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