To Write or not to Write

It feels as if I have not written any thoughts down for this blog forever, and probably this is true. First I did not want to write because things were not going all that well. All our plans were overturned by Ben not getting the job in Germany we were so hoping for. Then we had trouble with our noisy neighbor again and in total we were quite frustrated. So I decided not to write about it. I think I put enough frustration in this blog as it is and it is time for a change.

So we decided to make this change and are currently searching for a better flat (or at least a better area). I also decided to apply for another job. It is an internal application within the company I am working for already so with a bit of luck that might even happen. All in all if we are successful all will be better. So keep your fingers crossed that we will be moving in August and then I will finally have time to concentrate on my studies again, which now are pretty much put on hold, except for the conference preparations I am occupied with at the moment. I will attend one conference in July and one in October and so far this is all I have planned for the rest of this year. And then I will finish the thesis before the end of next year. Ambitious?! I know, but I need to get it done, or I never will!

Ups and Downs

Finally I have the end of this chapter in sight. I am sure that I will finish it next week at the latest- a first draft that is. Of course I will have to put in a continuous effort in improving and completing it, as well as the others. But with the end so close, I finally feel a bit freer and actually look forward t the next chapter, which my supervisor says will be a lot easier than this one. He said the same thing about this chapter as compared to the previous one, so I am not so sure if I am going to believe him. But I am sure that a change of topic will do me good.

 

In our house things are weird at the moment. Our downstairs neighbour’s flat has been broken into last week. Which of course does not make us feel any safer here even though we decided to move in summer (when the lease is up). We try to comfort ourselves and make fun of the situation in bringing to our minds that all our electric appliances have German plugs and are quite old into the bargain and thus any potential burglars will not be too happy with what they might find in our flat. We just try to take things as they come at the moment, but more and more things seem to happen, that make it clear for us that we will not stay here beyond the PhD which would have been possible in the original plan. Now we keep ourselves going by telling us that it will not be longer than the end of next year before we finally can return home.

 

With this I am of course not trying to dissuade anybody from moving here. The University is excellent and the programmes of study and support are great. Only the circumstances do not seem to turn out right in our particular situation. We miss our friends, sociable outings, for which we do not seem to find the time or the money (yes even students are not excluded from the Credit Crunch), and our families, the garden at home, the countryside…We are just not made to live in the city and this was probably a very important lesson we learned here and something that helped us to decide where we want to live in the far away future. So even if the overall experience for us does not seem to be paradisiacal, we learned many things that will be important to us in future times.

even worse

What do they say? It can always get worse. And so it did. Last week we had another window thrown in (the third in the cause of a year). The last time that happened was quite q while ago, so we thought we might as well renew our lease, as we really do like the flat. A week later the window was thrown in. So here’s some advise for anyone moving somewhere completely new: 1. when people tell you this is a bad area, trust them, even though you think it does not look bad at all….looks can deceive. 2. Never ever sign a lease that says that if you want to get out of it early you will have to continue paying the rent until another tenant is found.

So as you can imagine the last week was rather upsetting for me, Ben and Maya. Even more so, as it took almost two weeks till the window was replaced. And the agency had a couple of excuses for that as well ranging from bad weather (hello? this is Scotland!) to the measurements I have given them were incorrect. But finally it is done and I do not care to think about it anymore. Consequently Ben and I had a lot of discussion of future plans etc. I called my work Union to get legal advice and made many more calls and sent various email, but all to no avail. we will have to stick it out until the lease is up.

All this means that PhD wise I had a totally unproductive week and have been trying to catch up ever since. I am slowly getting towards the end of another chapter, but there is a strong emphasis on slowly. So wish me luck and bear in mind my advice. And I hope you all will have a good week next week!

Not the best week

I did not have a very good week this week. Of course this happens to all of us, but just as I thought that I had really gotten the hang of my time management, I got sick. I was off work for two days and I slept most of the time. Probably I needed it, too. But still, it shows you that if something unexpected happens your lists and plans go just out the window and you fall considerably behind. And that doesn’t make you feel good either.

Then I went back to work today just to be sent home again, as the assistant manager had not told the manager that I would be back today, despite the fact that I had called to let them know, and she covered my shift. That made me so mad especially as it was not my fault but it is going to be my loss as I really need the money. But, of course I cannot help that now.

