Campus Life

So let me put in a few words on behalf of the uni that brought us here to Scotland. Although our first impressions of the University of Edinburgh were not particularly welcoming, starting back in the spring when we had the beginnings of our interactions with them to get set up here. I will spare you the details of the slow and unnecessarily complicated system that we navigated to get Matt a "matriculation card", fees and counsel taxes taken care of, library access granted (the gates keep everyone honest), etc etc.

That said, Matt began his studies a couple of weeks ago and praises to heaven - he likes school again! I still wouldn't say loves school (that may not be able to come at all when it comes to him studying law) but we have both agreed that there have been some drastic mood and attitude about life in general improvements since coming here. This can be observed in things like Matt has actually been doing his readings diligently (with wikipedia on standby for terminology or historical figures that are obscure to him) for the first time since '07. Hoorah! He has even started to stress a bit on whether he has found the right topic for his thesis this summer. This is huge for us Scotland Sweeneys, I tell you. Academic interest has been absent from our dear Matt since his BA days. It is great to see the spring in his step when he heads off to class (which is only 2 hours twice a week - another appealing feature of this program). Well, to be fair, his greatest interest is not at all in the "law" part of his "LLM of Legal History and Philosophy" but it is something great that he can find some parts of European history and philosophical tradition that get him intellecutally stimulated.

Maybe our walk up to campus raises the spirits too. Who wouldn't feel inspired to learn something about history when passing these sites everyday?

Even Matt's campus grounds at "the Old College" seem to have a story to tell. At the moment, they are kind of torn up because of a construction project that began last year and turned into an excavation when bones were found a few feet down.

As you can see, several areas are roped off and the project has obviously started to take much longer than anticipated - perhaps a brief insight into why an American like myself may get frustrated with thoughts like: "everything takes so long here to do, happen, get done...!" Well, it is less of a wonder after being here for a bit. Each time someone tries to get a project done, they run into a problem of needing to respect history to do it properly. This truly extends into a grand metaphor for this country; perhaps you follow but if not then you may be interested in taking some legal tradition courses with Matt that would enlighten you about how true this is. I am already coming to really respect their patience and sense of historical and cultural responsibilities here. I think there is much an American person, like myself, to learn from this approach to life and community.