Meetings and CPGs

Honestly there are days that I do question what am I doing, but at the same time there are also a few perks to interning at the Scottish Parliament, and one of my favorite perks is going to meetings hosted by Members of Scottish Parliament and other companies.

In the Parliament there are committee meetings and Cross Party Group Meetings. What exactly is the difference? This is taken off the Parliament Website:

In Committee Meetings, "The Committee scrutinises the policies and performance of the Scottish Government and its agencies by considering relevant legislation; conducting inquiries; scrutinising spending proposals; and carrying out any other work that it considers appropriate." Essentially you're going in to a committee and listening to MSPS criticise the work of the Scottish government. :) 

Ongoing Committee meeting. Image taken by Scottish Parliament

"Cross-Party Groups (CPGS) provide an opportunity for Members of all parties, outside organisations and members of the public to meet and discuss a shared interest in a particular cause or subject." 

I've personally never gone to a committee meeting, so I can't say what that's like; however I have been to a few Cross-Party Group meetings for things like Oil and Taiwan. One of the things that is interesting about cross party groups is the fact that sometimes they're able to bring people together, and in my case before I actually went to this particular Cross Party Group I never met a Taiwanese person in Edinburgh. Anyways, I digress... In the Taiwan Cross Party Group meeting, MSP Colin Keir oversaw the meeting and there was a few speakers speaking about how Scotland could benefit from Taiwan (exporting whisky etc). I felt as though it may have disappointed some of the fellow Taiwanese because they were expecting to learn a little bit more about how Taiwan could be promoted in Scotland, and kept on trying to redirect the conversation to Taiwan's exports rather than Taiwan's imports. As a Taiwanese American, I can understand the want to express your culture and want for your homeland to benefit  especially when you're in a culture so different from your own...so in this case I did feel that while a majority of the conversation should be focused on Scotland's exports in Taiwan....just maybe there could have been more discussion on how Taiwan can attract Scottish visitors via (tourism, food, etc). Otherwise beyond that, I enjoyed my first Cross Party Group meeting and met the Taiwanese Embassy Ambassador, Peter and his lovely secretary Selina. 

Other then Committee Meetings and Cross Party Group Meetings, staff members (aka interns, parliamentary assistants etc) are able to actually attend group meetings hosted by companies such as Bank of Scotland. One of my favorite meetings though has got to be the "Lesser known Scotch Whisky" Whisky Tasting invitation by Scotch Whisky Cross Party Group and Scotch Whisky Association because I wanted to learn more about whisky + on a college student note.... it was probably the only time I was able to try Scottish whisky in Scotland (Note: I am way too miserly to spend money on alcohol.) What did I learn about whisky? 

Scottish whisky can ONLY be called whisky if it has been in a Scottish OAK casket for MORE than 3 years.  There are 2 types of whiskys: Single Malt and Blended Malt Whisky. Single Malt means it comes from a single distillery and 100% malted barley.  By the way for those who don't know Malt - (grains are mixed with water, germinated (process when seed becomes a plant)  then dried). 

Scottish Whisky comes in a tulip shaped glass. :)  Also you NEVER EVER spell  whisky with a E.  

 I did try a whisky mojito and maybe 3 other whiskies but I do not remember the names. All I remember was the fact that some of the whisky (single malt whisky) had an amberish color.....smelled very earthy, smokey, and had grassy overtones...then you would smell something sweet (I know people said honey but I thought overripened bananas).....then the potent scent of alcohol like everclear would punch you... Anyways the taste of it is .......interesting to say the least.... I'm not sure if I would use the word robust to describe it, but it's like vodka in the sense that it starts out mellow then you suddenly get smacked with overwhelming bitterness. Needless to say I'm not a huge fan of whisky, but it is still a nice experience.

Tunnock Caramel Wafers are heavenly <3!

Other then that I've also attended a trivia pub quiz between Parliamentary staff with my UCEAP friends James and Derek, as well as a Netherlander intern named Daniel. We got last place (6th) but you know that last place is better than 4th place when the 4th place group complains and wishes they got last place because the prizes for last place are better. Note: 6th place gift (Tunnock's caramel waffers) > 4th place gift (umbrellas.) 

I'll write more later, but yeah I thought this may give you a wee taste to the perks of being a Scotland Parliament intern :). Anyways until next time.

Cheers!

