Spring

Every morning I wake up to the sun shining through my window. With a little smirk on my face, I shower and get ready for the day ahead. The sunlight seems to be increasing by hour each day. When I arrived in January, the sun would literally be gone by four O’clock in the afternoon. Yesterday, the sun set at 6:15. With the sun come the beautiful sounds of spring. Every morning I have about a fifteen minute walk to campus through beautiful Seaton Park. The arrival of spring is most obvious here on my walks to campus. The birds are chirping, flowers are either blooming or preparing to, and the trees now have a hint of green. It really is an amazing walk to campus each morning.

I bring up the idea of spring because it came up in a conversation with my friend Callum and I. Callum is a local Aberdonian or a “towney as we would call him at Wabash. Yesterday, as Callum and I walked to the sports village, we began talking about Scotland in general. My first question was about the weather. He informed me that the weather will be significantly warmer after we are gone for three weeks during spring break. I received this news with the utmost joy and a smile broke across my face. The weather in Aberdeen has not been terrible, but I am in the need of a warm up. Walking twenty minutes to school in the ice cold rain accompanied by the harsh gust makes you feel like Adam Vinatari with ice in your veins.

Callum then told me another intriguing fact about Scotland. If you are hurt playing sports in Scotland, you first go to the physical therapist who then recommends you to the specialist. I’m sure my eye lit up at this point. This was the true reason I came to Scotland. I wanted to see how National Healthcare works. There have been many interesting conversations with people about this subject already, but this by far sparked my interest the most because it is the complete opposite in the states. Last summer, I had to go to a general physician, who then sent me to the orthopedic, who then sent me to the physical therapist, and even then, the physical therapist could only work on one knee before acquiring another prescription. Here in Scotland, it is the complete opposite. Honestly, I don’t really know which system makes more sense to me. I am a believer that everyone should have access to healthcare, but my experiences over here have shown me nationalized healthcare is not the answer. Everyone likes the fact that they can go to do the doctor and that it’s free. Even I, a student here for a semester can go and receive my entire healthcare for free, but no one seems to understand where the money comes from. Every Scottish person I have asked have simply said it is free. I can deduce that it is not free. Sales tax, or VAT as they call it, is 20 percent. Income taxes are higher and there are taxes on everything. I am really amazed at how different healthcare is here. Many of the primary care providers here only have masters. Two of my friends have also had to go to the doctor, but could not get an appointment for three weeks.

I forgot to mention that Tuesday day was National Pancake day in the United Kingdom. Lexi and I found out that British Pancakes are actually skinny pancakes or crepes. For me, these just would not do. I took it upon myself to make American Pancakes, as they are called here, for my flatmates. The picture below shows me in action. They liked them, but I got the impression that they liked their version better. Amusing how two different societies have different kind of pancakes!