On the other hand it gave me the opportunity to catch up a little, which I did. So possibly I should just see the bright side. Another good thing that happened this week is that Maya finally got her stitches taken out so that she got rid of that collar as well. She is really happy now.

Apart from that, this is a week better not to be remembered.

After a long silence….

I am really sorry that I have been silent for so long. But nothing much has happened or changed in my life. Except that my frustration is growing. I applied for several jobs in and around the university just so that I could be closer to the library and wouldn’t have to travel around the world anymore to get from my job to my studying. But obviously there is no such luck. I expected to be declined for the teaching job I have mentioned in my last blog and so I did. As I expected it, I wasn’t too disappointed. But I applied for several other jobs and was not even invited for an interview. Most of them did not require specific experience or only experience I had acquired, so I did not really understand the ’sorry there were several other applicants who matched our criteria better’ bit of the letters I got in return. I start to feel that it is my being a non-native speaking foreigner that influences my employability and if this should really be the case I’d find it incredibly sad.

On the other hand, my social life is not improving either. This is mostly due to my lack of time, the distance I live from Glasgow and studying part-time. I would love to get involved in esharp, but as I could work up to 5.30 each day of the week (and the rotas change every week) I would be likely to miss most of the meetings. I thought of getting involved in the SRC but then again the same problem would arise, I would most likely not make it to the meetings, which would be rather pointless as attendance is a requirement. But for me undfortunately work has to come first (well really studying has) as I am still self-funded, so I do not ask for a day off unless it is for a conference or something of equal importance. Then I had the chance to finally meet people at the postgraduate reception of the English Literature department, but a migraine confined me to my bed instead of the research club. The next day the e-mentors had a get together at the same venue but I had to work. This all adds up to growing frustrations. Especially as I start to suspect that I might not finish my PhD project in the time frame I have set for it. Achieving this aim would probably have made it worthwhile cutting out all other aspects of my life. But as it is frustrations are growing.

The only good thing that happened during the last couple of weeks is a Personal Development Planning workshop I attended, during which I realized that I have a fairly good idea of where I am and where I want to be in two years time and thereafter. This cheered me up a little, as well as the fact that due to paying for my studies myself, I seem a lot more motivated than most of my fellow students.

So it is not all bad. And I am looking very much forward to Christmas, and pre-Christmas baking. This will cheer me up some more, and as I don’t intend to give up that easily, you will have to bear with me for quite another while!

I hope everybody else is enjoying the new term and the beautifully remodelled Hetherington Research Club. I think they’ve done a really great job and I hope that I will spend more time there than I did last year.

Happy Studying…

… is not exactly what I am doing at the moment. Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy studying. In fact when I have a whole day of work I am thrilled and excited because that’s a whole day I can spend with my books. And surprise, surprise I can get so much done in a whole day. The thing is just, the last time I had a full day off is…well I cannot even remember how long ago. Work is not bad either. I enjoy it more and more and am quite an accepted part of the team, you know one you can joke with and all. So that is fine and fun as well. I just wish I had more time for studying. And I am not even under too much pressure with part-time studying and all. But I would prefer if I’d be able to see more progress. Of course, my review was fine, and that consoled me for a while. But now I am back to…’you are never going to get anywhere.’

Which, of course is not entirely true. My next paper to be presented at a conference is coming up next week and it is all ready and I am very excited about it. I think two papers in one year at two international conferences are not too bad. So this is at least something. And I am also going to get to spend some time with a friend from St. Andrews whom I have not seen for a while and who is going to be at the conference as well. So I guess we’ll have a great time. And we even planned to visit a wool factory. Both of us are enthusiastic knitters, so that is going to be great!

I hope reading this did not depress you all. You know that deap in my heart I am an optimist and I am sure that all will be fine again shortly. So keep it up and enjoy reading my blog!

Language, or the fascination of Glaswegian

When I first moved to Glasgow and someone talked to me, I often wondered, “was this English?” By now, I have come to the conclusion that Glaswegian is an extreme form of Scottish which might have English roots, but that’s it.

When I did my first degree back in Germany, I took a class in Middle Scots and was utterly fascinated by how different it was from Middle English. However, I never expected to find a living language that is so different from English and yet is supposedly a form of English. There are not only words that are different, but the pronunciation and melody are entirely un-English.

