High heels, sunset, and (a lack of) white wine.

A very good morning to you!

As you might have noticed, I have decided to come up with some more interesting titles. They are a bit misleading, though. You’ll see.

Thanks for all your comments, and I decided to stick with the system of responding to derivations on the page they were derived (that is, I didn't think about a different way).

In any case, this is going to be another attempt at a relatively short update (hopefully succesful), and this time it is preceded by a bit of a preview of what you can expect. It includes some interesting progress on my part resulting in the announcement -of which I’m quite proud I might add- that I haven’t gotten lost at all in these past days! On the downside, some other unfortunate traits of my character relating to finding my way around were revealed. On the adventurous aspect I found myself hiking in high heels (Arthur’s Seat); and to keep in touch with non-Scottish culture we visited IKEA. Finally, I experimented with cooking.

Arthur’s Seat is the main peak of the group of hills which form most of Holyrood Park, a remarkably wild piece of highland landscape in the centre of the city of Edinburgh, about a mile to the east of Edinburgh Castle. The hill rises above the city to a height of 251 m and provides excellent panoramic views of the city. Many claim that its name is a derivation of a myriad of legends pertaining to King Arthur, such as the reference in Y Gododdin. However, it has also been claimed that the name is a corruption of the phrase “Archer’s Seat” on the supposition that the rock was a significant point of city defence in the Middle Ages. (source: wikipedia)

The picture below is taken (more or less) at the foot of Arthur’s Seat:


The climb began quite innocently, and even after a few minutes the view was worth taking a picture of:


The view was truly magnificent and at a certain point we got to a plateau (from left to right: Phil, Steffi, Lenka, Anna (henceforth Annavera), Anna, Peter, me, Anna – picture taken by Chiara):


The final bit to the top was quite rocky and we really had to climb a bit; however, it was definitely worth it! At the top of the Seat it was incredibly windy (when I figure out how to upload videos I will add some of them, but don’t get your hopes up yet) and the feeling of achievement was definitely present. The view was incredible:


And my favourite one, I think, capturing the stormy weather; even now, when I’m writing this entry, I feel the wind in my hair and the overwhelming sense of being so powerful and so small at the same time – the world is truly lying at your feet and the very air breathes of freedom. I love it!


Chiara shooting a group picture:


One of the group pictures:


The actual peak:


At the beginning of the hill leading to Arthur’s Seat people have built a small chapel (dating from the 15th century); unfortunately I haven’t remembered what it was about exactly but I might come back to it later. In any case, a picture of St Anthony’s Chapel:


The final picture of the trip to Arthur’s Seat shows proof of the fact that I walked up that hill on high heels.


As to my room, I know you must be incredibly curious, but I will let you stew for a little longer. Even though I bought bed linen, I am too lazy to take pictures right now, and the only ones I took don’t really show the colours faithfully (you will never guess the colour of the covers, though; it is entirely out of character). Moreover, my room needs that extra bit of cleaning before I can take proper pictures. However, I will not leave you with nothing; one of my flatmates is a very good cook, and here you can see Ana (Spain) cooking something delicious:


Due to the horrible food here in Scotland (UK really), I have been forced to cook. Interestingly enough I do not mind it as much as I might have thought; rather, I’m starting to experiment! The first time, I had baked potatoes (which turned out ok-ish, 5 out of 10), courgette (6.5), and chicken… the chicken fillets were quite expertly prepared, really. I put them in the frying pan and looked for something to give them any taste: in one of the kitchen cabinets I found a sifter reading “SPICE”, and I sprinkled the chicken generously in order to make it more spicy. You cannot fathom my surprise that the smell the powder emitted was sweet rather than spicy, though. It turned out to be cinnamon. Dinner was quite interesting, I can tell you!

However, after a recovery period of some days, I decided not to be put down by this slight set-back; undeterred by the fact that last time it had gone wrong partly because I had no recipe, this evening I again just made something which -theoretically- seemed like a tasty combination: a pasta with cream cheese with garlic, courgette, and mushrooms (I forgot to buy the white wine). It needs some improvement (pepper, onions) but the fundaments have been laid.

