A Year at St Andrews...

This is my Christmas Card to you all. Pictures are from around Wardlaw (i.e. my dorm/hall in St Andrews). Click the link to Download.

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After a seven hour journey on Saturday, including a bus and three trains. I made to London in one piece. I have to say hearing some of the stories of other people being stuck in airports etc. I am glad I only had to make it to London. I am also glad that my home university is only two hours away from home for me, meaning that I would be able to go home on any weekend if I wanted to. I have to say, I had a bit of a glitch, since I ended up locking my debit card by being a ditz and forgetting my pin one too many times in a row. I'll have to sort that out when I get back. 

As for now, I am with my relatives and will be spending Christmas here.  There's a Christmas tree in the window with presents around it. It looks so lovely. Preparations for Christmas dinner and sweets have begun. I have to say that I miss my mum dad and brother a lot. It's hard being without them at Christmas since I never have, but I suppose I'll be alright. I miss my Mummy most of all.
I also happen to miss my friends from St Andrews as well. It wasn't especially hard leaving, because I know I'll see most of them in the New Year. It was hard saying goodbye to the JSAs though. Being in a place for only a semester must have been quite hard for them, leaving now and knowing they won't really be coming back. I am going to miss them.

I am a bit excited to see what Christmas in London is going to be like.

This past weekend in St Andrews was the Christmassy weekend. We had the Christmas Dinner and Cabaret in Hall and there was also the Christmas Ball. A weekend that had much fun and excitement contained within its thin walls. I say thin walls because I had an essay due at 12 noon on Monday that I pulled an all-nighter for on Thursday and ran on caffeine for three days, which is a lot since I rarely ever have coffee now-a-days, it makes me so hyper and I cannot get a restful sleep with it. It did however help me to spurn out words for my paper without falling asleep.

But, back to the Christmassy stuff. The Christmas Dinner was lovely. It was a formal sit down dinner in our usual dining room which was decorated for the purpose. There were three Christmas trees and a nativity scene around the room.  There were tablecloths on the tables and christmassy napkins and a cracker in front of each person's plate. We also had a high table that night. A high table is a tradition where students get invited to sit at the wardens' table for dinner and get served by the wardens. Also when they enter, everyone has to stand up and wait for them to process in and take their seats before sitting down. high table occurs about a couple times each semester. The Christmas Dinner high table was extra special since it was, well, Christmas Dinner. For regular high tables, people get selected randomly, but for the Christmas one, they were specially nominated as people who had done the most for Hall over the semester. One of my academic brothers was on high table.

We had a three course meal. The appetizer was spiced vegetables in a pastry cup, the main dish was chicken and stuffing wrapped in bacon and the dessert was a blueberry sponge cake like thing. It all tasted lovely and we also had bottles of red and white wine on the table. It was nice to see everyone in their formals and gowns as well. A pretty sea of red, very christmassy. 

After the dinner, we had the Cabaret. Each floor/section of hall put on an act, including the wardens who did "A Uni Hall Christmas Carol". It was wonderful to see the talent and creativity on show. Us Wardlaw girls did a dance to the song "Santa Baby". I also learned that the boys in Uni Hall can dance really well and they enjoy doing it!  After the Cabaret, quite a few people went to the Bop. I, against my good sense went as well. Owing to the fact that I had been running purely on caffeine, the remnants of which were slowly running out of my system, I almost fell asleep on the dance floor. 

Saturday was rest-and-regain-my-senses day. We had an amazing brunch that morning, the Christmas Brunch. It consisted of everything we get at breakfast over the course of the three week rotation, all served on one day. Amazing! I only got up for brunch and went back to sleep for most of the rest of that day. 
 Sunday was a nice day, albeit a full one. We had the Wardlaw Christmas party in the afternoon and exchanged gifts secret santa style. There were mince pies to eat and mulled wine to drink and we played charades afterwards.

