May 30, 2009

Hard to believe, it's time for the last update. My last weeks at St. Andrews were a juxtaposition (good scrabble word!) of beautiful weather and my own little personal raincloud of revising. A lot of stress was involved, but through studying hard and a bit of luck, all of my exams went just fine. St. Andrews has a tradition of soaking you after you take your last exam ever there, and I was no exception. The water was fortunately not too cold, and it was actually a lot of fun. Bidding farewell to my friends on the last day was a bit heartbreaking, and I hope to get to see them again. My original flight from Edinburgh to London was canceled, but I got one for the previous day with no problem, and after spending a night there, flew back home. Crossing the Atlantic was uneventful, except for an eerie series of random meetings. First I met a grad student from Virginia Beach who was going to school in Richmond who was on the same flight, then I met another girl from the same flight who was from Richmond who went to St. Andrews full time, in the line to get on the plane I spotted a girl in a W&M t-shirt, and talked to her, and finally my neighbor on the plane was a girl who lived 20 minutes away from me. When I got home, I really had forgotten how hot Maryland was, it's going to take some getting used to. I'm also working on sounding American again (trash can, not rubbish bin).

I know I haven't been the best at updating this blog, but if you're still reading it, thank you, I had a fantastic time.

Over and out.

Monday, May 17, 2010

I suppose this will be my penultimate blog post...only a couple more weeks left here, as scary as that is. It was my first week without classes this week, and I've been spending time revising for my exams; the first, Scottish history, was today, and I think I did all right on it. On Monday I talked some friends into going to the union quiz. While not a fantastic quiz, we did win it, and won a bottle of vodka. None of us really wanted it, so we asked for the receipt, returned it, and spent the money on some food for a barbecue, which we had on the beach tonight. Burgers, sausages, and kebabs, it was absolutely fantastic. I finally made it out for a game of golf, and snapped the standard iconic picture:
On Saturday, a friend had gotten some paintball vouchers, and invited me along, which was good fun, I still have the bruises (I won't show you the pictures of those). And now I've got two remaining finals, one on Thursday and one on Monday, and then a few days of freedom here!

Monday, May 10, 2010

So, I guess we're down to monthly blog posts. I won't, however, be one of those people who only updates his blog to apologize for not updating, so, moving on!
Life here settled into a pretty good routine my last few weeks here: classes during the week, going out Friday or Saturday or both. I did finally make it out to a whisky society meeting, it was an Indian man presenting Indian whiskys, and although he droned on a little, the drinks were quite good. I've also taken to visiting a pub called The Whey Pat on Tuesday evenings, when local people meet to play folk music, and it's wonderful to hear that music played in the setting it was intended for. And one other thing that I've been meaning to do which I've finally done is karaoke. My friend Kieth and I belted out "Livin' on a Prayer," doing fairly well (except for the high notes, which of course the guy running it cut the volume down for). I also tried an appletini, which is essentially drinking a Scrubs reference.
The evening of April 30th, we stayed up all night, followed by the May dip on the morning of the 1st. It wasn't very cold, it wasn't extremely cold. It was alarmingly cold, but totally worth it. That Sunday night, May 2nd, was the Castle Ceilidh, which was just phenomenal. It had rained all day, but by the time we had our dance, the weather was just picturesque (see Facebook for pictures).
The next week was filled with the last work of the semester to catch up on, with a couple people's birthdays scattered in to keep me from working too hard. I did finally get all my work done for the last day of classes on Friday, and planned to go out Friday night to celebrate. Knowing I'd be tired all night, if I didn't, I took a nap at 9:00 pm. I woke up at 9:00 am. Whoops. I did, however, make it to the Waltz on the West Sands on Saturday night, which was the alternative to the May Ball that did not cost 45 pounds. Bagpipes, bonfires, and good friends on the beach are a good combination. I did even end up doing some waltzing (I know how now, thank you Celtic society). Yesterday was a fairly lazy day, capped off with seeing Iron Man 2, which I liked even better than the first. Only a few weeks now until I leave, it's a bittersweet feeling. I guess I'll just have to make the most of the time I have here.

Apr 18, 2010

So, wow, wayyyyyy overdue post. Sorry about that, it's been busy here. The two weeks I spent traveling around the UK were just fantastic. Scotland included places like a "haunted" Carbisdale Castle, Loch Ness, whisky tasting (no, I didn't misspell whisky, look it up), and many, many, fantastic views of the Highlands. The second week in England gave me a chance to explore London more thoroughly, although I still haven't seen everything. I then puttered town to an absolutely picturesque little village called Rye, which was quite enjoyable. The next two days were spent with a friend at Herne Bay, near Dover. I did see the castle and get to fulfill my goal of listening to "Cliffs of Dover" at the cliffs of Dover. My next stop was Stratford-upon-Avon, which kept a lot of Shakespearean locations better kept than I was expecting. I finished off the trip going up to Manchester, staying with a friend there for a weekend, then heading back up to St. Andrews.
Monday and Tuesday were excellent, with two friends having birthdays on those days. I got to try rounders on the beach, which is like baseball, except without all the rules that encourage you to hit the ball pretty much. The rest of the week was substantially less fun, trying to get a paper in before my lab on Friday; to top it off, the lab consisted of sifting through seal poop. All they eat is fish. It doesn't smell good...
But then this weekend was once again a marked improvement, with a bonfire on friday, and a quiet evening playing card games and visiting the beach at night. I can't believe it's only a handful of weeks left here, I'll be back in the States before I know what has happened.

