Yesterday I finished my last exam. Today, I am in Madrid. Life is good.
Alright, if you want to be technical, I arrived in Madrid last night. But anyway...
Today I let myself sleep in, and just wander around the city, taking a few breaks to rest at cafes, drink some coffee, and read my book*. In the evening, I let Maria take me around the city some more, giving me more ideas of where to go in the daytime. Life definitely is good, and will continue to be even better.
On a side note: Maria told me that Madrid was "freezing" and that I should bring my coat. I did bring my coat, but soon found that it most certainly is not "freezing", and I hardly even need my coat. It was in the upper 50s and sunny today, and at night it's slightly less than 40. Uh huh..."freezing", Maria.
In other (technical) news: I am uploading two albums to Flickr to share with you, the Madrid photos and the photos I took when I was in Edinburgh the day before my flight back home to Seattle for Christmas. I realised that I hadn't uploaded them earlier, and figured that now is as good a time as any to get that done. Edinburgh is a beautiful city anytime of year, but at Christmas it is truly wonderful.
Edinburgh photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/67703297@N03/sets/72157628959830543/
Madrid photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/67703297@N03/sets/72157628960391525/
Adios for now,
--Rachael
*I brought 3 books with me on this trip, all originally written in Spanish. The first book The Shadow of the Wind is by Spanish author Carlos Ruiz Zafon. It is set in Barcelona after World War II and focuses on a young man called Daniel Sempere as he finds the only copy of a rare and mysterious book called The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax. However, Daniel soon finds that there is a man out to destroy every one of Carax's books, and resolves to find out why. It's a really great book that I read last year, I think, and want to read again because I am in Spain, and just bought the prequel to The Shadow of the Wind, and need to refresh my memory. The second book, the prequel to The Shadow of the Wind is called The Angel's Game. I don't know exactly what the plot of this prequel entails, but I liked the The Shadow of the Wind and its author so much that I don't really care that I don't know. I eagerly await what it has to offer. The third book is One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He is a Colombian author, so while his text was originally written in Spanish, it wasn't written in Spain Spanish...ok, whatever minor detail. I am letting that one go because I love One Hundred Years of Solitude and can't wait to read it again. I read it two years ago for English class at Annie Wright and it was one of the rare required school reading books that I actually liked. Both The Shadow of the Wind and One Hundred Years of Solitude are both rich, complex, stunning books that I highly recommend (more so The Shadow of the Wind than One Hundred Years of Solitude because One Hundred Years of Solitude is a bit harder to navigate on your own on the first read).
20 January 2012
05 January 2012
Back in St Andrews
Hello all,
Just a quick update to let you know that I have arrived back in St Andrews...just in time for the dead of winter and exams! Yay! (note sarcasm) The jet lag is going to make studying pretty tough but I'll pull through eventually. Also, I have a trip to Madrid planned for the end of exams so that is something to look forward to. The light at the end of the tunnel, as it were.
It is still just as windy and rainy as it was when I left. The wind is so bad, I am considering not leaving Sallie's before my first exam. I really do hate wind that much.
See you after exams,
--Rachael
Just a quick update to let you know that I have arrived back in St Andrews...just in time for the dead of winter and exams! Yay! (note sarcasm) The jet lag is going to make studying pretty tough but I'll pull through eventually. Also, I have a trip to Madrid planned for the end of exams so that is something to look forward to. The light at the end of the tunnel, as it were.
It is still just as windy and rainy as it was when I left. The wind is so bad, I am considering not leaving Sallie's before my first exam. I really do hate wind that much.
See you after exams,
--Rachael
24 December 2011
RAISIN WEEKEND.
Here it is: RAISIN WEEKEND.
My Raisin Weekend started in the afternoon of Sunday November 20 when I walked over to my Mum’s house for “tea”. Charlie combined our family tea party with her friend’s family, so there were a total of 10 children present. After a sufficient amount of drinks were consumed, the 10 of us were split into teams to complete a St Andrews scavenger hunt. Our team (me, Marcus and Mathilde) placed 2nd and as a reward for our efforts, we won a potato and a bottle of rum. Marcus was very pleased. From there we went to meet Graham and his friend’s family, where we were once again split into teams to complete a scavenger hunt (scavenger hunts are very popular on Raisin Sunday) before going to Graham’s friend’s house for the real party. This party was based on the British game show The Crystal Maze, so rooms throughout the house were transformed into the "zones" featured on the TV show, and drinking challenges were devised to fit the zones. It was all very elaborate, and very fun. After finishing the "crystal maze", Graham, Marcus, Mathilde and I kind of wandered around and joined in on various house parties going on in the town. At some point Marcus left and Graham, some of Graham's friends, Mathilde and I ended up in some guy's kitchen having our own little dance party. At this dance party, the song "Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues came on, and I was so sad that Marcus wasn't there because he loves that song and often sings it when he's drunk. Singing any Pogues song while drunk is way more authentic anyway.
