February in Scotland - Week 2

Hello again, all ye blog-followers! Life is good here in St. Andrews. My classes started on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively. I am taking Politics and State Formation in the Middle East (for which I have a presentation about democratic capitalism in Turkey and a paper about political Islam due this semester) as well as The Political Theory of War and Peace (for which I will have to do two papers about political philosophy). They seem interesting enough so far, but they require tons of outside reading and research. I am still trying to figure out how much of the reading we are supposed to do since we are not expected to read all of the list for each week (sometimes there are 20+ possibilities), but are expected to be prepared to discuss the topic in the tutorial... I will let you know how that is going at a later date. I have finally met all of my flatmates: Becky, Connie, Jen, Charmaine, and Hanna. Charmaine and I went to a dress-up party on Tuesday night (we got both dresses for only 5 pounds). I think I employed the school marm look to good effect... Charmaine's dress had a distinctively mermaid-like shape, though, so I can't complain...

Yesterday it snowed here, so we all went on a sledding adventure in the evening, which was a crazy fun time. The 20 minute walk to class was less fun - I was soaked by the end of it! The rest of the week was beautiful, though, and I went on a walk to take some photos of the beach,

the harbor,

and the 12th-century cathedral ruins that I pass every day on my way into town.

I have many more photos of the cathedral, but I will have to post them separately for those who would like to see them. It won't let me upload any more to this post. That's pretty much all for now... Happy Friday the 13th and Happy Valentine's Day from St. Andrews!