Happy birthday to one of my two readers, I think you know who you are. Hope you aren't any worse for the wear. This week, while starting off miserably attempting to turn a paper in last minute took a turn for the better. For details, see the last post. St. Patrick's day was fun, just a quiet evening at the weekly pub quiz. Less fun when I found out the next morning that one of the hall bathrooms had been absolutely trashed, removing the possibility of our Hall Ball, which I was looking forward to. On the bright side, the Celtic society's castle ceilidh should be exactly as much fun as it sounds. For pictures of the castle ruins, see facebook photos, then picture a ceilidh happening there. One week until my Easter break, so this may be my last post for a while, I haven't decided whether or not I'm bringing my laptop on my travels. I'll do my best to keep you all updated, though, and I'll take plenty of pictures!

I'm glad to hear everyone at W&M had a good spring break, it looks like Tom, Spencer, and Christian had a good time in DC. Life here has been fairly dull this past week, it's been a lot of paper writing, which is the reason I did not update on Sunday. It kind of works out poorly that I can only play video games on Sunday, but that's the day I leave all my work until. This last paper was literally the closest I've ever cut it. Due at 5:00, I finished at 4:45, discovered the hall printer was out of paper, sprinted to the library (which I still accidentally call Swem sometimes), printed it out, then literally sprinted to the other side of the town to the biology building to turn it in. I look as my watch as I'm dropping it in the box, it reads 4:59:00. Despite being very sleep deprived and having run very far, I did get myself to the dance classes last night, had a great time, came back to my room, and collapsed.
On the times when I wasn't working, I did go out to see The Hurt Locker, which absolutely deserved to win best picture, it was one of the best films I've ever seen. I was also introduced to a game called Jungle Speed, which besides sounding like a very intense drug, is a very fun game, although can turn to violence. Imagine combining Egyptian Ratscrew with Spit involving a wooden totem, that's pretty much it.
I had been wondering what I was going to do with my second week of spring break, and I've settled on just getting a Britrail pass and travelling around hostels in the south of England, seeing Gloucester, Cornwall, and Dover. And yes, I do intend to listen to "Cliffs of Dover" while at the Cliffs of Dover.

March 7

Really? It's March? Goodness. The workload for this semester has picked up, but it's papers as opposed to the usual midterms I'm used to. To be honest, I prefer the midterms, but I don't suppose that that will come across as a shock to anyone reading this. I've gotten one paper done on the relationship between Jacobites and Highlanders in early 18th century Scotland, and am now working on one for my biology class about different osmoregulation techniques in crabs and starfish. So, if anyone has any questions on either of those two subjects, I'm the man to go to. It's a good thing no one from William & Mary can come to visit me on your all's spring break, I'm going to be very boring this week, but will finally have some breathing room. I've actually learned about those two in my history class, and I've had to resist the urge to jump up and point to my William & Mary t-shirt.
I'm continuing to sniff out and go to any Ceilidh I can find. My legs are finally getting less totally exhausted, so the classes must be doing something good for me. I think I'm gonna attempt bumping it up to Intermediate classes (I know, I'm really good). The band last night was called Supercaleidhfragelistic, which amused me. Our team for the pub quiz sadly did not preform well this week, and another team got the 200 quid, so it's back down to 20 for next week. We did get the bonus round prize of a bottle of port, though, which was quite good.
I know my updates have been kind of mundane so far, but after I finish this paper, I'll have more adventures, I promise!

The end of February is upon us, don't forget to say "Rabbit Rabbit" tomorrow morning. After a bit of a slow start, the work is starting to pile up, I'm currently in the midst of procrastinating a paper on the Jacobites and Highlanders in Scotland for my history course. Other than that, my classes are quite engaging and enjoyable. After my years of having an amateur interest in folk music, my music class has been very useful in teaching me the theory, the instrumentation, and the performing of that genre, in addition to giving me a taste of Scottish classical music, something I had little experience in before. In my first of two biology labs, I was given the task of drawing hemolymph from the joints of crabs, which was an interesting new challenge. I suppose it's a little like drawing blood from one of those tiny cat veins, which is another point in favor of equine medicine; I have drawn blood from a horse, it is remarkably easier.
I've also figured out what I'm doing for my spring break, and I'm excited about it. After a weekend visit to a few friends in Edinburgh, the two weeks will be divided into a 5 day tour of the Higlands (it is a package tour, but looks like a fun worthwhile one), and the rest of the time spent with a vet in Yorkshire. Yes, I do want to be James Herriot, so what? I'll be sure to photograph my adventures in both areas.

