Edinburgh Exchanges

Everyone on campus is currently shocked, the reason being a sexual assault on a Haverford student by an unknown assailant that happened a couple of days ago. For most students, the way that they learned about the assault was from unofficial sources – the Go!Boards (forums on the student section of the Haverford website) or the Anonymous Confession Boards (essentially a gossip forum online) – rather than the college itself. Whilst Haverford has an early-warning alert system, put in place after the Virginia Tech shootings, that informs students by text message of what’s happening, this wasn’t used in this case, which is causing some consternation.

Haverford is a very safe school. I have never felt unsafe in Edinburgh either, but whilst I’m quite happy walking around alone at night here, I would probably be more circumspect about it back home. Although Haverford’s campus is entirely open to the public, there have been very few criminal incidents, although within the past month there has also been a fight in which a knife was pulled, a robbery and a flasher as well as the most recent assault. However, aside from these incidents I can’t think of anything of a similar nature that has happened during my time here.

The recent sexual assault has caused the student body to question how Haverford should continue. Not only has there been widespread consternation at the slow response by the administration in informing everyone about what happened (it took three and a half hours), but students are asking whether the campus should be closed to the public, whether there should be CCTV cameras placed in the most isolated areas (a large portion of the campus is woodland), whether Safety & Security patrols should be increased, and whether there should be more emergency phones on campus. Meetings between students, staff and the administration are to be held later this week to discuss all of these issues. The main problem seems to be that many students want to continue not feeling afraid as they walk around campus, but also that they don’t want intrusions such as CCTV to become part of the norm.

To someone from a university slap-bang in the city, all of these debates can seem fairly naïve, but students here worry about how any new security measures will fit in with the Honour Code, and the lack of cynicism can seem genuinely refreshing. There is no presumption that bad things will happen to students whilst at uni, and common problems in Edinburgh such as drinks being spiked or bikes being stolen just don’t happen here. Haverford is very far removed from the “real world”, despite being only a fifteen-minute car journey from the city line (and therefore from the ghetto, as once you cross into Philadelphia proper, the ghetto begins), and when the real world intrudes it can feel like the haverbubble has been burst.

I think this blog might be quite a short one, but as I'm trying to write every week I'm sure I will find something to talk about!

I got back from my Easter break at home yesterday. It was great to see everybody and as always to be back in Edinburgh, I really love it there! We spent a large part of my time at home looking for a flat for next academic year. This is proving rather difficult since three out of the four of us are abroad this year and there really is only so much that you can do online. We've got one lead at the moment but there really seems to be fewer flats around this year than previous years and of course it is getting quite late to be looking. In first year we had a flat sorted and signed for by March. It's all a bit of a stress.

I've also been trying to sort out a summer job. I got the teaching job at the summer school in Edinburgh but as it is only for July, I really need to try and sort something else out for June and August. To be honest, it is becoming increasingly appealing to stay in Vienna until July - to soak up the sun and all things Viennese. However, I know that I would be here, spending lots of money and not actually earning any, so I'll stick to the plan to come back at the beginning of June. I never thought I'd be so keen to stay any longer here than I need to. I've fallen completely in love with Vienna lately (better late than never!) but it does mean that these last couple of months are marked by a certain sadness - I wish I could have felt like this before. I know that a lot of is to do with the weather, I've always been like this - I love sunshine and some of my best memories of Edinburgh definitely involve sunshine, the Meadows and good friends. I'll just have to make some of those memories while I'm here!

Speaking of which, on Friday Hannah and Sophie come to visit and I'm so excited! I can't wait to show them Vienna, it's so pretty in the Spring with blossom on the trees and every cafe and bar having a terrace outside. On Saturday, we're heading to Budapest for the weekend which is a city I've wanted to visit ever since I got here and discovered how close it is (about 3 hours on the train). We've bought bikinis to take advantage of 'the city of spas' and hopefully the weather will be nice to us! It'll also be nice to be somewhere a little cheaper than Vienna, not that it's that expensive when it comes to drinks and general cost of living, but being out of the euro zone will probably help my bank account - even if it is just for a couple of days!

School is still going really well. I feel really confident in my role there as a language assistant and since finding out that I'll be taking full classes during the summer and attempting to get children through their English exams at the end of the month I have been paying a lot more attention to the different teaching methods the teachers here use - especially the revision ones which are becoming increasingly important as exams are approaching, including 'the big M' (Matura) for the 8th formers. I find it really interesting seeing the different techniques and teaching styles each of them use. It reminds me of my own teachers at school and it's funny to see that a lot of the teachers are perfect matches for some of my own favourite language teachers from my school days. It makes me wonder what kind of teacher I'll be. Though I have had a taste of that, I think you only really come into your own when you have responsibility for your own classes and a real chance to build up a relationship with the pupils, which is more difficult for me as I'm with 26 different classes.

I'm really looking forward to my final months here in Vienna. We have lots of traveling planned for while Sophie and Hannah are here and it's a chance for me to rediscover Vienna and do many of the tourist things I haven't yet got round to, especially the ones which require decent weather like the wine-growing villages around Vienna, Vienna woods and Baden (a spa town which is really close by). I can't wait!