October: Becoming an Edinburgh Local

October Blog

Hi friends and family. I hope all is well back at home! I know I have only been away a little less than two months now, but it feels like I have lived in Edinburgh for a lot longer than that. Every day is truly an adventure and I am in the constant state of learning more about myself and the environment and people around me. I started my MPH Program here at the University of Edinburgh and it is going well. I have six courses this semester and 5 next semester. This degree is mainly research based from a public health standpoint. If anyone, you know is interested in pursuing a MPH degree I would definitely recommend it. Public Health is designed to look at healthcare from a wider lens, rather than just the clinical approach, yet it seeks to find ways to benefit the community by looking at multiple facets of life.

Here is a link with more info about my program: https://www.ed.ac.uk/molecular-genetic-population/mph/on-campus/programme

Aside from the academic portion of my courses, my course mates and I have formed a tight knit community by already having monthly potluck dinners, forming a WhatsApp and FB group, going to to seminar events, and hanging outside of class. We have about 60 people in the MPH program representing various countries but almost 40% of us are from the US and Canada. We have interesting class discussions on health perspectives from both the Eastern and Western sides of the world. In addition, each person comes from a diverse academic and professional background. I was a bit intimidated learning that a few of my course mates have already practiced medicine in the past as a General Physician (GP) back in their home countries, but I have been grateful to hear about their individual experiences and seeing what led them to come back to study public health!

I will try to make the rest of this blog update brief, but I also want to capture my experiences this past month as well as my everyday schedule, so I am going to try to do this in bullet point format. (Also because I have many assignments to catch up on #postgradlife)

Pictures tell a thousand words so feel free to look at the photos I have posted on the Photo Gallery Tab.

Highlight Events:

• I travelled to Birmingham, England to meet with the other Rotary Great Britain and Ireland (RGBI) Scholars for the annual scholar’s seminar. I met some fabulous British Rotarians and some bright students studying at Oxford and various London Universities.

• Attended my first Rotaract Club of Edinburgh meeting: There about 15 members from various universities around Edinburgh, and I was named to be the first American to join the organization here!

• Attended my first Canadian Thanksgiving in the big Kitchen I share with 400 people

• I became a Scottish ceilidh master! Ceilidh is a traditional Scottish dance preformed at weddings, parties, and any festive event.

• I found a church home! It is called The Bridge Family Church (BFC) they are so great and very involved in the community. I actually connected with them before coming to Scotland when I attended the The World Missions Summit earlier this year.

A Normal Week in Scotland for me:

Monday: 2pm- Global Health (my favorite class) 8pm Rotaract meeting (bi-weekly)

In Global Health, we are learning about several aspects such as climate change, globalization, and how efforts of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) affect health on a global level.

My group project this month is on showing evidence of how police violence towards minority groups in the U.S. is a public health issue

Tuesday- 11am- 4pm Statistics and Epidemiology.. Study afterwards

In statistics I am learning about standard deviation, p-values, confidence intervals, and how these factors contribute to research presentations

In Epidemiology, we are learning about the various disease outbreak studies researchers in public health use such as a cohort study, case study, retrospective study, ect.

Wednesday- 11am-4pm Qualitative Research and Research Ethics... 6pm go to my friend's flat (or apartment) for fellowship, dinner, and tea

Qualitative research shows us how to conduct research studies and interviews to get the information you would not get from numerical data.

Research Ethics is a keen class for debates and mind stretching, we have been looking at multiple case studies from clinical trials conducted in the past and seeing what ethical issues have occurred.

Thursday- My dedicated personal study/ reading/ “Kayla get your life together” day. Excitingly I may start volunteering Thurs. evenings to mentor youth in the community or with NHS (National Health Services, the UK healthcare system).

Friday- Early Friday I started volunteering with a Toddler Playgroup designed to give the parents a morning break for tea and biscuits. I usually go study and go for a hike during the day, then usually hang out with the RAs or some of my residents. The main cover picture for this blog shows a potluck I had with a few of my lovely residents; they cooked homemade dishes from each of their countries! I made Cajun pasta from New Orleans of course!

Saturday- I should be studying... However, often this my discover Edinburgh day. I can go hiking; volunteer events visit one of the many free museums, try out news pubs and cafes with friends, have a game night in the common area, or catch up on some sleep (just being honest).

Sunday- Walk 30 min to get to church in Stockbridge (nice/ hip part of town) Attend Church at 10:45am then hang out with the BFC church fam around the nifty Farmers market and charity stores. After 2pm on Sundays, I am usually preparing meals for the week or printing out readings for the week.

Edinburgh Norms I am getting use to

• Facing the fact that I will be walking EVERYwhere for a year ( These Edinburgh hills are beautiful but they take a toll on your legs, and it is a bit expensive to take the bus often)

• Calling my elders, and professors by their First Name and not saying (Mr. ans Ms.) - they get quite offended sometime

• Overusing the word "quite"

• Using a 24 time clock

• Saying mobile instead of cell phone

• Calling oatmeal > porridge and cookies >biscuits ( Everything else is fine, but I truly cant conform to this)

• Spelling certain words with z , u, and , er differently example : ( color is colour, organize is organise, center is centre)

• Carrying an umbrella with me everyday

• Understanding that not everyone is familiar with American slang or pop culture

• Wearing multiple layers of jackets

• Casually seeing men in plaid skirts playing bagpipes (It is a legit thing here) especially since I live in city centre!

• Greeting people by saying Hiya! Instead of Hi or Hello

• Saying “Cheers” in the place of thank you, good-bye, and before eating meals

• Tripping over the beautiful cobble stones that the street is made of

• Being okay with not understanding what conversations are happening around me. EVERYone speaks a different language in this diverse city and it is a beautiful thing. (Some of my residents from Spain are teaching me Spanish!)

• Wrapping my head around how cheap airplane tickets are to travel with in Europe! (I saw a £12.99 flight to London, so like $15!)

• Converting the temperature from Fahrenheit to Celsius and pounds to kilograms

• Saying A-Zed instead of A-Z

• Waiting until after 12pm to call family and friends back at home ( 6 hours ahead here in Edinburgh)

• Saying pounds instead of dollars

• Not having plastic grocery store bags ( the U.K. has a great recycling and sustainability efforts)

• Walking through the city and being in absolute awe that this is the city I live in BLESSINGS!!!

Goals for Next Month:

• Start routine volunteering for an organization directed to Public Health sectors

• Meet more antiquated with the professors in my department

• Visit the National Museum of Edinburgh

• Think of research topics for my dissertation (I am thinking of something like: How do natural disasters effect the mental health of the victims affected) I am open to ideas, please feel free to share!

Ending Side note: I am tremendously thankful to the Rotary organization for sponsoring me to study here. I have met many inspiring Rotary scholars the past few weeks who come from backgrounds similar to my own, and we all have that unique bond in realizing " Wow, how fortunate are we to be chosen to represent our home country and to study here in the U.K. at top universities." At times, personally, it is overwhelming thinking about those thoughts, yet it helps me remember that I have a community back at home that encourages me to succeed, and I hope to make proud. I will be sure to carry out that contagious spirit of "service above self” every day throughout or studies and beyond.

Until Next Month! Cheers :)