthly, rather than hourly at a set wage.  I don't have to pay tax or get a National Insurance Number.  But I also wasn't getting paid.

In September I filled out standard tax forms for Human Resources.  These included sections on personal information, bank account information, and proof of my address and the UK visa terms in my passport.  This was submitted to the first secretary responsible for postgrad students.  In October I was given a Disclosure form to access police records from the second secretary, which is standard practice for anyone working with young or old populations and if yours doesn't pass you can't work and certainly can't get paid.  Of course, by this time I had been working for 4 weeks.  It took 6 weeks for the results to come through and be submitted to the university.

In mid-October I was given a timesheet to fill out on a monthly basis.  Having missed September's deadline by weeks, I've since submitted it the last week of every month to the third secretary, this one being for undergrad courses like the one I tutor for.  By the beginning of November I contacted her to find out more information about my award, and she referred me back to the second one who said she'd email me the necessary form that night (a Monday).  On Wednesday I went to her office and asked her for the form -- she was "too busy" but said she'd email it me it the next day.  On Friday I emailed her again and cc'd my supervisor in the hopes that she'd take my request seriously.  It worked.  She sent me a form that afternoon.

Unfortunately this form did not seem to apply.  It was for a one-time payment to compensate a worker for ad hoc work.  This was far more than disappointing.  Ignoring it and her "help," I began speaking with other students in the hopes of getting some actual information.  Another Canadian first year PhD student who'd won the same award and had filled out the same forms for the first secretary let me know that she'd been getting paid since October.  I was shocked and worried.

I checked in with the first secretary, who assured me that the problem was that HR doesn't accept anything after the 5th of the month.  Since my disclosure hadn't come through until the 15th of November or so, I wouldn't get paid until the end of the month.  I felt better.  

On Tuesday I noticed an email in my Hotmail account's Junk folder.  Secretary two had sent out the same odd ad hoc work form to me again, as well as to the other award recipients, but for some reason used our old informal email addresses rather than our official university ones.  I sent back questions about the information she wanted, as it was the same as on the forms for secretary one and the timesheets regularly submitted to secretary three.  What I got in response was a notification that she had gone on holiday until the deadline of the forms, so I filled them out.

Today a mysterious amount of money was deposited into my bank account that was similar to the monthly amount my peer had received.  I was so relieved.  But questions still remain.  When will I be paid for the other two months I've worked?  Why did I have to fill out the weird ad hoc form, which hasn't been processed and yet I've started getting paid?  And what is the full amount of the award?  No one has ever been able to answer that for me.  Having three secretaries be responsible for one award which no one person understands seems like an obvious mistake for the school and a stressful one for its students.

National Libraries: What's their problem?

Last week I headed off to London for the first time in nine years.  The intended purpose was to learn all about the British Library at their postgraduate research student training day.  It did turn out to be a good learning experience, and it just helps to have seen the place.  I hate going to new places and not being sure where exactly to go, or what the rules are.   

It doesn't help that national libraries aren't the most friendly places, which I've learned from trying to get a reader's ticket at the National Library of Scotland down the street.  The first time I went there I followed the front desk girl's directions and walked down the hall and through the open door on the left into a large office labelled "Registration" where I was promptly told that they weren't open yet (It was 2 minutes to 10am).  Not only was I escorted out the door, but I was shown where the barricading rope should have been.  When they did officially open 2 minutes later, I was turned away because I didn't have any proof of address, which of course I didn't seeing as I was a new international grad student...

I guess the reason these libraries are so petty is that they are trying to preserve some priceless, irreplaceably resources for future generations.  They go out of their way to achieve this: no pens or ink, no bags, jackets or laptop cases, and no loans.  The books never leave the library.  We even had our bags searched on our way in!  I think the funniest thing is that they always stress how they're available to everyone.  Everyone who's willing to go through a ton of hoops, anyway.

To be honest its not all that bad.  The reading rooms are beautiful, and they do give you access to stuff you can't find anywhere else!  Back to London, when I was heading into the British Library's conference centre after lunch the man I was walking up the stairs with and I got to talking.  As he worked for the library, he was interested in how I was finding the day and what I study.  It turns out that he had remembered my topic from the long list of 130 students and our subject areas.  That was neat.  But the best part was when he had to run to lead the next workshop, he gave me his business card to contact him and it turns out he's the head of their newspaper collections!  We're talking unparalleled collections.  What an amazing contact to accidentally make.

Stuff We Miss

We've been in Edinburgh for ten weeks, and there's a number of things that simply aren't here. There's the obvious stuff we miss, like our families and friends (and Lucy, Sneakers, Alexis, Jimmy and Jack).  But then there's all that other stuff.

