Real Life (Update)

So last Thursday marked the end of a lovely, if unproductive, two weeks of watching a lot of movies, reading a lot of books, and hanging out with friends (some highlights include the day I did not see a single other human being, the day Melissa and Alix and I had a movie night - watching The Cabin in the Woods, The Wolf of Wall Street, and Bon Cop, Bad, Cop - going to the National Museum of Scotland with Eve, Becky, Melissa, and Alix before going back to Melissa's place for pancakes, where Leanne joined us...

Becky's penguin was enjoying the catapult game

And Alix was giving me sass

... and Melissa, Alix and I getting Starbucks, going shopping, and then having a girls night, complete with wine, facemasks, and painting our nails).

Alix and I split a pair of cool earrings from H&M (my necklace is also from H&M)

Nails! (and wine!)

Face masks ;P

I also had to scrape out the freezer, which was starting to resemble more a glacier than a freezer. David walked into the kitchen when I was scraping ice out onto a towel with a spoon and he just looked at me and asked if I really missed Canada that much.

*just like home*

Thursday was just a quick meeting in which we learned which live publishing projects we would be working on this year. We were divided into two groups, one of which will be coming in all day Tuesday and one of which will be coming in all day Wednesday (my group). I volunteered to be co-Project Manager of my group, so, along with Camille, I will be in charge of managing all of the departments and signing off on any major decisions. While I am kind of nervous, I am also rather excited.

The projects which we are doing were chosen out of all the publishing projects that were proposed (mine was a reprint of The Turn of the Screw, which was not chosen) the board of Merchiston Publishing chose four to go ahead with, though not all four will necessarily end up being published, depending of course on budget and time. Both the groups and the books for each group were assigned, and then we decided on roles. First we choice the project manager, two for each group. Then people choose which department they wanted to be in (they could be in multiple departments but had to also pick their primary department that would take their priority). Camille and I also had to join depts so I joined production (which will include design and digital). The departments were: editorial, production, marketing, finance, and rights. Then people volunteered to be department heads, and we ended up having to vote on the dept heads for editorial and prod.

View of the courtyard (finally no scaffolding in way of the view)

Friday we received our grades for two of our final three assessments from last term (passed both, whoo!). We then attended a rather mind-numbing orientations for both our dissertation and placement modules. I am quite excited for both modules, though our dissertations don't actually start until next trimester, I tentatively am thinking of writing on censorship in YA literature through parents, schools, and publishers (this will need to be better thought out, obviously, and I need to pick a country to focus on).

Friday night I ended up making gingersnaps at like midnight, which was fine, because I also FaceTimed with Logan, Connie, and Brad for three hours. It was Logan's birthday Saturday (happy 21st bro!) so Connie and Brad had gone down for the weekend - Logan and Dad had been skiing that day, so I chatted with them while dinner was cooking, all the way through to dessert (and my final batch of cookies).

Yup. He's an adult.

Gingersnaps (this recipe comes to me from Connie, who got it from Brenda).

3/4 c. of butter
2 c. sugar

Cream together

2 well beaten eggs
1/2 c. molasses
2 tsp. vinegar

Stir in

3 3/4 c. all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
2-3 tsp. ginger (I go for the full three but I'm a big fan of spicy gingersnaps)
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves

Sift and add

Mix ingredients until blended. Form dough into 3/4" balls. Roll in sugar. Bake on a greased cookie sheet (or on parchment paper) about 12 min.

In the UK, they don't typical measure using cups, tsp, tbsp, etc. Instead, they measure everything by weight. While there is a scale that came with my kitchen, I wasn't really thrilled with the idea of converting all my cookie recipes into weight, so I went and bought myself a set of cups and tsp/tbsp measuring spoons. However, when I opened the butter, instead of markers indicating a cup, there were ticks for 50g. *sigh* So I guessed. They also call baking soda bicarbonate of soda and you can't get it at a lot of the smaller grocery stories, which, considering that those are mainly were I shop, caused me to think that you just couldn't get baking soda in the UK. I still complain about it a lot.

Saturday I was supposed to go to the Writers Museum with Kate, but it was raining, so we decided to postpone. I had a lot of people over for Burns Night that night - more on that on my next post.

Yesterday was my first official day of classes, which involved a class for Publishing in Practice (the module in which we are publishing the real live books) which was mostly talking about finances, followed by the Placement module tutorial, in which we just answered any questions we had left about our placements. So Monday I have PIP from 2-3 every fortnight, and then Placement and Dissertation modules from 3-5, on a rotating schedule (so next week on Monday, we will not have PIP, but will then have the Dissertation tutorial). Tuesday I do not have classes, then Wednesday we are in from 9-5, with a board meeting at 10, working on our publishing project. Thursday I have my optional module, Interactive Media, from 10-1. And no classes Friday. So a pretty awesome chill schedule. I have decided not to try for a part time job this semester however, both because it is better to have a more flexible schedule for the placement, and also because I am a Project Manager which will involve more time and responsibility.

So for our placement module, our placement is about ten days, though it can be more or less, and involves self-assessment, making learning goals, and an assessment by our supervisor wherever we go for placement, which we get to choose off a list on the MSc Pub page if you want to check it out. I'm not quite sure what we will be covering for the class on the placement, nor the one for the dissertation, and I haven't had my Interactive Media class yet, so I will keep you updated on all of that!

