Another foggy day. The fog didn't lift until 3:40pm. It made me feel very Eeyore-ish. Our first day of the new class was today, on the 7th floor of David Hume Tower, and we couldn't see outside the windows because the fog was so thick. Not even an inch.
Since little happened today, I'll fill you in on a few things that have been to me personally and then things happening in Scotland as a whole.
First of all, my new classmates are great. There are a ton of them. I'm no longer one of 5 males, so the pressure is off. On the other hand, many people have already admitted to not reading the texts (the creative writers don't think they have to) and I have a bad feeling that no one has read the book that I signed up to present on during seminar. Oh well. There are so many of us this three weeks that I'm sure the group will become factional. Hopefully, that won't persist.
Some of you already know, I'm on Facebook. I have come over to the dark side. It is daunting. I had to do it to keep in touch with a few people in the program that left last weekend. SUISS has a facebook account for ease of tracking everyone down and keeping in contact, so I'm happy about that. On the other hand, within 3 hours of signing up, one of my students requested to be my friend. A flood of 4 other former students have also requested.
As for what has been happening in Scotland: three major new stories are persisting.
1) There is currently an upset going on in British politics. The Labour Party (having been in control for a long time) is on the ropes after a local by-election in Glascow went to the SNP (Scottish National Party). This upset is so embarrassing that many have called for Brown, the current Prime Minister of Britain and Labour Party leader, to step down. See Story Here. Furthermore, the growing support for the SNP has made the likelihood of Scotland making a move toward independence from England (a major platform issue in the SNP) greater. The inclusion of Britain into the European Union has allowed this, the seperate nations of the EU functioning more and more like a series of states. Scotland could easily assert its separation as a nation state without changing a great deal between the relationship of England/Scotland. See story Here. Would a similar thing happen in Cornwall? Wales? I find it interesting that this is going on while I'm here. It IS unusual, and the election last week (I think it was Friday), is a major shift in Britain's politics.
2) People won't shut up about Amy Winehouse. See story. Everyday there is a new story, it seems. She is a great singer (you have probably heard the "Gonna Go to Rehab" song). Blah Blah Blah, she is destroying her life, she is a bad role-model, blah, blah. It reminds me of the Brittany Spears crap that was going on in the States this past year. This is to say that the trash we Americans create isn't unique; I think it probably has a far deeper tradition in our mother country.3) In America, Gas prices are the big issue. In Britian, the price of Petrol and Beer has equal weight in the headlines. In fact, one is rarely mentioned without the other. Apparently, Brown's administration has tried to control binge-drinking in the UK with a tax on alcohol, which has made some people's time honored traditions of wandering home at 9pm, blootered, untenable. I don't want to be cheeky about this, however, it is an issue that they take seriously. This also hasn't made Brown popular in Scotland.
That's all for today.
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