For example, I'm missing

• french vanilla cappuccino and cinnamon sugar doughnuts from Tim Hortons
• fluffy pancakes
• cheesies
• new seasons of US tv shows, like The Office and My Name Is Earl
• borrowing the car
• perogies
• important events, like weddings of good friends
• washing our hands and face with warm water
• familiar coins, the 12 hour clock and automatically knowing which way to look when crossing the road

And then there's the stuff I'll miss when we leave, like

• so many good britcoms, on tv and on cheap dvds at HMV
• walking around the corner and seeing Edinburgh castle
• excellent shopping
• Boots pharmacy and free prescriptions
• no snow
• the history
• a washer/dryer under the kitchen counter
• the ability to travel from one end of the country to the other in under 12 hours

I'm really happy we're heading home to Southern Ontario and Tennessee for Christmas (Tim Hortons, here I come!).  And I'll also be happy to come back home to Edinburgh.

Noisy, Noisy Nights

We live in a great location, with convenient access to the university, a five minute walk from the Royal Mile, and quite close to excellent High Street shopping over on Princes Street.  There's lots of little pubs and coffee shops along the street, and we can walk to the farmer's market on Saturdays and see a beautiful view of the castle.  Not bad for school accommodation.  In fact, its really a great place to live, except for one small problem: noise.

One of the main contributors to our noise problem is construction.  A hotel has been in the works next door since before we moved in, and this causes issues every day.  They work from 7am to about 4pm, 7 days a week.  The skip comes at 6:30am, so thats when most of us in the building wake up, at least temporarily.  At night they string up tarps to shield materials from the rain, but with the strong winds these tarps often sound like its pouring rain out.

More construction has started at the bus stop across the street.  For those of you following our music story, this is the same bus stop where the band plays around midnight on random evenings.  Luckily, the awful music has come to and end, at least for the moment.  The problem with this latest construction site is that they've dug up part of the road and lay boards across it at night.  Because the street is one of the major routes from the Royal Mile to the south of the city, there's traffic all night long rolling over these boards making so much noise!  

Being close to the university does have its downfall.  The student union runs a number of pubs and dance clubs, many of which are just across the square.  This means almost every night we get a long wave of drunken students heading home at 3am when the clubs close.  Yawn.

There are ways to make it better.  According to our British neighbours, if the windows had double-glazing, it'd be much quieter.  Derek has plans for a removable wooden shield in the window.  If we stayed up until 3:30am every night, the clubbers should have all gone home and we'd have about 3 and a 1/2 hours of quiet.  Or we could make what we did last night permanent: set up our mattress in the living room, which faces out into the courtyard at the back of the place.  We'll keep you posted!

Bonfire Night

Last night our neighbours Jen and Steve escorted Derek and I to our first Bonfire Night.  Every 5th of November Britons celebrate the defeat of the gunpowder plot of 1605 by holding large bonfires, fireworks displays and occasionally burning effigies of Guy Fawkes.  We might not have seen any burning guys, but there were some excellent fireworks to oo and aw at.

Around  7 pm the four of us trekked up to the very top of Calton Hill in the centre of town.  This smaller hill (compared to Arthur's Seat) is the site of a number of monuments, including the large, unfinished war memorial that was meant to look like the Parthenon.  It was very misty and in the dark, as we ascended into the clouds of fog and smoke, it really did look like the setting of a good horror movie (so I'm told).   

At the top of the hill crowds of people were looking out over the city lights, watching fireworks exploding all over Edinburgh.  It reminded me of New Years back in our Waterloo apartment, standing on the balcony to watch the celebrations.  We also saw a number of fire trucks racing through the narrow streets, probably dealing with the aftermath of amateur fireworks displays.

The fireworks display closest to our spot was excellent.  Well-timed and full of multiple bursts of colour all going off at one time.  It was really beautiful.  The funny part was when they would set off a really high firework, the type that explodes into a huge sphere high above you and makes you gasp, it would explode above the clouds so all you could see was a red or green burst of colour somewhere in the clouds.  Overall, an excellent evening.

Raindrops Keep Falling on Our Heads

A recent episode of BBC 1's Stephen Fry in America reminded me of another great topic to tackle: the weather.  While driving through pouring rain in Kentucky, Fry mentioned that Americans joke with British visitors that rainstorms must make them feel at home.  I would have thought that too, but the rain here is nothing like what we're used to.

Rain in Edinburgh, and reportedly across much of Great Britain, is light, misty, and terribly cold.  The dampness chills so deeply, I would never have guessed how cold it would feel.  I'm glad I brought my waterproof winter jacket!  It's very difficult to dress properly for outside activities, hence me staying inside today fighting a cold I picked up while experiencing damp Glasgow weather on Sunday.

