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