It's Musical Madness!

Over the past five or six weeks I have been dancing again, and it's been great! About two minutes down the road in Grassmarket is Dance Base, Scotland's national centre for dance, with fantastic instructors and great facilities (including views of the castle above), so I had no excuse not to check it out. All last year a friend of mine had been raving about this lunchtime drop-in class she'd been attending, called Musical Madness, where they would learn choreography to well-known musical theatre songs. It sounded like a great time, but I'm the type of person who, if I stop work in the middle of the day for two or more hours, I'm don't pick it up again until tomorrow, so it wasn't practical for me to go.

This year the class is held on Wednesday nights, and now that we've moved it's literally two minutes away. Unfortunately, because it's in the evenings lots more people are able to attend, so getting a spot is a struggle. Our instructor is incredible, talented and a lot of fun, so it's no wonder he's one of the school's most popular instructors (so they've told me). Another friend and I showed up half an hour early on the first night to get a spot, but there already two others waiting in line and we left empty handed. Now we have dance cards that let us book our places online first thing in the morning. This can also be problematic, however, as there's only a couple spots available to book, and the time at which they are offered varies from week to week (spots have become available as early as 8:30, or as late as 9:45 am), and then there's also the worry that my friends won't have gotten a spot even if I did.

Luckily, other than the first week I've made it to every class I've wanted to. I'm considering signing up for the entire term in the winter, to cut out the stress of trying to get a spot, and because it is so much fun! Every two weeks we learn a completely new style of musical theatre dance, and its always a surprise. We danced some complicated steps to music from the Queen musical We Will Rock You, and learned a detailed number to All That Jazz in Fosse's signature style. The last two weeks we've danced to Aye Carumba from Copacabana, which was ridiculously fun and so very camp, shaking our maracas, banging our bongos and balancing fruit baskets on our heads as we danced around. The steps and routines are challenging enough to keep me completely focussed on the task at hand (something I also always loved about ballet -- I can't worry about school while dancing), and with daylight disappearing around 4pm it's also good incentive to get out and be productive and active in the evenings. It's also been great going with friends. This is a new experience for me, and it makes class a lot more fun.

So I'm looking forward to going again next Wednesday. Who knows what style we'll be dancing to next?!

Paula's Tips for Visiting Edinburgh

Derek and I think you should come visit Edinburgh one of these days. And when you do, you'll probably want to keep some of these things in mind:

1) Keep you camera on you at all times. I think that the most beautiful sight I've seen in Edinburgh was last fall, probably around 5pm, exiting the massive Boots (a pharmacy chain) on Princes Street. It was a fairly clear evening and the castle looked absolutely amazing, framed by a beautiful pink sunset with the few clouds highlighted by the last of the sun's rays. People were stopping in their tracks to stare at the castle, and there I was without my camera.

2) Watch your step. I think it's rather odd that in a city so obsessed with maintaining clean streets that street cleaners drive past our flat several times a week and city employees are all over the place picking up garbage, that the footpaths can get so yucky at times. I think Sunday and Monday morning are the worst. I won't go into detail, but I'd say dogs or drink is the most common culprit, combined with the total lack of grass and greenspace. You'll likely find yourself weaving around this and that and probably feeling a bit rediculous, but at least you won't get something foul on your shoe.

3) Bring your walking shoes. Edinburgh is just hill after hill. With the castle in the centre of town high up on an old volcano rock formation, you'll likely find that wherever you go, at some point you'll be going up or down a considerable hill, only to have to come back eventually. The city is actually quite condensed and you can walk to most of the main attractions from the centre of town. Then again, the train station and the spot where the airport bus drops you off is in one of the lowest sections of downtown, so be prepared to drag your luggage up a steady incline from the moment you arrive.

