Note to self: take more photos.

That kegger I mentioned at the end of my second blog post? Yeah that was a class night. Kegs and more importantly keg stands need to be introduced to parties back home. It felt like I was at a genuine American party, what with everyone dressed in ‘stereotypical’ American attire (still unsure what that is exactly) and stars-and-stripes decorations everywhere in order to sarcastically celebrate 4th of July. I tried imagining a similar affair back home for an English holiday. I pictured everyone dressed in either fancy suits with top hats or cricket attire, sipping on tea and nibbling away at crumpets, with conversation on topics such as the current health of the monarchy and jokes about those barbaric Scottish folk across the border. Of course, an image of that actually happening back home lasts about 10 seconds before someone cracks open a can of Tennants and downs it from their top hat.

But enough about hypothetical parties. Work is progressing nicely, I now have a couple of things I'm currently working on simultaneously. In terms of my main project for the month, the map of the social entrepreneurial ecosystem is almost complete. I've also started interviewing people at work and looking beyond just the Pond Deshpande Centre. Beyond finding out more about the place I’m working at and the potential lessons I could bring back to the UK I am attempting to find out how government policy can relate to social entrepreneurship, as one possible career avenue I have considered is the civil service. Furthermore I want to learn more about how social impact is quantifiably measured, which could potentially influence how I go about my 4th year dissertation.

Last week I attended an introductory event to Social Innovation Labs run jointly by the PDC, which is a completely new concept to me but one that I am going to be working more closely on come August. Essentially it’s a process where a diverse group is brought together from government, the private sector, non-profits and other interested parties to attempt to solve complex problems by testing out ideas within the community. One of the many theories behind Labs argues that in order to solve a complex problem (such as poverty for example) you need to be able to approach it from a number of different perspectives. What's more is that we can only begin to understand a complex problem once we begin to solve it, therefore prototyping is a key feature of Solutions Labs.

As for last weekend, I went camping and on another tubing run which again was unreal. I’m glad it fell on the same weekend as T in the Park, the complete lack of my phone for the weekend meant I avoided a lot of the social media frenzy that would’ve made me jealous. The tubing run lasted nearly 6 hours, but even by the end I felt I could've floated on some more.

I’ll end with one gripe I have about living here, and it is with regards to crisps. More specifically, crisp packets and the lack of multipack bags in supermarkets. My eating habits cannot cope with the massive bags of Lays I am forced to buy instead of a 16 multipack bag of Walkers. Each time I have some I end up craving more and there’s no psychological barrier of having to open a completely new bag, therefore I simply continue to demolish them. ‘Have more self-control you greedy Scot’ you might be inclined to argue. I’m sorry but this is one cultural transition I just cannot seem to overcome.

Now that is a lot of text without any pictures to accompany it. Note to self: take more photos.

#chrisburnett #SSIMexchange