After I got back from my wonderful and fantastic trip to the Isle of Skye on March 10th, I had to sit down and get some work done. I had three essays due in the next three weeks - two of them at 2,000 words long, the other at 3,000, and all of them needing at least five or six sources to be credible. It was daunting, but at least they were due in a fairly neat order - my first one for my Scottish Literature class due March 18th, the second for my Celtic Civilization class due March 20th, and the third (the 3,000 word essay) for my Visualizing Scotland class due March 26th. I sucked it up, said goodbye to my friends, turned off the wireless on my laptop (unless necessary for work), and commenced living in the library for three straight weeks.
I tackled my first essay with solid determination. I went to my lectures and tutorials until five, ate dinner, and then sat myself in the library surrounded by books until eleven. Some nights I stayed past midnight, as I was so involved (read - very, very behind) in my essay writing and research that it didn't feel acceptable to leave until I was literally falling asleep at my desk. The Main Library on the George Square campus, however, is a lovely place to be in if you have to stay there for hours on end. Every book you could possibly need for research is on hand (unless some horrible awful person got to it first and it isn't due back until Friday and you know they're going to renew it because they're probably just as lazy as you are and you hate them anyway), the study areas are plentiful and blessedly quiet, and after seven the only people left are the ones dedicated to/behind in their work so it isn't crowded or as buzzing as it is during the day. Once ten goes by, computers start to open up. All the desks around you become empty. There is no line at the library cafe and you can get coffee in two minutes or less. It's beautiful. The only downside is the fact that I was there for a reason - to work.
And work I did. I became so educated on Sir Walter Scott and Margaret Oliphant that I had dreams about them. I pounded out my essay paragraph by painful paragraph, well aware of the amount of editing I would need to do but uncaring at the time. After a few days, I started in on my Celtic paper as well to avoid rushing that one too much. I studied ancient Celtic literature and the purposes behind it. I learned a lot about the startling similarities between what I was writing about for my Scottish Lit class and what the Celtic societies used their literature for - entertainment, social commentary, political gain, everything we use it for today. I guess it's good to know that the basic purpose of literature hasn't changed much; it makes it that much easier to relate to a people that haven't existed for almost two thousand years. It also tells me that it will be around for quite awhile longer, and as a writer that makes me extremely happy.
The day before it was due, I printed out my Scottish Lit paper and made it beautiful to be turned in the next day. My laptop had a moment where it decided it didn't want to work and scared me into using Google Docs for writing the rest of my essays. I wasn't going to lose hours and hours of work just because of faulty hardware or software. Over the next two days I punched out my Celtic Civilization paper - much more difficult, as history has never been, is not, and never will be my strong point - and turned it in for grading. I then turned towards my final paper, 1,000 words longer and requiring much more detail. Visualizing Scotland is a course that looks at Scotland and how it has been portrayed through visual media throughout history. We began with paintings, moved on to photography, them documentaries, then finally film for entertainment. Being an art-based course, I needed to include artworks in my paper for both comparison and strengthening my argument. I turned again towards Walter Scott, having already studied him for my other paper, and pointed myself in the direction of his affect on Scottish artwork and Scottish identity. I kept to my routine - lecture, food, library, sleep, repeat - and managed to complete my paper the night before it was due. The editing process was brutal - I knew some parts of it were repetitive, and I knew other parts should have been removed all together. I wasn't willing to rewrite an entire paragraph's worth of words, however, so I left them in. Tidied and cleaned up for presentation purposes, but decidedly not useful for my overall argument. I was desperate, and sleep-deprived, and food-deprived. I needed those words.
Two seven page papers and one thirteen page paper later, I had finished my coursework for the semester (at least until exams). I will admit that back home I had never put that much effort into writing essays for class. I suppose the fact that these essays accounted for much more of my grade played a part, but I still felt more challenged than I typically was at home. At times, I miss my lower-stress version of studying back home in America. I miss the multiple tests and essays that, should they end badly, have a smaller impact on my overall grade for the course. I miss how much easier it is to talk to my professors if I'm having difficulty. At other times, however, I am grateful for this semester abroad. My courses were first and second year courses, and even with three years of college-level coursework under my belt I still struggled a bit. I have to hand it to these full-time students - you have to be dedicated to your studies to get A's here. I have only received one A while in Edinburgh this semester, and that was a low A for an essay I worked extremely hard on. I don't know if this will positively or negatively affect my studies when I return home, but I do know that I'm grateful to have had the chance to experience this.
In the UK, you start your major when you are a freshman, and you take major classes until you graduate. There are no General Education requirements. In a way, I believe this is a stronger system. Students don't dawdle for two years, bouncing between departments before finally choosing a major only because if they don't, they won't graduate on time. The Humanities students do not have to take Science courses, the Science students do not have to bother with Arts or Language. They are focused on their field, and that makes them much more knowledgeable by the time they graduate. It is a different system, but I believe that it works for the UK. America is more focused on the 'all-around' student who knows a little bit of everything, but has special knowledge in their field. While I may not agree with forcing students to take courses out of their major just for gen-ed requirements, I understand why it is required at many schools. I know that personally, I did not benefit from the chemistry courses I took my sophomore year. They had no application to my life, or my interests, or my English degree. In fact, I've likely forgotten most of the material already, and it's only been a year. This is, of course, only my opinion - I'm sure others have benefited from their gen-ed courses, or even enjoyed them enough to switch majors. I do appreciate that there is no particular hurry to declare a major - at UMW, you are not even allowed to declare a major until your sophomore year. The policy allowed me to explore my interests until I settled on Creative Writing, and I appreciated that. Each system has its pros and cons, and I'm extremely happy that I was able to experience two country's university systems during my undergraduate studies. Not many people get that chance, and I keep in mind how lucky I am every day.
I finished off my three weeks of studying by sleeping for a long, long time. I had spent so little time in my flat that I believe my flatmates worried I'd left for somewhere. I had little to no food in the kitchen, as I'd spent so much time eating out. I had to go grocery shopping. I had to do laundry. I had to clean my room. But most of all, I had to prepare myself for some visits from my family the next two weeks, and the trip I took to Rome, Italy during Spring Break. But, before all that, I slept. And it was wonderful.
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