Campaign Part 2: Tobermory Unleashed

This is the follow-up to my first blog post about an away trip to Mull.

On our first full day in Tobermory, we visited the local distillery (where I tried no samples) and the homemade chocolate store (where I tried many samples).

 And we set off on a tour of the island with a wildlife specialist called Ewan, who we highly recommend to any future Mull-goers.

The lambs were out in full force. I sang them the "Little Lambs so white and fair" Primary song...

They were not impressed. Neither were my three, tolerant traveling companions...

 ...but the most exciting wildlife we saw (speaking as an Arizona girl) was the Highland cow, a long-haired, long-haired, ginger-colored specimen of bovinity that could give our black-and-whites a run for their money!

Indeed, at times the scenery was positively Tolkien-esque!

On our third day, we took the ferry back to Oban, a pleasant fishing village (currently rather touristy), where we ate -- more fish and chips!

 

 Among other good things...

And the whole thing was positively magical :)

Studying/traveling in the UK: FAQs answered!

I'm getting an increasingly high number of messages these days along the lines of "I'm thinking about doing a masters/PhD/vacation in the UK, and my third-cousin-once-removed said you're there, so..."

I'm going to start collecting all my responses to these FAQs. I will add to this as I go!

• I am in Divinity School, but I am studying Arab Christianity (almost no one studies Christianity in the Middle East, especially the contemporary context, hence my unplanned move to a Scottish Divinity School.) 
• I am not here to study, criticize, or even comment on LDS theology, although of course my faith influences all I do. As I explore the intricacies of other faiths, I have gone deeper into my own than I ever imagined I would. I hope (and believe) that God can use this experience to build His kingdom, but for right now, I am two weeks into being Relief Society president in my family ward in Edinburgh, and I feel that is all the power and influence I could ever want times 10!
• I have been very happy here at the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh. Most faculty come from a mainline Protestant Christian perspective, although they have some Catholic faculty as well, with one Muslim professor and one Jewish lecturer. The very first LDS PhD student started last year, and I will be the second starting next year, but neither of us do LDS theology, and I'm honestly not sure this is the place to go for that.
• I'm told that Edinburgh offers the most funding of any Divinity school in the UK, which (if true) is a plus. I've been able to get funding, but many of my classmates have not. It depends on both your grades (they value consistent strength over occasional brilliance in that regard) and whether they appreciate your proposed project. 

• St. Andrews, Birmingham, and Durham are also well-known for their theology. Oxford is an obvious one, although funding is iffy, but they do more apologetics, I hear. I knew someone who went to Cambridge and found the atmosphere challenging. 
• UK PhDs generally do not receive funding at anywhere near the same rates that we are accustomed to in the US. Scholarships are just not the same here, although the tuition itself is lower (but rising steadily, perhaps due to the influx of American students...)
• One difficulty of a UK PhD, is that they require a developed proposal upon entry, rather than gliding into it as we do in the US. This means PhDs take 3-4 years rather than 5-6, but it does make candidates less competitive on the US job market, I am told (we shall see!). 
• I have been studying about half-and-half in the Divinity School and the Islamic and Middle East Studies programs at the University of Edinburgh. The IMES program seems to be Arabic and Islam-focused, but leans toward classics and international politics. 
• The weather and the food in the UK can be unfortunate, as you have probably heard, and the differences in banks and in the educational system itself have presented unexpected, fairly complex challenges, but the university does have a lot of American students, so they are accustomed to working with us, which helps. 
• I really enjoy journalism, but it simply wasn't the long-term plan I wanted it to be right now. I don't yet know what my next step will be, but I don't think I will be able to write about topics such as Christian-Muslim relations, refugees, and Arab Christianity and stay out of public engagement forever. And that is exciting to me.