I had to get up the next morning bright and early to go round to my Mum's house again to get dressed up in our foam fight costumes. I was dressed up as R2D2, Mathilde was dressed up as C3PO and Marcus was dressed up as Chewbacca. We had some of the best costumes that day. Also, our Dad gave us our Raisin Receipt(s). Normally on Raisin Monday, your Dad is supposed to give you an object in exchange for a "pound of raisins" (this has now devolved to a bottle of wine), and this object is often very cumbersome and awkward and has something in latin written on it. Graham gave us a really cute sign that had all of our pictures on it and said "United One Under Graham", referring to the fact that all five of us children come from different countries. Also, because we're not allowed to keep our Raisin Receipts, Graham got little tokens for each of us that represented each of the countries that we're from. We had to choose a country other than our own at random, and then we would receive the item associated with that country. I chose Northern Ireland as my country, and I got a little styrofoam rocket launcher. I love it. It is so much fun to play with. Marcus chose Canada (where our sister Debbie is from) and got a black teddy bear, Mathilde chose England and got a model Spitfire plane, and Debbie and Alanya weren't there, so they got stuck with the other two, a chef hat for Denmark (Danish pastries...a stretch I know) and a baseball with Obama written on it for America.
We then proceeded to Sallie's quad bearing our Raisin Receipt and sporting our lovely costumes, and got in to the foam fight to find that we had definitely missed peak foam fighting hour. No matter, we still walked out of there COVERED in foam.
All in all it was an amazing weekend, and confirmed that St Andrews is where I want to be. I love both of my families--biological and academic--and love you all for being so patent in waiting around for me to feel like writing new posts to put on here.
Thank you, and have a very merry Christmas.
--Rachael
PS. View photo highlights of Raisin Weekend here!
My Raisin Weekend started in the afternoon of Sunday November 20 when I walked over to my Mum’s house for “tea”. Charlie combined our family tea party with her friend’s family, so there were a total of 10 children present. After a sufficient amount of drinks were consumed, the 10 of us were split into teams to complete a St Andrews scavenger hunt. Our team (me, Marcus and Mathilde) placed 2nd and as a reward for our efforts, we won a potato and a bottle of rum. Marcus was very pleased. From there we went to meet Graham and his friend’s family, where we were once again split into teams to complete a scavenger hunt (scavenger hunts are very popular on Raisin Sunday) before going to Graham’s friend’s house for the real party. This party was based on the British game show The Crystal Maze, so rooms throughout the house were transformed into the "zones" featured on the TV show, and drinking challenges were devised to fit the zones. It was all very elaborate, and very fun. After finishing the "crystal maze", Graham, Marcus, Mathilde and I kind of wandered around and joined in on various house parties going on in the town. At some point Marcus left and Graham, some of Graham's friends, Mathilde and I ended up in some guy's kitchen having our own little dance party. At this dance party, the song "Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues came on, and I was so sad that Marcus wasn't there because he loves that song and often sings it when he's drunk. Singing any Pogues song while drunk is way more authentic anyway.
I had to get up the next morning bright and early to go round to my Mum's house again to get dressed up in our foam fight costumes. I was dressed up as R2D2, Mathilde was dressed up as C3PO and Marcus was dressed up as Chewbacca. We had some of the best costumes that day. Also, our Dad gave us our Raisin Receipt(s). Normally on Raisin Monday, your Dad is supposed to give you an object in exchange for a "pound of raisins" (this has now devolved to a bottle of wine), and this object is often very cumbersome and awkward and has something in latin written on it. Graham gave us a really cute sign that had all of our pictures on it and said "United One Under Graham", referring to the fact that all five of us children come from different countries. Also, because we're not allowed to keep our Raisin Receipts, Graham got little tokens for each of us that represented each of the countries that we're from. We had to choose a country other than our own at random, and then we would receive the item associated with that country. I chose Northern Ireland as my country, and I got a little styrofoam rocket launcher. I love it. It is so much fun to play with. Marcus chose Canada (where our sister Debbie is from) and got a black teddy bear, Mathilde chose England and got a model Spitfire plane, and Debbie and Alanya weren't there, so they got stuck with the other two, a chef hat for Denmark (Danish pastries...a stretch I know) and a baseball with Obama written on it for America.