Last Wednesday I didn’t have any bed linen yet and some others also needed household items, and considering we have Swedes in our midst, it was not an odd decision to go to Ikea. The others were happy enough to allow me to figure out the route and I had looked up everything on googlemaps and made a nice note, which included street names and the like. I estimated the walk to take a bit over half an hour, say, 40 minutes. It was a sunny day and we set off after lunch:


On our way, we passed this cathedral; notice the brilliant azure colour of the sky.


After walking through the city for three quarters of an hour we found a meadow and you can see our enthusiasm to get some reprieve of stone and asphalt; as Annavera adequately commented ‘the cows were turned out to pasture.’


View from the meadow:


From left to right: Peter, Annavera, Chiara, and Anna:


However, the walk turned out to be quite a bit longer than 40 minutes; it was becoming dark and we still hadn’t reached our destination. It did offer opportunities for pictures, though:


Feeling quite despearte -and hungry- we were very relieved when Annavera was the first to spot the familiar blue and yellow of Ikea -- looking forward to some Swedish meatballs (kötbullar), she was sure she could read the “I” out of IKEA, until the moment we got closer…


For a moment we feared that the Edinburgh outlet of Ikea was still under construction! However, it turned out to be just some indistinct construction site.

It was becoming darker still..


Finally we arrived at our destination: IKEA!


The first thing we did was wolf down our meatballs and then shopped for everything (don’t worry, I won’t bore you with all the details, but I would like to mention I bought a tea ball); however, we took the bus home rather than walk back. Later, I found out the distance we had walked was just over 4.1 miles (which is over 6.5 km I think).

A random oddity I discovered in talking to an American: even though America is called "the United States of America" Washington D.C. isn’t a state and might technically be considered not to be a part of the US.

Finally, people have been telling me to have fun, which I take include going out and drinking. I ensure you I have had no lack of alcohol (actually, this is the first day in ages that I haven’t had a drop of alcohol in my body, and that’s just because I forgot to buy white wine for the sauce); however, the pictures resulting from those excesses will not be widely available -- additionally, I prefer pictures of landscapes on my blog. However, just to give you some impression; you cannot see my glass but the drinks we had that night included whiskey, red and white wine, and beer.


I feel this hasn’t been my best update ever, but it will have to do for now :) Maybe it feels this way, because the entry has so little (if any) phonology/linguistics in it. I will have to make up for that.

Tomorrow we’re off to Calton Hill and going to saunter along the coast (Edinburgh is situated by the sea). The trip to Glasgow has been postponed until further notice (for no particular reason).

Cheers,
Beata


“It has been suggested that TRISH [trisyllabic shortening] is a figment of linguists’ imaginations” – Lecturer at Edinburgh University

Errh - update 2?

Hi there!

(note: the post contains various topics; feel free to skim through paragraphs, but don’t take huge leaps as you might miss my wanderings around campus or the discussion on budget kilts)

Thank you very much for all your comments; I enjoyed reading all of them! And I imagine it's time for another update. So, I've been living here for over a week, and am still not done shopping; however, I now am the proud owner of three pairs of shoes and a supplementary conditioner to my shampoo (for which I had to walk through half of Edinburgh to find). Ranking all alone at the top of my wish list: bed linen (and duvet). I have a blanket, mind you; it's not as if I'm freezing in bed. The opposite actually, not only is the heating always on (there's a choice between hot and very-hot) but the blanket is 100% synthetic.

The warmth is needed, though, as the temperature is balancing near the freezing point. However, it's still very pleasant; mostly dry and when the sun shines it truly is beautiful. As I was walking back from Princess Street (shopping street) I saw the city with on the background some hills and a beautiful sky; truly, I will probably never love a city as I do Edinburgh. Leiden pales in comparison, even though it has a charm of its own as well. Edinburgh, however, breathes history, is covered in mystery, and invites you to love it.

Suffice it to say that I like being here. Now, this has been partly due to the fact that I have struck up a friendship with a group of international students from Europe (Sweden, Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, and the Netherlands) and Puerto Rico:


We go out for dinner, drinks, trips, and more. Below a picture of Anna, a sweet Swedish girl, who studies Biology (at Uppsala University):


Also, particularly interesting to the lovers of Mother Nature, I went to Loch Lomond. Loch Lomond is the largest body of inland water in Britain; it is one of the longest Scottish lochs and also one of the deepest. Arguably, it has been deemed the most beautiful of Scottish lochs. You will certainly agree that this sounds quite interesting. However, reality was a bit of a disappointment: we could only walk around a small fraction of the lake and though it wasn’t raining it was quite foggy and we couldn’t see much. It was a nice walk, though!




