Weekend in Edinburgh: Expectations and Reality

This weekend I spent the weekend in Edinburgh with Charlotte, her (twin) sister Freya, Sarah, Miriam, Heather, and Alix--a French student doing her dissertation her at St Andrews. Before going to Edinburgh, I had some expectations as to what our weekend out would be like. Unfortunately, these expectations didn't exactly match reality. (Yes, I am copying 500 Days of Summer here. I really like that film.)

Expectations:

1. We would arrive in Edinburgh at 5:30, having left St Andrews sometime around 3:00
2. We'd have a nice dinner
3. Maybe do a little shopping
4. Go out to The Hive, a cool club with interesting music--generally a trendy young people scene
5. Walk up Arthur's Seat 
6. Have a nice lunch
7. Get back on the bus to St Andrews

Reality:

1. We arrived in Edinburgh sometime close to 7:00, because the bus we took went a totally different route than the bus that I'm used to taking, so it took a lot longer to get to Edinburgh
2. After walking to Miriam's friend's flat (which was not exactly a pleasant 1.5 mile walk, because my overnight bag was quite heavy and I lost the over-the-shoulder strap, so I had to use the handles as the over-the-shoulder strap...in any case I worry that I now have some nerve damage to my left arm...), we spent forever (as usual) trying to figure out where we could get food as cheaply as possible. We ended up getting Pizza Hut delivery, using their 3 9" pizzas for £15 deal to get 9 pizzas for all over us to share. But ordering the pizza itself was a hassle. The website was totally non-cooperative, and then after we finally placed our order via telephone, the pizza guy had to make two trips to get all 9 of our pizzas to us, which I thought was kind of silly. Although to be fair, he was on a little mo-ped. But still! At this point is was sometime around 9:00! And the pizzas turned out to be horrible! Pizza Hut over here is definitely not the same. 
3. There was no shopping, whatsoever. Everyone was broke or too cheap to do any shopping. 
4. The Hive, it turns out, is only marginally better than The Lizard. It is still just a dark/badly lit, jam packed room with an incredibly loud and annoying bass stereo system. The only thing that was better about The Hive was the music. They had some songs that I remember listening to as a kid, like Mambo No. 5, Macarena, and That One Song from Space Jam (I don't really know its name). 
5. Walking up Arthur's Seat, which is basically just a big hill, after walking around yesterday with my bag, and being at The Hive the night before until 2 AM was just not happening. I went back with Miriam, Alix and Sarah while Charlotte, Freya and Heather somehow felt up to the challenge. 
6. Lunch didn't really happen either. We just got some snacks and then got on the bus back to St Andrews.

Now, as much I complain about this weekend, I did actually have a good time. I enjoy going to Edinburgh, even if it's not as glamourous as I would like. I also enjoy spending time with my friends. And it's always nice to get out of St Andrews and remember what bigger, more authentically Scottish places are like. 

That's all for now...I have to recuperate. 

--Rachael 

St Andrews Pier and Sunshine

Hello again,

It is the start of my second semester here at St Andrews and I can't believe that I am nearly finished with one year of uni (college) already! Surprisingly, the weather here has been relatively mild compared to the rest of the UK, and indeed to the rest of Europe. Hooray! In light of this, my friends and I have been spending time outside, enjoying this rarity. On Sunday, some of them even partook in the strange tradition that is the Pier Jump. Basically, you jump off the pier into the North Sea. Which is COLD. It's mental. I can't even attempt to comprehend why anyone would do this. But I went anyway to enjoy the view and wear my gown, because I don't get to wear it all that often and it was expensive. Today, we camped out on the front lawn to get some work done and eat chocolate fingers and drink lemonade/Irn-Bru. It was a good afternoon.

The photos of both the view from the pier and today's sunshine are here, on flickr.

I hope spring comes just as soon for the rest of you.

