Quite simply, the aim is to hopefully record the general life of an English student in deepest darkest Scotland studying in Aberdeen (read sheep farming country). It may be funny (read I may attempt to make jokes and fail), it may be sad, it may be completely misleading! But what ever happens it's intended to show life up here through some random eyes that may or may not be connected to a head.
So a little about me i guess. First off, I'm from England - more specifically the east of England. I've come to Aberdeen in the attempt to gain an MA in Celtic Studies, I'll explain a little later. I've already spent a good couple months up here and only just thought of doing this now... I'm only a little bit behind honest.
Ok then - you may be asking yourself (or i may just be presuming this) "Why the hell did this guy/gal/robot go to SCOTLAND?!??? and where the hell is Aberdeen????" Well the second bit first: Aberdeen is on the North East coast of Scotland - a 3 hour train ride from Edinburgh, or just down the coast from Inverness. It is the largest shipping port in Scotland and is founded (at least in this modern era) on the money brought in on the oil trade. Aberdeen itself dates from waaaay before that (think romans and picts and you're getting there). The Uni here was founded in 1495, but that in turn was formed from the merging of other colleges etc. the main thing about Aberdeen though is that it's known as the Granite City, beacuse, well, everything is made out of granite. The cobbles, the buildings, heck the bridges are ALL made from granite. the really annoying thing though, is that if it gets sunny it FRIGGIN' SPARKLES. I've moved to a FRACKING twilight verse AARRRRGGGHHH. *ahem*
Now for the other bit - Aberdeen is one of 5 (well really 4) places on mainland Britain that holds my course. The other places are Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberystwyth (midland Wales on the coast). Cambridge holds a course called Anglo-saxon, Norse and Celtic, AsNaC for short, but it focusses mainly on the Anglo-saxon and Norse parts rather than the Celtic bit. I held offers for here and Aberystwyth but came here as it's a bit more accessible (not 3 different train journeys taking 7-9 hours) and there's more history courses I can choose from.
On another note, my degree course. When you hear Celtic Studies, what might appear in your minds are perhaps pictures of naked blue people running around with swords, or perhaps the Irish/Scottish, maybe even Asterix and Obilix books/movies. this isn't really what my course does though - those images are perhaps as accurate as this portrayal of Viking Raids by the Muppets:
In fact my course involves history, literature and languages - and it turns out to be more useless in the job world than a degree in English simply because of it's rarity. This last semester alone I've taken two language courses, one course of social history, one on ancient history and one on medieval history - though this last was for shits and giggles (VIKINGS! (actual course title)). But this might not be a surprise, currently as far as I know I am the only one who is doing my degree course. This normally would mean a university just doesn't run a degree program for it, but this is where Scottish universities are different to the rest of Britain. In Scotland the first two years of university life are not restricted to anyone discipline - you could enter first year intending to study medicine but by second year could have changed to politics and internal relations without repercussions. there are set classes that you must attend and pass, but other than that you need to take enough courses to obtain 120 credits by the end of each year and those could be taken in anything. Personally I only have one requirement for my degree course this year, which is that i have to study a Celtic language - in my case Scots Gaelic is all that is offered this year, and therefore i can now understand Peppa the Pig in Gaelic after maybe 3 months of tuition.
i think i'll leave it there for now, but don't be afraid to ask questions - i'll attempt to answer!