As to my study programme: I have had class from [insert drum roll here] Heinz Giegerich! (A name which I hope is familiar to all students of English.) Additionally, I have signed up for another course: Maturational Constraints on Language Acquisition (MCLA), which deals with the critical period of learning: basically, there’s this idea that certain aspects of language can only be learned within a particular limited period of time: outside of this ‘window of opportunity’ learning will not be fully successful, thus accounting for the fact that second language learners are unable to achieve native-like proficiency; mind you, this is a mightily simplified picture, I might write more later (or in a separate post).

By now I’ve had classes for a week here and although they are generally very similar to Leiden (especially the English department) there are some interesting differences between Edinburgh and Leiden. First off, linguistics is popular here, and I mean really popular: courses have over 80 students! Imagine a room stuffed with native speakers, it’s quite intimidating to tell you the truth…
Another difference is the fact that the reading lists are of a different nature: in the Netherlands (or anywhere else as far as I know) you usually receive a list of books and/or articles, which you have to read, and that’s it. Here, however, you receive a list, which is, say, thrice as long as a ‘normal’ reading list; you shouldn’t read all of it but it is a recommendation, rather, in the sense that you can use these books in the case you have trouble with the material or if you want to know more. Although theoretically it’s not a particularly difficult concept to grasp it is another matter when you are faced with it; however, I think it’s a great way to learn how to perform actual research, as well as acquiring skills to see what material is relevant for you, content-wise as well as quality-wise. As a bonus, you end up with a comprehensive reference list. :)

On a slightly related point, I hope to make some of you happy again… I got lost inside of a university building this time (notably, after I’d found the room the day before successfully), entering the correct building (Adam Ferguson Building) but ending up in an entirely different one (David Hume Tower) by some underground tunnels. Additionally, I was not able to find the library (which is truly incredible, both in quality and in size); I had to check at a map inside of one of the buildings, but I didn’t really want to look like a visiting student so I tried to walk slowly past to the map in a very inconspicuous way; naturally it didn’t work out and I had to go back and look carefully at it, only to find out that it was the building next-door a mere 10 metres away.

Browsing the internet, I also found this interesting piece of information on the phonotactics of English: Originally the word blue was pronounced with a vowel which was identical to the vowel of cue, approximately [iw]. In most dialects of English, [iw] shifted to [ju:]. Theoretically, this would produce **[blju:]. The cluster [blj], however, infringes the constraint for three-consonantal onsets in English. Therefore, the pronunciation has been reduced to [blu:] by elision of the [j]. I vaguely recall a discussion on this particular subject – isn't that right, Tessa?

Well, I guess you’re waiting for pictures of my room – you’re not going to get to see any until I buy a duvet (and possibly a poster or some pictures on the wall), because right now it looks quite awful. However, I do have pictures of the view from my flat!



Finally, there’s a huge discussion going on about Lidl kilts, which are going to be sold from the 21st of January (just before Burns night, a celebration of the life and poetry of the national poet of Scotland: Robert Burns, who was born on 25 January 1759, and wrote, among other things, the poem Auld Lang Syne ‘long long ago’ or literally ‘old long since’). In any case, Lidl is going to sell budget kilts for a mere £25 (a kilt usually costs over £100); but there is some controversy whether this is a good idea or not. I do not want to deprive you of this discussion, so if you have an opinion on this: let me know!

Next time: I’ll see whether I am allowed to take pictures in the library (if so, I will), and I have a trip to Glasgow planned for next week; hopefully some pictures of my room, and if -for some unfathomable reason- I can’t find any topic I’ll tell you about breakfast or about the strange tables they use here in class or the different brands of beer.

Again, I thank you very much for reading & your comments; responses to the ‘derivations’ can be found on the page they were posted (I’m going to ponder over how to respond to the comments/derivations in a better way, but this will have to do for now). A final piece of wisdom concerning the Scottish culture: a sporran is a pouch which is worn hanging from the belt over the front of the kilt.

