Study Abroad - CSU at Oxford: Week 7 - Scotland, Thanksgiving, and Postmaterialism

This week began with what should be Rule #1 when travelling: expect the unexpected. Now that I've completed one tutorial, and only had two essays left spread over two weeks, I planned an overnight trip to Edinburgh. However, things did NOT go according to plan. The plan was to leave Oxford via bus early Sunday morning since the Oxford trains on Sunday don't leave until about 10 AM. The bus would take me to Birmingham, where I'd get on the train for the remainder of the trip. Getting to Edinburgh takes about 6 hours, so I was trying to arrive about 2 pm to have some daylight remaining and hopefully have time to see one or two things on my "wish list" before dark was upon me. I packed a backpack, grabbed a book from my assigned reading list, and headed to Scotland.

What really happened: the Megabus was thirty minutes late, so I missed the train from Birmingham to Edinburgh. In order to avoid a one hour wait in Birmingham, I was re-routed to Carlisle, where I would then pick up the Edinburgh train. However, about one hour north of Birmingham, the train comes to a dead stop, and we sit for thirty minutes waiting on some sort of relay repair crew to make corrections to faulty relays ahead. As you can imagine, by the time I arrived in Carlisle, I had also missed my train to Edinburgh. So I sat in the Carlisle waiting area for 45 minutes, and caught the next train. I finally arrived at Edinburgh Waverly Station about 5 pm. So much for the daylight plan.

At this point I decided to forget sightseeing, check into my hotel, get some dinner, and start fresh the next morning. I found the hotel which was wonderfully close to the Royal Mile. Walking around the area, I decided to eat dinner at the White Horse Pub, and ordered haggis pie (at least I could cross one item off the wish list). I'm not sure if it was representative of all haggis, but I found it quite tasty - rather like salty sausage.

I returned to the hotel, made a cup of tea, and turned on the television, when the fire alarm went off. As I was grabbing my handbag (passport inside) the lights went out leaving me in complete darkness to stumble around to the door, and exit the hotel. The other guests and I waited outside while the fire "brigade" (department) arrived to assess the situation. After thirty minutes we were informed that all was safe, no fire had occurred but there were some malfunctioning alarms due to a severe pipe leak in an upper floor. Unfortunately, that did not stop the alarms from remaining on - and sounding off loudly. The hotel clerk moved me to a room on another floor, hopefully to get away from the fire alarm volume. Unfortunately, that was the floor with the leaking pipes. At this point I pulled out my cheap Vodafone (pay-as-you go cellphone), dialed up another hotel down the street, and booked a room elsewhere. Once I got checked in at the second hotel, my calm was restored. I made another cup of tea, relaxed, and called it a night.

Monday was wonderful; I was the American tourist in a hurry, but still managed to see the Palace of Holyroodhouse (the Queen's residence for a few weeks each summer), the Scottish Parliament (wonderful modern architecture), the John Knox house (Scottish reformer), St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh Castle, and the Scottish National Gallery. It was a whirlwind day, but I made the most of it. Here are some of my favorite photos of the day...

Left: Political Martyr's Monument on Carlton Hill. Right: Exterior of the Scottish Parliament building. On September 14, 2014, they are scheduled to vote on Scottish independence from Britain. Below: Interior of the Scottish Parliament, the debate chambers.

Left: Me, in front of Holyroodhouse. The house was built on the site of Holyrood Abbey which dates from the twelfth century. Below: interior room of the John Knox house. This home is said to be the oldest residence intact in Edinburgh. It dates to 1470, and is believed to be the home Knox lived in when he died. He was a major Scottish reformer, and founder of the Presbyterian Church movement.

Right and below: a bust of Sir Walter Scott, on display at the Scottish National Gallery. I mean no disrespect to Sir Scott, but the image looks remarkably like Russell Crowe to me !!

Below: The view toward Princes Street, taken from Edinburgh Castle. Monday had clear skies, and I could see all the way to the ocean.

Thankfully the return to Oxford was uneventful, with my Edinburgh train leaving on time, and my connection in Newcastle occurring without incident. On a side note: thanks to all the waiting, I completed the assigned reading book - 340 pages.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were spent finishing up my research reading and then writing this week's essay on postmaterialism. It was a critique of the postmaterialist theory developed by Ronald Inglehart to explain the change in values and political activism of post-war generations. I turned in my essay via email at 4 PM.

Thursday was also Thanksgiving Day, my second one to be spent overseas. (Three years ago I celebrated in Ukraine.) Anyhow, to make us feel less homesick, our gracious CSU House Director Larry Kees and his wife Rhonda made a wonderful dinner for us. However, it was so good, we ate too much!

Friday was a BUSY day. My tutorial was moved forward to 3 pm, as later my tutor and I both planned on attending a talk to be given at Christ Church by Senator Mike Lee from Utah. He was in Oxford giving a speech on the importance of the American Constitution. The speech was followed by an incredible formal dinner at the Rhodes House. The Rhodes house was created by Cecil Rhodes, and is affiliated with his scholarship foundation. http://www.rhodeshouseoxford.com/the-venue It was a bit intimidating eating in the same location as had notable persons, like Edwin Hubble (astronomer), Lord Florey (penicillin researcher), and President Bill. The dinner conversation was quite interesting as I discussed the U.S. Constitution and our unique tri-power government to students from Poland, Norway, India, and the U.K.

(Photo of the Rhodes House, left)

Saturday was another Thanksgiving celebration, this time held by Regent's Park College. Our turkey was prepared by the RPC chef, and we each brought side dishes and desserts to contribute to the meal. Afterward, "The Hobbit" film was shown for those that weren't in a starch coma from the fabulous food :)

Left: Senator Mike Lee, Utah

Below: Mixing and mingling in Helwys Hall, at Regent's Park College, before our Thanksgiving Dinner.

Left: Dr. Lynn Robson, Visiting Student Program Coordinator at Regent's Park College, doing the honors of carving the turkey.

And thus completes another week in Oxford. It's hard to believe that I only have one more week of this term remaining. While I miss my family at home a lot, I have a feeling that saying goodbye to this town will prove more difficult than I had imagined. But I'm trying not to think about that too much right now.

Below are some additional photos taken travelling to and in Edinburgh