Someone help, I think I've gone native.

So there's this loch in the middle of Heriot-Watt's campus...well, they call it a loch, but THAT is no loch, thank you, THAT is a muddy pond (she says scathingly).  Anyways.  There's this bonnie wee lochling in the middle of Heriot-Watt's campus.  It froze over last night and did not thaw at all today.  Now here's the scary part.  I went outside in just a hoodie and sweater.  And was not cold.  Coming back from class, I didn't even put the hoodie back on--I just draped it around my shoulders.  And was not cold.  Heavens, I think I've adapted.  It naturally begs the question, what's going to happen to me when I step out of the airport in Mississippi in September?  I think I may melt.

So, last week I moved from St. Andrews to Heriot-Watt University, which is outside Edinburgh.  The campus has its good and bad points--good, everything on campus is very close together and easy to get to--all the main academic buildings and the student centre are actually connected by skyways, so it's possible to get almost from one end of campus to the other without leaving that building.  Also good, the CU is small but thriving, and looks like a wonderful group of people to get involved with.  Also good, the chaplaincy has a piano.  Not so good, the convenience of the campus ends with the campus itself--gone are the shops, grocery store, and so on within walking distance--everything is at least 15 minutes away by bus, which is not the end of the world but it does make things that were easy in St. Andrews more difficult.  Finally, I miss St. Andrews, my flatmates, my church, my friends, the town itself.  It has been a real challenge for me, even just in this first week, to push myself to get out and meet people here, actively join THIS campus instead of just clinging to my ability to occasionally visit St. Andrews on weekends (which, incidentally, I am doing this Sunday).  Today was an especially good day because I went to my first CU meeting and also went to a fitness class, just for something different.  And learned that I will not have to miss an industrial lecture next Wednesday (not that industrial lectures are exactly the highlight of my week, but hey, it's required and I thought I was going to miss it), AND learned that my first lab experiment might be remotely cool.  Possibly difficult and fiddly as well, but cool.

I've had a lot of free time this week since labs haven't started and I had no activities to go to, so I've started reading Dostoevsky's The Idiot, the last of the novels I brought with me.  I think that when I finish I'm going to change eras and countries and try to get some TS Eliot and GK Chesterton on my Kindle, both of whom have been mentioned in other books I've been reading.  I don't know how much free time I'm going to keep once...well, after this labless week, because although I've heard that the classes this semester are not that taxing, it looks like there will be a lot of big research and group projects, among them trying to find an industrial placement for the summer.  I'm thinking more and more that I may take advantage of my Bobby-Jones-Fellow-ness to go back to St. Andrews and do research instead of working for a company, which we're not usually allowed to do, partly because I like St. Andrews, and partly because I'm finally beginning to narrow down what I'm interested in, and it's definitely a research topic, not anything I'd remotely have the chance to do in an industrial placement.  So I think it may be good to go back to St. Andrews and get to see what research in this field might actually be like on a daily basis, i.e. see whether I could see myself pursuing it for a PhD.  But we'll see.  All those decisions are coming up very soon (as in, probably in the next week/week and a half), and once I've seen the list of industrial placements and talk with the professor I'm going to see next Wednesday, I'll decide which I'd rather do, apply for a position or tell Bruce (the programme coordinator) that I'd like to come back to St. Andrews.

Overall, I am doing well, but my big challenge this semester really will be to go out and engage the campus and try to start meaningful relationships with people when I feel now (even more than upon arrival in St. Andrews) that I'm a temporary resident, kind of displaced from the place where I feel "at home."  So I would ask for prayers that I would have the right mindset, upwards and outwards rather than inwards as my tendency so often is, and also for guidance with regard to all the PhD...stuff.  I am glad to be talking to all of you again, and I hope the first few weeks of the new year have been exciting and enjoyable for everyone!  Talk to you soon!  ("I'll believe that when I see it," you all say...)

Happy New Year, everyone!

Hi everybody,
Happy New Year!  I just wanted to put up a short message to say hello and Merry Belated Christmas/Happy Belated New Year to all of you!  My Christmas visits from Mom, Sam and my friend Erin were absolutely wonderful, and now I am in the midst of studying for finals and preparing to more to Edinburgh next week.  I can't believe the second semester and The Big Move are almost here already--it's absolutely incredible that it's come so fast.  Sometimes September still feels like it's ages away, but if semester two and the summer project go as fast as this one did, when it (September) gets here, it'll feel like it flew.  But I just wanted to send you all my thoughts and love (especially now that my visitors have brought home to the forefront of my mind) and give you some links to my Facebook albums of what's been going on the past few months.  Mostly it's pretty scenery, but there are also a few pictures of my flatmates and me during our "room Christmas" gift exchange at the end of the semester.
Much love to all of you!

The Lade Braes Walking Trail, frosted
Room "Christmas"
London, Edinburgh and St. Andrews over Christmas