Oops! Forgot to post yesterday. Although as anyone who knows me can tell you, it was bound to happen sooner or later. The weeks here are starting to fly by at an alarming rate, which is I suppose a good thing, as it's a clear indicator of the great time I'm having here. Another ceilidh was held this weekend, with some fantastic musical performances by the the chapel choir and instrumentals. Visiting the moonlit, frozen Scottish beach afterward was a unique and memorable experience.
The BBC iPlayer and the ability to stream it live have given me an ability not only to follow the Olympic games closely (good job, Bode Miller) but to also see some of what's on UK TV nowadays. Doctor Who, Top Gear, and QI have all quickly become favorites. I'll have to find some way to watch them when I get back to the states (shouldn't be too hard with the internet...)

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day.

I've experienced my first week of classes here at St. Andrews, and it looks like it's going to be a very enlightening and interesting semester. In my Scottish Music class, I was subject to a Scotsman reading me poetry by Robert Burns, which was a novel experience. My Scottish History class has also been intriguing, giving me a taste of a side of UK history that is often glossed over. While leaving that class the other day, I was reminded of the area I was in, as it was both sunny and rainy at the same time. My Biology of Marine Organisms class, while not heavy on the workload, looks to be my most challenging class, but also has potential to be my most entertaining. While it was hard to get excited in the first lecture about microbes I had already heard about countless times, it was thoroughly enjoyable to get an overview of the megafauna we'll be studying; the sharks, fish, whales, birds, and turtles that inhabit the oceans.
Friday evening I stayed up and watched the opening ceremonies for the Olympics, which was well worth it. While not as grand and massive as the Chinese opening ceremonies, I felt Canada did a good job conveying their culture and identity. The respect for for the late Georgian luge competitor was well done, I felt.
Carrie came up to visit from Edinburgh on Saturday, and it was a nice opportunity to finally do all the touristy things I've been meaning to do, including romping around the castle wearing a bright red robe, borrowed from a friend so I could get in for free. Today looks like it's going to be spent largely reading for classes, but I'll be sure to make some time to watch the Olympic events I can. Go team USA!

Well, my orientation is over and done with. Better than some I've had, but still with its fair share of redundant information (plagarism is bad over here too, who knew?). All in all I've had a good time over here in Scotland thus far. The academic wine reception they gave us on Thursday to meet the teachers was most enjoyable, even though none of the biology professors were there. On Friday, we had our advising and matriculation, which went rather smoothly, I'm guessing especially so as we were the only ones signing up for anything. I got all of the classes I was shooting for, which are Biology of Marine Organisms, Scotland, Britain, and the Empire 1603-2000, and Scottish Music. Hopefully I won't live to regret signing up for any of those. Friday night we had a Ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee), which was enormously fun. I tried haggis, which was suprisingly good, and danced a few Scottish dances, from which my calves are still burning. This morning I attended the service at St. Salvator's Chapel, which was an interesting non-demoninational service. There was a notice saying St. Salvator's choir needs tenors and basses, so I'm looking into signing up for that, fingers crossed. Later today I watched a rugby game, Scotland vs. France. Sadly, France came out the victor, but it'll be an interesting juxtaposition to tonight's Super Bowl.

I have arrived

So, after many long hours, I have finally made it to the University of St. Andrews. How were my travels, you ask? Well, be quiet, and stop asking questions, I'm about to tell you. I got a decent seat on my overseas flight, and due to the fact that the flight wasn't booked, no one was sitting next to me, allowing me some room to spread out. The other girl in my row, by coincidence was a 4th year med student who had gone to W&M (Class of '06). The bad news was that the person behind me was constantly kneeing my back, and the person in front of me had his seat back the entire flight. While vaguely irritating at times, neither was an enormous problem. The larger problem was when I arrived in Heathrow, I discovered that my connecting flight to Edinburgh was not in working order, per se, and I was delayed an extra hour and a half. When we did make our final decent, I was greeted with this view:
It had snowed unexpectedly all morning, and stopped just before we arrived. Then, I finally arrived at St. Andrews, the sun getting surprisingly brighter and brighter as we drove until it turned into a nice day. With some difficulty but with help from friendly St. Andrews students, I managed to finally get into my room:
It looks comfortable, and so far, isn't too cold. (We'll see about tomorrow morning...)

February 1, 2010, 4:31 (-5 GMT)

Although I most likely won’t be able to post this until my traveling is over, I wanted to write down my thoughts while waiting in Dulles for my flight to leave. I’ve said my goodbyes to my family, gone through security (it went surprisingly easy) and am currently waiting at gate B44 for my flight to Heathrow. I’d be lying if I said there weren’t a few butterflies floating around my stomach, but the feeling is largely counteracted by an enormous amount of excitement. The entire duration of the flights should be 10 hours, putting me in Edinburgh at about 9:20, GMT. Then, I move into my room, and my semester finally begins!

Welcome!

Hello all,

This will be my blog for my studies and adventures in Scotland. I'll do my best to update as often as possible, and I hope you enjoy reading it.

-Edward