A Year at St Andrews...

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It's over... :'(

5/30/2009

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Saying goodbye is never easy. Trying to spend last minute time with friends and packing whilst trying to say goodbye to others is even harder. Because, one, you can’t do everything at the same time, two, it's exhausting. People were leaving all though the week. Sometimes I wish that everyone just left at the same time, so I wouldn't have to worry about saying goodbye fifty times. I also wish that people could have waited until everyone's exams were over before they left.

The last couple of days in St Andrews were crowned with beautiful weather; temperature in the 20s (Celcius) and sunshine all around. I was feeling quite hot and had to keep reminding myself I was still in Scotland.

I had loads of packing to do. Trying to fit your life into two suitcases is never easy. I had to give away a lot of my stuff. I knew I should have been more careful about buying stuff. Thing is, I actually used most of what I bought; I just wish there was space for me to bring it all back.

I took my last walk into town on Thursday. It was hot. I stopped by the St Andrews


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Exams... *sigh*

5/25/2009

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Exams are on. My last one is on Tuesday (ie tomorrow). Well, what am I doing here then, you ask? Why, procrastinating, of course!

Yes, I know, I really should get back to studying. But, I only have a few days left in St Andrews, isn't it cruel that I have to spend them studying? Especially when the weather is so nice outside and the sun doesn’t set till 10!

Ahh… I really wish I was staying here for the summer. Not that I don’t want to be back in California, because I do. I miss my friends and family terribly and I can hardly wait to see you all again. See… then I think about all these things, and I wonder what it's going to be like when I get back, and I get distracted. It's so much nicer to wander in dreamland than to study.

Gah! anything's better than studying. I've already taken a million facebook quizzes today, and there must be approximately two left that I haven't taken. I've signed up for my classes for fall quarter in Davis and it just hit me that I'll have to get used to Davis all over again. If you're wondering if I've changed at all, I don't think I have. But I'll leave it for you all to judge when I get back.  *sigh*

Alright, alright, I'll get back to studying. Mitochondria play a role in controlling apoptosis…

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What's a trip without an itinerary? An Adventure!

5/20/2009

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While I'm on revision break, I thought I'd let you know how my wee trip went.
I travelled with three of my friends around part of Scotland and we went to Stonehaven, Aberdeen and Inverness. We had sorted ourselves an itinerary, and had originally planned to visit approximately 6-7 castles. Well, Jane left the itinerary in her room and our adventures began from there!

We got to Stonehaven station properly, and then from there we had to walk to Dunnottar Castle which was on the coast about two miles away from the town. When we were almost at the end of our hike, it started to rain. Rain while walking on a windy cliff is not a good thing and its even worse when the rain is cold and feels like it's slapping you. That only lasted a few minutes, thankfully.  The castle ruins were nice and it was sunny while we walked around in there. We spent three hours there instead of our scheduled two (and that's not including the time it took to walk there).  We had lunch at a cute little restaurant by the beach and then set off for Aberdeen.
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Us with Dunnottar Castle in the background


The weather decided that it really didn't like us and it started to rain again. The train to Aberdeen was fairly quick and uneventful.

 When we got to Aberdeen, we decided to scrap visiting the two other castles that were scheduled for the day and just find our hostel before we had dinner. But since we had no itinerary we had to first figure out the address of the hostel. I ended up misreading address and maps and we got well acquainted with Aberdeen's Union Street. We ended up having dinner at a McDonald's on Union Street.  At half nine ish we found our hostel finally. It was too late do much so we just settled into bed. We made ourselves a cooked breakfast the next morning and set off for Inverness by bus.  We were intending to stop off on the way and see Huntly Castle, but we were too tired. After the 4 hour bus journey, we finally made it to Inverness.

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Inverness and the River Ness
Inverness, I have to say, is the most beautiful city I've seen so far. Maybe it's just because the weather was so good while we were there, but the scenery was breathtaking! One day, when I have enough money, I think I want to get myself a summer home in Inverness. We had our "lunch" on the castle grounds at half five. We sat on a bench overlooking the Rive Ness and shared our meal with a seagull. We named him "Alfredo". The Inverness castle is currently used as a courthouse and for some other government purposes, so we didn't get to see the inside. But the outside is lovely.

