Week one of classes is complete for me! All three of my classes are two hours each, considered seminars and have up to as many as twenty people in them. While it's nice to have small, intimate classes, the work is more self-guided than home. Along with that, there aren't any quizzes or tests. Instead I have to do an oral presentation at least once in each class (important but not graded) and prepare for the seminar by doing the suggested reading. In each seminar I have an essay due that is 50% of my grade - these three essays happen to all be due on the same day in November. Woohoo.

The other 50% of the final grade is a final exam. Yay. Because some fall classes sit the final in April or May - like my "Sexual Politics and the Image" class - I get to write another essay as my final exam. 

By the National Galleries.

On Tuesday I had "Caravaggio: the man who came to destroy painting." While I'm vaguely familiar with the artist's corpus of works, I don't know much about him so I'm excited for the class. Also, all three of my classes have at least three boys, which is definitely a nice change from UNC. 

Yesterday I had "Scottish Art in the Age of Change." My professor invited another professor to give a short presentation on Scottish art which I enjoyed, particularly because the man's Scottish accent made everything sound so much more significant. After the presentation, my professor took us to a few spots around the city to introduce us to Scottish works, artists and galleries.

Today I had "Sexual Politics and the Image." I already think this will be my least favorite class out of the three. My professor mumbles and rambles and I think she has a hybrid accent of Russian, Greek and French, which makes her difficult to understand. 

Anywho, besides having class this week I've been exploring the city some more and getting more familiar with campus. I'm thinking about joining a dance society so on Monday night, I went with one of my neighboring flatmates to the Edinburgh Univ. Modern Dance Society's ballet taster class. The best thing about the class was the teacher who teaches every week and also in the area; however, the floor was slippery and wasn't sprung, we had to do barre holding on to radiators and chairs, and the space lacked mirrors. Add 60+ dancers to the small room and that was the class. On the bright side, one girl in EUMDS told me she thought I was Russian. I'll take that as a compliment any day.

Another society event that I attended this week was the Edin. Univ. North American Society which is a society for Americans, Canadians and wannabe Ameridians. Every Sunday night they rent out a local pub for NFL watching and beer pong. They also import red Solo cups.

They played the Panthers' game for the most part so between that, my cup of Blue Moon and a bunch of Americans, it felt a little like home. Actually more like a tailgate. 

If any of the Bates girls are reading this, there are a lot of Maine people in Edinburgh! I went to EUNAS's event with a girl from Kennebunk, celidlh with a guy from Kennebunk and met a girl at ballet who goes to Bates. I know more people associated with Maine here than I do North Carolina.

Miscellaneous list:

1. Heard the bagpiper by the National Galleries of Scotland playing the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" yesterday.

2. Got made fun of by my British friends for calling a "courgette" a zucchini and then pronouncing courgette wrong.

3. Got stopped for directions three times yesterday! Perhaps my pale skin and fast walking pace make me look more like a native?

Gotta go wring out my clothes again! Our tiny European washer/dryer washed my clothes for three hours yesterday but failed to dry them. Today is also the first day that it has rained all day in the thirteen days that I've been here so maybe now I'll be motivated to study...