We then proceeded to Sallie's quad bearing our Raisin Receipt and sporting our lovely costumes, and got in to the foam fight to find that we had definitely missed peak foam fighting hour. No matter, we still walked out of there COVERED in foam.
All in all it was an amazing weekend, and confirmed that St Andrews is where I want to be. I love both of my families--biological and academic--and love you all for being so patent in waiting around for me to feel like writing new posts to put on here.
Thank you, and have a very merry Christmas.
--Rachael
PS. View photo highlights of Raisin Weekend here!
17 December 2011
Half-way home
Hello all,
I KNOW it has been a LONG time since I've posted anything on here, but I have had 3 essays, an article summary and constant tutorial work to do since the last time I posted, so I have been waiting until that weight has been lifted off my shoulders. This won't be the tell-all post about Raisin Weekend, though. I am just using up some over my lay-over time right now to let you all know that I am on track and looking forward to going home. I left St Andrews yesterday to spend the afternoon and night in Edinburgh to see my 2nd favourite city in the whole world (the 1st being Seattle) made even more magical by the holiday spirit of the season. Walking up and down Princes street at night was amazing; they had a wonderfully lit-up micro Puyallup Fair going on. I also got to see the new pandas at the Edinburgh Zoo, which was a lot of fun. But the real treat of the day was staying at the B&B (6 Brunton Place); I have not slept in a sufficiently warm room in 3-ish months. And the bed...the bed! Aaaahhhhh! Everything about 6 Brunton Place is lovely, especially Sue, the owner. I am now at Heathrow waiting for my flight after having enjoyed my lunch of ridiculously huge noodles at the ridiculously named Asian food chain Wagamama. The last time I ate at Wagamama was when I went to visit Gina in Canterbury, and I forever grateful to her for introducing me to it.
I promise I will do a big Raisin (and other events) post when I get home and am sitting comfortably on the couch in the living room with the fireplace on (and maybe a cup of tea as well)
But for now,
Yours,
--Rachael
*Correction: Gina's room in Canterbury was toasty warm, so it hasn't been a solid three months of sleeping in a freezer...but you get the idea...
I KNOW it has been a LONG time since I've posted anything on here, but I have had 3 essays, an article summary and constant tutorial work to do since the last time I posted, so I have been waiting until that weight has been lifted off my shoulders. This won't be the tell-all post about Raisin Weekend, though. I am just using up some over my lay-over time right now to let you all know that I am on track and looking forward to going home. I left St Andrews yesterday to spend the afternoon and night in Edinburgh to see my 2nd favourite city in the whole world (the 1st being Seattle) made even more magical by the holiday spirit of the season. Walking up and down Princes street at night was amazing; they had a wonderfully lit-up micro Puyallup Fair going on. I also got to see the new pandas at the Edinburgh Zoo, which was a lot of fun. But the real treat of the day was staying at the B&B (6 Brunton Place); I have not slept in a sufficiently warm room in 3-ish months. And the bed...the bed! Aaaahhhhh! Everything about 6 Brunton Place is lovely, especially Sue, the owner. I am now at Heathrow waiting for my flight after having enjoyed my lunch of ridiculously huge noodles at the ridiculously named Asian food chain Wagamama. The last time I ate at Wagamama was when I went to visit Gina in Canterbury, and I forever grateful to her for introducing me to it.
I promise I will do a big Raisin (and other events) post when I get home and am sitting comfortably on the couch in the living room with the fireplace on (and maybe a cup of tea as well)
But for now,
Yours,
--Rachael
*Correction: Gina's room in Canterbury was toasty warm, so it hasn't been a solid three months of sleeping in a freezer...but you get the idea...
10 November 2011
One Year Anniversary
of my acceptance into St Andrews! Happy anniversary, and good luck to Mary Bradford, who has applied to St Andrews this year!