Tina 

Random Journal and thoughts about Child Poverty

Ok so I can't remember whatever happened to my journal 6 because I tend to be incredibly disorganised so here's a more recent journal in March about the debates and Child Poverty. 

With regards to this week, I honestly didn’t work on a single political briefing or anything Parliamentary related; however, I did start working on an Aberdeen Donside constituency report describing the suburbs of Aberdeen Donside from population to council resources. Perhaps the most interesting part of that research was reading the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) assessment of Aberdeen Donside. 

Aberdeen Donside is the region where my Member of Scottish Parliament, Mark McDonald works at, and well this is how it's divided.
Ward 1- Dyce/ Bucksburn/ Danestone
Ward 2- Bridge of Don                          
Ward 3 Kingswells and Sheddocksley
   Ward 4 Northfield                                      
Ward 5 Hilton/ Stockethill (part)            

In 2012, SIMD found that although the SIMD ranks measuring deprivation e.g- (employment, income, health, education, child poverty, crime, access to services, and housing ) were lower in Aberdeen Donside overall compared to other constituencies. However, the lower south-eastern suburbs of Aberdeen e.g. Northfield and parts of Hilton/ Stockethill contained 15% of Scotland’s most deprived data zones. Furthermore, what’s interesting about this is the fact that the SIMD 2009 analysis, the datazones in Aberdeen Donside containing the top 15% most deprived zones did not change. This suggests that there has been no change in regeneration policy etc to lower the depravity of this area, or that the policies of both Scottish Parliament and Scottish government were not executed to help decrease the depravity region. To me this point is relative in the sense that on Thursday there was a debate on child poverty in the Chamber; however, while both Labour Party and Scottish National Party agreed that it was a priority to reduce child poverty, the argument was mainly about Scotland Independence and how the policies of the other party historically have exacerbated the rates of child poverty. 

Child Poverty is when the child is living a life that fails to meet the minimum acceptable standard of living.  

For example, Labour Party’s Jackie Baillie stated, “the answer is independence, whatever the question. When Labour was creating the welfare state, the answer for the SNP was independence;….national wage…..SNP was independence…Scottish government has failed….to use the powers it already has.” In another case, SNP MSP Christine Grahame stated, “I voted for Labour……rich got richer and the poor got poorer….Blair….rich got richer- and the poor got poorer.” Personally, I do agree with Jackie Baillie’s statement that the SNP’s answer for everything amounts to independence, and that this is not politically efficient enough to reduce child poverty. At the same time though, it is important to note that child poverty itself is an incredibly vague issue, and if Scotland were to truly eliminate poverty, it would need to have some reserved powers e.g. ability to tax its citizens, and freely use that fund to support lower income families and children through multiple programmes. Right now with a SNP majority in both Scottish Parliament, and Scottish Government, I believe more support and policies can be done to tackle different aspects of child poverty.

According to Child Poverty Action Group, “One of the problems with child poverty is the fact that by the age of 16, children receiving free school meals achieve 1.7 grades lower at GCSE than their wealthier piers.” Education itself is a devolved issue in Scotland, and I believe that what Scotland could do is introduce a policy to make online educational sources available to all so that children would still be able to take the opportunity to learn. The other thing that can reduce child poverty or at least decrease the problems of child poverty is increasing community support financially and programmes. In Aberdeen Donside, the Woodside Community Centre has multiple programmess for children from afterschool classes to childrens clubs etc. These programmes have helped children from impoverished areas gain access to better childhoods. While these programmes do not effectively lower child poverty rates, or reduce rates of deprivation, they do mitigate some of the consequences of child poverty. Overall, I do believe that child poverty is an incredibly vague issue, and to truly tackle child poverty, a combination of reserved powers, support for community services, availability to academic information etc is needed to eliminate child poverty and its effects.

 

Beyond the worklife - Dance

So far I've only posted things about work life, so I thought this post would be dedicated to the things I've done in Scotland with my free time.  When you're a student who wants to have a social life and party, but refuses to spend the money needed to get alcohol and enter clubs what on earth do you do?

Well....here's what I do.

Dancing 
Back in America I never seriously considered taking dance classes; however, now I've become obsessed with going to classes and social dancing at least two times a week. I am learning how to dance Cuban Salsa, Bachatta, Ballroom Tango, Cross body Salsa, and Meringue etc. What? No Ceilidh Dancing? (Sadly ceilidh dancing is too expensive per dance.)

one of my friends Marcos is an AMAZING dancer. :) Seriously you can see him dance with another one of my amazing friends Isabella dance on Strictly Come Dancing.

