Scottish bucket list

Maybe for some ominous reason I am currently sitting at a half-empty airport in Prestwick, a city on the opposite Scottish coast from Edinburgh, where my flight from Czech Republic to Edinburgh was rerouted due to unexpected snow. Despite adverse conditions, at least I have the opportunity of seeing a part of Scotland I wouldn’t have otherwise and being confronted with a version of Scottish accent I’ve never heard before, I came to realisation that I am a bit detached from Edinburgh’s locals. In the few upcoming months, I have left here, I would like to manage to do a couple of very local things I have been avoiding so far, such as climbing up the Arthur’s Seat, the highest hill in Edinburgh and see the sunrise. Get to eat haggis, a Scottish national dish made of sheep’s pluck I have yet to gather my courage to stomach, get to dance at a traditional ceilidh and going surfing with a couple of my friends who are brave enough to do so in cold Scottish waters.

At the same time, I must admit that completing every item on my list may prove to be rather tricky, since my dissertation deadline is slowly, yet steadily encroaching. Having the opportunity of working with my supervisor on my own little research into strategic behaviour of humans and getting to apply new machine learning and game theory methods to my project has probably been the most rewarding academic venture I set on as part of my degree.  It both enabled me to learn a lot, especially in programming, but it also strengthened my resolve to pursue research as part of my postgraduate studies.