Winter? Not in Aberdeen…

The semester passed by so quickly that I barely noticed that I am now 4 weeks into another one. Everything is going the way it should; after a month of waiting, all of us in our “international group” received our exam results and were happy to find that we all can continue to the next semester with peace of mind.

We spent our leisure time getting to know the area around us. When the others found out that I liked hitchhiking, the first adventure was just around the corner. We decided to make a one-day trip to Inverness; the locals must have been shocked to see 6 students hitchhiking at once, spread along half a kilometer of road in January, but we all eventually got there and back without a hitch. A friend from Bohemia even came to visit me during that time, so as a true guide, I showed her Aberdeen, as well as the nearby Stonehaven with its beautiful castle ruins, and St. Andrews.

As the first semester passed, I expected winter to come. Sadly (or should I say happily?), it never did. Much to everybody’s surprise, Aberdeen was unusually warm this year. So a friend of mine was happy to say that she came to a seaside town where it was some 35 °C warmer than in our home country. (That was when it was -30 °C in the Czech Republic).

Aside from travel, I plunged deeper into volunteering. So far, I have spent some 100 hours volunteering, and I received a certificate signed by the local parliament for my work (the MV Award). But I added a few extra hours at BookEnds, and finding that some 90% of the local students have virtually no cooking abilities, I also added a few hours a week at the local Cookery Workshop where we try to teach students some cooking basics as well as how to cook economically and healthily. It’s all part of the “Climate Change Project”, where we try to support local farmers and promote some “green thinking” among students.

In the coming week, I should learn whether I was admitted to a study abroad program in Turkey or in Hong Kong, so I am waiting and hoping that one of these possibilities will come to fruition and that I will get to know a new culture, language and traditions next year, thus becoming more intimate with my field of study. I believe that both sociology and international relations are areas where contact with the world around you matters just as much as the content of your books.

I am immensely grateful to everybody at The Kellner Family Foundation for their help, because it is thanks to them that I can study here and focus on what I enjoy.