--Rachael
--Rachael
05 November 2011
A Tale of Mystery and Misery...
I LOST MY IPHONE. I put it in my sweatshirt pocket to go down to lunch on Saturday, and that was it. Gone. I don't know when it leapt out of my pocket and ran away, but it did and now I am sad and down £429. I asked the wardens if a phone had been turned in, and I asked the porters the same thing three different times. My phone just up and left.
So that has been the major crisis in my life since the last Report of the Week. The reason that I haven't done a Report of the Week since the loss of my phone is that because without my phone, the only way to contact people is through email, and most people tend to email me via my St Andrews email. The St Andrews email account is connected to Gmail, and my personal email account is a Gmail account as well. This means I can't be logged in to my St Andrews email account and my personal account at the same time. And to post on Blogger, I have to be logged in to my personal account. Therefore, I had to stay logged in to my St Andrews account the entire time my phone has been gone, and logged out of my personal account. Because I haven't gotten any important emails in my St Andrews email account today, I thought that I would log out and finally do a blog post.
Unfortunately, because it has been so long since I've posted, I can't really remember exactly what I've been up to.
Monday 10/24: Turned in my Social Anthropology essay! Yay! First college essay complete!
Tuesday 10/25: Tuesday, which = nothing exciting.
Wednesday 10/26: Spent all day in the library writing Modern History essay. Specialness of college essays fading quickly. Luckily, I spent that evening with my academic family at the cheesy Scottish pub called Drouthy Neebors (you can tell how cheesily Scottish this place is by its name). I met my new academic brother, Marcus. He too is from Belfast, but his accent is somehow thicker than Graham's. Even for me, his accent is hard to understand.
Thursday 10/27: Nothing exciting.
Friday 10/28: Essay turned in. Yay!
Saturday: Stir fry dinner made by John (new member of our group.), followed by movie watching night where John, Heather, Sarah and I watched The Dark Knight, Despicable Me and drank sangria. Good night in.
Sunday: Nothing exciting.
Monday: Halloween! There was a Harry Potter party going on in the Union that we (me + group) had bought tickets for, so we went to that, and dressed up as various Harry Potter characters:
--Amanda: Dobby the House Elf
--Christina: Bellatrix Lestrange (interesting relationship between Bellatrix and Dobby there...)
--Miriam: Professor Trelawney
--Charlotte: Professor McGonagall
--Harry: "Mad-Eye" Moody
--John: Gilderoy Lockhart
--Sarah: Moaning Myrtle
--Heather: Luna Lovegood
--Me: Umbridge (It was the only Harry Potter costume I could make with the clothes I already had.)
We thought that this party was going to be a huge, big fun Halloween thing but it wasn't. There was hardly anyone there, and most of them weren't in costume so we looked like a bunch of dorks. We soon went back to Sallie's and called it a night.
Tuesday 11/1: I was surprised that it was sunny and not raining (I'm used to it raining everyday, day and night from October until January) so I took my camera with me as a I walked to my social anthropology lecture. I was even fortunate enough to encounter a rabbit! :D (photos here)
Wednesday 11/2: Another day spent in the library, working on my English essay.
Thursday 11/3: After finishing my essay, there was a movie watching party in Miriam/Christina's room where we watched Juno. It was a good way to wind down after stressing about my essay.
Friday 11/4: Turned my essay in, and then spent the afternoon shopping--getting a replacement phone :(, getting groceries (ramen, macaroni and cheese, biscuits and crisps...you know...the college staples) at Tesco, and popping into Ness (a really cute clothes shop on Market Street http://www.nessbypost.com/) to see how much this coat that I wanted to get Mom for Christmas was. Turns out it was £140, so I got her something else from Ness that was a more reasonable price. I love you Mom, but £140 is not happening. After my shopping and hall dinner, I went for a second, better dinner at my academic dad Graham's house. At the previous academic family get-together, Graham and Charlie had talked about making their academic marriage official by having an academic wedding, but tonight, Graham actually proposed to Charlie, and got their Jewish friend Alex to agree to marry them. It was all pretty hilarious. I don't know when the "wedding" will be, but I am excited. Us academic children get to be the flower girls...even Marcus.
