A Year at St Andrews...

My Easter Break has been going well so far. I had a 4 day retreat in the North of Scotland. It was held at this Benedictine Monks' Abbey in Pluscarden and was organised by the St Andrews Catholic Society. The place is lovely with a serene and prayerful atmosphere.

The boys got to stay in the abbey and eat with the monks. Us girls had rooms in a place about a five minute walk away from the abbey, and we got to cook our own meals. There were tons of pheasants all over the place and a few of us were eager to catch and eat them ;). Daffodils were springing up all over the fields and the sides of the roads, making everything look quite pretty.

The retreat was very helpful. I knew that I had been missing something crucial for a while and as I had suspected it turned out that I was missing God. The retreat helped me reconnect with Him and helped me to figure out what was important in my life. We went to prayers when the monks had them. We didn't have to go to each and every one during the day, but we went to most, especially to Mass and Compline. On the last day, I made it a point to get up at half four in the morning to go to Vigils and Lauds which starts at a quarter to 5 and goes on till a quarter past 6. I got a bit fidgety in the middle, but I don't regret going. Prayer is always good. :)

After that, I spent a few days in Aberdeen. The weather was quite lovely the whole time I was there and Aberdeen is a nice place as well. The beach is pretty and I saw the ships in the harbour which looked quite impressive. 

I had a long train journey back to London from Aberdeen on which a woman who sat next to me reprimanded me for being anti-social with my laptop. I tried to explain that I really only had my laptop open to keep me from getting bored and people in today's world generally don't speak to each other on trains and planes. But she got me and the guy sitting across to shut out laptops and engage in conversation. The guy turned out to be a young physics professor. Interesting. I'd like to know what your opinion is on the issue. Should people talk to each other more on public transport? Is technology making us more antisocial? Let me know in the comments.


Anyway, London is nice so far; weather has been good. I'm looking forward to Holy Week and Easter, but I half wish I was spending it in Pluscarden. The monks told us all about  their lovely Holy Week and Easter services and staying there for a while definitely put me in a more prayerful mood. I don't think the Holy Week services here will be quite as moving.

I hope you all have a Blessed Holy Week!

I spent the past week in Nottingham.

I went to visit a very dear childhood friend who goes to Uni there. She's a few years younger than me and we've known each other since we were babies in India. We used to run around and play make believe games and colour together when we were kids. The last time I saw her was when I was fifteen. Now we're both grown up and its amazing how much the same we still are and yet, how different we are from who we were as kids.

Train in the Snow at Doncaster

I'm on the train back up to St Andrews as I write this. I left from King's Cross in London, I guess you could say I'm on the Hogwarts express (I promise one of these days I'll get a picture of me by Platform nine and three quarters).
My holiday was fun. I had a great time with my cousins, enjoyed the preparation and consumption of the lovely Christmas dinners, and enjoyed navigating the mad sales after Christmas as well.

I only went into the City twice this time. Once we walked around the Trafalgar Square area and another time we went to see a play at the National Theatre. The play is called WarHorse and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The set design, the props, the acting were all amazing.

For Christmas, we went to the Midnight Mass at Westminster Cathedral which was said in Latin. We opened presents right after we got back and on Christmas Day we had a big dinner.

New Year's was much more laid back. We roast duck on New Year's Eve and then stayed up to watch the New Year's Eve specials on TV. We brought in the New Year with champagne while watching the firework display at London Eye on TV.

I do not usually make New Years' resolutions, but this year I did. I also discovered why so many people's New Years' resolutions fail. For one, people expect things to change overnight, which doesn't happen. If you have been going a certain way or doing or not doing something for a long time you cant expect it to just change suddenly and completely just because we hang a new calendar on the wall.  It takes a while, and its a process of change. I was almost read to give up my resolution when I figured (after the first day itself) that it wasn't going to work and every thing I saw or read seemed to contradict my resolution. Well, after a bit of thought and the revelation that it will take a while to get used to, I decided to stick with it.

It snowed during the night and early this morning back in Croydon and it seems to have snowed all over England as well. As the train rolls on I see trees with snow in their branches and large fields made white with the snow. I only hope St Andrews gets a bit of snow, I am longing to build another snowman!

Happy New Year to you, and I hope your New Year's resolution will last!

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.

Ok, so, I know this is long overdue, but I've been busy/tired/without internet access for the past few days. This is going to be a long entry, so, here goes.

To begin, my train journey from London to Edinburgh was quite nice. It was cool to see the countryside along the way. There was a bunch of girls in the same compartment as me who were traveling to Edinburgh together. They were quite loud, but all I remember from their conversations was this one girl saying "Oh my God, that is so cool" in a British accent over and over again.  It was most interesting.
Then there's the guy who was sitting next to me. He seemed really nice at first, but later on every time he would feel a sneeze coming on, he would pinch his nose shut, thereby not really allowing himself to sneeze. I'm pretty sue that stopping a sneeze like that can do some significant damage to your sinuses.
When I got out on to the station at Edinburgh, I figured I was too tired to drag both my bags to the hotel. So I kept one of them at the station at the place that allows you to store your bags there for a fee.  It was a good choice as the road to the hotel was a winding uphill road and one heavy suitcase and a backpack was more than enough.

Our orientation was lovely. There are six other UC students beside myself who are studying in St Andrews as well. The first evening we walked down to the EAP study center and then had dinner with the programme directors at really nice restaurant. The food choices were lovely and our director ordered wine for us too. I was able to have a really nice three course meal. In the evening the bunch of us went to a pub. But we were all so tired that we went back to the hotel quite early.
The next day we had our orientation information session at the study center in the morning. They told us all about what we should and should not do and gave us some information we needed. We were on our own for lunch and the seven of us went to a pub for lunch.
After lunch we went to see the Edinburgh Castle. There was a guided tour where the guide took us all around the castle and told us cool and interesting things about it. After that we walked all the way to the other end of town to begin our hike up to Arthur's seat. Which is the highest point of the hills formed by an extinct volcano. It was a relatively easy hike, but quite tiring when you haven't done much more than sit in front of a computer for the past month and a half. I have a video of me at the top.
 We had dinner again that evening at an Italian restaurant and I felt like I could get used to having a glass of wine at dinner everyday ;-). Some of us went to a pub again, I didn't have anything this time, frankly, I'm not really confident enough to order my own alcoholic beverage.They had free live music later on by this Scottish indie band. I stayed to listen, but not for too long, I went back by 11 pm.

My next entry will (hopefully) be about my journey to St Andrews and my first few days here. But right now I gotta go to lunch.

UPDATE: Pictures of Edinburgh are now up!