First Full Days of Work

I am officially done with my "first week" of work! If I can find a way to only work two full days a week and live in a foreign city, that would not be a bad deal at all. 

Yesterday I woke up at the crack of dawn (aka 8:15) to get dressed and head down to the Parliament. Well up then down, Edinburgh's an unexpectedly hilly city. I got there before my MSP, which is making a good impression I suppose, but I didn't know what to do because I couldn't log into the computer so I just sat there. 

My MSP did eventually show up and I got logged in to the computer, set up my Outlook account and stared at the great view while trying to figure out what to do. 

My desk

The view of Arthur's Seat from my desk

My first task as an intern at the Scottish Parliament was to write a "motion". I thought it sounded pretty cool, but motions happen all the time. I'm not entirely clear on what they are, but they seem like something to just put on the public record. Sometimes they mention a group or a person or something in someone's constituency. I get an email every time an MSP writes a motion and I get maybe like ten to twenty a day. Most seem party neutral, but you need MSPs to vote on them for them to pass. Well anyway I got an email from my MSP, Stuart, and it said, "Can you write a motion on this?" And it had the name of an organization celebrating its 25th anniversary and some information about the organization. 

Having never written a motion before, I spent a lot of time reading previous motions to get a feel for the wording and the layout. I emailed the office manager a lot with questions about it, and he helped me out a lot. I wrote it, then he rewrote it and sent it back to me, then I sent it to Stuart, then he sent me amendments, then I rewrote it. It was quite the process for what was basically one long run on sentence. It was a very "learn by doing" experience. And now I (sort of) know how to write a motion. It's exciting and scary to be trusted almost immediately with doing something so large. While I feel like motions barely get skimmed and hardly ever remembered, it's scary knowing that over 500 people will read it and it will have your MSPs name on it, which gives me a feeling of great responsibility. 

The second task I was delegated was the creation of a four page newsletter that my MSP sends out to his constituents. He hadn't done one in awhile so it covered the last few months. He gave me a very short set of directions that were hard to decipher due to the whole accent thing. My MSP gave me a short list of some unspecific topics he would like included in the newsletter and then let me figure out the rest. I took the same approach I did with the motion. I looked up past newsletters and copied the format. I found photos of my MSP's summer tour and of him hosting events. I read press releases and his blog to learn about what I was writing about in the newsletter. It was very time consuming, but it was also a very effective and productive way to learn about what my MSP has been doing for the past four months. 

I started the newsletter yesterday, but I spent most of today working on it as well. Yesterday I was also able to talk to my MSP a lot. He would call me over just to talk to me which was cool, but I felt a little awkward just standing there trying to figure out what he was saying. 

He did mention, however, that he would take me and one of his other interns to see his constituency. He represents West Scotland and his main focus is tourism, so I'll get to see some cool sights in West Scotland. He also talked a lot about independence, which makes sense since he is a member of the Scottish National Party. But it's very different hearing about independence and the referendum than meeting someone who's actually working to make Scotland independent. It makes it very more real. 

After work on Thursday, I met up with several UC interns who work on my floor and we went out to dinner at a restaurant near the UC Center before class. I quickly ate my chicken curry while doing the reading homework on the House of Lords out of a borrowed textbook. We then went to class. My roommates and I presented on the House of Lords, and then two other groups presented on the other branches of government. The class is very discussion focused and very interesting. 

After class we had our traditional post class pub stop. I really like the tradition because we get to just hang out and relax and make political science jokes and the pub atmospheres are very social. Not in like a loud, obnoxious kind of social way, but a friendly towards groups of people talking kind of social way, if that makes sense.

The MSPs are only in their offices Tuesday through Thursday, but those days it's very busy. There are interviews in the "Garden Court Room" and people everywhere. Fridays (and Mondays I'm assuming too, but I haven't worked one yet) are very quiet. Some offices are completely empty and it's mostly just some interns in jeans. It was quiet today which was nice and I got a lot done, but it's also kind of...too quiet. But I guess I'll get used to it. We were told that sometimes it may seem like you have nothing to do on these days if we're not handed tasks and that we should create work, but I had plenty to do. 

 I was worried that I would not know what to do on my own without any guidance, but luckily so far that has not been the case. This morning I finished the newsletter. I spent a lot of time on the phone with the IT department about getting access to emails and stuff. It was confusing when I got four different calls from four different people from IT telling me four different things. 

It's also fun because all the interns gather up and go to lunch together. There's a really nice and relatively cheap cafeteria on the ground floor. Yesterday I got mac and cheese and today I got risotto and both days I got a Cadburry's chocolate bar. It's fun to talk to the other interns about what they've been doing that day and what projects they've been working on. 

Another thing I've noticed about the Parliament building is that it's a lot more personal than I expected and the MSPs are a lot more accessible. Going along with that, the offices, especially the intern's desks, are very open. There aren't many walls or doors and there's a lot of open space. All the offices open to the hallway. It's nice because people walking by will stop and talk to you, which is always nice. But I also have the problem that everyone on my floor can hear me when I talk to anyone. That's true for a lot of people, but especially me.

It's really fun and a little intimidating so far. It's tiring, too. I'm worried that I'll miss out on a lot of day to day Edinburgh stuff because I spend the majority of the day five days a week in an office, but I still have the weekends. And also, I'm learning a lot about Scotland. Just by being in the office and hearing about the issues and reading the motions and the bulletins, I've learned a lot about issues that I wouldn't have heard about otherwise. 

It should get interesting the next couple weeks as I learn how to do more parliamentary projects and learn more about the issues!

View from my floor

Another view from my floor

Hope you all have a great weekend!