4) A cheap umbrella may not help. Most days the 'rain' in Edinburgh is actually a very light mist that floats in all directions, including getting up under your umbrella, coating your glasses and frizzing your hair. And on the few occasions when it's true rain (or even a downpour) the strong Edinburgh winds will take hold of your umbrella and have a great time with it. Luckily M&S sells umbrellas that are wind-tunnel proof. And wellies are always a good choice.

5) Don't trust what you see on a map (unless the map's 3D). Edinburgh is built on different levels, with parallel streets that might be several stories different in height. And so when you look on Google maps or a street map it's very easy to get confused, and can seem almost impossible to get to where you want to go if you find yourself on a bridge looking down at the road you'd hoped to be on (or vice versa). A quick tip: anything that is actually attached to Grassmarket and Cowgate (two main streets on the lower level located just south of the castle) are either on the lower level or lead from the lower to the upper level. Also, in general, the farther north or east you go, the lower you get (with the exception of the crags & Calton Hill).

Practice, practice, practice

In the next two weeks I'll be applying for a couple scholarships and awards, which will be my full-time job (and rather unfortunate timing, as I just had 30 essays handed in to me today for marking). Applying for these awards is so positively tedious, and yet you're supposed to get your work to come across as exciting and promising and all that jazz. Our profs continually warn us that applying for financial assistance, research grants and awards is a big part of their jobs as academics, so it looks like there's no end in sight. Might as well get some practice in now, while I've got the security of having won a studentship and a tutoring position from Edinburgh (I almost wrote 'Edinburgh uni' there -- oh how British English is sneaking into my vocabulary).

The first award I'm applying for is the SSHRC (Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada) doctoral fellowship. I'm quite used to be rejected by them, as I've applied the past two years to know avail. But it's worth a ton of money, so I keep on trying. Having to pay international tuition fees is a great incentive to put yourself and your work out there and see what you can come up with. One thing that's in my favour (and in all international students' favour) when applying to SSHRC is that because we're at international universities, our own school and department doesn't rank our applications and decide which ones to send to SSHRC. I apply directly to SSHRC, and therefore can know that my application will be read by at least one person affiliated with the research council. There's a number of Canadian students here applying for the awards (there's many, many doctoral awards up for grabs), and we're lucky to have a Grad Studies prof who not only is Canadian, but won two awards from SSHRC, and he is running a weekly prep course to help us get our applications together.

The part I hate most about applying for these awards is putting together my 'Program of Study' or 'Statement of Purpose'. No matter how hard I try to write in my own style (which is fairly clear and concise), they always seem to end up all flowery and authoritative, full of historiography, insisting upon the project's validity and potential. It's really not my style to go on about my own research and why its exciting and worth funding, but that's what you have to do. They can be so particular about what they want to see (and completely random about the length requirements -- anywhere from 150 words to two pages single-spaced). Usually they want to know the research topic, university, supervisors, why you've chosen that topic and university and supervisor, what sources you're going to be looking at and how you're going to use them, what's new/different/exciting about your project and what you hope to accomplish/find/answer. This is quite difficult at any stage in the research, because you don't have the answers, but that's expected. If you had the answers, there'd be no need to study it,

I also don't like asking profs for letters of reference. It's always a bit awkward, asking professors to write a page saying that you're a good student and that the project's a good idea, that it can get done in time, will contribute to the field of knowledge and is being written in the right place following a sensible timeline and methodology. But we're always being reminded that writing these letters is part of a supervisor's job (something else for me to look forward to :) ), and none have ever seemed to mind. Of course, I'm always sure to send out thank you notes and emails with the results. An interesting fact about reference letters is that apparently North American profs write very different style letters than British profs. The British profs are much more reserved and factual in their comments, while American profs use enthusiastic and flattering language to describe the student and their work. So that's something else to keep in mind when applying to a North American award with letters from British profs.

So that's how I'll be spending the next two weeks: applying and marking. There will be one or two more scholarships to apply for in the winter months, too (again ones that I'm annually turned down for :) ). The whole process is a bit like an audition, I suppose. You can practice and rehearse and spend ages preparing for a dozen auditions and get rejected from every one, and then you find out about another at the last minute, throw something together all rushed and haphazard, and somehow get the part. I wonder what goes on behind the closed doors of these financial award committee meetings...

