It’s a Revelection!!!

Scotland, it’s friendly, cold, wet, and absolutely fascinated by our election. With the day of reckoning just under a week away, it appears that Scots and most everyone else, is absolutely fascinated with our little democratic race.

I arrived into Glasgow Central Station on Sept. 8 and took a cab to my new apartment. The driver had all sorts of questions. It started out pretty standard.

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Health Educator, What?

“What do you do?”a friend asked me when he found out I was a health educator.

“I teach students how to teach their peers about drugs and reducing their risk of problems related to drug abuse.”

“At UCSB?” he said sarcastically, “That’s GOT to be FUN.”

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Out of the Blue

When I arrived at work Monday morning, I found an email from someone in Germany entitled “Application for an internship in your career services.”

It was addressed to me by name and it was in English. Already I am impressed.

Here’s what it said:

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Scans of old things people have tried to forget

By Britta Gustafson

I really like going to antique stores (aka junk shops) to poke around and learn about weird old stuff that people used to actually make and buy and put in their houses — strange toys, obscure books, odd-shaped mugs, etc. It makes new items in Kmart seem a little dull, like that any interesting parts have been streamlined out by now. This is silly because 40 years from now, people will probably look at a fashionable lamp from 2008 and giggle. Good collections of old pictures serve as a similar kind of entertaining American history lesson.
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It’s Hella Cold Over Here

Escape From IV: Extreme Edition

I stepped off the National Express train into Waverly Train Station in Edinburgh onto the very same platform that Queen Elizabeth II uses when she travels to the city. In contrast to her majesty, I received no royal welcome; no one and nothing was there to greet me but the harsh, bitter Scottish cold when I set foot onto Scottish soil (or concrete if you prefer) for the first time. There is nothing that would have felt more appropriate. It is hard to imagine Scotland without its wind and rain, and after two weeks of travel and transition I was ready to be somewhere that felt like home, even if it was about 50 degrees colder than California. The only thing missing from the greeting was rain, and that met me when I finally lugged my bag out of the station.

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