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
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…
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.
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!
The semester is drawing to a close; this reminds me that my time in St Andrews is ending as well. And soon I shall have to return to California. This will be a bitter-sweet time, and when the time arrives I shall dwell on it more, but for now, I shall talk about what I have neglected to do so for a while.
I meant to write about these events as they happened, but for some reason I kept putting it off. Either due to lack of pictures, too much school work or just plain laziness.
The first of these is the Kate Kennedy procession. This is organized by the Kate Kennedy Club and old and esteemed males only university club. The procession is a celebration of the history of St Andrews and involves people dressed up as distinguished members that have had a connection to St Andrews. It has its roots in a procession in honour of Kate Kennedy, the niece of Bishop James Kennedy, who was welcomed into town and renowned for her beauty. Her arrival signalled the beginning of spring.
This year, the procession took place on Saturday the 18th of April. I went to watch it with one of my friends and it was a lovely sight to see all these people dressed up in old fashioned clothes parading through the streets. There were princes and dukes, ladies and knights and monks as well. Tradition states that "Kate" is played by a bejant (first year male student) from the Kate Kennedy Club who rides in on a horse drawn carriage at the end of the procession. Among the characters was St Andrew (who lead the procession), Benjamin Franklin, who was awarded an honorary degree from the University, John Cleese, who served as rector and many many other characters who I didn't recognise.
The other thing is more personal. This past Saturday, I went hiking along the Fife Coastal Path and did the Chain walk, which consists of climbing through the rocky cliffs at the edge of the sea. I went with two guys form the scouts and guides club. It was great banter and we had a really good time. It was certainly very refreshing. A nice way to break out of the bubble and get a closer look at some Scottish coastal towns (Anstruther, Elie, Lower Largo). The scenery was splendid and of course it was good exercise.
I have actually had a large amount of work to do for my classes. I always wonder why I never learn and leave things till the last minute. I will hopefully be able to get everything done in time.
Tonight, or rather, early tomorrow morning, is the May Dip. It's a St Andrews tradition where students take a dip in the North Sea at the crack of dawn. I've heard that there are usually bonfires on the beach and loads of students. The May Dip is essential if you've stepped on the PH (initials of the martyr Patrick Hamilton set in the cobblestones on North Street), or if you've committed academic incest. Doing either of these things mean that you will fail your degree. The May Dip is the only way to redeem yourself.
I plan to stay up all night for this. I'll let you know how it goes sometime after I get back!
Another Friday the 13th went by! I love the years when you get two in a row like that.
If you're confused, I love Friday the 13th. I don't really know why, but instead of being unlucky, they're usually quite fun and lovely. I like wearing all black and putting on dark make-up and scare people by wishing them a "Happy Friday the 13th!" Yesterday was a good day though. I had to make a poster on Parthenogenesis for my Developmental Biology class with a partner. Yesterday we had to turn in the posters and we got interviewed on them individually. I was nervous before the interview, but it turned out to be quite alright and not so scary. But I guess the grades will tell in the end. We also had a wine reception for the whole class to view the posters at 4 pm.
Our developmental biology class has a meagre 13 students in it. It is the smallest class I have ever been a part of. Ever. We had a lab on Thursday that involved limb re-grafting using stage 21 (three day old) chick embryos. It was interesting and exciting, but also nerve racking and hard to do as the embryos are no bigger than a thumbnail. When I checked yesterday, my embryo was still alive :). At least I didn't kill it.
I went to the bop last night as well and I had fun dancing with friends. One of my friends had a random guy come up and ask to dance with her. She was fine with the dancing, but when he implied that he wanted more that night, she dropped him like a hot potato. I think it's so weird how some guys can go out with the intention of picking up a girl just for one night. Makes me doubt the human race a bit, but then I remember that are loads of nice guys out there as well.
The weather here is starting to get nicer, It's a warm 12 C (54 F), lovely sunny Saturday! It should be a nice weekend, after which I should start working on an essay I have due soon.
We had snow in St Andrews today. It made me happy.
My alarm rang at 7 and when I sleepily looked out the window, it seemed foggy. The thought of snow crossed my mind, but I was not too hopeful since the last few times, either it was just sleeting, or it would snow but none of it would settle. When I actually got up to look out the window half an hour later, I saw that it was actually snowing! Praying that it would settle, I went down to shower. When I came back up to my room again, I looked out the window and saw that everything had turned white. It was a lovely start to the day. I went to breakfast singing with delight, my prayers for another snow in St Andrews had finally been answered.
It continued to snow till about 3 in the evening. Which was fantastic because there ended up being enough snow for people to make snowmen and snow angels and to have snow fights and slide down slopes and all the other fun stuff. I actually got to build a snowman right from scratch this time. It made me very happy as well. We named the snowman "Handy". Here's Handy:
We couldn't decide if Handy was a guy or a girl.
Also, notice my nice new red coat.
I had class all morning, so I it wasn't until after lunch that I actually got to play in the snow. I joined in a snowball fight on the Wardlaw lawn and then I helped a friend build Handy. After that we went sledging down the slopes. Here's a video of me doing that:
In other news, the new semester has started and classes seem alright. It has been a very busy week with quite a few friends having their Birthdays and Birthday Parties. Tomorrow (Friday) is the Hall Ball. It's 1920s themed and I just finished making myself a sequinned and feathered head band to match my dress.
Except for the um... screwup in the first one, they went well, and I've come out learning a few lessons.
One, stress makes me study better. However, excess stress makes me worry too much. Too much worry can take you to scary places and can make you screw up. A calm mind really is important when writing an exam. Two, it's okay to not know everything for an exam and exam grades are not the be all and end all. (Although I have a harder time accepting that) Three, it would be nice if I could find a nice balance between stress and apathy when it comes to exams. It would also help if I had a better work ethic. (If wishes were horses....) I tend to swing to the extremes, although before this set of exams I usually swung toward the not-a-care-in-the-world side before my exams.
Hmm... there'll be a new semester that will start in three weeks, lets see if I can put into practice what I've learned. Till then though... freeeeeedom! Three weeks of it. There are things that I really need to do though, like clean my room :( it's a pig sty right now. I also would like to read a novel during this time. The option of travelling is open, and I might visit a friend or two down in England and eventually, I want to see more of Scotland. Maybe that can happen another time. We'll see. Right now, what I really want to do, is relax.
In other news, I found a stone in my potatoes today. We have roasted or boiled new potatoes as sides for our meals. I don't know what kind of weird method they use to cook new potatoes out here, but I don't know if I even want to know how the stone got there. It was on my plate just sitting there and I thought it was a mushroom or a charred potato, until I tried cutting it with a knife. It was round-ish and would fill a teaspoon. I'm sure it was just a one time thing and it doesn't really happen often, but it really was the weirdest thing. A stone, good heavens what next? Cardboard in the bread box??
I am having a ncie time out here though, and the food isn't as bad as it could be. I'm sure some of you might have some stories about stuff you've found in your food that wasn't supposed to be there. Care to share?
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.
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!