Semester in Review
- Natalie Penry
- Jun 19
- 7 min read
Let it be known I really am *trying* to get these out in a timely manner...and this post should serve as an explanation for why I went AWOL during the semester.
Dear Reader, I've been busy! Writing! Reading! Playing Tour Guide! Playing Tourist! Without sounding too longwinded, I'm going to give you a very brief recap of the end of term—in other words, basically everything that happened after Milan and before May. And maybe (just maybe) I'll manage to get back to "real time" by the end of June.
As I said, lots to discuss, so let's get into it :)
Marching Onward
I was quite literally a Masters student in Creative Writing before I discovered the difference between "onward" and "onwards" (also toward/towards, etc.) It's not terribly exciting, but in case you're curious: Americans drop the 's' and according to Merriam-Webster, "no one can come up with a good reason for the rule." Fascinating stuff.
Anyway! March! The Olympics wrapped up, and I jumped into the last few weeks of the semester. Thankfully, the sun also started to stick around past 4:00 pm, and life felt worth living again. It's comical to see all the students flock to the Meadows as soon as the first ray of sunshine breaks through after a long winter. We're so sun-starved here in Edinburgh.
At the beginning of March, I got to dust off my tour guide hat and show my dad around the city. In a lucky coincidence, he happened to be visiting me during International Women's Day. Well, that itself isn't a big coincidence, but I had the amazing opportunity to participate in a reading for Scottish PEN for IWD, and it was very happy accident to have a family member in the audience!
Scottish PEN is an absolutely amazing organization, a center of PEN International dedicated to freedom of expression and literature across borders, and I was so honored to take part in their event. With a handful of other women from my cohort, I got to read a bit of my own work and showcase the work of writer Mikeas Sánchez Gómez, who publishes in her native language Zoque. The event was headlined by Scottish Gazan writer Nada Shawa reading from her own collection of poetry. All writers need community, and it was so special to create an environment of collaboration and support among female writers.
After my dad left Scotland, it was back to business. Except, being a grad student means seeking out your own enrichment activities. You can't possibly hole yourself away in student accommodation and write all the time. You'll simply go crazy. I found lots of fun going to ceilidhs, winning weekly trivia nights, and discovering new favorite local places. Plus, you know, just walking around! Being in the rare, precious sunshine!
And suddenly I blinked, and it was April.
April Showers & All That
The way my masters program is structured is very independent study based. This means that, while I had my last class in the end of March, the term officially ended at the end of April. It was up to me to stay on track and turn in both of my end-of-term assignments. In other words, you have to hold yourself accountable and ignore the allure of summer until both of those massive essays are submitted.
Julianne and I created a financially-devastating café schedule—I cannot emphasize enough how unproductive my room is. I have to get out if I even want to pretend to work.—and spent most of our mornings writing and editing over various iced drinks. Neither of us are big on caffeine, and we do get a lot of confused baristas when ordering the classic iced caramel latte decafs.
One of my more memorable study mornings actually came at the library, though. On Easter Sunday, I set myself up on the postgrad floor at the University's main library with a prime spot in front of the window. It had been sunny when I walked over to the library; however, I looked up from my laptop after a half hour of work to see some alarming clouds. And then, you know, super casually, it started to rain. Then the rain turned to hail, and the hail turned to snow. And an hour later, it was sunny and lovely again. Mother Nature has such an interesting relationship with Edinburgh.
Hard work does pay off, and when we finally did finish our essays and portfolios, it was instant serotonin. Banana splits, sunsets—even the cherry blossoms came out to celebrate the end of term.
My personal celebration came the day after my finals, when my mom came for her inaugural visit to Scotland. While she ended up in the UK for a couple of weeks, our time in Edinburgh was short and sweet, so we packed as much in as possible.
Our first adventure took us north to St. Andrews. Alyce the Golfer was very excited to see the links; Natalie the Girl Who Used to Hide Under a Blanket in the Golf Cart was more interested in the distillery tour.
Shameless plug here: Eden Mill Distillery is such a hidden gem for tourists! They just opened for visits in late 2025, and the operation feels like a tight-knit family. We did their Whiskey Tasting Tour, but they also offer gin tastings and other deluxe tours. I'd highly recommend their Lookout Bar for masterfully mixed cocktails and a gorgeous view.