How it began?
Since the 21st of January I started going to Cuban Salsa classes with Salsa4water because for students one lesson from 9PM-10:30PM is £3 pounds. Like most beginners, when I first started I was scared out of my mind. I was afraid that people were going to judge me because I didn't know how to salsa dance, and after one class I learned that no one really judges you because everyone starts out as a beginner. I know everyone starts out as a beginner, but you don't know to what degree the statement is true until you have experienced it. Like my first time I struggled with understanding the footwork and travelling because Cuban Salsa is all about the travelling and footwork until maybe 4 weeks later.

From that, Monday salsa classes became the one thing I looked forward to every week until I started talking with the wonderful instructors Helen and Gordon who told me the fastest way to learn how to salsa dance is to go social dancing. They told me to go to places like Boteco Do Brasil and Harry's Bar, and dance with other people so I did....This eventually lead me to start learning Bachata and Cross body Salsa as well as Meringue. Also it started to get me to go social dancing on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays etc. Generally classes range anywhere from £3-£5 per class (roughly 6-10 dollars), and sometimes there are deals, like my Bachata class is £7 pounds ($14)  for 2 lessons + free social dancing. As for Tango, one of my UCEAP friends told me there was free classes on Sundays at Counting House and I enjoyed it, so I started doing that as well.

Bachata familia :) mi gusta!!!

Favorite Style?
I think this has changed a lot, but it's got to be the style I started out with: Cuban salsa. Cuban Salsa is like playing a game...as a girl you're trying not to be tricked by the guys, and both of you are chasing after each other. Cuban salsa is fast, more footwork intensive, involves a ton of walking around etc.

Tango is about the passion, and I do like it but if the lead is horrible I don't tend to enjoy myself because as a follower I need to feel my lead to know what to expect. You're essentially gliding across the floor and it looks graceful.

Bachata is actually probably one of the easiest styles to learn because its quite literally 2 sidesteps in any directions then 2 sidesteps back. The problem is if you can't shake your hips like me and have problems doing body rolls bachata doesn't look as sexy.... but it is still fun.

Crossbody salsa - perhaps my least favorite because it's much slower than cuban salsa. Crossbody is more of you're in a straight line with slower latin music and a lot of turns. The problem is if you don't know the move you may run into the issue of you have no idea what to do.

Meringue - I never actually took a proper class on that but it's stepping to every beat and a ton of hip. Way too much hip and bounce, but it is fun to do once in a while.

Other things I've done but I don't enjoy: Kizomba (too slow) and chacha (i get confused with beats)

So...how much dancing do I actually do?
Generally every week I try to go to at least 2 classes if not 4-5 classes on Mondays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays + social dances on Thursdays Saturdays and sometimes Sundays. Additionally, if there are social dances with Edinburgh University Salsa Society I also do that too....so yes quite a lot. Nowadays, if someone asks me to go to a dance, or if I just want to hang out with some spectacular dancers in Edinburgh I will go. Overall I'm not going to lie..... dancing has become more than a stress relief and an addiction....it's an OBSESSION, and it's something I know I'm going to miss when I go back to Los Angeles. I know YOLO would be appropriate, but I think I gotta say this is me... LLTIF (Living life to its fullest.)

Boteco bachatta night with professionals teaching. So many fun and friendly dancers! :[
I'm going to miss these people! 

Until next time, Cheers!

Tina

Week 4 - 5 The struggles of an intern.

Not exactly a fun week if I may say so myself.

Week 4: Monday-Wednesday 

For anyone wondering what in the world I am researching.

Researching, writing, and finishing a briefing on campaigning for disability toilets. I know many of you reading are probably wondering why disability toilets? Well few things. My MSP is actually on the Cross Party Group for Carers, and for many carers, they take care of mentally disabled people and old people who may or may not need disability toilets. Additionally a constituent (a person he represents) asked him to research into the issue. 

Why is this important: Scotland's very small compared to U.S. and at least 230,000 people need  to use a disability toilet, but the problem is  there isn't a lot of access to disability toilets. If you travel around Scotland you'll notice that a lot of places don't have lifts/ really old buildings with stairs + cramped compared to the US; thus you don't have a lot of disability toilets. In Scotland there are a total of 91 disability toilets (probably 3 in the Scottish Parliament alone.) Apparently in Aberdeen there are only 6 toilets but only 3 have changing places. Not exactly disability friendly is it? 

