Hydro-Hegemony Workshop

I realise I haven’t been posted nearly as often as I used to on these blogs…consider it a sign that I’m having way too much fun.

However, here’s a chance to see what I’ve been doing on the professional stage:
Visit the website of the Sixth International Workshop on Hydro-Hegemony here.

My course director Mark Zeitoun is the major organiser for this event, and I got willingly suckered into helping with it in addition to taking frantic notes for personal use.

The idea of my dissertation topic came out of this meeting…I’m sure you’ll hear an obnoxious amount about this in time; in a nutshell, I’ll be exploring how international law does or doesn’t have anything to say regarding virtual water (water traded between states that’s embedded in food, manufactured goods, etc. through production processes). It’s going to be grand fun and pretty new academic thought…I know you’re all on the edge of your seats already.

Anywho, I got to have some fun writing up a 15,000-word proceedings document for the HH6 event. That, along with several other documents prepared by my and other delightful people, are available online (well, the Proceedings document may not be up till Friday or so) for your learning pleasure.

: )

Dinner Party!

Audrey and I decided to have some fun with "simple" cooking on Saturday and invited a lot of folks over for a pasta bar.
Audrey made a homemade tomato sauce (read with British pronunciation, please! ;) ) and really good homemade meatballs.
I sauteed and spiced a number of various vegetables in different ways: carrots in brown sugar, sweet peppers in rosemary, spinach in lemon and garlic, broccoli in chilli pepper, mushrooms in garlic.
We had red pesto, green pesto, dried sweet peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, feta cheese, mozzarella, and a hard parmesan-like cheese as well.
Kurt made a big salad; Kay helped with garlic bread and Cynthia with punch; Merey made a desert best described as "Reese's baklava."

It was delightful.

: )

Clarification on my Reasoning

I know there has been some confusion...I listed all of these lovely things about Aberdeen and then totally dismissed it.
The reason being the relative weight of factors.
The list you see in the post a few days prior is a list of randomly observed characteristics.  Some were lovely; others were not.  (Most were.)
However...they were primarily things I noticed about the cities as a tourist rather than about the universities and programmes as an actual student.
With the identity of an academic at the forefront, the University of Edinburgh seems to be winning hands-down.  The major reason being the flexibility of its programme...I can get an LLM in International Law by taking four courses: environmental law, climate change law, human rights law, and humanitarian law.  These are the four areas of law I'm most interested in.  When I talked about doing/being interested in both at the Universities of Glasgow and Aberdeen, I got more skeptical looks, encouragement to choose one or the other, and programme structures that do not allow for nearly the same level of flexibility/Becca's favourite things.
Thus Edinburgh.
Hope that clears that up.
In my mind, if nowhere else.
Because obviously the decision wasn't easy, and at the end of the day, I know I'd be happily thrilled at any of the three.  So there's some randomness involved here, let's be honest.
By all means, make comments and suggestions if you think I should be considering other things.
: )

A Glimpse of Scotland

Just a glimpse at some of the glorious sights...

And the winner is...

Alrighty, folks.  I have now visited the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Glasgow to look at international, environmental, and human rights programmes.  The points currently stand thus:

Friendliest bus drivers: Aberdeen
Most UEA alumni on faculty: Edinburgh
Cutest city centre: Glasgow
Prettiest countryside: Aberdeen
Most enticing LLM programme name: Glasgow
Strongest environmental studies as a uni: Aberdeen
Most flexible LLM programme: Edinburgh
Most swag given: Edinburgh
Underdog town: Aberdeen
Best community culture: Glasgow
Easiest transport to London, etc.: Edinburgh
Friendliest students: Aberdeen
Greatest number of ready-made/preexisting friends: Edinburgh
Thickest accents: Aberdeen
Rudest to poor lil' Norwich: Glasgow
Oldest university: Aberdeen
Class size: Glasgow and Aberdeen
"Course shopping": Glasgow and Edinburgh
Best library: Aberdeen
Strongest academic reputation: Edinburgh
International students: All, but Aberdeen has greatest number from Africa, and there are a lot (an obnoxious number?) of Americans at Edinburgh

I'm not sure which of the aboves are positives.  Haha.
So...yes.
As things stand, it's looking: Edinburgh or Glasgow.
I really did come into this weekend with a rather strong anti-Edinburgh bias.  Because everyone goes to Edinburgh.  Everyone loves Edinburgh.  Everyone else was voting for Edinburgh.
Turns out that might be because it's the best.
Well, fine then.
Sorry, Aberdeen.  I tried.  Really hard.  But I definitely meshed best with the academics at Edinburgh and Glasgow.
I'll be poring over minute detail regarding the academic programmes at Glasgow and Edinburgh to determine which gets first place.  I think, based on memory, that Glasgow's LLM title and programme are slightly more exciting for me.  But Edinburgh has a warmer feel and I really loved the people I met.  So...we shall see.  I'm leaning Edinburgh right now, but I spent much more time here than at Glasgow.  So trying to wait until I'm off the high and back in Norwich, calmly reviewing course catalogues, to make the final decision.
:)

Snow!!

My family unfortunately only got rain while they were here...but it has at last done a good snow in Norwich, and it is absolutely beautiful!
I've started listening to Christmas music again. This is potentially going to be a problem...though we still haven't done the full present exchange among my flatmates, so perhaps we will "resurrect" Christmas (just to really confuse the Christian significance of all these days).

This isn't the best picture; snow is really hard to capture well. But life is definitely white, and we got a good couple inches in several places!

Hydro-Hegemony 6

I'm sitting in a workshop on issues of transboundary water justice, held at UEA's London Campus.  Yesterday was a long ten hours of intensity during which I took 25 pages of single-spaced typed notes.  This morning, either I'm more energized, the topics are more in line with me, or there's something in the air, because I'm incredibly intellectually excited right now.  May have had someone's presentation highlight a possibility for my dissertation, which is making me want to hide in a library typing frantic ideas for hours.  I've also found a wonderful PhD student at King's College London - Oxford is losing the battle!