Induction (Duh Duh Duuuuuuuuuh)

Attended induction at my university today (and doesn't that sound like I'm joining a cult) which was both a lot more and less than I was expecting from the day. I don't actually matriculate until tomorrow, which means that I am still without a matriculation number, student ID, or a class schedule, though I do have a much better idea of what that schedule might look like now.

If you want to go to my programs website, by the way, this is the link. 

I found out that the program does several very cool looking trips over the course of the year, the first being a three day, two night excursion to The Burn in October, with a stopover to tour DC Thomson. The other trips include a Publishing Scotland Conference, the London Book Fair, the Edinburgh International Book Fair, and MagFest. 

First trimester we study Publishing in Context, The Business of Magazine Publishing, Creative Toolkit (whatever that means), and Publishing in Practice: From Concept to Creation.

Second trimester is Publishing in Practice: From Creation to Consumer, Publishing Placement & Professional Development (which I believe would be our internship) and then we get to choose one of New Venture Planning, From Script to Screen, Interactive Media, and Magazine Publishing.

Third trimester we don't actually have any classes (so if anyone wants to come visit me, come during the third trimester) but instead just work on our dissertation for the duration of the trimester. Depending on your internship, that may also stretch into the third trimester. 

Total, we only have three days of classes a week, which is nice. 

Today, we met up at noon for induction (basically welcome and introduction). It was very nice to arrive and see already familiar faces (I briefly considered the benefits of sitting with new people before going to sit with the people I already know - there are only about forty of us, I'm sure we'll all get to know each other quite well). We broke for lunch from 1-2. The campus is quite easy to navigate, I was worried I might have trouble finding our meeting room, but it was quite easy to locate, as was the cafeteria. We didn't actually go to our program rooms today, which are apparently equipped with locks that are opened by swiping our student cards (so only publishing students can go in those rooms - so fancy!). Doing my BA, while lots of other departments had rooms with specific resources that were only open to students in that department, the English department was not quite as lucky. I'm very excited to have our own space! And they use macs (thank god). The Merchiston Campus of Edinburgh Napier, which is where my program is located, also has the main University library and a 24-hour PC Barn with about 500 computers. It is also just finishing renovations, so it is very nice and new. 

After lunch we returned and were introduced to the Scottish Centre for the Book, of which the MSc Publishing students make up a major part. There are several internship positions being offered through SCOB for the first trimester, which I am probably going to try and get one of (the workload only amounts to about one afternoon a week, for 20 weeks). 

Then we were given our first assignment - in randomly assigned groups (the girls in my group seem lovely) we are to, by next Wednesday, research publications of Merchiston Publishing, contact an elementary school which will be assigned to us tomorrow, arrange to deliver a box of free books which we will have chosen from Merchiston Publishing's published works, pack and print a list of outgoing stock, secure authorization from a staff member for stock distribution, compose and print a letter to the school, deliver the books in person, securing a photo of donation and (hopefully) a thank you letter from the school (which is apparently discretionary, as compared to the mandatory photo), and prepare an article for uploading to the school website. 

By Wednesday. When we don't know what our class schedules are (and we could all be in different tutorials). 

Tomorrow morning we start at 9:30, getting more detailed information on the program and module structure, before matriculating at 11:00, with lunch from 12-1, so after we all matriculate, we will need to quickly figure out when works for all of us to go to the school and call the school and arrange that over lunch. 

Its a bit much.

Anyways, we finished off today with a tour of Blackwells, which was really cool and interesting, as it included a behind-the-scenes look at how a bookstore operates, as well as a lot of information about how publishers interact with bookstores. Which got me back from completely overwhelmed to excited (but still spinning a bit). We finished at 7pm, so I was pretty wiped (I think we all were). 

Tomorrow we also attend a lecture on "Personal Goal Setting for Postgraduate Students" and a guest speaker event, finishing at 5pm. Then monday we officially start classes!

