Brief Hello

Hi! I have a quick minute to post something from last week. I'm at a hostel in London, England waiting for my roommates to show up. I'll post more about my trips to Munich, Istanbul, and around England when I get back to Edinburgh, but for now, here is something about my work week last week that I wrote on the plane. 

Hello all. I am writing this as I'm flying over the white and fluffy Scottish cloud cover. Ich fliege jetzt nach Muenchen, Deutschland. I have been so busy this week with work (yay! my first full work week) that it hasn't really sunk in that I'm going. I haven't had much time to think about it. All my trip planning has happened between the hours of midnight and two am this past week. In fact, last night Julianne and I were sitting on my bedroom floor until two am trying to plan out our second week. 

On Thursday, one of the interns from Utah scored us tickets to the First Minister's Questions. They're free, but hard to come by because it's popular to go to. So all nine of the UC interns went and sat in the gallery above the debating chamber for the half an hour FMQ. FMQ is an opportunity for other parties to ask questions of the First Minister. The First Minister is Alex Salmond. The First Minister is kind of like the Prime Minister of Scotland. He (or she) comes from the majority party or from a coalition of parties that forms a majority. Alex Salmond's from the Scottish National Party, the party that MSP comes from as well. It is supposed to be a time for other parties to voice their concerns. But it's very similar to the UK's Question Time. It's a lot of yelling, defensive and politiciany statements, and general disorder. It's entertaining, as everyone's really sassy. One of the First Minister's comments was "So much for quality debate" to a member of another party. A couple of times we'd stare wide eyed, jaw dropped at the comments made, and then turn laughing at each other. As fun and interesting as it was, it didn't seem very productive because no one was really listening to each other. And instead of answering questions, the FM would just promote the SNP. It also seemed very childish and not very professional. MSPs booed and cheered, banged on their desks, and mocked people's accents as they were speaking. 

We have now created a post work Thursday tradition. We walk over toward the UC Centre and eat at The Mosque Kitchen, a cheap curry place. We then go to class. This week we talked about devolution. We came to the conclusion that the path to the UK devolving some power to Scotland was predictable, but not straightforward. We also turned in our research paper proposals. I think I'm going to write mine on renewable energy in Scotland. Post class, we got to a pub. Our typical pub, The Green Mantle, was reserved, so we tried a new pub. It was very class, very upscale, and had a lot of MSPs and interns in it. We didn't stay long, but the UC interns had a very interesting conversation about the idealistic and feasible aspects of Scottish independence. 

While it's a pretty intense internship, it's not without getting tea, shredding papers, and filing. However, most of the tasks I did this week were very difficult and took a lot of time. I wrote a four page brief on employability in Scotland and my MSP's constituencies for a debate my MSP was speaking on as well as eight one page briefs on community regeneration organisations, which are basically grassroots movements to help improve the environment and encourage community pride. I also wrote a motion that my office manager did not need to edit, which was exciting. It was about an addiction rehab program in my MSP's constituency. I also sent the motion out for approval, which was cool as well. 

When I told my office manager I'd be traveling for the Parliamentary recess, he said he'd put it on Stuart's Outlook Calendar. "I put 'Kelly on vacation," he chuckled. "Not 'Kelly on holiday?'" I asked, which is the British term for when you take work or school off and go traveling somewhere. "No, cuz you're American and Americans go on vacation," he explained. I thought it was funny that he thought vacation was such a funny word. Personally, I think vacation makes more sense than holiday, but I guess it's just an arbitrary word. I have to use British English for anything I write for the Parliament and sometimes I forget halfway through, so I look like I don't know how to spell organization, program, or center. There are quite a few phrases and words I like in the British English language that I wish we had in the US though such as "Cheers!" as an acknowledgement, "Ta!" for thanks, "Slainte!" for cheers, and "chips" for fries. I really do love linguistics. 

Now I'm flying over the orange red roofed white walled Southern German towns (yay adjectives!), about to land in Munich on this beautiful October afternoon. 

Please indulge in my penchant for chessy and inspirational quotes for a moment as I share with you one of my favorites. "You never actually leave a place you love, part of it you take with you leaving part of yourself behind." I don't know who said it, but I think it's true. 

I hope all is going well and I can't wait to tell you about my trip! It's been incredible so far! Love you and miss you all!