Saturday 11/5: Next week is Reading Week, which is St Andrews speak for "A free week off from school". Because of this, nearly all of Sallie's is empty. In any event, today is Guy Fawkes day in the UK, so Sallie's celebrated by going out to East Sands beach and having a bonfire and setting off fire works. Thank goodness it wasn't raining today :)
Next weekend, I am going down to Canterbury to visit Gina, which will be totally exhausting but lots of fun. I should have the replacement SIM card for my phone by then, so I can use my phone to call people incase I get lost or everything goes wrong. In the meantime, I actually have reading and work to do over Reading Week, which is really sad. Stupid Social Anthropology...why did you make the second essay due the monday after Reading Week? I also have to do an article summary for Social Anthropology, read 3 articles for Modern History and read the "Protestantism for Dummies" books that Mom got for me off Amazon (thank you!) for Modern History. Fun times ahead.
--Rachael
So that has been the major crisis in my life since the last Report of the Week. The reason that I haven't done a Report of the Week since the loss of my phone is that because without my phone, the only way to contact people is through email, and most people tend to email me via my St Andrews email. The St Andrews email account is connected to Gmail, and my personal email account is a Gmail account as well. This means I can't be logged in to my St Andrews email account and my personal account at the same time. And to post on Blogger, I have to be logged in to my personal account. Therefore, I had to stay logged in to my St Andrews account the entire time my phone has been gone, and logged out of my personal account. Because I haven't gotten any important emails in my St Andrews email account today, I thought that I would log out and finally do a blog post.
Unfortunately, because it has been so long since I've posted, I can't really remember exactly what I've been up to.
Monday 10/24: Turned in my Social Anthropology essay! Yay! First college essay complete!
Tuesday 10/25: Tuesday, which = nothing exciting.
Wednesday 10/26: Spent all day in the library writing Modern History essay. Specialness of college essays fading quickly. Luckily, I spent that evening with my academic family at the cheesy Scottish pub called Drouthy Neebors (you can tell how cheesily Scottish this place is by its name). I met my new academic brother, Marcus. He too is from Belfast, but his accent is somehow thicker than Graham's. Even for me, his accent is hard to understand.
Thursday 10/27: Nothing exciting.
Friday 10/28: Essay turned in. Yay!
Saturday: Stir fry dinner made by John (new member of our group.), followed by movie watching night where John, Heather, Sarah and I watched The Dark Knight, Despicable Me and drank sangria. Good night in.
Sunday: Nothing exciting.
Monday: Halloween! There was a Harry Potter party going on in the Union that we (me + group) had bought tickets for, so we went to that, and dressed up as various Harry Potter characters:
--Amanda: Dobby the House Elf
--Christina: Bellatrix Lestrange (interesting relationship between Bellatrix and Dobby there...)
--Miriam: Professor Trelawney
--Charlotte: Professor McGonagall
--Harry: "Mad-Eye" Moody
--John: Gilderoy Lockhart
--Sarah: Moaning Myrtle
--Heather: Luna Lovegood
--Me: Umbridge (It was the only Harry Potter costume I could make with the clothes I already had.)
We thought that this party was going to be a huge, big fun Halloween thing but it wasn't. There was hardly anyone there, and most of them weren't in costume so we looked like a bunch of dorks. We soon went back to Sallie's and called it a night.
Tuesday 11/1: I was surprised that it was sunny and not raining (I'm used to it raining everyday, day and night from October until January) so I took my camera with me as a I walked to my social anthropology lecture. I was even fortunate enough to encounter a rabbit! :D (photos here)
Wednesday 11/2: Another day spent in the library, working on my English essay.
Thursday 11/3: After finishing my essay, there was a movie watching party in Miriam/Christina's room where we watched Juno. It was a good way to wind down after stressing about my essay.
Friday 11/4: Turned my essay in, and then spent the afternoon shopping--getting a replacement phone :(, getting groceries (ramen, macaroni and cheese, biscuits and crisps...you know...the college staples) at Tesco, and popping into Ness (a really cute clothes shop on Market Street http://www.nessbypost.com/) to see how much this coat that I wanted to get Mom for Christmas was. Turns out it was £140, so I got her something else from Ness that was a more reasonable price. I love you Mom, but £140 is not happening. After my shopping and hall dinner, I went for a second, better dinner at my academic dad Graham's house. At the previous academic family get-together, Graham and Charlie had talked about making their academic marriage official by having an academic wedding, but tonight, Graham actually proposed to Charlie, and got their Jewish friend Alex to agree to marry them. It was all pretty hilarious. I don't know when the "wedding" will be, but I am excited. Us academic children get to be the flower girls...even Marcus.
