My St. Petersburg College Experience : Scotland

Too many distractions!

steve — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 21:11:00 GMT

So far I have found it waaaay too difficult to study here in Edinburgh, Scotland. There are far too many distractions. I knew it would be tough, but I had no idead it would be THIS tough.

Each night I come home to our rented apartment with the best of intentions, but so far I've had very little success. Most of the time I either want to go down to the pubs and knock back a pint, or I want to get something to eat and after I've eaten I'm just way too tired to actually study. That stinks. Yeah, I know it's supposed to be a vacation and I'm supposed to enjoy myself and not worry about school while I'm away, but I brought my work with me for a reason, and that's to make sure I don't fall behind.

As you can see, it isn't working. My cunning plan has been dismantled by the city and my enjoyment of it.

So far we've spent time touring the city and have visited Holyrood Palace and Edinburgh Castle. The palace, Scottish home to the royal family when they are in the country, wasn't very impressive, to be honest. The most impressive part was the ruins of the former abbey that is adjacent to the palace. But far more impressive is Edinburgh Castle. A formidable battlement built high atop a hill in the middle the Scottish capitol city, touring that site gave you a very real sense of history. No question, I will tell you, that the sense of what had taken place on those very stones beneath my feet was palpable.

Oh, and to keep this post on the proper educational plane, I will mention that during our tours we were introduced to a number of Scotland's institution of higher learning, including a great look at Edinburgh University.

Tomorrow we're off to visit the royal yacht. I hope it stays afloat...

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Well, I'm off to Scotland

steve — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 17:34:00 GMT

The family and I are just about to load up the car for the trip to the airport. We're heading off for a week's vacation in Scotland. We're flying into Glasgow and taking the train to Edinburgh where we've rented an apartment for the stay. It's only about a third of a mile from Edinburgh Castle!

In Scotland there are plenty of student discounts, and you can bet I'm going to take advantage of them.

On the topic of distance learning, I'll be bringing my ethics textbook with me to study my assignments when we have some down time, between sightseeing and eating and drinking and more eating and walking around and even more eating. Score another big, big point for distance learning: I'll even be able to submit my St. Petersburg College homework assignments via the web from my rented apartment overseas.

Oh, and Edinburgh is home to Heriot-Watt University, an internationally well-respected university that offers distance learning degree programs. If you're interested in reading about the programs they offer, here's a link to their site:

http://www.hw.ac.uk/

Well, it's time to get going! The next blog entry you read from me will be posted from Scotland!

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Ooooh! I'm so HAPPY...

steve — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 03:26:00 GMT

Last time I told you that I had missed the deadline to submit my first two assignments in my ethics class at St. Petersburg College due to nothing other than my own stupidity. That was the plain, honest, and unvarnished truth. The fact of the matter is, if I had been stuck with a couple of zeroes to kick off this particular class in this particular semester it was something I quite honestly deserved. I was angry last time, very angry, and angry only at myself.

My anger has transformed into relief. I received an e-mail from my ethics instructor that was addressed to the entire class, and in that message he told us that due to some very unusual circumstances this time around, among them the fact that many of us were told by the school and the school's online system that no textbook was required for the course, he plans to reopen the first two assignments two all students later in the semester.

This decision goes against his policy of not accepting late work under any circumstances. I felt it was a pretty generous thing for him to do, and I really do appreciate the opportunity to submit the assignments at a later date. Certainly I had only myself to fault for the stupid mistake, and going forward you can be sure that I won't forget that the deadline in this particular course is 6:00 PM.

On another note, as I said before, my family and I will be taking a trip to Scotland in a few days. We'll be spending a week in Edinburgh, and the apartment we have rented has high speed internet and is equipped with a PC, so I'll be taking my school work with me and I'll continue to blog while I'm overseas. Hey, that will REALLY make this a distance learning exercise...a very long distance.

Ain't the internet great?

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Discounts, baby, discounts!

steve — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 01:52:00 GMT

My family and I will be taking a week long trip to Scotland. None of us have ever taken a pleasure trip out of the country, unless you count the Bahamas. This coming month, we'll be taking advantage of some very cheap fares that will allow each of us to fly from central Florida to Glasgow for about $500 round trip, per person. From Glasgow, we'll take the train to Edinburgh, where I have rented an apartment for the week.

I say all of that to say this: in Scotland, I have found that there are quite a LOT of student discounts. Just about every place that charges admission, and just about every tour and attraction, provide some sort of student discount. Hey, even at 44 years old I'm not going to hesitate to whip out my St. Petersburg College student ID card in order to take advantage of those savings.

I also learned that the prices for "children" are also considerably better in Scotland (usually half the cost of adult prices) and so far, just about every place I've checked consider ages 15 and under "children". Here in the US I think we're lucky if a 12-year-old is still considered a child. Based on that both of my two teenagers will be able to take advantage of child pricing during our trip.

Now, overall, prices in Edinburgh seem to be a fair amount higher than prices in the United States for things like food and so forth, and some of that has to do with exchange rates. For example, a sub sandwich for lunch here may cost you five dollars, and in Edinburgh it will cost you five pounds. But thanks to the nearly $1.90 to each pound exchange rate as I type this, that $5 sub will cost me nearly $10.

So I really appreciate the student and child discounts.

I also found, through my school's web site, that my local cable provider offers a very significant discounts to SPC students on high speed internet. I'm already paying for that service, so I signed up for the discount online (it took about 30 seconds) and now I'm getting $10 a month off my $40 internet service.

If you're taking classes online, check and see if you qualify for any student discounts. It may be an easy way to save a buck or two...

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