Art in the City

Today in my Urban Cultures lecture we discussed, very briefly and only at the very end, graffiti. Part of the discussion included Banksy, a graffiti-(um? maybe)artist turned artist. Everyone else seemed to have at least heard of him.

Take a look at his site, most of the stuff is pretty interesting.

I should warn you that a few things might be offensive, so do take care. Most of it is just commentary on modern society or current political situation.

grading scales

At some point recently the grades for Musical Acoustics were posted, meaning in the past 48 hours.

This bothers me.Edinburgh Uni has a student population just over that of UVA's, the EU exams were earlier, and it was three weeks into the second term before I heard back about ONE of my grades. I am "unimpressed".

However, for an exam in which I studied the absolute minimum amount, I must have done well. The grading systems are not directly relatable between the two, somehow the same work will get a different mark between the US and UK grading schemes, and I'm not exactly sure what each looks for.

For comparison, 70% is an A, and 40% is passing.
I think that the UK grading gives an "actual" percent. If there are ten points to cover, and you only successfully explain half, that's a 50%; my experience with US grading has been that you might get full-credit for those half and then some amount of partial-credit on the rest, for maybe 70%. Good estimations I suppose in retrospect, those are both C's... I think.

Point is, I'm just as baffled about grading after a full term as I was when I first began. I guess everyone else is too, which is why my grades don't transfer back home, only the credit earned.

a few scattered notes

Oh yeah, so something I forgot to mention about the Salisbury Cathedral:
all the wooden supports have been around so long they have essentially fossilised into rocks.
So maybe once they had to worry about insects burrowing in, but no longer.

Sunday night it rained, and at some point snowed. All that was left on Monday morning was slush, which was really gross. Now I understand why it's best that maybe Edinburgh stay snowless. In any case, it was an opportunity to wear the wellies I bought in the post-Christmas sales!
Wellies
Likewise, sometime last night the temp dropped below freezing again, and so thin spots of ice greeted us in the morning.

Classes began yesterday. This first week is pretty light because the tutorials don't start until next week (an extra four or five hours a week) AND one of my courses doesn't start until the end of January.
Still, I think this term might prove to be something of a challenge. For the first time possibly ever my coursework will be completely, entirely new. None has the least amount of review, and all are at the third- or fourth-year level. Eeep. Sounds like a bit of work to stay on top.

first weekend

I now have a finalized timetable (schedule) for my courses (classes). A lot busier than I originally anticipated, those tutorials really fill in time. For the curious:

Monday: all in GS
9-9.50 Archaeology of Scotland
-Homework time at the library?
14-14.50 Musical Acoustics (I did not know this word was spelled differently outside America)
15-15.50 Mus. Ac. Tutorial

Tuesday: all in KB
9-9.50 Quantum Mechanics
10-10.50 Physical Mathematics
12-12.50 P. Maths Workshop (like a tutorial?)

Wednesday: in KB 11.10-13 Quantum Tutorial

Thursday: all in GS
9-9.50 Archaeology of Scotland
-Homework time?
14-14.50 Musical Acoustics

Friday: begins at KB
9-9.50 Quantum
10-10.50 P. Maths
12-12.50 P. Maths Comp Lab (mandatory?)
-walk/bus to GS. Very easy, the bus runs every 20-30 minutes, and walking isn't bad.
14-14.50 Mus. Ac.

Plus an archaeology tutorial somewhere in there. My courses all seem very interesting, but especially different is the Acoustics class, half music students, half physics students. Eventually we will examine how different instruments are able to create sound, and learn what effects pitch, timbre, as well as our own hearing. For now it is two old, bumbling-yet-loveable professors who ramble and occasionally play a few notes on a trumpet. I think I will learn a lot from it, though... it's all the interesting parts of music you don't learn when picking up an instrument, and already I feel I have a better understanding for keys and chords, and other things that always mystified me.

I am now an official member of the Physics Society. Last night was a kind of pub quiz night, and although I was absolutely useless at identifing theme songs of British TV shows, I made up for it during the American states round.
I think that was the first time yet I've been the only American in the room?

And, an update on theatre:
I won't be acting in anything I auditioned for this semester, but that's okay, at least I tried out. I'm still planning on doing techwork for "The Visit"... and I'm really excited about it.

First Day of Classes!

Actually less exciting than I would like.

My two morning classes were down in KB for physics and physical maths. ("Maths", not "math".) The adjoining tutorials, rather like the problem recitations and labs at UVA, are required... not something I knew, not for third-year courses. Unfortunately, both physics classes have tutorials either during my Gaelic class or so close to the time slot that I would never make it to class on time. Theoretically they can reschedule tutorials if there are conflicts, but for Quantum I was the only one with a conflict of the entire lecture theatre, so tough chance of that.

With a heavy heart, I have dropped my Intro to Gaelic class. I know, I know. I was extremely excited about it.
Instead I've signed up for Archaeology of Scotland, which sounds interesting AND has a field trip one weekend! Archaeology field trip! So cool.

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I've tried to break some more obnoxious Americanisms.
"Sketchy", for example, has no meaning. Instead things are "dodgy".
Black coffee is simply not understood, and tea is always taken with milk.
It is extremely difficult to remember "trousers" instead of "pants"; pants mean underwear. Tricky.