Laborious Periphrasis

                 I’ve finally gotten around to sending my blog address along to Hampshire’s GEO office, so I suppose this is the part where I stop bemoaning my various kitchen-implement and weather related issues and start pretending to be useful.

                A student life tidbit, then.  Events for students are organized on a few different scales.  The University hosts some, as do societies (and those organized by societies are not necessarily restricted to members, though things like wine tastings and lectures may have a small entry fee).  Events come in all sorts – academic lectures, charity efforts, casual sports, touristy trips, and so on.  Departments bring in guest speakers, Residence Life puts on a few different initiatives to keep students productive and entertained, and some of the residence areas have their own specific shindigs.  The Warrender Park group, for example, is comprised of three roads in Marchmont: Warrender Park Road, Terrace, and Crescent.  We have a facebook group to keep in touch and ask questions, and our RAs and directors get us together for things like pub outings, urban capture the flag, holiday parties, five-a-side football, and so on.  Some flats have signed up to host other flats for little competitive dinner parties, ala  “Come Dine With Me.”  Recently they got us a good deal on tickets to the New Zealand v. Scotland rugby match.  No one I know well is going, but that certainly didn’t stop me from signing up to go along.  If I shirked from everything I thought I was going to have to do by myself, I would have lived a very different life from the one I have.  All of this generally means that you can be as busy and involved as you’d like to be, but you’re also quite free to keep to yourself and find your own way around.  I’m happy enough to do my own thing, but it’s nice to have the option of dipping into a larger group of people should the desire present itself.

           Myself, I’m rather partial to the wine and cheese lectures hosted by Res Life.  I’m a curious person, and an epicurean of a sort, so it’s a nice two for one.  The subjects are interesting, and while the wine isn’t exactly top-shelf, I’m not one to quibble over free drinks, and the soft cheese and crackers are rather nice.  Last week I went to one given by Dr. Gordon Findlater, the University’s Director of Anatomy, on the time and conditions of medical schools in Edinburgh at the time of Burke & Hare.  The whole talk really underlined how much fascinating history is just underfoot here in Edinburgh.  It was interesting and relatively informal, it cost nothing, and I even got to walk away at the end of the night with one of the leftover bottles of cheap white.  Not bad, for a Tuesday night.  It was also a pleasant little walk – about a mile either way – from my apartment to the venue where it was held.  Pollock Halls, a set of buildings owned by the University, is made up of residences and other facilities, like event spaces and fitness centers and whatnot, so it’s good that I had a reason to figure out where it is.  I believe that the residences there are catered and primarily for first-years, so I don’t know anyone in my classes that actually lives there, but I’m sure I’ll find myself there again sometime.  Catered, by the way, is how the University describes housing that contains no or limited kitchen facilities, and where students are expected to eat at a dining hall.  I served my time as a dining hall goer in first year, and I have no desire to repeat the experience.