Love,
--Rachael

Museo del Prado

Today I spent the afternoon in the world-renowned Museo del Prado, home to many famous paintings spanning many centuries and many countries. And, suffice it to say, I am exhausted. The Prado is a big museum. Not Louvre big, but still quite large. Also, it is a far better museum than the Louvre. Everybody makes a huge deal about the Louvre, when really, it is just a ridiculously large building with about a  70:30 ratio of pointless stuff to good stuff*. I liked nearly all of the paintings I saw today (I skipped most of the religious-y ones, since 1: I'm not into the whole religion thing and 2: after a while they all look the same. There are only so many ways to paint Jesus--baby, adult, and dying adult.). I particularly liked the special exhibit on right now called The Hermitage in the Prado--a collection of masterpieces from the equally renowned Hermitage museum in St Petersburg, Russia. The paintings and sculptures from the Hermitage were really great, and so varied! I was surprised to see a Monet** painting in there with the usual portraits and still-life paintings. I am now hoping to maybe go to St Petersburg sometime to see what the rest of the Hermitage has to offer!

I will now conclude this post with some photos that I took of and around the museum:

 Adios for now,
--Rachael

*The ratio of pointless stuff to good stuff may be even higher than 70:30, I just chose that arbitrarily. Sorry if you have been to the Louvre and this is not your opinion. Let's all just agree to respect each others opinions, even if they are different from our own. Also, let's try and spread this message to government bodies everywhere/generally to everyone we know. That way, something might actually get done in the world.
**Monet is my favourite artist (Impressionism is generally my favourite type of art, and I just happen to like Monet's paintings the best). This explains my excitement at seeing a Monet painting in the exhibit.
Also, sorry if my comment about religious-y paintings offends you in anyway. See first asterisk comment, the bit about respecting everyone's opinions.

Interesting Tid-Bit For the Day:

Apparently there is some solar flare sci-fi storm thingy or whatever, and as a result of this, the Northern Lights (fancy name Aurora Borealis) are visible farther South than usual. Out of curiosity, I clicked on the article on the BBC News Homepage showing people's pictures of the Northern Lights. These ones (the third and fourth photos in the slide show) just happens to be from (near) St Andrews...imagine that!

--Rachael

Two of My Favourite Benches in the World...

This one, at the side of Loch Venachar, one of the many lochs in Trossachs National Park in Central Scotland:

 

And this one, in Parque del Buen Retiro: 

Another day spent on a park bench in the sun reading my book. I couldn't ask for anything better. 

--Rachael

Madrid Dia Dos

Hola amigos,

Phwoo. I am tired. One of the simultaneously good and bad things about Europe is its walkability. This morning/afternoon I walked from my hostel to Madrid's equivalent of Cental Park, Parque del Buen Retiro and spent 3 or so hours there soaking up sunshine and the wonderful words of The Shadow of the Wind. I walked some more to a cafe for some coffee and lunch, and then walked down the Gran Via again, and did a little shopping. Alex, if you are reading this, please give me some ideas of what to get you! I already got Dad a Real Madrid (Madrid's football club) jersey, so that's out of the running for you... I know you usually get t-shirts or baseball hats, but I'm hoping to come up with something different. Anyways, most of my time in Madrid so far has been quite relaxed, which is a relief after the stress of exams. I don't know what my plans with Maria are for tonight, but I'm sure they will include a nice dinner and drinks. Tomorrow morning Maria plans to take me to the most amazing churro/chocolate shop in the entire world, and I cannot wait. Again, I don't know what Maria has in mind for the rest of the day tomorrow, but I'm sure it won't disappoint. I also need to coordinate with Maria when we are going to go to Museo del Prado together. There's so much to see, and luckily I have a lot of time to see it! I'll keep you all updated, but not in the same precise way that Alex does. He's cleverer than me on that front.

Hasta luego,
--Rachael

Exams are over...time for una fiesta en Madrid!

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).

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

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 2^nd 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!

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...

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

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

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

AWS Care Package

has arrived! Tehnically it arrived two days ago but I haven't had time until today to pick it up from the porter. Unfortunately the envelope thing that it came it got ripped in transit, so this grey lint stuff that makes up the lining in the envelope went everywhere when I tried to open the package and get all of my stuff out of it. Jamie said that it looked like they had sent me a hoover (vacuum) bag. Anyway, I got some macaroni and cheese, a Fruit by the Foot, a Starbucks gift card and tons of candy out of it so I'm not complaining. I also got some lovely notes from Mary Bradford, Josephine Ren and Mrs Bauska, so that was nice. I will do a proper report of the week either tomorrow or on Saturday, but I just wanted to announce that my care package had arrived.