Well, Glaswegian is pretty much as my German dialect “schwäbisch”, if you talk fast enough nobody who doesn’t speak the dialect will be able to understand you. That’s why I am quite proud that after 10 months of listening and talking to Glaswegians, I am finally able to understand people- well at least if I can look them in the face and lipread

But honestly, I am getting asked for directions (or fags) in the streets of Glasgow and I am finally able to reply. Of course then people get sceptical- “Do we want to trust this person wih the strong Geman accent? She does not sound Glaswegian at all, does she really know where she sends us?” That’s at least what I imagine they might think.

But what is even worse, I, like many others, had to study English at school, which, of course, involves learning an enormous set of rules! You try to learn and memorize and maybe even understand them and then of course to use them in order to finally speak and write English properly.

AND THEN YOU GO TO GLASGOW!!!

Where people say things like “What are you wanting?” “Rebecca has did that” “It has took me five hours to do that…” And you wonder whyever you bothered sticking to the rules. Well, of course your marks at school would have suffered consicerably, but appart from that… Who needs them? Definitely not Glaswegians.

OK, but that is still not the worst part of it all. I have lately discovered that my brain is using patterns of Glaswegian when thinking. For example, a couple of weeks ago I thought, “Who has did that?” Or something like it. I was shocked accordingly, and my brain took countermeassures before uttering the sentence, so my teachers back home can still be proud of me. But who knows how long it is going to take till the little aliens -or in this particular case, Glaswegians- in my head will take over and I will start saying or writing down things like that? What will my supervisors say? And it is not too far fetched either. I have started pronouncing words Glaswegian style ages ago. I don’t even know how to pronounce eight (‘eeht’) or three (thrrrrree’) properly, anymore. And last week I even officially started using ‘aye’ instead of yes. My colleagues find that rather amusing and every time I say ‘aye’ they either laugh or I can hear a choir of ‘ays’ behind my back. However, I had a compliment as well. ‘You start talking real Scottish now!’ At least I think it was supposed to be a compliment. I don’t mind the laughter and choir either, I know they love me anyway. Well, at least as long as I keep teaching them German swearwords- which of course we Germans do not use at all…ever…German is a very polite language, after all I ried to teach them ‘Alter vor Schönheit’ which translates as ‘age before beauty’ and whatever they said was definitely not German, so I guess I can be content that at least I can understand what they are telling me (most of the time) and reply without them having to guess what I am saying.

Appart from all the difficulties, I really like Glaswegian. As I mentioned before, it reminds me of my own dialect, and maybe, just maybe, it makes me feel a little bit more at home away from home.

I came up with a couple of new examples:

“My brother telled me a joke last night”

Glaswegians aldon’t seem to be too keen on the plural indicator s

“two saussage roll, please” Well if your lucky you’ll get the “please”

“I’ve been working here for 15 year“

I’ll keep you posted if I come across something new…

Another wee update: Glaswegians love to give you names, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. Of course they swear a lot, too and sometimes there are more f***s in a sentence than anything else, but this is not what I meant to tell you. They like to call people (even total strangers) for men mate and pal, and for women darling, pet, or hen. I don’t know about you, but for me it really took some getting used to.

Oh and they like to use yous as plural of you….what would the grammar book say?

How to sum up a year

Hello everyone,

I will start this blog by trying to summarize the experiences I gained during my first year at the University of Glasgow. I think they describe the first impressions of not only me but probably many other students moving to the UK from abroad.

I came here after a year of idleness (not true of course, as I worked hard and forced my way through Moby Dick) travelling and working in Australia and New Zealand. I did not come all by myself as well. No, my loving and caring and most of all supporting partner of quite some time moved here with me:

Finding accomodation

So first of all we had to find a flat that would be big enough to fit in all our stuff. This proved more difficult than we expected in several ways:

1. we have a really big bed and British bedrooms seem to be really small

2. We have a lot of stuff (i.e. books and shelves)

3. we used to be spoiled with space in Germany

4. renting in Germany is different from renting in the UK: you definitely do not get the same value for money here.

But after we looked at some places with disfunctional heaters, or no heating at all, too small rooms, carpets stained during centuries, and my personal favourite: “This flat has rats,please do not leave your rubbish in the hallway, if you see a rat please call…”we found our perfect 2-bedroom affordable flat. As it is outside Glasgow, some of you might not consider it quite that perfect, but as we are both no city people, we liked it immediately. And it even comes with a little strech of garden.

