and I can hear bagpipes from my room. Someone's having fun.
*Update: Apparently they got two pipe bands together from Leuchars and someplace else I can't remember to perform for this Swedish business conference. ? Who knows.
24 September 2011
Way overdue, but a summary of the week's events.
Okay. Now that Amanda has finally gotten around to uploading the photos, here it goes.
Monday:
--Ceilidh (put on by Sallie's)
--Amanda doesn't own a kilt, so she brought her uniform skirt as a kilt stand-in. For solidarity, I wore my uniform skirt too. I look gross in this picture, but whatever.
--The ceilidh was quite difficult actually. The Sallie's common room wasn't entirely big enough to accommodate all of us spinning and kicking about, and they didn't teach the steps very well. They only gave you the directions once, and very quickly. So I didn't dance much. I plan on going either joining the Celtic society, or going to the Ceilidhs put on by the Celtic society so I can learn how to properly do the ceilidh dances, because they are quite fun and I enjoy them (and the music).
--After the Ceilidh, these lovely people and I (top photo left to right: Christina, Amanda, Katie, Me ; bottom photo: Miriam, Amanda, Katie, Me) and some other people not pictured (named Charlotte, Harry, Becky, and Sarah) went out to the Union and hung out and had some drinks. From there we went to this wonderful place called the Toastie Bar. In Brit-speak (as well as Aussie-speak) a toastie is basically a grilled sandwich. The Toastie Bar is a little place in a hard to find alleyway that makes all manner of toasties for only 50p (50 pence) and it's open from 11 pm to 2 a (2:30 am on Fridays). Great late night snack. I wish it was open during the day too, though.
Tuesday
--At 2:30, I went with some of the people who are involved in the Performing Arts group here at St Andy's, called Mermaids, and toured the student run theatre, and learned about theatre tech (lights, mainly) and producing. I am looking forward to getting involved in backstage work again.
--At 8:00, I went to the Westport Bar for the Mermaids social, where I learned that Stage Managers are in high demand here and where I got adopted. This probably sounds like a weird thing to say, so I'll explain. First year students are "adopted" by two third year students and those third year students become academic mum and dad to their adopted first year, and other first years they adopt. These academic mums and dads often advise and support their academic children. However, their real role comes into play during Raising Weekend, which is the third weekend in November. To explain Raisin Weekend, I will copy from the Student Association Guide to St Andrews.
--"Raisin Weekend: Sunday ; On Sunday afternoon your mother should throw a Tea Party where you will be expected to play various party games. She will also give you your Raisin String in exchange for a bottle of wine, or if you are feeling traditional, a pound of raisins. She should tie in to your Raisin String small momentos which remind her of you! In the evening, you will move on to your Dad's party.
Raisin Weekend: Monday ; Your mother will cook breakfast for you and dress you up in costumes for the parade to the Quad (Sallie's Quad). Costumes can be as imaginative and ridiculous as your mother wishes. Once you're dressed up you head to your father's where you will get your raisin receipt in return for a bottle of wine. This is usually heavy and cumbersome and will have a Latin paragraph inscribed upon it. Once you have your receipt, you should head to the Quad where the foam fight will commence. Make sure you buy your shaving foam well in advance because everywhere in town will inevitably sell out.
So my academic parents are Charlie (short for Charlotte, I'm guessing. I don't know her real name) and Graham. Charlie is from Edinburgh and is part of the improv comedy group called Blind Mirth. She also directs shows and has been part of shows that have gone on to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I'm hoping I can get involved in a show that goes to the Fringe. I want to go to Fringe so badly. The only bad thing about Fringe is that it runs from the middle to the end of August, which is always when the family conspires to travel someplace cool and exciting. But it would be a great way to celebrate my birthday! My dad is from somewhere near Belfast in Northern Ireland, and I don't know that much about him yet, other than he is involved in Mermaids (acting, presumably) and he is pretty hilarious. The both of them together is even better. So I can't wait for Raisin Weekend to see what sort of fun things they have planned for me and my academic sister Matilda, who is from Copenhagen and is interested in either producing or doing costumes.
Wednesday
--I met with my adviser, Dr Alex Davis of the English department, to discuss my modules (classes). Upon getting here, I discovered that my English class got moved from 11 to 1, which then made my English class and my Comparative Literature class at the same time. So I had to switch from Comparative Literature to Linguistics, which I'm not sure about. It feel like Linguistics is going to consist mostly of ESL students, and I also fear that it may be on the other side of town. This is a problem because Linguistics is at 2:00, so I would have no way to get to Linguistics since English is over at 2:00, and is on this side of town. So I've just sent an email to my adviser asking about this potential issue. I don't know if he'll get back to me because it's the weekend, but I hope so because otherwise Monday is going to be a problem. Unfortunately, I don't know what I would choose to take instead of Linguistics. Modern history maybe? ...I don't know.