We spent the rest of the evening walking along the banks of the River and enjoyed the beauty of nature all around us. We ended the evening in a pub in town where there was live folk music playing.

The next day we set off for Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle on a tour bus and cruise. We got a 30 min cruise down the Loch and got off at Urquhart Castle. We walked around those ruins a while, saw a short film about its history at the visitor centre and went back to Inverness by the bus. It was beautiful. Loch Ness was so amazing, the scenery, the air, the freshness, all lovely. It made me really happy.
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Urquhart Castle with Loch Ness behind it

We had lunch at an all you can eat Chinese buffet restaurant where we stuffed ourselves and spent the rest of the afternoon in the Inverness castle museum and later sunning ourselves on the grassy slopes below the Castle itself.

Then it was time to pack up and take the train back. The trip was a great experience and I'm glad I did it. It was teh first time I'd ever been in hostels and the also the Scottish countryside is so pretty, especially in the spring. Plus the fact that the sun doesn’t set till ten is a huge bonus. So much more time to explore!
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May Dip, Valedictory Dinner and More...

5/8/2009

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I last left you all with a promise to tell you about my experience of the May Dip. It was great. I stayed up most of the night with a friend. I managed to sleep for two hours from 11 to 1 and then we woke up walked to this fast food place called KFB (Yes, it's KFB, not KFC). We got ourselves some food and kept awake by watching TV shows on my computer. At around 4am we got ready to go outside. We reached Castle Sands a little before 5 when dawn was breaking. There was quite a crowd and the most difficult part was actually getting onto the beach through the steps cut out form the cliff, they were crowded, sandy and slippery. We finally got down to the beach an dthen made a mad dash for the frigid North Sea! Ran in, dipped under and came out. We loved it so much that we did it again! It was cold, but not as cold as I was expecting and it was very very salty. I'd forgotten how salty the sea can be. Another friend joined us later. She didn't dip, but she brought us towels which we wrapped ourselves in before we walked back to hall. It was fun. My legs felt like pins and needles for a while when we were in the water, but it was good fun.
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The next day, we had another high table. This one was and uber formal one, kind of similar to Christmas dinner and it was for the valedictorians (graduating seniors). At the end of the dinner, those who had served on the hall committee, this year or in the past, gave speeches. It was nice to hear how those who had been in St Andrews for all four years feel about their time here. I'd say it's sad to see them leave, but then I remember that I'm leaving too. There were funny speeches, crazy speeches, speeches that made people cry and ones that made everyone laugh and reminisce about life in Uni Hall. It was a great evening.

I went to this pub called the  Westport with a few friends for drinks afterwards. We went there in our  dresses/ suits and our red gowns. It was good.


The day after that, we had brunch. For brunch they serve us all the breakfast foods that we have over the entire three week rotation at a single meal, and they also throw in some extras like individually wrapped muffins. That afternoon, there was a garden party. The Garden Party is traditionally thrown by the newly elected senior students for the following year. We had had elections in hall a few weeks prior to this to elect next year's senior students, treasurer, secretary and computer rep. This new committee hosts the party.

I was tired from the antics of the previous night so I slept though most of it. When I went out, I saw people walking around in the deceiving sunshine, it was actually quite cold and windy. There was an inflatable pool filled with water  in the middle of the grassy quad and people were getting thrown into it intermittently. There were others walking around with water guns. There was a raffle going on and a BBQ as well. It was fun, but I had to leave soon because I was too cold in the dress I was wearing to stay for much longer. To end the day, there was a firework show for us at 10 pm. It was  fantastic.

A lot more has been happening. Classes are now over and it's revision week. Last night my academic dad took us out for drinks, which was nice. He's a fourth year as well, so I asked him about his experiences in hall and in St Andrews and what he feels about leaving. 

There so much more that I could talk about, but it's getting late now. And tomorrow, I'm off on a trip visiting castles in the north of Scotland for the next three days. Should be fun!

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    Clarissa D

    I'm a college student from UC Davis. I spent my junior year   studying abroad at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. These are my adventures.




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