How Can it Already be Thanksgiving Weekend?

I cannot believe that this weekend is Thanksgiving. I really can't. It doesn't feel like enough time has passed since the end of summer to warrant the Thanksgiving weekend yet. Of course, I'm sure if we were home and all the ads for Thanksgiving and posters for Octoberfest were out then we'd be feeling a bit more in the mood, but I still can't believe its even October! We are going to hold a Thanksgiving dinner again this year for a few friends, and we're just planning all that now.

I've somehow gotten myself wrapped up in all sorts of work for the school, which is really a good thing, because I like to be kept busy and like to be known and network a little with profs who I might someday work with as an equal, but it all kind of snuck up on me. In fact, it all started the first or second week of September, when I decided to find out if the rumour was true, that the school had decided to cancel its annual trip to The Burn for postgrads. When I found out it was indeed cancelled, I started a letter-writing campaign (my first one!), but within a couple of days (and without submitting a single letter) the decision was reversed and the trip was back on! Apparently word had gotten out that a bunch of us were working on something, and the threat of rebellion got them to miraculously find the £600 or so needed to make the weekend away financially viable and cheap enough for student budgets.

It turns out that wasn't the end of it, however. The trip continues to face challenges, the biggest of which I think is that the prof who was in charge of selling the trip to the students at a major finding meeting gave everyone the wrong price. Having misread the nightly cost for the weekend cost, he reported that the trip would only be £20, instead of £60. Oops. But the school managed to find more money to bring the cost to a more middle-ground of £45. That price is contingent however on 25 students signing up and paying their deposits by October 15th. And so my job continues. The Grad Committee at some point appointed me the student rep/promoter of the trip, so now I'm running and blogging about last year's trip, and posting photos to entice students to come. I started a discussion group on the school's social networking site, which I'll be monitoring and answering questions on. All because I wanted another weekend away (and another chance to play snooker)... :)

In July I was approached by the new Head of Grad Studies to help organize and run a series of lunchtime workshops for postgrads on modern British and Irish history, the first of which was held yesterday. This has been a neat experience, coming up with ideas for discussion topics, inviting professors to come speak, and designing a poster and writing up promotional blurbs on the network. We had 13 students show up, which was excellent. There's only 3 workshops per semester, so now that the initial planning and first workshop are over it should be smooth sailing. Or at least it would have been if I hadn't offered to be one of two students to give a 10 minute work-in-progress presentation/ pretend conference paper at the November date. Well, it'll be excellent practice. I've only given one conference paper in the past, and that was almost 5 years ago and I was a nervous wreck.

Tutoring also started last week. I'm teaching 3 tutorials per week, like last year, and its the same course as last year so I've been able to re-use my teaching outlines from last year for the most part, with the addition of a field trip to the National Museum of Scotland which is just down the street from the school. I love the whole 'free museums and galleries' thing they have going here. I don't know why Canada doesn't put more money towards preserving and showing off our heritage and culture that way, by getting rid of admission costs and opening these spaces up to everyone. Anyway, its off to a good start. They're all worried about the first essay being due in a week and a half, but I've devoted my entire tutorials this week to essay writing, which helps calm them down. And then in honour of Monday having been the 40th anniversary of Monty Python first airing on BBC, I've been spending the last five minutes showing the witch trial clip from Holy Grail on my laptop, which has gone over very well.

Finally, I've put my name up for consideration to be part of the new student-staff liason committee that the School of History, Classics and Archaeology is forming to get feedback from postgrads, so we'll see if I get elected. It felt a bit odd putting together my 60 word statement about me and my 'qualifications' -- it felt a bit like my (unsuccessful) run for high school student council all over again. Well, at least this time I won't have to give a speech.