In other, non-school news, I rearranged my furniture in my room today, only to discover a built-in-cupboard hidden behind my wardrobe. I need to call my landlord tomorrow night anyways, so I will definitely be asking him about that - because hey, extra storage, always a good thing!

ETA: Just found this in my pocket...

This obviously being the way that my program leaders decided to divide us into random groups... by having us draw numbered mini boxes of raisins out of a bucket.

But hey, no niggling nasties! 

Two Weeks Down

I've been in the country for two weeks now! I think I've done a decent amount in that time - seen two castles, been to Glasgow and a concert, walked up Calton Hill, explored Edinburgh, set up my flat.

However, I do still have a couple of specific things I'd like to do in the city including walking up to Arthur's Seat, visiting the botanical gardens, going to the Edinburgh zoo... and some things I'd like to do outside of town, including visiting the Isle of Skye and Loch Ness, though I'm not sure when I'll be able to do those. I figure I'll try do at least a couple more things before school starts Thursday.

Today I met up with a couple of the girls from my program, two from Germany and one from the States, had coffee and hung out, which was really nice. I'm definitely starting to get excited for starting school! I'm meeting up again with the girls one more time before school starts as well.

Edinburgh Castle

Went up to Edinburgh Castle today with Haley, one of my roommates. It was a gorgeous day out, sunny and actually warm enough that I didn't need a coat (though I of course unnecessarily brought one anyways).

Portcullis! There were way more tourists at Edinburgh castle, so there are way more of them in my pictures. Stupid tourists. Ruining my photos.

Looking down from the castle, in the bottom left corner you can see the Scottish National Gallery, and in the top right, Calton Hill.

What am I doing with my arms? Why am I so awkward?

Few of the present buildings pre-date the Lang Siege of the 16th century, when the medieval defences were largely destroyed by artillery bombardment. The most notable exceptions are St Margaret's Chapel, which dates from the early 12th century and is the oldest surviving building in Edinburgh, the Royal Palace, and the early-16th-century Great Hall. The castle also houses the Honours of Scotland, the Scottish National War Memorial, and the National War Museum of Scotland.

Yes, that entire paragraph is directly from wikipedia, leave me alone.

Foog's Gate. Great name.

So much stained glass and statues!

The Stone of Destiny (OMG I got to see the stone of destiny!) and the Honours of Scotland are both housed in this building (no photography permitted).

Chambers of Mary, Queen of Scots, including the room where she gave birth to King James.

The great hall was the chief place of state assembly in the castle and is still sometimes used for ceremonial occasions.

Hey-oh! Shout out to Canada! If you can't read it - during WWII the Scottish Crown Jewels were buried in David's Tower in case of invasion - four people were entrusted with the Jewels locations - King George VI, the Secretary of State for Scotland, some other dude, and the Governor General of Canada.

Princes Street and Princes Street Gardens can be seen at the bottom of this photo.

The dog cemetery has been used since the reign of Queen Victoria for regimental mascot dogs and officer's dogs.

Princes Street Gardens, and the train lines.

That is one seriously big canon.

Can you imagine one of those shooting towards you?

Saint Margaret's Chapel is the oldest surviving building in Edinburgh, having been built during the reign of David I, who ruled from 1124–1153.

Saint Margaret's Chapel from the outside - it is a very tiny building.

Parish Church of Saint Cuthbert from above.

While Edinburgh Castle certainly provides an impressive view of Edinburgh, and I'm happy I went to it, I have to say I enjoyed my visit to Craigmillar Castle a lot more. As was mentioned earlier, few of the buildings predate the 16th century, and many of them were built in the 18th and 19th centuries. Most of the medieval parts of this castle are gone, and built on top of them are buildings which reminded me a lot of the Citadel in Halifax - you just didn't get the same sense of (medieval) history. Probably the only part when you really got that sense was going down into the ruins of David's Tower, which weren't really much to see (and mostly inaccessible to visitors).

There also just wasn't as much to explore. And there really was *way* more people. So overall, while I'm glad I went, its definitely not topping my list of "must see places in Edinburgh".

Its still really cool to see when walking around Edinburgh though.