Saturday 11/5: Next week is Reading Week, which is St Andrews speak for "A free week off from school". Because of this, nearly all of Sallie's is empty. In any event, today is Guy Fawkes day in the UK, so Sallie's celebrated by going out to East Sands beach and having a bonfire and setting off fire works. Thank goodness it wasn't raining today :)
Next weekend, I am going down to Canterbury to visit Gina, which will be totally exhausting but lots of fun. I should have the replacement SIM card for my phone by then, so I can use my phone to call people incase I get lost or everything goes wrong. In the meantime, I actually have reading and work to do over Reading Week, which is really sad. Stupid Social Anthropology...why did you make the second essay due the monday after Reading Week? I also have to do an article summary for Social Anthropology, read 3 articles for Modern History and read the "Protestantism for Dummies" books that Mom got for me off Amazon (thank you!) for Modern History. Fun times ahead.
--Rachael
23 October 2011
Report of the week
Monday: Went to the doctor's office and confirmed that I had a nasty virus. Great.
Tuesday: I can't remember anything I did on Tuesday it was that uneventful.
Wednesday: Met up with Peter and Mathilde the director and producer of Medea (yes, I am stage managering for Medea) to talk about what we wanted to do at our first rehearsal the next day and what our sets and costumes were going to be like, who we needed to talk to about sets and costumes and when our show was going to go up. It was very productive. I then spent the rest of the day in the library being productive on my social anthtopology essay, which is due on monday. That night, Sarah, Christina and I went to a late night (11, so not Rocky Horror late night) showing of the Inbetweeners movie. The Inbetweeners is a British comedy series about four socially awkward and desperate high school (equivalent of American high school) boys Jay, Neil, Simon and Will and their often embarrassing situations. The film is their graduation trip to Greece. What I loved about the film was that all four guys get their story lines wrapped up very nicely. It was very satisfying.
Thursday: Medea rehearsal. The only bad thing about this rehearsal was that it was all the way out in David Russell Apartments, which is basically some apartment buildings in the middle of a field somewhere supposedly in St Andrews. This created some problems that I will explain to you now: Our rehearsal was scheduled from 6.30 to 8.30. My social anthropology lecture on Thursday is from 4.00 to 5.00 in the Purdie (chemistry) building, which is relatively close to DRA, so I figured that instead of going back to Sallie's and then turning around pretty soon after I got there, I would stay over in the science-y area until our rehearsal started at 6.30. This did mean missing dinner (dinner is from 5.45 to 6.45), but I thought ahead and brought a Pot Noodle (Pot Noodle = Cup Noodle) with me and figured that there would be hot water availble for me to make my Pot Noodle. I was wrong. I didn't get to eat my Pot Noodle until I got back to my room at 10.00. We had drinks after our rehearsal, so that why I got back so late. It was worth it though.
Friday: No exciting evening plans tonight, because everyone has essays due and other work going on, and we were going out for Christina's birthday the following night so everyone spent the night in getting work done. Although Amanda, Harry, Heather, Jamie and I managed to go to the toastie bar. If only the toastie bar were open every night...
Saturday: We went out to the Blue Stane pub for Christina's birthday dinner. Considering that I was at a proper laddish (one of my new favourite words--meaning manly) pub with a football match on, and that I had missed out last weekend, I ordered the fish and chips. Little did I know that at the Blue Stane, they really mean fish when they say fish and chips. I ended up getting a whole fish fillet, which was pretty embarrassing. I only managed to eat half of it--but it was really delicious. From there, we went to Tesco so Christina could legally buy alcohol as an adult. Our purchases included Smirnoff Ice, Malibu, cheap white wine, some more vodka, two things of lemonade and a birthday cake. We then consumed our purchases in Katie's room by playing some fun games--Roxanne/red light and Ring of Fire. Roxanne/red light is when you have two teams--team Roxanne and tean red light--and you listen to the song Roxanne by the Police and depending on which team you're on, you drink whenever they say Roxanne or red light. The chorus gets pretty crazy. Ring of Fire (aka Kings, King's Cup) is when you have a deck of cards dealt out in a circle around a cup. Each card has a task assigned to it so when you draw that card, you have to do that task. For the Kings, you have to put some of your drink into the middle cup. The game ends when the last king is drawn and the drawer has to drink whatever is in the middle cup. Guess who drew the last king? Yep. Then we went out to The Lizard, the closest thing St Andrews has to a nightclub. That was fun until it got too crowded, at which point we went home and then stayed up for another hour talking about random things.
