Graduate School -- Begin.

First meeting with the Social Anthropology postgraduate (as the UK calls them, Americans just call them graduate students) group today, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn of the size and makeup of the group for the first time.

30 students and 14 nations -- Bulgaria, Belgium, Greece, Germany, Argentina, Mexico, China, South Korea, Georgia, Poland, Spain, England, Scotland, and the United States -- are represented in the University of Edinburgh Social Anthropology MSc class of 2012. Americans from New York, Seattle, Baltimore, Atlanta, Berkeley, and Texas. So cool.

We introduced ourselves, then our program director (who is also from Greece) explained the most important rule of graduate school:

Don't. Worry.

He told us first semester may be torture; we will feel disoriented, challenged, confused, and lost, but it will get easier. Slowly, he said, everything will work itself out, and we will graduate. I'd like to trust him on that.

My current view from the Central Library. Click to see a larger version.

I'm close to deciding the courses I'll be taking this year. Here's my working schedule so far:

1st Semester (starting on Monday!):
An Introduction to Anthropological Theory
Advanced Anthropological Theory
Culture and Power
Himalayan Ethnography

2nd Semester:
Ethnography Seminar
Belief, Thought, and Language
Human Origins and the Genesis of Symbolic Thought
The Invention of History
Globalization

Summer:
Dissertation

In fact, I just now discovered the course called The Invention of History, about the social process of remembering, the cultural importance of artifacts and archeology, and the relationship between nationalism and memory. That is exactly what I was hoping to get, in bits and pieces, from some of these other courses. That was my emphasis as an undergraduate and is something of a fringe subject in the social sciences -- I've only heard of universities offering full courses on it. But it so happens that here, in Edinburgh, they have it wrapped up in one neat little package just for me. I am inexpressibly excited for this year of unabashed geekery to begin.

Welcome to the University of Edinburgh, Scotland

Greetings from Pottersrow Student Union on the University of Edinburgh campus in central Edinburgh. This is my fourth day in the country (fifth if you count my day spent at London Heathrow Airport waiting for my luggage to arrive), and I'm still recovering from severe jetlag. My voyage over could have gone smoother, largely due to an insane itinerary created by yours truly, but I survived and saved several hundred dollars in the process.

Western side of the Royal Mile

Anyway, I'm here, living in Scotland for at least the next year. I'm getting a Masters of Science (MSc) in a division of the social sciences called Social Anthropology. I was looking into Sociology, Anthropology, School Psychology, and School Counseling programs around the Northwest, and somehow Edinburgh emerged as the cheapest and most viable option. So jettison myself I did from the corner of the world I feel most comfortable to a tiny island across the world populated by strange accents.

Quick facts about Scotland
Population: 5.2 million (for reference, the population of New York City is 8.1 million)
Capital: Edinburgh
Largest city: Glasgow

Fun fact: Scotland was the home to the Scottish Enlightenment in the 18th century, which was a revolution of philosophy and literature. Scotland is ranked #1 in the world in producing important research when academic citations are weighted by GDP. Scots pride themselves on their contributions to Western Society by inventing the dishwasher, the steam engine, penicillin, and Dolly the Sheep. Here's a fine quote by Winston Churchill:

"Of all the small nations of this earth, perhaps only the ancient Greeks surpass the Scots in their contribution to mankind."

Teviot Student Union and Bristo Square

Quick facts about the University of Edinburgh
Built: 1583 -- the first university commissioned after the split with the Catholic Church. The King of England approved the construction of the University without consulting the Pope for the first time in English history.
Student population: 29,000
Number of postgraduate students: 8,000 (30,000 total applicants)
16 alumni Nobel Prize winners.
Famous alumni: David Hume, Sir Walter Scott, Charles Darwin, Adam Smith
Member of the Russell Group, a membership of elite UK universities similar to the US Ivy League
Tops all other Russell universities in terms of employability -- 95% of graduates enter work or further study immediately after graduation
Ranked in the top 20 world universities in 2011, #1 in Scotland and #6 in the UK.

Today I attended a welcome lecture for postgraduate students in a lecture hall called New School, an ironic name for such an ancient building. It was made of blackened brick and had winding stone steps that lead students from the High Street to its front gates. A Scottish Gothic cathedral can be seen towering over the courtyard. Inside, about 200 students sit in layered parish benches surrounded by ancient wooden pillars carved with symbology, stained glass windows overlay an overcast afternoon, while a busker's bagpipe music seeps through the walls from the Royal Mile.

