In the Highlands

It has been four months since my last blog, four months of tired reality. I had writers block, my life did not seem ever so exciting, and I just kept my thoughts in my head.  However, when's the best time to write publicly so all your loved ones can follow you? When traveling in Scotland!!! Yippee!!! So that's the truth--this blog remains as a traveling blog, however, I will still keep my title, "Existential Engineering" because I am in Scotland for that very purpose...


Things I have learned thus far:
-"Fit Like." C'mon, say it with me... "FIT LIKE" or "Fit Like?" This means, "Como estas?"or "What's up?" Or any other form of greeting you feel fits your mood.
-Cobblestone was invented way before high heels
-They really don't wear anything under those kilts...
-Ultimate Frisbee is a universal way of meeting excellent local people.
-Haggis is quite good--Just don't ask what's in it, as you wouldn't want to know what McDonald's Hamburger meat has in it either.
-Relocating yourself every three months really changes your personality and perspective on your surroundings.

Now, I could go into vast detail about each of those things, but I don't want to take up your precious time belaboring all my thoughts until nonsense. Instead, I want to tell you about a brief moment which occurred in my first week here.

It was my first Thursday, going on my sixth day at the University of Aberdeen. I met with my adviser the previous Sunday to sign up for my classes, which were to befall the follow day. My intent is to take as many courses in global development and a course in coastal engineering if I can at the university, and hope that some of those credits will transfer back towards my Civil Engineering Degree with Global Health minor. After introducing ourselves, the first words out of my advisers mouth was, "The classes you have signed up for will not work, and some are not even offered anymore." Great. I told my advisers at home I would take these classes, they approved them, I was going to get credit while in Scotland, and everything in life would be perfect and fair. Ha, nope. After my meeting with him, I managed to find some classes that worked with a schedule, and I would just drop in on classes throughout the next few days to see which ones fit. The one class I was very happy to actually get into was a "Issues with Marine and Coastal Management" course, which would be very particular to my location in Scotland and the oil industry in the North Sea. Monday, I sampled a few classes I was enrolled in, but after twenty minutes of each, I decided they were not really my level (1000 and 2000 level courses for freshman).

(Sorry, I realize I am supposed to be describing a brief moment, but I swear this sort of builds up to that moment.)

Anyways, after trying a few of these classes that were not really a good fit, I was excited to attend my Coastal Management class on Thursday, a 4000 level course. I show up to the lecture hall on time, and await scholarly Scotsmen students to enter with a profound impressive professor ready to enrich my brain. Twenty minutes into class time, I sit in an empty classroom. My head hung a little low, my faith in the Scottish educational system had decreased, and I was starting to miss my host university. I needed internet to figure things out, email my adviser, check the time schedules, so I headed to the newly built library across campus. The day before I had badly twisted my ankle on some cobblestone, and somehow gained a vicious cold by sharing a dram of whiskey with someone. It was at this moment, all my injuries, jet lag, time scheduling, loneliness, and sadness was upon me. The library is a seven story glass building, jutting out in the middle of a 600 year old campus. At the library's elevator,  I pressed the 7th floor button. As the elevator doors were closing, a young man jumps into the elevator with me. I smirk at him in acknowledgment and he smirks back in satisfaction. Still, my head was hanging rather low. He says in his wonderfully cheerful Scottish drawl,
"You know, the 7th floor is the best view of the city. The granite really sparkles off the suns reflection and the sea."
"Yeah, that would be lovely to see," I reply with a hint of gratitude.
"You are not from around here, are you?" He notices my American accent.
"Nope, just got here about a week ago."
"Ah, you will truly come to love it here, just give it a little while." He says as the elevator stops at the third floor, and then he steps out and gives me a friendly smirk "Good-Bye."

At the top of the library, I quickly walk to the nearest wall and press my hands onto the glass and look down. His words were true.

The New University Library

St, Marchar's Cathedral, oldest church in Scotland, which I had the pleasure of touring in my History of Art class. My course schedule is working out after all.

The shore of Aberdeen, about 2 km from my flat, oil rigs in the distance.