--Rachael

Report from Sick Bay (Report of the Week)

Sunday: Movie night watching the 1992 version of Wuthering Heights. Mocking and hilarity ensued.

Monday: Day 1 of mystery illness. I had a sore throat and felt really cold.

Tuesday: I don't think anything terribly exciting happened on Tuesday. Tuesdays are very rarely exciting.

Wednesday: Day of crisis. I discovered a lump in my neck, and automatically assumed I had cancer and that it was the end of all times. I called Mom and Dad in an absolute state of panic, and then called NHS 24 and talked to a real live nurse who confirmed Mom and Dad's diagnosis that it was a swollen gland due to me being ill rather than a cancerous tumour.

Thursday: Again, nothing exciting.

Friday: You would think that there would be something exciting because it's Friday, but no. What a let down.

Saturday: Nearly everyone was gone doing something or other, so there weren't many of us left to go out and do things. Amanda was in Edinburgh for a beginner's korfball tournament, Harry was in the wilderness somewhere for some OTC (Officer's Training Corps) thing, Miriam went home to Dundee because she is quite ill,  and Heather went home to Aberdeen for a visit. The rest of us (me, Sarah, Charlotte, Christina) went out to see Johnny English: Reborn. And that's it.

Sunday: Finally finished Great Expectations for my tutorial tomorrow! I was going to go out for fish and chips on the beach with the crew (now that they're all back), but my stomach suddenly starting hurting really badly, so I just went back to my room :( I can't wait to go to the doctor tomorrow and figure out what the flamingo is wrong with me.

--Rachael

Opening Ball (Report of the Week)

Friday: I went to the Mermaids opening party, and I talked to the director of As You Like It about being stage manager for the show. Unfortunately, since then and now I they got someone else to be stage manager. But do not despair! I will most likely be stage managering for this year's Fresher's Play, Medea, which is being put on by my Academic sister Mathilda and some other Mermaids friends Peter and Hamish (hay-mish). Peter and Hamish both study classics, so it's no wonder that they chose to put on Medea. I'm excited to work with them on this and to state manage again!

Saturday: St Andrews has its own Wine and Cheese society (and Sallie's even puts on its own Wine and Cheese events), but our group has come up with something better: Budget Wine and Cheese. We have our own events, and it's a lot more fun. This Budget Wine and Cheese event consisted of us gathering in my room and snacking on cheese that Amanda got from the St Andrews farmer's market (smoked garlic cheddar), fudge with walnuts that Miriam's sister made for her birthday, toffee popcorn, Charlotte's red pepper hummus and pita bread, drinking white wine from Tesco (I didn't have any), and also planning a weekend trip to the cheese farm where Amanda's cheese came from. We also watched Thelma and Louise. It was a good evening.

Sunday: The day before was Miriam's 18th birthday, but since she was up in Dundee with her family for the day, we decided to celebrate her birthday the next day. Sarah, Charlotte, Heather and I went shopping for Miriam's birthday present, and we ended up getting her a Tunnock's Caramel Wafers mug, and an owl keychain because she likes Tunnocks Caramel Wafers and always makes tea and hot chocolate, and because she has an owl pillow in her room. Then we went out to Bella Italia for Miriam's birthday, and I actually got to eat pasta for once! Yaaaay!

Monday: My first English tutorial was that morning, which went fine, but the only problem is that my Modern History lecture is right after my tutorial, so I was quite a bit late for my lecture.

Tuesday: Charlotte, Harry, Heather, Sarah, Amanda and I went to the library and were there until just about when the library closes at 2 am. Little did we know that that was not a good thing to do because...

Wednesday: morning at like 6 whatever AM, we had a fire drill. Not. Fun. Luckily for me I don't have any lectures or tutorials on Wednesdays, so I could go back to sleep, but Amanda has all of her lectures in a row from 9 until 12 so she had a rough day.

Thursday: Nothing too exciting except for the fact that I had one of the two most quintessentially British meals for lunch. I went to the bakery Gregg's because their food is cheap and I got a cheese and onion toastie (toastie = grilled cheese sandwich, basically) and a tea. I then went over to Tesco's for a bag of crisps. I loved it.