Thursday-Friday 

Today I worked on my other briefing (preterm pre-rupture of membranes). 

Preterm Pre-rupture of Membranes is when the amnionic sac is ruptured/ fluids are drained out of the mother, and can lead to the death of a baby, infection for the mother, and other problems.

Note: This is a bad idea to research this topic RIGHT after you finished eating breakfast or lunch. Research made me feel quite queasy and has convinced me that I do not ever want to deal with the health industry.

Anyways, I digress. I did more research on preterm pre-rupture of membranes, and I honestly was surprised that I couldn't find a lot of statistics or information about preterm pre-rupture of membranes, so in the end I produced an incredibly short briefing on that. Afterwards, I was called to work on surgery posters for my MSP. Then I designed multiple surgery posters for my MSP in a program called pixlr and started looking into the issue of helicopter safety. 

Week 5 Monday-Tuesday

An HH-65 C Dolphin emergency helicopter.

Essentially I spent the Monday researching on helicopter safety for a briefing on Richard Baker's motion "Unite's Back Home Safe Campaign." I didn't actually know what a motion was because I never dealt with motions until this week. Anyways, I actually felt confused as to what to provide in a briefing because I was told to look at the campaign whereas SPICE resources told me to look at information regarding helicopter regulations and manual like documents. I ended up providing a briefing on the Unite Campaign; however, I was a bit disappointed. On the day of the debate, the Presiding officer's staff called to tell me to tell my MSP that he should at all costs avoid speaking about the Unite Campaign because it would affect decision's members in the debate. So much for my briefing >_>;

Wednesday - Friday

Anyways after that  I did a lot more surgery posters for an Aberdeen City Council Member. Needless to say I did not have a pleasant experience working on this poster. 

One of the things to note about Scottish work experiences and people: Some Scottish people will not give you feedback and are very indirect. They will change everything but will tell you your work is very good. It's not exactly the best feeling knowing that, and I honestly wished that council member was more blunt about what she wanted so I did not spend 5 hours working on a surgery poster. Finally, after that I sent many invitation responses, and as usual organised Mark's diary. I honestly hope that next week will be better than this week.

Lessons to be learned: Parliamentary terminology!

Briefing: Briefing is a summary about the issue, and can contain things like what laws have been passed, what consultation has been said, what is a specific city doing about this issue, what is Scottish government doing about this issue etc. 

Surgery means a time when constituents can meet with their MSPS without any appointment, and I was confused till I asked a parliamentary assistant about that.

Motion is a very short summary a MSP submits welcoming, congratulating, or recognising someone of an event or issue in their constituency. Motions start out with: That the Parliament (insert verb in present tense.) talks about the event in one sentence (Insert semi colon to separate sentences)  adds another sentence about  the details of the sentence starting with verb (insert semi colon)...etc. Normally to end a motion you put a comma followed by and but a motion with a comma followed by and finally, but sometimes they may not end like that. 

E.g. Statoil Investment Boost for Aberdeen

That the Parliament WELCOMES the announcement by Statoil that it has chosen to locate its new operations centre and head office for development and production activities at the Prime Four Business Park in Kingswells; UNDERSTANDS that 700 jobs, both offshore and onshore, will be established because of this, AND BELIEVES that such long-term investment, particularly in the Mariner field, which it is estimated will have 30 years of reserves when it begins production in 2017, provides additional evidence that there is confidence in the future of the energy industry both in Aberdeen and in Scotland as a whole.

Anyways, until next time. Cheers

-Tina 

Week 3?

Again a bit late but here is a summary of my 3rd week:

Monday
                                 

On Monday, I was told to provide a briefing on new psychoactive substances; however, the email sent to me was incredibly vague with half of the content speaking about road closures. I then proceeded to research on road closures in Aberdeen City Council, only to discover 3 hours later that I was supposed to research new psychoactive substances. New psychoactive substances (NPS) are essentially imitation drugs that give individuals the effect of drugs such as cannabis or marijuana, but manage to bypass the legal system. The problem with NPS’s is that it’s easily accessible, cheap, and once you ban one form of NPS, another new NPS comes up again; thus, the problem of stopping all NPS’s seems futile. I personally believe that NPS’s with similar chemical structures to banned drugs should automatically be banned. Although I know that this would not stop all new psychoactive substances from emerging, I do believe that it would at least delay the prevalence of obtaining NPS.