My hair is getting longer and longer! Also £1 necklace FTW

Really Putting the "Super Freaking Slow" in "Snail Mail"

On November 16th, Lorraine let me know that she had mailed my Hanukah present. By the time I moved out of my old flat on December 1st, I had yet to receive it, so I let my former roommates know to keep an eye out for it. Through December I sent them a couple more messages, and even went to the post office to see what was taking such a long time. I had sent my mother a package, but she had received it in just over a week, so I was quite concerned for my Hanukah present. By the time I got back from Christmas break, I was fairly resigned to the idea that the postal system had lost it, to my great sadness. However, on the 14th I got a message from my former roommates - something had arrived in the mail for me. Excited, I went over to find two issues of a Canadian publishing magazine that I had also thought lost in the mail. With hope renewed that  the package was on its way, I went back home... and two hours later received another message - there was something else now at the flat for me! 

Two days shy of two whole months, my Hanukah package had arrived. 

It was so nicely wrapped I almost didn't want to open it...

The rules for our Hanukah presents is that they have to be handmade (this year, my dad helped me make a cutting board for Lorraine). The chocolates were obviously just a bonus (perhaps because we usually play for chocolate when we play with the dreidel on Hanukah?)

A gorgeous modified books, containing the covers and first pages from a number of different literary works.

There was also some of the original book left in at the end.

A gorgeous present from a wonderful godmother :)

Hopefully this means my christmas package from my dad has been similarly delayed - and for those wishing to send me gifts in the future, it might be a better idea to just order them off a UK site and have them sent to me from inside the country, as the snail mail between the UK and Canada seems to be much faster in one direction than the other.

I Have A Fireplace?

Now, if you saw this, what would you think it was?

Some random, super ugly fixture in the living room? A mysterious Scottish device? 

Wrong. 

Its a fireplace! Like, a gas fireplace. It is super warm and only makes me super nervous, but its super warm (which is awesome since the radiator in the living room doesn't work). 

Fire! Who knew?

Cash Money

While England might have the same Queen on their money, the cash money here is a bit different - notably in the denominations of the coins, and in the size of the notes.

One of the hardest parts of moving to Scotland was having to go back to using the penny... sorry, one pence coin. About the same size and colour as the penny, its also probably the easiest coin to deal with.

The singularly stupidest thing in this country is the two pence coin. Bad enough to have to go back to using a one pence coin, but a TWO PENCE COIN? I get that it makes it easier to give change, but my god... what a stupid denomination.

Next is the five pence, which is probably the most confusing coin for me, as it is about the same size as a dime.

The ten pence coin is one of the largest coins...

While the twenty pence coin goes down in size, but up in thickness.

The fifty pence coin is actually quite useful, especially since bus fares are generally £1.50.

The one pound coin is quite thick, probably about two coins pressed together. There is also a two pence coin which I didn't have one of, much like the toonie, they are less common, and appear to be one coin pressed inside a second one.

All of the coins next to a Canadian quarter for size comparison.

The bills here are also very interesting. They are issued by the individual banks, so while they are all the same size and close to the same colour (blue for £5, brown for £10, and purple for £20), they have different bank names and pictures on them. In terms of size, they are taller and less long than Canadian bills.

You also end up with notes from the Bank of England in the mix. Fun fact: while English pounds are accepted universally in Scotland, Scottish pounds, while technically legal currency, are often either scoffed at or outright refused in England, depending on where you are. Another fun fact: no bank notes, including Bank of England notes, are considered legal tender in Scotland.

The bills all also have something to the effect of "the bank promises to provide the bearer of the bill with £__ sterling when presented with the bill" - so the bank issues their own notes, on the condition that they can guarantee that they can provide pounds sterling in exchange, on demand. You can read more about the system here if you want.

Tea & Cake

Last Sunday Kate and I decided to have another go at the massive institution that is the National Museum of Scotland. Its a good thing its free, because I think there is still a good two visits worth of things we haven't touched on.

After leaving the museum, we both decided we were quite hungry, though it was the awkward time of 3 pm - too early for dinner, too late for lunch. We reached the conclusion that stopping for cake and tea on our way home was really the only option. While we briefly discussed the possibility of going to The Elephant House (the most famous location in JK Rowling's writing career), we decided to instead check out lovecrumbs, a cake shop that several of our classmates had recommended to us. However, when we attempted to enter the shop, we discovered it was unfortunately packed, and we were forced to abandon it for another time.

Instead, we ended up at Loudon's Cafe, which, while still very full, still had a couple of seats free. When you entered, you were faced with a selection of cakes and pastries, which you served yourself to, before continuing in line to order your drink and pay. I decided on the delicious blackberry and apple cake (a difficult decision), and a very delicious drink called "Wild Elderflower Bubbly"

I love this country.

Money Woes

The fun part of studying abroad is paying for it. As you may deduce, it is quite expensive to study overseas. I am lucky in that my program is only one year in duration, otherwise I doubt I would be able to afford it.

The easiest way for me to pay my tuition is by visa, and, given that my student status doesn't exactly make the bank want to give me a very high limit, I set up a six-payment plan for my tuition, just enough that each payment would be less than my payment limit. 

Alas, tragedy! The first of the month revealed a pending charge on my visa greater than my limit. Panicking, I attempted to raise my limit. No go. I then transferred the money onto my visa pre-emptively, hoping that if the payment was already there, the charge would go through. 

To my great relief, a check on my account this morning showed that it had gone through. However, this still left the question of why I got charged so much more than I had calculated. I prepared to go to the school and inquire, or to call the bank and see if they perhaps had charged me some mystery fee. 

The mystery was solved this afternoon, however, when I realized that they day the charge had been processed, the conversion rate had been up from the 1.5 CAD to 1 GPB it had been holding at fairly steadily all summer to 1.7 (it's now back down to 1.6). 

Lesson learned: the conversion rate is definitely something to keep my eye on.