Friday: Had my other two tutorials, Social Anthropology and Modern History, and those went fine as well, and then went back out at 4 for my Social Anthropoogy lecture, which, on Fridays, is just a film. This week's film was...interesting. It's called Wild Man, and it's about these guys who have daddy issues and they all go out into the wilderness of Texas and crying/sharing/hugging circles to release their bottled up emotions about how their fathers treated them horribly and taught them to never show their emotions and blah blah blah. I could not stop laughing during this film. I knew that it wasn't supposed to be funny, but it just was.

Saturday: Mom's birthday! The Opening Ball! Lots of things going on. Before Dad left St Andrews, I gave him the present and card I got for Mom's birthday. I got her an apron that I had seen in a shop window that had "wee coloured birds" (as the shop lady had said) on it, and I got her a card with a bird (either a Kingfisher or a Kookaburra. Not sure which) on it as well. Mom likes birds, and she had told me that she wanted an apron for her birthday, so this was perfect. We left for the Opening Ball at approximately 8:30 in these claustrophobic buses and arrived in the middle of a field in who knows where. It was very confusing. For the first hour and a half or so it seemed to me that the "black tie" Opening Ball event was just people standing in a tent in the middle of a field. But then the group (Sarah, Charlotte, Harry, Heather, Amanda) and I got on the dance floor and then I started having fun. We got on the "early" bus back at 1:10 or so. It was a lot of fun, even if the beginning was misleading.

Me, Harry, Heather, Amanda, Charlotte

Me, Katie (sometimes part of our group but not always), Heather

Me, Sarah

Sarah, Amanda, Me

Amanda, Heather, Me

Heather, Charlotte, Amanda, Katie, Harry, Me

Heather, Amanda, Charlotte, Me, Harry

Amanda, Heather, Me

--Rachael

Report of the Week

Monday:

First day of classes, but I already talked about that, so let's move on. 

Tuesday:

Doctor Who society episode-watching party! Oh. Best thing ever. It's like going to Rocky Horror (the heckling, the fandom, the costumes/accessories...) but for Doctor Who. 'Tis a dream come true. 

Wednesday: 

No lectures :) I spent the day crossing things off my to-do list, like going out to the Community Hospital to fix my health forms. Apparently I forgot to sign somewhere and give them my student number. Before that I met up with Mrs. Minick (admissions lady I met at the College Fair last year) for coffee and that was lovely. I also went over to the School of English building and found out when my English tutorial (note: tutorial = small group discussion) was. Monday at 11 am. Not ideal, but whatever. My Wednesday freedom remains intact, which is good. I was worried about that when I filled out the tutorial form on Monday. I then spent the rest of the day finishing Wuthering Heights, the first book of the semester. It was such a beautiful day that I read outside, which helped ease the pain of having to read Wuthering Heights. I do not like that book. Pretty much all of the characters have some sort of mental illness and/or violent behaviour issues, and they all end up marrying each other, and it's just a mess. 

Thursday:

Instead of doing the smart thing, which was to walk to my 4:00 social anthropology class on the other side of town, I took the bus out there, because I was (am) sick, and didn't want to walk all the way out there carrying my huge bag. So I got on the correct bus, the number 92. When I got on, the driver said something about "golf course" I thought that he was talking about the stop that I get off at, the Old Course Hotel stop, so I said yes, got my ticket and sat down. The bus stopped at the stop before the Old Course Hotel stop, but then didn't stop at the Old Course Hotel stop. I wasn't worried at that point because I thought that he would stop soon after my stop. Well, he didn't. I ended up all the way in Leuchars, with only 20 minutes to spare. When I got off in Leuchars, the bus driver told me that he shouted at me to tell me to get off the bus, but I didn't hear him. Anyway, I managed to get a bus back into St Andrews, get off at the right stop, and get to my lecture...10 minutes late. The good thing is that all of the lectures this week have been "What is (insert subject here)?", so there hasn't been any substantive material yet. This coming week should pick up though...yay! I am a nerd and I want to learn! 

