Freshers' Week

I hope to use this Blog as a place to reflect on what we cover in our classes. If you miss a class you can access the Blog to see what we did that week. You can also comment or reply to anything I write on the Blog. Most lecturers and teachers keep some kind of written record of what they cover with each class. I've decided to write my lesson records as a Blog this term.


This is a new thing for me, so let's just see how it goes ...


Anyway, to get things started ... it was great to meet everyone today. We started the day's activities at the Scottish Parliament.

The Scottish Parliament was a controversial project - it went over budget and not everyone was pleased with the design. However, I must say that I like the space (inside and out). I was talking to some of you about it. The general feeling was that the exterior was ugly but that the interior was better. Any thoughts on that?

If you're interested in finding out more about the Scottish Parliament, here's the link to their website: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/

Moving on up the Royal Mile, the metaphors intended by the Spanish architect of the parliament provided a nice link to a subsequent conversation that some of us had in the Scottish Poetry Library regarding the endeavours of a translator to re-work Spanish metaphors into English. I think Scott will pick up on this at some stage in his Literature class, but the whole issue of translating literature is certainly a very interesting subject for discussion.

Here's a link to the Scottish Poetry Library: http://www.spl.org.uk/

If you weren't there, you should go down and have a look around. It is a little oasis of serenity in the midst of the city.

I hope everyone enjoyed today and I look forward to meeting the whole class next week at the College.