Of course, the center of St. Andrews itself is equally as beautiful. I'm biased toward the University of Edinburgh, but St. Andrews is the epitome of a charming coastal campus. I'll confess, I'm jealous of how easily accessible the ocean is for them...
After taking the train home, we doubled down on our local alcohol tours by visiting the Edinburgh Gin Distillery. After having done the gin tasting tour here with my dad, I keep pushing all my friends to hangout at their rooftop bar. The vibes are immaculate, as are the cocktails!
I'll refrain from regurgitating my mom's whole visit here, but I'll highlight a few other activities we got up to:
Islander Workshop Experience! We got the chance to make our own purses with the iconic Scottish pattern. Alyce found her inspiration immediately, making a super cute purple piece. I was hit with such decision paralysis, but I love my happy little spring bag :) Shout out to Fiona for dealing with my many, many questions about color pairings.
Edinburgh Castle! They say you're not supposed to go to Edinburgh Castle as a student because you'll fail all your exams if you pass through the gates before graduating...however, I'm a creative writing student...we have essays, not exams, so I think I loopholed my way out of that superstition. I'd gone to the castle a couple of years ago, but this mini trip was such a great exercise in perspective. The castle is such a hulking, dominating part of our skyline, but it's actually easy to forget that you live walking distance from such a symbol of history. In the same way I'd look at magnificent vistas in Menorca and pinch myself, I walked through the castle and kept saying to myself, "Oh my god, I live here." Toto, we're not in Indiana anymore...
Glasgow! Scotland's biggest city is less than an hour away by train, why not do a quick day trip to the west? We stopped at the Gallery of Modern Art and saw the iconic traffic cone horse (it's not a random prank, Massachusetts) before making our way to the stunning Glasgow Cathedral. In a word: Wow. Most churches/cathedrals tend to blur together in my memory, but the Glasgow Cathedral is in a category all its own. Not only is it literally ancient (built from the 1100s on), it's massive. Like, massive. Well, it might be better to say it's unassuming. From the entrance, it looks like a relatively small building, but once you enter it, all of these sections unfold and create a classic piece of Gothic architecture. And despite the fact that I've gone to Rosslyn several times and been in the actual location of The Da Vinci Code, I couldn't help but feel like I'd stumbled into a Dan Brown novel...
And before we knew it, it was time to drop Alyce off at the train station and send her on her way down to London!
My April adventures continued as we merged from Semester 2 to Dissertation Term. For us, dissertation is an independent study term. We're paired with a supervisor in March and meet with them twice before July. Other than that, it's totally up to us to write our way through. For Fiction, our dissertations are 15,000-20,000 word portfolios. These can consist of a collection of short stories, one long short story, an excerpt from a longer piece (like a novel)—the options are endless.
TL;DR we have a lot of work to do and we're in charge of creating our own structure! As we closed out the month, I began writing my diss....but with such a long stretch of writing on the horizon, it was equally important to sprinkle in social events :)
Some favorites included sunset drinks at Gilded (our hellish winters are nicely complemented by late sunsets throughout spring and summer), as well as the Scotland Ice Hockey Cup. Once again, snaps for Elle because she trekked out to Murrayfield with me and sat through a match. The Scotland Cup basically consists of a ton of NHL alumni (including former Chicago Blackhawk Scott Darling!) playing against each other, posed as a "Canada vs. United States" matchup. One of their goals is to help grow the game in the UK, and we got to catch the end of the youth workshop—some of the kiddos were so cute in their marshmallow gear. A personal highlight in my opinion: the bagpipe rendition of O, Canada and The Star Spangled Banner. I was fighting for my life to keep a straight face. Anyway...while the caliber of the match was quite the same as Milan, it was still a fun Sunday activity away from laptops and working. (and just fyi, the USA did not repeat their Olympic Success...)
April wrapped up with an unseasonably warm day and a trip to the beach. Once again, we are so hungry for sunshine in this country, going to the beach when the high was mid 50s seemed like a great idea. And yet! No regrets! Sometimes you just need a polar plunge at the end of April to reset your mindset before you start working on the project that will make or break your masters degree.
And...that is your very brief, chaotic recap of March and April! Lots of fun, lots of writing. Dissertation term has proved to be just as eventful as the end of second semester, so be on the lookout for another post soon! Just as a little sneak peek...more friends come to stay a spell and I get to be the visiting tourist for a change ;)
As always, thanks for reading along!
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