Friday:

The only lecture I have on Fridays is Social Anthropology, and on Fridays they show films, so today was a pretty light day as well. Before my lecture, I went out with Amanda, Harry, Charlotte, Miriam, Heather and Jamie for some ice cream, because it has been so warm and lovely here for the past week, and to stop at the stationery store to get a hole punch. Exciting, I know. After my lecture and dinner*, I went out to the Mermaids (performing arts group) party. I was excited to go to this party because I got the Mermaids announcements email, and in it there was an ad for a stage manager for As You Like It. I talked to the director at the party, and she said that she would love to talk to me more about it later. Who knows whether I will end up with the job, seeing as it's a big production and I'm just a first-year, but it's worth a shot. Sadly, my academic mum wasn't there; she is in Glasgow for the weekend. My academic did eventually turn up, but I didn't stay for too long after he arrived because I'm sick and therefore tired and in need of a lot of sleep. 

Speaking of, I am going to stop now and go to bed. 

Good night, 

--Rachael

*My group of friends and I have discovered that going down to dinner later spares you the pain of having to queue (stand in line) for so long for dinner. So we went down at about 6:15 (dinner starts at 5:45). The menu for tonight said that the mains were a) lamb pot pie b) turkey something-or-other and c) wild mushroom risotto. Seeing that there was risotto on the menu, I wasn't too worried. Well, turns out I should have been worried because there was no risotto left when we got to the entree station. Turns out the queue is so big at the beginning of dinner for a reason; otherwise all of the good food is gone! Anyways, so I was stuck with either lamb pot pie (which didn't even look like a pot pie) and the turkey thing which looked absolutely horrific. So I went with the lamb pot pie, solely because it had potatoes in it. But I did die a little bit inside. There wasn't even any dessert either. Usually there is a dessert, and a good one too, but tonight it was just like the fruit topping stuff that you might see served on top of ice cream, but with no ice cream. So I didn't get any of the "dessert" either. The only things I got to accompany my sad lamb "pot pie" were some carrots (steamed in Britain, therefore mushy and not very good) and carrot and coriander soup, which was the only good part of the meal. Unfortunately, I only have one Easy Mac left.

Sorting out my classes

Okay, so it's official. I have emailed my adviser and asked to switch to Modern History. It really is just impossible to get to the other side of town where the Linguistics class is right after my English class is over. I couldn't even do it today, when our english class consisted of only "Hi, welcome to English, fill out this form and then be on your way." Unfortunately, switching to Modern History means missing lunch. I will either have to figure out how to request a pack lunch from my hall or buy lunch everyday once English is over at 2:00. I guess this means I should start eating breakfast now. Good thing I stocked up on cereal.

--Rachael

PS. Why bother taking linguistics when there is Stephen Fry? See here, and here.

*Update: I am now in Modern History. Now I all I have to do is sign up for a tutorial and get a handbook.

The Union Ceilidh

was a bit disappointing, if I'm honest. There weren't as many people there as I thought there would have been, and the music wasn't as classic/traditional Celtic as I would have liked, and the directions were no better, maybe worse even, than those at the Sallie's ceilidh. Luckily, the Celtic society is having ceilidh lessons tomorrow.

Before that though...

me and my group of friends Charlotte, Harry, Sarah, Heather, Jamie, Miriam, Amanda and Christina attempted to make omelettes for dinner this evening. It didn't go too well. Some of the eggs from the frying pan fell down into the cooker (or some nether region of the oven/stovetop combo unit) and created a bunch of smoke, so we were really afraid that we would set off the fire alarm and everyone would hate us. We also I think shorted a circuit in the kitchen, so the toaster would spark when the toast popped out. It was a bit of a disaster. It's a good thing we tidied up really well.

 Tomorrow starts the first day of academics at St Andrews, while I am excited, I am terribly nervous (as well as confused) about how it is all going to work out. The linguistics module that I swapped for comparative literature is currently on the other side of town, right after my English class is over. If this is the case for the whole first semester, then I'm going to have to change my module...again...to modern history (although modern history this semester covers 1450-1770, so I don't know how that classifies as modern).

Hopefully I can talk to my adviser and sort this out.

I'm trying not to worry about it, but it really bothers me.

Anyway, I'm going to bed now because poor Amanda has her French class at 9 am tomorrow, and there's an aptitude test. Although in fairness, I am going to get up early as well to try and sort out some of these issues, and maybe clear off my desk, which looks like the result of an angry gorilla rampage.

Night all,
--Rachael

It's Saturday Night

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.