Little Bitty
The song 'Little Bitty', by Alan Jackson, always reminds me of my mom. Not only because she was little bitty, but also because her life took her from a little home town to a big old city. This blog has very little bitty do with my mom, but I wanted to mention that before I talk about my little bitty city experience...
The population of Edinburgh is just under 500,000. This is not small by any means; the population of the city is larger than that of Oakland, California, for example.
People describe Edinburgh as a small city. Not because of the actual population, but because of how often you run into people you know, or kind of know, in places you don't expect to. This might be because the city is far more of a pedestrian city than any city of comparable size in the US and public transportation is also used far more frequently than most US cities. Even knowing this, I'm still thrown when I see someone in a place I don't expect to see them.
There are cons to this smallness, I'm sure - running into someone in a place where you probably don't want to be seen is probably not the best situation to be in. But, it is kind of cool to feel like you 'know' someone, because you see them in random places around town, and not just because they stand out in some way (like being the most pierced woman in the world, who lives in our fine city).
When I started working at the National eScience Centre, I met a guy; let's call him Iain (because that's his name), who left the Centre a few days after I started. I then saw Iain EVERYWHERE. I would see him crossing a street as the bus I was on waited at an intersection. I would see him driving by in a van as I was walking along a street. I told him how much I had seen him, the next time I was able to actually talk to him (several months after the last time I was close enough to talk to him). He said 'why didn't you say hi?'. I really couldn't in every scenario in which I saw him over the previous few months.
After I started my current job, a couple of months in, who should walk into our building but Iain. He came into our building a couple of times after that, and I ended up talking to him in those instances more than I had ever talked to him when we were actually working in the same place.
Yesterday, I was attempting to help a student who had run into a wall of bureaucracy in trying to solve several problems. I tried to help her as best I could, but all I could really do in the end, was offer her our office phone to use. She was grateful for that, said she might take me up on the offer, and left the office - she seemed happy that someone had listened to her, but without being able to be of much help, I can see how she would feel like she hadn't gotten very good support by coming to the student support office. She was the last student that came into the office before I closed up for the day.
I went home, started wheeling in our trash bin, when who do I see standing at the front door of the building right next to ours. Iain? No, I actually haven't seen him in a while. I saw the student. She was on the phone, probably telling someone of the woes she'd had during the day. I said 'you live here?!?', she nodded yes, we said our hi's and bye's, and I went home for the day.
It was odd, and I was again struck by the little bittyness of Edinburgh.
To contradict Alan Jackson, Edinburgh is not a little hometown or a big old city; it's more of a little bitty city. There's something I really like about that. So we might as well share, might as well smile. Life goes on for a little bitty while.
The population of Edinburgh is just under 500,000. This is not small by any means; the population of the city is larger than that of Oakland, California, for example.
People describe Edinburgh as a small city. Not because of the actual population, but because of how often you run into people you know, or kind of know, in places you don't expect to. This might be because the city is far more of a pedestrian city than any city of comparable size in the US and public transportation is also used far more frequently than most US cities. Even knowing this, I'm still thrown when I see someone in a place I don't expect to see them.
There are cons to this smallness, I'm sure - running into someone in a place where you probably don't want to be seen is probably not the best situation to be in. But, it is kind of cool to feel like you 'know' someone, because you see them in random places around town, and not just because they stand out in some way (like being the most pierced woman in the world, who lives in our fine city).
When I started working at the National eScience Centre, I met a guy; let's call him Iain (because that's his name), who left the Centre a few days after I started. I then saw Iain EVERYWHERE. I would see him crossing a street as the bus I was on waited at an intersection. I would see him driving by in a van as I was walking along a street. I told him how much I had seen him, the next time I was able to actually talk to him (several months after the last time I was close enough to talk to him). He said 'why didn't you say hi?'. I really couldn't in every scenario in which I saw him over the previous few months.
After I started my current job, a couple of months in, who should walk into our building but Iain. He came into our building a couple of times after that, and I ended up talking to him in those instances more than I had ever talked to him when we were actually working in the same place.
Yesterday, I was attempting to help a student who had run into a wall of bureaucracy in trying to solve several problems. I tried to help her as best I could, but all I could really do in the end, was offer her our office phone to use. She was grateful for that, said she might take me up on the offer, and left the office - she seemed happy that someone had listened to her, but without being able to be of much help, I can see how she would feel like she hadn't gotten very good support by coming to the student support office. She was the last student that came into the office before I closed up for the day.
I went home, started wheeling in our trash bin, when who do I see standing at the front door of the building right next to ours. Iain? No, I actually haven't seen him in a while. I saw the student. She was on the phone, probably telling someone of the woes she'd had during the day. I said 'you live here?!?', she nodded yes, we said our hi's and bye's, and I went home for the day.
It was odd, and I was again struck by the little bittyness of Edinburgh.
To contradict Alan Jackson, Edinburgh is not a little hometown or a big old city; it's more of a little bitty city. There's something I really like about that. So we might as well share, might as well smile. Life goes on for a little bitty while.