Tuesday

On the day same-sex marriage passed a rainbow appeared over the Scottish Parliament and Edinburgh
How coincidentally fitting :).

My Tuesday was spent working on the NPS briefing, then proceeding to go watch the stage three same-sex marriage bill and related amendments. Words can’t describe how mind-blowingly amazing it was, but something that I noticed is that when it comes to actual freedom and separation of church and state, Scotland tends to do a better job than America.

When amendments favouring any religious preference were proposed, they were immediately shut down by a majority of the Scottish Parliament. I think the reason Scotland was able to effectively pass the bill is due to 3 things: party ideology, representation, and efficient voting system. With regards to party ideology, Scotland is dominated by the Scottish National Party which is centre left; however, even if it wasn’t the Labour Party, another centre left party would probably dominate. In comparison, America’s only party that is somewhat left centre is the Democratic Party. I hesitate to call it truly centre left because economically the Democratic Party’s policies often favour tax cuts for businesses, pro-business economics, etc. This I think is perhaps due to the lack of representation. In Scotland, although not everyone is truly represented there is more representation in ideology than in America. If one for example wants to be the president, one would have to go through the first past the vote system. The problem with this system is the fact that in America only 2 parties dominate. Even if citizens didn’t like either party, they know their votes would be useless if they tried to vote for another party, so they cast their votes to the candidate that they hate less. In contrast, the Scottish system is based on multiple voting systems that make mixed proportional voting possible; thus, if one person liked the ideology of the Labour party, their vote may actually represent them. Furthermore, the whole bill took 4 hours to pass, and each vote/ amendment was finished in 30 seconds – 1 minute. The fact that the MSPS have less time to vote means that the votes are passed through quickly and efficiently. In Scotland, it took 9 months for the same sex marriage bill to pass. With regards to America, bills creating discrimination such as Proposition 8 were passed by the state; however, it took years before the Supreme Court was able to strike it down and legalize same-sex marriage. I'm now convinced that America could learn a thing or two from Scotland.

Wednesday


My Wednesday was spent mainly finishing the briefing, and inputting in broadband survey responses. I don’t think I enjoy inputting data because I have a hard time reading some constituents' handwriting; however, I was pretty satisfied once I finished inputting 200+ responses. It was nonetheless incredibly productive, but exhausting.

Thursday


My Thursday morning was spent going to the FMQs. The Labour Party leader, Johann Lamont kept asking Alex Salmond to name one oil business CEO whom actually wants independence, and Alex Salmond kept avoiding the question, focusing on the people. I personally think Alex Salmond needs to do more research and give more specific answers, and the Labour Party needs to represent people rather than business corporates. Alex makes the point that a parliament and government is essentially run by its people; thus should be representative of its people. Johann makes a point that businesses need to be considered; however, I do believe the whole picture should be looked at, like asking what the strategy is to keep oil business CEOS from investing somewhere else. Then the rest of my Thursday was spent trying to read up on Changing Places toilets for disabled people and preterm premature rupture of membranes.

Friday

Today I spent my time reading more information on disability toilets and premature rupture of membranes. Not exactly as productive or fun as I wished it to be, but everyday is a new day I suppose?

Visas and other money information?

As of 12/20/2013 I finally got my Tier 5 Visa!!! :) and yes for those whom are wondering what the difference between a Tier 5 and Tier 4 visa is etc. Tier 5 = for voluntary/government workers/ temporary workers BUT the problem is you CAN'T get paid even minimum wage if you have a Tier 5 visa. To qualify for a Tier 5 Visa you need to have a maintenance of 1,500 pounds. What? Ok so you essentially need 3000 US dollars in a bank statement that needs to either be mailed to your company you're interning at so that they can verify it (like BUNAC) or the UK Visa Border Agency.

 Minimum wage for those in Edinburgh or outside of London is around 6.31 pounds; however, it maybe slightly lower if you are doing an apprenticeship. You can generally work up from 10-20 hours a week part time if you're in school and on vacation Full-time. Rules do apply and I don't know them on the top of my head but yeah there's that.

Scottish notes differ from English notes not only in design but also by who issued it.
E.g. This note is issued by Bank of Scotland, and yes Scottish notes are VERY pretty. 

