Annoyance

So the batteries in my building's fire alarm have died (or gone flat as they say here) and it has been chirping every 30 seconds (I clocked it) for at least the last 3 hours...I am going to go insane!

Exams...both foreign and domestic

So as my exam results come trickling in (VERY slowly) I am again struck by the differences between this system and the American one. 

The first shock is that anything between 100% and 70% is an A (I still can't quite wrap my mind around that).  Another strange difference is that 40% is a passing grade.  This might seem strange for anyone who is used to the American system but they do grade much harder here (makes sense doesn't it when a 50 is a B).  This leads to strange phenomena like finding that the highest grade anyone got on your exam was a 74% (and it was multiple choice). 

By far the most confusing thing is seeing that it is possible to get a 13% on an exam, I am not even sure how that works, that is a worse percentage than chance could account for so that poor person actually would have done better if they had done the answer sheet blindly, without reading the questions and just guessed.  I really want to know how something like that comes to pass, was it on purpose?  Or did they take the wrong exam?  Did they have a terrible case of brain freeze?  What?

Off to ponder that one for a while
Love ya!

Hello again...

...sorry I've been away but with the holidays and air travel woes and having caught a nasty cold and getting back into the swing of things here in Edinburgh I haven't had much time to write.  Anyway, here are a short series of updates on my life since I went radio silent.

Before I left Edinburgh we had a  Christmas dinner at the dining hall complete with Christmas crackers and free whiskey (everyone was very jolly).  I learned about yet another word that has a different meaning here than it does at home (technically its several words, but you know what I mean) pigs in a blanket, which at home are mini hot dogs wrapped in puff pastry, here means sausages wrapped in bacon (the UK may be the only country that can compete with the US in terms of love of bacon).

I then had the pleasure of waking up at 5 am to make my flight (it was reeeeeeally early, I don't like 5 am very much) and then remaining awake for the next 22 hours (I was lots of fun to be around for a while there).  Thankfully, I got to spend most of those hours in the company of the lovely and sympathetic Hannah in fabulous New York City so that was lots of fun.  


Then I headed home for the holidays, it was absolutely fabulous to see everyone and get to hang out with my lovely family, even if we had to drive for ages through a Noreasterner to get there (there were moments where I was quite jealous of my friends who went to Dubai for their holidays).


Anyway, sorry its been forever since we talked, I missed you!
Love ya!