School of Divinity's "New School"

The University is the center of Edinburgh. The campus is fully integrated, part ancient and part modern. Quite a bit of campus is being renovated, but there are still plenty of quiet areas to sit and take a breath. Four student union buildings offer what seems like two dozen student pubs, which I have yet to try. In fact, I haven't been to a single pub yet. Next thing on my to-do list.

This week is "Freshers Week", a week long orientation packed full of social events, information sessions, and academic meetings. Tonight is the Ceilidh (pronounced like Kay-lee), which is a Gaelic folk dance party from what I understand. I am too curious not to attend.

One thing that has surprised me actually has been how few Scots I've met. They seem to be a severe minority, at least in the groups I've been in during Freshers Week. The student population is extraordinarily international -- I've made friends from Argentina, China, Canada, and the US. Perhaps the elusive Scots will appear in heavier numbers when classes start this Monday.

That's all for now, stay tuned for further updates about the University, Edinburgh, and my flat. Thanks for checking in!

Take care,

Will

Jess and I are entering our very last week of work with Communities in Schools and AmeriCorps. Friday will end the year of service with a joyous (and likely sinister) session of laser-tag with fellow staff and students of our mentoring programs. And honestly, I can't think of a better way to end this year than to be able to shoot laser-beams at children. I see it as a chance to get some payback, heh.

I'm packing up my things this weekend to get ready for the move next Saturday. Edinburgh is coming up really fast, but I think I'm almost ready for it. The realization that I'm leaving and moving to another continent on my own has finally hit me. Bellingham could have used a second thought.

So things are quickly coming to and end in Spokane. Positive and negative emotions are abound, but I try to remind myself we can't stop time and we can't stop change. Another adventure begins.

I'm quite excited about this post. I composed some music over the past year, some pretty basic stuff, that has been sitting untouched since I created it. I decided I would dust off a few tunes, ranging from polished to hardly thought-out, to show my peoples what I've been working on. Here are 5 short samples.











It's a start... I'm just excited that they're finally up for someone to listen to. More will come, someday. Enjoy.

More photos! This time, from Independence Day weekend when my parents visited Spokane. We all had a great time and those of us sluggin' it out in Spokesville look forward to their next visit.

I took some photographs with a film camera this year. Here are four of them that weren't completely terrible.

From top to bottom: my first apartment in Spokane, Washington; ice cream in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; Fremont Bridge of Portland, Oregon; and Cannon Beach, Oregon.

Okay, lets try a third jump start for the ol' bloggy here.

It's almost been a year since I created this blog to illustrate life during my year of service with AmeriCorps. I updated it here, I updated it there, and I got about a good month worth of blogging before and after I became too busy/distracted for consistent bloggery. I covered my first apartment, a car that I bought on my very own with my own money, my pursuit of graduate school, and the sometimes mundane sometimes illuminating day to day of living under the poverty level in Spokane with my girlfriend and two sisters. It's been an amazing year that has had its ups and definite downs that I'll remember for the rest of my life. However, it's not quite over yet.

Less than 5 weeks are left in my year of national service with AmeriCorps VISTA, and less than 7 weeks until I arrive in the United Kingdom for graduate school. Okay, let me rewind a little -- a lot has happened in the last three months of silence. I was denied admissions to University of Oregon Sociology MA/PhD, accepted into the following: Portland State Sociology MA, Western Washington MEd School Counseling, University of Edinburgh Global and International Sociology MSC, and University of Edinburgh Social Anthropology MSc. I decided to go through with the Social Anthropology program at Edinburgh because:

1. It's a one year program that is actually cheaper than two years of in-state tuition (if the US Dollar doesn't bottom out in August, that is).
2. It's the most prestigious school I was accepted to by far -- ranking in at number 20 worldwide, in the top 4 among UK universities, and more specifically houses one of the top-5 social science, anthropology, and sociology departments in the UK. It also housed the Scottish Enlightenment and was the reason Edinburgh was known as the "Athens of the North" during their philosophical revolution.
3. DUH -- it's in Scotland! 

So September 8 at 6:35am, I depart Spokane to begin a year long venture abroad in the Old Country, pursuing anthropological and ethnographical knowledge of the diversity of human cultures.

Side note: a list of famous anthropologists include Paul Farmer, Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and Indiana Jones. Soon you can add me to that list.

Again a major change has presented itself in my near future. This will be the seventh move in six years -- and yes, I'm going to be quite ready to find a place to plant my roots after this excursion is over -- hopefully.

Enough for now -- for more frequent updates, check my Twitter or Flickr. Also feel free to add me if you have Google Plus.