--I went to the English social at 8:00 at the Byre Theatre Bar, and ran into Charlie, as Blind Mirth were performing at the social. Because no one except me and Blind Mirth were at the Byre Theatre Bar at 8:00, we all went out for some food. My academic auntie, Emma, and Lauren (who may be my academic cousin, but I don't know) went for chips while Charlie, Steven, and some other guy whose name I can't remember went for noodles. In hindsight, I should have gone for noodles, but getting chips is a quintessential British culture experience, so I guess it wasn't too horrible. Plus my auntie Emma is pretty cool too. We returned to the Byre Bar and then Blind Mirth went on (I use that term loosely, since there was no stage to speak of) and I enjoyed their performance tremendously. I had never encountered acts like theirs before (even at Second City in Chicago) and they were all greatly funny (as an improv comedy troupe should be. The actual English social was really boring, but I did go with some people (named Holly, Calum [sp?] and Matthew) to get some pizza. It was not a very nutritious evening...
Thursday
--I did nothing on Thursday. But that was good, because by this point I was tired...because of the things that I've just described.
Friday
--At 2:00 I went to the Opening Ceremony for the Faculty of Arts held in Younger Hall (literally right next to Sallie's). It was quite a spectacle. All of the professors, and the Principal and other official people processed in wearing their robes and we all had to sing this ancient Latin song. There were speeches from the President, and some other official person that I can't remember, and an English professor (Professor Robert Crawford) who I've heard is legendary. He is old and Scottish, and therefore quite funny. I hope I have a class with him sometime during my studies here.
Saturday
--Finally got my iPhone! Yay!
--At 2:00 (I guess this is a popular event time around here...) Sallie's put on their annual Fresher's BBQ, which was a lot of fun. The weather was spectacular today, warm, sunny, hardly windy (Dad tells me it's supposed to be like this all next week...the temperature might even get into the 70s!) so the BBQ was lots of fun. The BBQ was out on the front lawn (known as Sallie's Quad), so people were out playing croquet, football, UNO, life-size Jenga and enjoying some Pimm's (a fruit liqueur served with lemonade and actual fruit chunks in it. Quite delicious.) After some rounds of life-size Jenga, me and some friends (above left to right: Amanda, Miriam [can't see her very well because she's in the shade behind Amanda], Caroline, Jamie [wearing his silly hat], Harry [yes, another ginger Harry], Heather, Charlotte, Sarah, Sam [the IT guy], and Me) worked out how to spell out "Sallies" with the Jenga bricks. We were so impressed with our craftsmanship that we got the camera guy to come over and photograph our achievement. Sadly, though not surprisingly, our sculpture fell just after the photo was taken.
--At approximately 4:30, Dad came round with the USB/Ethernet adapter thing (the middle man between the ethernet cable for the internet and my laptop) and the power cord for my laptop, and proper sheets for my bed. After that was sorted, we went to Zizzi's, the Italian restaurant on South street, only to find that they were completely booked. So we settled for fish and chips on Market street. Sadly, Dad and I ordered wrong :( We then walked back to Dad's car, which was parked all the way at the end of North street, and got his pillow (which I am now using) and then went back to my room where we put the proper sheets on the bed and I gave Dad the shortbread to take back home to Mum and Jenny and Mum's birthday present and card. With that, we shared a big goodbye hug and Dad left for the lovely Hilton at the Edinburgh Airport.
The only thing I have planned for tomorrow is the ceilidh put on by the Student Union. This ceilidh worries me because if I thought that the Sallie's ceilidh was cramped and hard to understand, then this one, with something like 600 people attending, will be even more cramped and hard to understand. I still plan to go because I like the music and I want to show off my kilt :)
That's all for now. Which is good because that was a lot.
--Rachael
Monday:
--Ceilidh (put on by Sallie's)
--The ceilidh was quite difficult actually. The Sallie's common room wasn't entirely big enough to accommodate all of us spinning and kicking about, and they didn't teach the steps very well. They only gave you the directions once, and very quickly. So I didn't dance much. I plan on going either joining the Celtic society, or going to the Ceilidhs put on by the Celtic society so I can learn how to properly do the ceilidh dances, because they are quite fun and I enjoy them (and the music).
Tuesday
--At 2:30, I went with some of the people who are involved in the Performing Arts group here at St Andy's, called Mermaids, and toured the student run theatre, and learned about theatre tech (lights, mainly) and producing. I am looking forward to getting involved in backstage work again.
--At 8:00, I went to the Westport Bar for the Mermaids social, where I learned that Stage Managers are in high demand here and where I got adopted. This probably sounds like a weird thing to say, so I'll explain. First year students are "adopted" by two third year students and those third year students become academic mum and dad to their adopted first year, and other first years they adopt. These academic mums and dads often advise and support their academic children. However, their real role comes into play during Raising Weekend, which is the third weekend in November. To explain Raisin Weekend, I will copy from the Student Association Guide to St Andrews.
--"Raisin Weekend: Sunday ; On Sunday afternoon your mother should throw a Tea Party where you will be expected to play various party games. She will also give you your Raisin String in exchange for a bottle of wine, or if you are feeling traditional, a pound of raisins. She should tie in to your Raisin String small momentos which remind her of you! In the evening, you will move on to your Dad's party.