Advice on money.
Withdraw money from the ATM. If you have a BOA debit card (Bank of America Account) its partner is Barclays Bank, which charges bank selling exchange rate + 3% of whatever you withdraw. Generally rates are like £1=$1.68? Additionally, if you can get a BOA Travel credit card or a Chase Sapphire Credit Card those are equally good too. (you're not charged for other foreign transaction fees). You're just charged for the exchange rate of whatever item you pay for.

Romanes & Paterson on Princes Street tends to have one of the best rates though it's only cheaper by 1 cent. If you're cheap though it maybe worth checking out?

Other means of currency:
Currency exchange in the UK is a bitch. If you can EXCHANGE it in the US first (in January I believe rates were like £1 = $1.71. In UK it was £1=1.78. As of 24/4/14 the current rate is £1=1.86 to exchange it in the UK. I found that the post offices tend to have the best rates; however, you have to exchange more than $950 to get the preferred rate otherwise the rate is about the same as exchanging it in places such as Marks and Spencers,  Currency Cheque etc. If you're in Edinburgh New Town Princes Street.....there's a shop next to Marks and Spencers that has the best rate but it's only better by 1-2 cents or if you go to Debenhaumers to exchange currency. They give you a 10% off discount coupon so you can use it next time you're there and you decide to exchange currency :).

When you open a Barclay's debit account  you get this card.
Random observation: most credit cards around the world except for US have microchips in them.

Bank Accounts: One of the biggest headaches ever. To open a bank account you essentially need a passport, drivers license or another ID, and an address (Proof of Address includes things like your name on the electricity/ gas bills etc) OR the easiest way to get your name on a bill: Council tax. Unfortunately, I do not qualify as a student of Uni. of Edinburgh so sadly I do have to pay council tax :[ poo, but yes that is proof of residence.  I know BUNAC is suppose to send you a letter thing to open a bank account with Royal Bank of Scotland but they really don't do much unless you quite literally call them. No they do not check their emails so do not actually bother emailing them.*

Basically it's whatever you're charged no extra transaction fees. It's just the conversion :) 

If you have a BOA account I would still open a bank account with Barclays because European cards have a tiny microchip and sometimes credit cards don't always work without them/ it takes longer + it makes paying for things like rent easier if other people have the same bank account. + when you deposit money into a Barclays debit account you can use other atms without fees to withdraw cash in pounds. (dont get your money transferred into your Barclays account though because the transaction fees are high...just withdraw from your debit card with a Barclays ATM.)

If there are any banking questions etc. Feel free to leave a comment and I'll get back as soon as I can?

Cheers,

Tina

Journal #2 :)

Here is a few more journals I have done.

Tina Lin

Monday:
         My second week was surprisingly underwhelming compared to my first week; nonetheless, it was still a great week. My Monday was spent continuing the parking badge disability briefing. I ended up scrapping my first draft, and rewriting the brief, organising it in the form of bill intention, main arguments, current bill problems, main points, background i.e. who is implementing the bill, timeline of related events, bill section, consultation, and news related to Aberdeen Donside. Additionally I was given 20 invitations, and told to check my MSP’s schedule.

Even months later sometimes I still get lost within the Parliament. 

Tuesday:

          Tuesday morning was spent revising and condensing the briefing draft, and trying not to panic or get lost in Parliament. My MSP had a few guests; however, he was not in his office, and I did not book a meeting room for him because I was told the meeting was at a different time. Fortunately, as I went to get his visitors, I ran into my MSP whom luckily was able to book a room for his guests. Afterwards, I finished my first briefing, and had Mark look over the information. I was incredibly excited when I was told that my first briefing was good, but I still wished for some criticism so I can further improve my writing. The latter afternoon was spent on researching about the Commonwealth Games for my second briefing. My MSP didn’t tell me what he wanted me to write about since there was no motion or bill, so I just researched on the assumption that he wanted to talk about Aberdeen and its legacy. What I learned about the Commonwealth Games is that it’s the Olympics of former territories of the British Empire. According to The Times, the Commonwealth Games was a “Pan-Britannic Pan-Angelican Contest and Festival every four years as a means of increasing good will and good understanding of the British Empire.”
Wednesday: 

         I spent my Wednesday reading and writing about Aberdeen’s funds to encourage sport participation in youngsters and celebrate the Commonwealth Games.

This is Clyde, the 2014 Commonwealth Games Mascot. Yes he is a Thistle, the national flower of Scotland.

