Hello everyone! Today was an interesting day to say the least. I awoke with a feeling like something was off today and my instincts were right. The internet, in fact, wasn't working (this is a really tragic event to me). In fact, it didn't work all the way up until I left for class at 10:40. My day did not start off good. What did I do with my internet free time you may ask? I pretty much just freaked out. This has happened before here (not me freaking out, but the system being down), so I figured out pretty quickly that it wasn't my computer (very happy) and that it was just the system. Then, I filled my time by putting up pictures in my room that have been sitting around. You may be thinking, "Why Jennifer, you have been there for a month and have not put up any pictures?". And yes, that would be correct (I always was able to find something else to occupy my time). However, they are now covering my walls and it is a good thing (this does not mean that I was happy the internet was out or anything).
After briefly reacquainting myself with the World Wide Web (that was resuscitated right before class), I headed off to my seminar. I had high hopes of it being taught by Elton today, but no such luck, it was taught my Snape. I did find out that evidently nobody but me liked the lecture yesterday. Everybody complained about it all through class today (but I still find Elton much better than Snape). As I was pondering everybody's hatred for Elton, I realized that he didn't put his slides online; mystery solved (these kids really need to get over that). My seminar went pretty good. Snape told us that we won't be having lecture on Thursday, which makes me a happy camper. No 9:00 on Thursday? One bright spot in my otherwise cloudy internet-free day.
Once my seminar was over, I went back to my room only to discover that the internet was out again. Since I had already put up pictures, organized my shelves, and cleaned up my desk (me minus technology really is a sad thing. Also just for the record, I couldn't go to the library either. When the system goes down, you can't search for or check out books because it requires the network.) I organized my laundry which I'm going to do tomorrow. I also refolded my sweaters in my closet. (I was like an addict that just went cold turkey.)
After an agonizing lunch, I read some more on Quangos and headed off to my lecture in a very sour mood. My PMA lecture today was really interesting for many reasons. One, British Unibrow was back teaching! (I like him a lot more than Frazzled.) Two, he told us that a virus got into the system last night (note: this is something that would never happen at Butler. Butler's system is like a fortress). Three, this meant that he didn't have access to his PowerPoint for that day's lecture so, he just sat on a table and explained the UK Central Government to us. Now this might sound really boring, but I think I learned/retained more when I actually had to closely listen. And I learned a lot about the UK government system. I'll dedicate an entire post to explaining it later.
When I got back to my room, I discovered that the internet was working! (I almost hugged my computer.) Thus, I had access to the outside world once again. This made me extremely happy. Then, I got down to business on studying.
While I was putting up my pictures during my no-internet crisis period, I was thinking about Scottish accents. Here is something that I have learned, the farther South you go in Scotland, the lighter the accent. The farther North you go in Scotland, the thicker the accent. The general rule is that Edinburgh accents are lighter (and easier to understand) than Glasgow accents. So, you can tell where anybody Scottish is from, just by their accent. Most people from the Highlands and Glasgow that I have met, I can barely understand their accent. Edinburgh accents are more like British accents and easier to understand.
In order to help everyone understand what I'm talking about, I found some YouTube videos that demonstrate my point.
Video #1: Glasgow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXGP4Sez_Us&feature=related
(Listen to the man in the video. He is the typical Glasgow sounding man. It is hard to understand to say the least.)
Video #2: Edinburgh http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEL11GbwRNE&feature=related
(I know that this is a Welcome to the University of Edinburgh Speech, but the man's accent is exactly right.)
Video #3: ...it's a surprise http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLrrBs8JBQo&feature=related
(I couldn't help myself. No, Mel Gibson is not Scottish, but well you get the point.)
Luckily for me, Stirling accents lean more towards Edinburgh accents rather than Glasgow accents. People in Stirling are pretty easy to understand. It's generally the students from Glasgow and the Highlands that are hard to understand.
Tomorrow, I don't have any classes. This means it's time to do laundry. Then, I'll probably go into town to go to Tesco (what can I say, it's my second home).
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