Rain here has the annoying habit of sneaking up on us when we least expect it.  In the morning if it's sunny and clear we'll decide to go for a walk, and five minutes later we'll turn a corner and there's a thick blanket of dark clouds rapidly approaching.  Even if we have our umbrellas (which we normally do), they're usually useless because either the wind is too strong or it's so misty that the water droplets get all over you anyway.

Before I came to Edinburgh, I was sent several pamphlets on the school and the city, including an arrival guide for new international students.  One sentence that stuck in my mind has turned out to be true: you can never be sure that on any given day it won't rain.  However, the word 'rain' seems to have a number of meanings, so we still weren't prepared.

TV Shows We're Hooked On

One of the first things I was concerned about getting when we moved here was a tv, because I love watching "telly."  In fact, I've grown up watching Britcoms like Keeping Up Appearances, Are You Being Served, and As Time Goes By, not to mention that long-running British soap opera Coronation Street.  We just didn't know much about current British tv.  Here's a couple to watch out for on cable or YouTube:

Gavin and Stacey

This very sweet, very funny show consists of a series of half hour episodes documenting the growing romantic relationship of Gavin from London and Stacey from Wales, beginning with their first meeting after months of speaking on the phone for work.  We're quickly introduced to their scene-stealing overweight best friends and ridiculous, high-strung parental figures who are brought together by the title characters' roller-coaster relationship.  Excellent viewing that makes you laugh really hard and feel very happy.  We don't know how it ends yet, so no spoilers!

Peep Show

The title of this sitcom is rather misleading; it refers to the visual style of the show, not something risque.  Then again, the first season is rated 18+...  Our neighbour recommended it after finding out that we're fans of Ricky Gervais (he has said this is his favourite show on tv right now).  We were hooked after the first episode, and when we found out that the first 5 seasons were on sale at HMV, we bought them having only watched 5 episodes.  A great investment!

The show centres on two roommates and polar opposites, Jeremy and Mark.  Very smart dialogue and fast moving, surprising plots keep you hooked.  Very, very funny stuff, including some great WWII references.  Plus, as I alluded to before, the entire show is filmed through the eyes of the characters.  And it works!

QI

Hosted by the excellent Stephen Fry with a panel of comedian contestants and a live audience, QI (Quite Interesting) is by far the funniest quiz show I've ever seen.  Fry asks a series of questions, each is discussed comically and seriously, and some dare the contestants to say the obvious (and therefore glaringly incorrect) choice.  Points are awarded and a winner is crowned at the end of each episode.  Plus you learn something!  So far I've learned that banana trees walk and the world's smallest dog was 2.5 inches tall.  This BBC show is in its 6th season and no wonder its a hit.

Thanksgiving Dinner

On Monday we had our Thanksgiving dinner, we invited everyone in our building to join us for a potluck. We were very excited when everyone wanted to come. We had to rearrange our living room and borrow chairs and a table from our neighbours so that we could fit 13 people.

I cooked three turkey breast roasts, made some gravy and stuffing. Thanks to everyone bringing something we had a proper Thanksgiving meal with mashed potatoes, veggies, buns, salad, and fruit salad, a vegetable dish, beer and wine. For dessert we had ice cream and a pie, I don't remember the proper name but it was Dutch and very good.

Everyone showed up between 6:00 and 7:00 to chat and at just after 7:00 we ate. After the meal we sat and talked together until midnight. Overall it was a great evening, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and the meal.

Fashion Trends for the Under 30s

We've been in Edinburgh for 4 weeks now, and one thing that you can't help but notice are some of the striking fashion trends showing up on campus and in the city's main shopping area, Princes Street.  

Practical jeans, sweaters and wool jackets are prominent around campus and town for both men and women.  Layers, including sweaters and mid-weight wool jackets, are a necessity with the brisk winds and variable weather.  It can be sunny and cold (8 degrees C) in the morning, warm up by lunch (13 C), and within the next hour the winds have picked up and dark clouds are covering the sky.  Then it rains.  This is where your colourful umbrella comes in handy (mine's leopard print!).  Two hours later its clear skies again as the sun goes down.

Far more women here, students or not, wear skirts than what we're used to back home.  Another common and striking look is opaque or patterned tights with short shorts and Ugg-style boots.  Tights come in wild colours (eg. teal, purple, lime green, silver) and are paired with plaid or dark shorts, and brown, grey or black boots.  Occasionally ballet flats and a mini skirt are substituted.  

The club wear here has certainly surprised me, particularly the see-through mesh tops on young women.  Micro-mini skirts and dresses combine with black stilettos to make the wearer rather unsteady on the cobble-stone streets, but this is the fashion that all women are wearing to go out at night.  This look also reaches far beyond my earlier-imposed age cut-off of 30.  I've been told that guys will actually go up to international female students dancing at a club and say "You're not from around here, are you" because its obvious, what with our tendency to wear jeans and nice tops when going out.