Thursday: 

          My Thursday, I was a bit sad I missed the FMQs and the currency debate; however, I was able to attend the Chamber Duty Commonwealth Games Debate. Honestly, that debate did not really feel like a debate, it felt more like MSPS speaking about different issues with regards to the Commonwealth Games. I honestly thought some of the things said by some of the MSPS such as Labour Party Hanzala Malik were nonsensical. Hanzala worried that Glasgow was getting the short end of funding, despite the fact that the Commonwealth Games are held in Glasgow. While Glasgow has seen its fair share of loss of jobs in the public sector, I remember reading in the SPICE research for my briefing that the Commonwealth Games have provided many job opportunities for Glasgow constituents. My MSP and other MSPS argued that while the games are held in Glasgow, overall the Commonwealth Games is an opportunity to promote Scotland as a whole. At some point during the debate, one of the MSPS speculated that Glasgow may encounter more tourism than Edinburgh due to the Commonwealth Games, and other festivals. With regards to my briefing, Mark ended used 6 points from my briefing that emphasized development of Aberdeen sports facilities and how that benefits Scotland. My new goal now is to hopefully predict what will be said so that Mark uses most of my briefing. As for my Friday it was spent checking my MSP’s diary. Overall, I think this week was a very calm week. I probably will start doing a research project of my own soon.

Few updates I suppose?

So I haven't touched this blog in a while, but I do have a few journals written out so yes there will be a few updates.

Journal 1

The first week has been a bit overwhelming, and it feels like I’ve opened up a Pandora’s box of mixed emotions.

Tuesday:
On the first day, my MSP's current intern, Kaitlyn showed me around the Scottish Parliament. Essentially, I was given an overwhelming amount of information on “how to be an office manager” for my MSP. My tasks included learning how to answer phone calls, use voicemail, organize meeting rooms, email invitations, schedule events in my MSP’s diary, and get supplies etc. For me my first day of work was a bit overwhelming in the sense that I was given so much information, and I know adjusting to the environment will take me some time. On Wednesday morning, I did struggle a bit with using the phone and checking voice messages, but after asking around other interns, I was able to check voice messages. I attended another SPICE introduction, and I actually had the time to sit down and ask SPICE researchers where and how to find information. I was also able to meet my MSP. He asked me what I expected from the internship and to be honest I didn’t know how to respond, so I gave him a vague response. I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do with topics, but all I know is that I want to do a research portfolio focusing on Scottish Independence and local governance.

Wednesday:
Most of my Wednesday afternoon was spent learning how to write proper email responses, and nitpicking grammar. I was also given a Disabled Persons’ Parking Badges briefing to work on, so I spent the rest of my Wednesday reading. On Thursday morning I attended a FMQ (First Minister’s Questions) and I must say I enjoyed myself quite a bit. The Labour Party spent most of their time questioning the SNP party about how Alex Salmond spent 54,000 pounds of tax payer money in one week, while the SNP argued that the 54,000 pounds accounted for a business trip promoting golf for 14 people. I agree and disagree with both the Labour and SNP Party because 54,000 pounds is quite a lot of money to spend in one week on any business trip; however, some business trips in general may cost thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars. If the benefits of promotions outweigh the costs financially, I do believe that spending 54,000 pounds is justifiable. Later I ended up reading the Guardian’s perspective on the FMQ. One thing I noticed about the SNP party and other parties is that media such as BBC, Guardian, and Telegraph tends to report from the Labour party’s perspective rather than the SNP perspective so unless one actually watches the whole FMQ, one maybe left with a biased perspective.

Thursday:
As for the rest of my Thursday, I spent it reading about disabled persons’ parking badges. The bill basically calls for further repercussions for those whom misuse the parking badge, and allows local authority to remove the badge at any given moment. I know every other UCEAP intern went to Cowdenbeath to go campaign for the by-election, and while I am regretting that I didn't go I do want to finish my briefing first. Today was also Kaitlyn's last day, so I'm a bit sad that I won't be able to work with a wonderful mentor.

Friday:
My Friday was spent on struggling how to write a briefing, and to be honest I’m still stumped on how to write a proper briefing. Overall, I’m still trying to figure out what expectations are expected from me and I do feel a little bit lost especially when it comes to writing because I actually don’t know what to include, exclude, etc. Needless to say, I am excited to seeing what happens next week and look forward to learning more about the Scottish Parliament.