Monthly Review: September 2017

September has been my busiest and most challenging month in a long time, but it's been great!


Where I Went

West Highland Way, Scotland

Edinburgh, Scotland

Best on Instagram

McEwan Hall, University of Edinburgh -

Best on the Blog

Monthly Recap - the only post I wrote last month!

What I Read

Cognitive Linguistics and Lexical Change by Natalya Stolova.

This book was actually one of the last things I read for my long essay (more on that later). I was trying to find a copy. While I was home, the only way to get access was to buy it - which was $150! When I got back to Edinburgh, I got it on an inter-library loan. I read the whole thing cover to cover in about a day and a half.

This is pretty much the only thing I read (except for loads of uni stuff). Now that university has started back up, I have a lot less time to read.

Challenges

I did the West Highland Way with Louisa - well, we tried. She got Achilles tendinitis on the fourth day and we had to quit the trail after 52 miles. It still wasn't a bad trip, but it was really disappointing not to finish.

My long essay was the biggest challenge of the month and probably one of the most challenging things I've ever done. I had to essentially write my dissertation by October 5th. Most people submit theirs in the spring of their final year. I had done all the research in China, but hadn't done any writing. I finished it over the course of a month or so after the West Highland Way. I wrote all 8,500+ words in about two weeks.

I also worked a lot of hours in September. When I handed in my pay slip, I had 43.5 hours in the month of September. That was all between the 10th and the end of the month! It was such a busy few weeks.

Highlights

Starting university again as a big highlight. I missed my friends. I missed Edinburgh. I also missed being in an academically rigorous environment. I am really enjoying my courses so far, so I'm pretty excited to finish university with my hardest, but hopefully best, year yet.

What's Next?

Lisa, my flatmate from China who I lived with on my year abroad is coming to Edinburgh! Hopefully she will get my out of the library a bit.

At the end of the month, I'm flying to Iceland to attend the Polyglot Conference! I'm excited and nervous. I've been wanting to go for four years now, so I can't believe I'm finally going this month!