Wintertime

This morning I walked down to KB for the first time since classes finished (so, in about two weeks). Things actually got more treacherous than the last time I came down. Sometime, possibly last night, the temperatures finally fell below freezing, so the perpetually-wet sidewalks actually froze. The temperatures are back above freezing now, but of course not everything has melted yet. Luckily, my walk to KB is mostly south, and so most of the sidewalks were melted. The problem was with the east-west sidestreets, because the sun doesn't get high enough to extend over the buildings, and the ice was just thin enough to not be visible and just thick enough to still be slippery.

I'm starting to believe it doesn't get much colder than this in Edinburgh, although the wind chill makes it quite cold at times.

Luckily it's almost the solstice, and the days will start to get longer again. On December 20th (the furthest weather.com will let me see) the sun will be up from 8:40 AM - 3:40 PM. Oh good, a full seven hours of sun!
Of course where I'm staying over Christmas is even more north, near Ullapool (latitude: 57 N; Edinburgh is at 55 N; Washington DC is at 37 N, and currently getting 9.5 hours of day). By the time I'm there it will get about six hours of daylight. Oh good.
Flora: "It's really too bad you'll be visiting when it's at its absolute worst."

Anyway. I had my first exam yesterday, in Musical Acoustics, which took place in the same room (a basketball court!) as a medic exam. The medics papers were in the front half, so I spent a good two minutes not being able to find my name and flipping out. The acoustics exams were in the back corner. Why we couldn't take the exam in our usual room is beyond me, but the court has a balcony area that one or two of the proctors used to watch us from above. I felt like I was in a prison exercise yard.
Especially because I was seated at the front of a row, and if I need to cheat off of the medic in front of me for a different exam, then clearly I deserve to fail.

Down at KB this morning to turn in two hand-in assignments, which are actually due Thursday and Friday, but my last exam (Archaeology) is Thursday, so might as well turn them in now. So Thursday at noon, when Archaeology is over, I will be a free woman. (Sort of. I need to make study guides for my other two exams, in May. Another point I don't understand: why are my exams for Term 1 physics courses sat in May? Don't ask.)