Translations

As the weeks go by and we speak with more and more people, it becomes obvious that the meaning of some words varies greatly depending on where you learned English.  Some of them are obvious, or the ones that you know about from tv shows like lift (elevator) or telly (television).  Here's a couple other examples:

Crisps = Potato Chips

Chips = French Fries

Post = Mail

Bin Liner = Garbage Bag (and the bags come in a convenient roll, which is neat)

Pants = Underwear

Trousers = Pants (although my neighbour told me that pants is catching on, in large part due to american tv shows like Scrubs and Friends that are on every day).

And I haven't gotten used to the 24 hour clock, either.  

Pronunciation can also cause trouble, but this is difficult to express through text.  It's most noticeable on tv commercials e.g. Pantene is pronounced Pantin.  And we do get a kick out of the pronunciation of zebra (rather than sounding like zee, the first syllable sounds like zed).  And pita bread is pitta bread in both spelling and pronunciation.  The first time I saw that I honestly thought it was a typo.  

I'm sure there's many more examples that I'm forgetting, but hopefully this gives you a quick taste of British English.  And a quick thanks goes out to Aunt Donna and family who first made us aware of the many differences in language by giving us a British Language guide before we moved -- it has been useful.

The Curse

I would like to take a moment to address a concern of mine and of those who have known me since I first left for university back in 2001. The curse. It seems that every time I leave home to begin a new university program something of great significance to a large chunk of the world seems to happen, and its generally not a good thing.

Item number one: My second day of university was September 11, 2001. I obviously don't need to say anymore on that one.

Number two: In the days that I was moving to London to begin my MA, Hurricane Katrina hit the southern coast of the USA, levees gave way and New Orleans flooded.

And number three: The Bank of Scotland is a solid, independant banking establishment for roughly 317 years. I move to Scotland to begin my PhD, and within one week banks all over the world are crumbling and the Bank of Scotland is bought by Lloyds TSB.

I'm quite relieved with this latest event. No one died, no great impact on the north american market, but I am sorry for what is now my bank.

One Week

Well, we've been here a week now and have gotten many of the necessities (and some not so necessary items) we need to get going.  The main item still missing is internet, but that should be arriving Monday.  After getting a UK bank account and registering as a student with the University of Edinburgh, I now possess a student card that lets me into the library and their Mac computer lab, as well as some fun activities like last night's Masquerade Ball.

There has been so much happening that I'll give you a short review of the past 7 or 8 days:

• Thursday: Land in Edinburgh, get keys to our flat, find a grocery store, and our first visit to the local Internet Cafe
• Friday: Bus to Ikea for bedding and towels (it was a cold first night), unpack
• Saturday: Daniel arrives, visit Edinburgh castle, walk around the Meadow (a nice big park)
• Sunday: International Day at the university -- introductory sessions, networking, and a ceilidh (Scottish dance)
• Monday: More walking and shopping I think :)
• Tuesday: Welcome session for new postgrad research students, meet with supervisors (who are great!), more networking over "wine and nibbles"
• Wednesday: Daniel leaves for Munich, Derek arranges bank account while I attend a full-day session for new postgrad history, classics and archeology students, evening at flatmates' over wine
• Thursday: Register with school, arrange for tv, cable and internet service, buy a tv, Masquerade Ball (with photos to come)

So here we are at Friday.  I've collected signatures on my first-year plan of study and Derek and I need to buy a tv license this afternoon.  I think I'll also go on a tour of the library's IT resources in an hour's time.  Tonight we're off to the pub with our neighbours downstairs.

Our postings will likely pick up dramatically once we have internet in our home.  Until that at we have cable, I don't think our place could feel like home to me.  But it has definite potential, and the couple of friends I've made are certainly helping :)

Arrived In Edinburgh

We arrived safely in Edinburgh on September 11th, and are now nicely settled in to our place. We do not yet have internet at our place, we only have a mobile phone. Once we get our bank account set up we will be able to get internet. And we can't get a bank account until we have proof of where we live, which we should be getting in the next day or two.

My cousin Daniel came on the 13th early in the morning, not having internet at the time we weren't expecting him yet. He brought with him a friend, a friend I didn't realize until after dinner that he had actually just met that during the bus ride from London.

We've been doing a lot of walking, we've toured around the city on foot, and yesterday Daniel and I climbed the mountain up to Arthur's Seat.

Apart from the frustration of setting up a bank account and not being able to get internet at home I am really enjoying being here, so far it seems sort of like a vacation, but our place really feels like home to me.

Hello world!

We fly out to Edinburgh on September 10th. I thought that perhaps the best way to document some of our adventures in Edinburgh would be via a blog. Derek and I should be able to post pretty regularly, and add some photos when the mood strikes us. Share the link with others, let us know what you think, and enjoy!