Sunday: Well, techinically some of the things I described in the Saturday category happened on Sunday... Anyway, today I have to read The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for my English tutorial tomorrow and finish my social anthropology essay. Fun. I'm going to get to work now.
--Rachael
Tuesday: I can't remember anything I did on Tuesday it was that uneventful.
Wednesday: Met up with Peter and Mathilde the director and producer of Medea (yes, I am stage managering for Medea) to talk about what we wanted to do at our first rehearsal the next day and what our sets and costumes were going to be like, who we needed to talk to about sets and costumes and when our show was going to go up. It was very productive. I then spent the rest of the day in the library being productive on my social anthtopology essay, which is due on monday. That night, Sarah, Christina and I went to a late night (11, so not Rocky Horror late night) showing of the Inbetweeners movie. The Inbetweeners is a British comedy series about four socially awkward and desperate high school (equivalent of American high school) boys Jay, Neil, Simon and Will and their often embarrassing situations. The film is their graduation trip to Greece. What I loved about the film was that all four guys get their story lines wrapped up very nicely. It was very satisfying.
Thursday: Medea rehearsal. The only bad thing about this rehearsal was that it was all the way out in David Russell Apartments, which is basically some apartment buildings in the middle of a field somewhere supposedly in St Andrews. This created some problems that I will explain to you now: Our rehearsal was scheduled from 6.30 to 8.30. My social anthropology lecture on Thursday is from 4.00 to 5.00 in the Purdie (chemistry) building, which is relatively close to DRA, so I figured that instead of going back to Sallie's and then turning around pretty soon after I got there, I would stay over in the science-y area until our rehearsal started at 6.30. This did mean missing dinner (dinner is from 5.45 to 6.45), but I thought ahead and brought a Pot Noodle (Pot Noodle = Cup Noodle) with me and figured that there would be hot water availble for me to make my Pot Noodle. I was wrong. I didn't get to eat my Pot Noodle until I got back to my room at 10.00. We had drinks after our rehearsal, so that why I got back so late. It was worth it though.
Friday: No exciting evening plans tonight, because everyone has essays due and other work going on, and we were going out for Christina's birthday the following night so everyone spent the night in getting work done. Although Amanda, Harry, Heather, Jamie and I managed to go to the toastie bar. If only the toastie bar were open every night...
Saturday: We went out to the Blue Stane pub for Christina's birthday dinner. Considering that I was at a proper laddish (one of my new favourite words--meaning manly) pub with a football match on, and that I had missed out last weekend, I ordered the fish and chips. Little did I know that at the Blue Stane, they really mean fish when they say fish and chips. I ended up getting a whole fish fillet, which was pretty embarrassing. I only managed to eat half of it--but it was really delicious. From there, we went to Tesco so Christina could legally buy alcohol as an adult. Our purchases included Smirnoff Ice, Malibu, cheap white wine, some more vodka, two things of lemonade and a birthday cake. We then consumed our purchases in Katie's room by playing some fun games--Roxanne/red light and Ring of Fire. Roxanne/red light is when you have two teams--team Roxanne and tean red light--and you listen to the song Roxanne by the Police and depending on which team you're on, you drink whenever they say Roxanne or red light. The chorus gets pretty crazy. Ring of Fire (aka Kings, King's Cup) is when you have a deck of cards dealt out in a circle around a cup. Each card has a task assigned to it so when you draw that card, you have to do that task. For the Kings, you have to put some of your drink into the middle cup. The game ends when the last king is drawn and the drawer has to drink whatever is in the middle cup. Guess who drew the last king? Yep. Then we went out to The Lizard, the closest thing St Andrews has to a nightclub. That was fun until it got too crowded, at which point we went home and then stayed up for another hour talking about random things.
Sunday: Well, techinically some of the things I described in the Saturday category happened on Sunday... Anyway, today I have to read The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for my English tutorial tomorrow and finish my social anthropology essay. Fun. I'm going to get to work now.
--Rachael
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