Setting up a bank account

So now that we had a UK we could finally set up a bank account. Accordingy, we went to all the major banks and asked what documentation they required etc. No surprise there: every bank wanted different things and most of them did not want to give us a debit card unless we could prove we are employed, which, of course, we weren’t. But then I attended the international welcome week and a solution presented itself. They gave us n internet link, where you could ask the University to write a letter to the bank with which you want to set up an account. I still did not get a debit card but at least they finally agreed to give me an account which I urgently needed to transfer my money to in order to pay my first installment of University fees.

So here are my two pieces of advice:

1. attend the international welcome week, it is really useful and you can ask all your questions, plus they take you on a day trip!

2. Go to the international office and ask them to provide a letter for your bank and ask them whatever else you need to know, they are really helpful there.

First steps at the university

That settled, I could finally focus on what I was here for: studying!

I set up a meeting with my second supervisor, as the woman who was supposed to be my first supervisor unfortunately had left for another university. Which was a pity as she would have suited my research perfectly. This meeting went really well and gave me my first and lasting impression of the University: helpful, friendly, efficient. And ten months later this impression still probes valid. Every time I have a question- and believe me, that happens rather frequently- I send an email to the person I think might be best qualified to answer it. If they can’t, they point out the person who can; if they can, you usually get a quick and detailed answer! I really like that. My second supervisor quickly found me other supervisors whom I briefly met the same day and who gave me “homework” for our next meeting. This slightly shocked me, as I officially had not even started research yet, this was only supposed to happen a little later, in early October. I was in the beginning also startled by the frequency they suggested we should meet: once a week. I just thought I would never get anything done in one week. But now, with a part-time job next to studying, I am quite happy about this arragement, as it forces me to do something and prevents procrastination. They always give me great input, and are really supportive.

The rest of the year…

…sums up pretty quickly. I attended many workshops e.g. on project planning and time management, which, at least in part, I thought extremely useful. I worked on two conference papers, one of which I presented by now (this was my very first conference, and I think it went really well). I applied for about 100 000 scholarships and bursaries (note the slight exaggeration, but that’s how it felt at times) none of which I received But does that stop me from trying?

A couple of months ago my computer stopped working and I freaked, as I really could not afford to buy a new one. But thank God (or whatever deity or philosophy you choose to believe in) I could recover windows XP and all has been working well since- knock on wood!

In February, a bit of a tragedy hit my family. My dad, only weeks before his 52nd birthday had to get a bypass peration. Here again my supervisors wre extremely supportive and always enquired about the state of things. Of course, I wanted to fly straight home, less because I was worried about the operation itself- it seems to be routine today- and more to keep my father company in hospital. he is a very active man and I knew he would be bored senseless in hospital. However, my family told me to stay, and so I did. My dad was up and about again in no time and he has not lost his sense of humour either. So I am very happy. We went home for three weeks in May and he was just his same old self. I found this very comforting. I also enjoyed the trip, as the weather back in Germany was really nice and I could use the change. Sometimes the constant clouds of Glasgow can get a bit depressing.

Conference

About three weeks ago I attended my first literary conference and I was quite overwhealmed- as I often am- by how much some people know. I am always awed by wisdom and knowledge and I always feel that no matter how long I have been studying my subject, I am always only still discovering the margins an there is so much more to know.

But back to the conference: It was just great. so much wisdom united at one spot. It was a four-day conference and the days started at 8am and never ended before 9pm. There were parallel panels and I always found something that interested me, so I went to listen to every panel & plenary lecture. After the four days I was exhausted accordingly but I had to work for the next four days and on the fourth I got a bad migraine that forced me to bed for the rest of the day. I guess that was my body telling me not to overestimate how much I can do. But now I am back on track and short of finishing the first chapter of my PhD thesis. So I guess after all I am doing ok.

Work

For those of you who are wondering what kind of work I do, I am not going to tell. This is just a preventive measure for the days that are sure to come at which I will say work just got on my nerves etc. And I don’t want to blame the company for it, as I still feel very lucky that i got this job, as it is so extremely flexible. All I can say is that it is one of the really stupid, non-academic job that are necessary to feed the body that houses the brain.

I think this gave you a pretty good overview of the last 10 months of my life here in Glasgow. I will try to keep you posted on a more regular basis now, and I promise future posts will not be this excessively long! I hope you’ll bear with me…