Sorry again with regard to the length of the update (I’m quite sure it’s even longer than the previous one); however, you should relish these posts. They take up quite some time, and I cannot promise to keep up this posting rate.

Cheers,
Beata


“This is secret phonological knowledge which has been passed on to generations for years” – Lecturer at Edinburgh University

Aah! I'm ecstatic!

Look at this:

Monday - Thursday : 8.30am - 12 midnight
Self-service from 7.50pm
Friday : 8.30am - 12 midnight
Self-service from 6.50pm
Saturday : 8.30am - 12 midnight
Self-service from 4.50pm
Sunday : 12 noon - 12 midnight
Self-service from 6.50pm


The opening hours of the library!! Amazing!! I LOVE Edinburgh!!

Blog update 1

Hi there!

As fate saw it fit to bless me with a cold, I arrived in Edinburgh with a sore throat and running nose. I don't really know where to start, but let's try for the fact that it was snowing when I arrived at the airport, and from the taxi it looked really nice and had a Christmassy feeling to it. Unfortunately, it was also quite slippery the next morning. It didn't end up in a full contact situation between Figure (me) and Ground, but a couple of times it was rather close. However, the weather has been very nice (barely any rain, very cold but in a good way; will take pictures soon), and I must admit that was the least of my worries on Friday (2nd day).

Since I had no room (please don't ask for the details, suffice it to say that though it was the first it will also be the last time that I arrange anything 'a-bit-earlier-than-last-minute'), I had to be at Accommodations at 10am. My hotel was mostly chosen because it was conveniently close: a mere 15 minute walk if not less. I had printed my google map, and everything was fine. Except for the fact that I had not foreseen the power of my poor sense of direction. Not only did it take me almost 1.5 hour to get to the place, I asked no less than 7 people for directions! Edinburghians are very friendly and helpful, though.
To demonstrate how poor it was: At a certain point I was told that it was really easy to get where I wanted and I was instructed to simply walk straight ahead, one straight line (shown in black); my valiant attempt to carry it out was rather less successful (red line).


Or maybe it was Providence because my mistake brought me much closer to my actual target (which was Holyrood Park Road rather than Holyrood Road).
Below you see a reconstruction of how I walked from my hotel (A) to the Accommodations Centre (B); incidentally, C denotes my room, D university buildings where I have classes (including Library).


Having arrived at my destination, I found out that nothing had been done and that the first appointment(!) could be made at Tuesday. But, again, everybody was helpful and I got to view a room immediately, and could move in from Saturday onwards. The room is terribly expensive, not very big, and I have to share with three other students (two of which are American: Texas, Ohio; and one who I haven't met with yet. They are also obsessed with turning off the light (a commendable stand but one can overdo it) and fire.
Notably, the room has internet access -- sort of. I got it because I killed the phone (inspired by Jos Pacilly's 'how to build a microphone when all you have is a speaker'). In any case, I have internet access!

Friday after viewing the room and before I could move in I had an appointment with Patrick Honeybone (director of studies, coordinator Erasmus programme, and most interestingly, phonologist). Edinburgh is amazing with regard to talking phonology (or linguistics)! There are weekly meetings on various topics, ranging from 'developmental phonology' to 'Language evolution and computation'.
As to the courses I'm taking:
- Historical Phonology
- English Word-Formation (i.e. morphology)
(others are still being discussed/mulled over/etc.)

One important thing that needs to be told: I went into a little second-hand bookshop, and discovered a gem among all those books: Segmental Phonology in Optimality Theory (Lombardi)!! It really made my day! I even bought an additional sociolinguistics book (no clue why, but at least it's about different Englishes) and a compilation of short stories called "New Scottish Writing".

Finally, Scots are NOT ugly. To say that I'm in heaven would be exaggerating quite a bit, but there's nothing wrong with them :D.

Now, I think I have covered most of what I've done. As for the near future: tomorrow 11am International Students' Meeting; Monday classes start! Oh, did I mention I only have to walk a mere 7-10 minutes from my room to university?

My apologies for the length of this post, next time I'll try to keep it shorter.

Good luck with your papers, bikes, jobs, lovelife, and more!

Cheers for now,
Beata


"Snow on Christmas Day is the icing on the cake, really" - Edinburgh Airport Taxi Driver