Then it was time to get ready for the Ball. I joined three other Wardlaw girls for this process and got my hair done by another one. We took prom style pictures just before we left as well. An actual Ball, and my! was it amazing. I wore my emerald green ball gown to it. It took place on a farm about a five minute drive away from St Andrews, and they had buses taking us back and forth as well. The place is called Kinkell farm and the dance took place in this huge barn which was spectacularly decorated. there was mistletoe at every doorway holly around the pillars and upside down Christmas trees hanging from the ceiling. We got free gingerbread and a glass of champagne when we arrived. We spent the rest of the night dancing to the songs of the different bands that played. Lots of people lots of music lots of fun and dancing! My feet felt like they were on fire at the end of the night, but it was all so worth it. (I miss the shoe I lost in Edinburgh)



So all in all, I had a great weekend. I got my essay (a bit haphazardly) done on Monday, printed it off at hall 20 minutes before it was due and then ran all the way across town to turn it in. 

Now I'm just waiting for our holidays to begin.

The weather has been very Scottish this past week. We've had frost, ice, and (now that its warmed up a bit) a good amount of rain, all with large portions of wind and cloud cover. Also, my assignments, papers and lab reports are piling up since  it's getting towards the end of the semester. Add all this together and I fluctuate between feeling lethargic and stressed and one only makes the other worse.
Basically, this means that I haven't felt like writing much. (And Mummy, while I know you'll say It's better that I concentrate on my studies, I really haven't been successful at getting work done.)

Let me start with my birthday, it was a fun birthday. I had a party in the Wardlaw common room and it was nice to be around a group of friends. I got a lot of cards and more chocolate than I can eat. One of my friends also made me a birthday cake  (technically, she made three) and it was quite delicious. We played a few games, danced a bit and all in all it was a good time.  That was Thursday. On Friday, I went to the bop and compared to usual bop nights, and ones I've had before, this one involved some harder partying (Well, it was my 21st birthday!) I had a great time with a bunch of friends and got home quite late. Lethargy reigned for the rest of that weekend.

Then it was time to buckle down and do some work, which as mentioned before, I have been utterly unsuccessful at. I have tried nonetheless and have kept trying since.

The Christmas Ball is coming up and since it is the cheapest open ball of the year, tickets are hard to get. They sold them on Monday and Wednesday of this week from 11:30 onwards with half on each day. Each person was limited to buying 4 tickets. On Monday I gave my money and details to my friends who i thought were in a good position in line, but turns out that it was harder than imagined and they didn't get tickets even after standing in line in the cold for two hours. On Wednesday they joined the queue at 9am. This was a good thing and we were happily rewarded with tickets! So, on December 14th, I'll be going to a ball!

Thats pretty much all that's been going on so far. The rain and wind are pounding on my window and the snow capped tops of hills in the distance are taunting me. I want some snow again, not rain!
It's not yet 4pm, but the light is fading, I haven't really seen the sun at all today.  More for the nightlife??? Nay, I should get to work.

Thanks for reading and comment if you feel like it!

So, this is an entry that I wrote a week ago, when I was hearing about the terrorist attacks on Mumbai. I did not feel like posting at that time. I still don't really feel like posting this, but if I don't do it now, I never will.  So here goes:

Why can't people just be nice? Why do they have to resort violence?

This wasn't at all the kind of birthday present I'd hoped for. It was a cruel way to enter into adulthood. To see people tearing my city apart, hurting the people in it and filling the air with gunpowder and smoke, it makes me want to be child, where the world stays simple and violence on that scale is something that cannot be comprehended and can never be justified.
 In the world of a child, where all you need and want are the basics, food, shelter, clothing and love. To know that you're safe and protected with the belief that everyone is inherently good.
 I know that there are some children who don't get to experience childhoods like this, and that's why I am thankful that my parents made my childhood as wonderful as it was. I know that in some parts of the world violence is a daily part of life and children are the innocent victims and witnesses of horrific acts of war and terrorism. I pray that no child ever had to face a childhood like that and that violence ceases and peace blankets the world.

This Christmas, let's all pray, really pray for 'Peace on Earth'!