Raisin Weekend: Monday ; Your mother will cook breakfast for you and dress you up in costumes for the parade to the Quad (Sallie's Quad). Costumes can be as imaginative and ridiculous as your mother wishes. Once you're dressed up you head to your father's where you will get your raisin receipt in return for a bottle of wine. This is usually heavy and cumbersome and will have a Latin paragraph inscribed upon it. Once you have your receipt, you should head to the Quad where the foam fight will commence. Make sure you buy your shaving foam well in advance because everywhere in town will inevitably sell out.
So my academic parents are Charlie (short for Charlotte, I'm guessing. I don't know her real name) and Graham. Charlie is from Edinburgh and is part of the improv comedy group called Blind Mirth. She also directs shows and has been part of shows that have gone on to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I'm hoping I can get involved in a show that goes to the Fringe. I want to go to Fringe so badly. The only bad thing about Fringe is that it runs from the middle to the end of August, which is always when the family conspires to travel someplace cool and exciting. But it would be a great way to celebrate my birthday! My dad is from somewhere near Belfast in Northern Ireland, and I don't know that much about him yet, other than he is involved in Mermaids (acting, presumably) and he is pretty hilarious. The both of them together is even better. So I can't wait for Raisin Weekend to see what sort of fun things they have planned for me and my academic sister Matilda, who is from Copenhagen and is interested in either producing or doing costumes.
Wednesday
--I met with my adviser, Dr Alex Davis of the English department, to discuss my modules (classes). Upon getting here, I discovered that my English class got moved from 11 to 1, which then made my English class and my Comparative Literature class at the same time. So I had to switch from Comparative Literature to Linguistics, which I'm not sure about. It feel like Linguistics is going to consist mostly of ESL students, and I also fear that it may be on the other side of town. This is a problem because Linguistics is at 2:00, so I would have no way to get to Linguistics since English is over at 2:00, and is on this side of town. So I've just sent an email to my adviser asking about this potential issue. I don't know if he'll get back to me because it's the weekend, but I hope so because otherwise Monday is going to be a problem. Unfortunately, I don't know what I would choose to take instead of Linguistics. Modern history maybe? ...I don't know.
--I went to the English social at 8:00 at the Byre Theatre Bar, and ran into Charlie, as Blind Mirth were performing at the social. Because no one except me and Blind Mirth were at the Byre Theatre Bar at 8:00, we all went out for some food. My academic auntie, Emma, and Lauren (who may be my academic cousin, but I don't know) went for chips while Charlie, Steven, and some other guy whose name I can't remember went for noodles. In hindsight, I should have gone for noodles, but getting chips is a quintessential British culture experience, so I guess it wasn't too horrible. Plus my auntie Emma is pretty cool too. We returned to the Byre Bar and then Blind Mirth went on (I use that term loosely, since there was no stage to speak of) and I enjoyed their performance tremendously. I had never encountered acts like theirs before (even at Second City in Chicago) and they were all greatly funny (as an improv comedy troupe should be. The actual English social was really boring, but I did go with some people (named Holly, Calum [sp?] and Matthew) to get some pizza. It was not a very nutritious evening...
Thursday
--I did nothing on Thursday. But that was good, because by this point I was tired...because of the things that I've just described.
Friday
--At 2:00 I went to the Opening Ceremony for the Faculty of Arts held in Younger Hall (literally right next to Sallie's). It was quite a spectacle. All of the professors, and the Principal and other official people processed in wearing their robes and we all had to sing this ancient Latin song. There were speeches from the President, and some other official person that I can't remember, and an English professor (Professor Robert Crawford) who I've heard is legendary. He is old and Scottish, and therefore quite funny. I hope I have a class with him sometime during my studies here.
Saturday
--Finally got my iPhone! Yay!
--At approximately 4:30, Dad came round with the USB/Ethernet adapter thing (the middle man between the ethernet cable for the internet and my laptop) and the power cord for my laptop, and proper sheets for my bed. After that was sorted, we went to Zizzi's, the Italian restaurant on South street, only to find that they were completely booked. So we settled for fish and chips on Market street. Sadly, Dad and I ordered wrong :( We then walked back to Dad's car, which was parked all the way at the end of North street, and got his pillow (which I am now using) and then went back to my room where we put the proper sheets on the bed and I gave Dad the shortbread to take back home to Mum and Jenny and Mum's birthday present and card. With that, we shared a big goodbye hug and Dad left for the lovely Hilton at the Edinburgh Airport.
The only thing I have planned for tomorrow is the ceilidh put on by the Student Union. This ceilidh worries me because if I thought that the Sallie's ceilidh was cramped and hard to understand, then this one, with something like 600 people attending, will be even more cramped and hard to understand. I still plan to go because I like the music and I want to show off my kilt :)
That's all for now. Which is good because that was a lot.
--Rachael
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