May Week 1: Tradition!

Last week was one rooted in St. Andrews tradition. But before I tell you all about that, let me say a bit about the beginning of the week. On Tuesday, Becky, Jen, and I took a road trip to Glenrothes, where Becky is from. By the way, it is pronounced Glen-raw-this. Don't say Glen-rowths or people will think you are a posh English person. :) It was a lovely evening. Jen drove, we picked up some Indian take-out and then chatted with Becky's mum for quite a while. Glenrothes seemed okay to me, despite it's recently receiving the distinguished honor of being named one of the most dismal places to live in Scotland. Thursday began the weekend of time-honored St. Andrews tradition. We stayed up all night on Thursday and then, in the early hours of Friday morning (about 4 am), we wandered over to Castle Sands to participate in the May Dip. This involves going into the North Sea at dawn. It was COLD!!!!!!!! The May Dip is compulsory for those who wish to remove the curse associated with either stepping on Patrick Hamilton's (first Protestant martyr of the Scottish Reformation) initials in the cobblestones outside of St. Salvator's chapel, or academic incest (i.e. getting involved in any way with any member of your academic family. If you have done either of these things and do not participate in the dip, legend has it that you will fail your exams at the very least, if not your entire degree. Many people, such as myself, do it anyway, as a sort of important cultural ritual in St. Andrews. So that was the big deal of the week. Tradition continued over the weekend, however, with the annual Celtic Society (of which I am a member) Castle Ceilidh. It is the largest outdoor ceilidh in Scotland, and therefore probably the world. Needless to say, I went and danced my little heart out. :) After the ceilidh, there was also a torchlit pier walk. We bought our giant flaming sticks (I named mine Hamish) and then walked out onto the pier, following the kilted bagpiper. It was a pyromaniac's dream! (Here we see Stefan, Jess, and Tim with torches. Tim appears to be trying to blow his out.) What a fabulous end to the night and the week! Will have more posts coming soon, now that classes are over and I will no doubt need something to help me procrastinate from revising (also known as studying for exams). Until then! -Sylvia

Oh... some pictures of me on spring break to prove I wasn't pulling your legs...

I realized that none of the pictures I posted from my spring break trips actually prove I was at any of those places, but luckily Amanda and Beth have now posted their photos on facebook, so here are some pictures of me in Edinburgh, Paris, and Dublin...


Guarding Edinburgh Castle...



Climbing Sacre Coeur...


By I.M. Pei's Pyramid at the Louvre...


Mimicking one of the over 300 unique faces on Pont Neuf (legend has it that Henri IV invited all of his friends over for a party, got them drunk, and then had his palace sketch artist draw their faces... which he then had put on Pont Neuf)...
And at the Guinness factory.

I am very sure that several of these photos will make many of you laugh and long for the day that I can make such ridiculous faces in your presence once again... (Don't worry, I'll be back in six weeks!)

April Week 4 - Doing some actual work... plus fun

So, last week was mostly me working diligently on my giant essay about the role of political Islam in Middle East state-building. Since it is worth 40 percent of my grade for the module, I figured I better get it done. So, I spent Mon-Thurs working on that massive thing, in the midst of a week of beautiful weather... sigh. Becky and I took a break on Tuesday night, though, to watch Disney movies, which was pretty fantastic! Thursday night, after my paper was turned in, a bunch of us went to a VIP reception and the awards night for the Half Cut Student Film Festival, in which our friend Adam had his film "Stranger's Hand." The film festival is part of the On the Rocks Arts Festival, which is held every year in St. Andrews. Although Adam's film didn't win, the night was great fun and it was quite an achievement that his first ever film was up for the award. My friend Beth from Augsburg, who I visited in Dublin, came up for the weekend as well. It was wonderful to be able to share my Scottish experience with yet another friend. And Beth picked a particularly great weekend to come up, as events for the art festival were still on on Sunday. We went with Charmaine to an outdoor production of Much Ado About Nothing (my favorite Shakespeare play), which, while a bit wet from the rain, was nevertheless amazing! That evening we went to a ceilidh in the castle, so not only did Beth get to see lots of men in kilts, she also got to dance with them! Unfortunately all that fun meant that I had to pull an all-nighter to finish my last essay, due in Monday. But all was well... I finished it with several hours to spare and dropped it off while showing Beth around St. Andrews before seeing her off at the bus station. And that's it - no more course work, just exams. So that's all for now... Will post again early next week. XXX - Sylvia

April Week 3: Back to Reality... Kind of.

Well, the first week back ended up being rather a let down. At least academically, anyway. Both of the meetings for one of my classes were canceled (surprise, surprise) and the due date for my giant essay was moved back, giving me more time to work on it/procrastinate on it. The weekend was alright, though. Another of my friends from high school came to visit. Maddie has been studying the whole year in Munich (I'll be going to visit her after term ends). She brought two of her friends from Munich up for the day as well, Jill and Emily. I gave them the St. Andrews tour (I'm getting pretty good at it) (here's us on West Sands) and we made some delicious food for dinner before I had to take them back to the bus station. On Saturday I did a 16-mile charity walk for the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution), a volunteer coast guard/search and rescue service in the UK and Ireland. We went from St. Andrews along the Fife Coastal Path to Anstruther, home of the best fish and chip shop in Scotland (I can now say that I have eaten there - yay!). It was a beautiful day: not to hot and not raining. By the end of the walk I was absolutely knackered! The only unfortunate part of the walk was when one of our group, Kenneth, got hit by a way-ward golf ball... ouch! It was a great end to the weekend and I got to see some more of Scotland's amazing coast. More stories of life in the Scot-land to come soon... Love, Sylvia

The End of Spring Break: Easter/Charmaine's Birthday

Well, to make a long story short, I got pretty much no work done after I got back from Dublin because I had to prepare for the epic closing weekend of spring break. Liz, one of my friends from high school, and her friend Danni, who she's studying with in Rennes at the moment, came to visit me, so that added a great deal to the excitement and amusement of the weekend! (They were the first of many visitors in the last few weeks - it has been a blast!) Charmaine turned 22 on Easter Sunday, so we decided to have a house party on Saturday night to celebrate. The theme (I don't know if you can tell, but theme parties are kind of a big thing here) was Favo(u)rite Movie Characters. Most of you will be unsurprised to learn that I did not choose a regular, human movie character to dress up as... instead, I decided to dress up as Lumiere from Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Before he turns back into a human at the end. This required much planning, a yellow bedsheet, tissue paper, sewing skills, and hair gel. But, I think the result was well worth the effort: Liz and Danni were there as well, so we used some tartan blankets to turn them into extras from Braveheart. Also at the party were Holly Golightly, Sandy from Grease, G.I. Jane, Maria Von Trapp, and and several Tom Cruises from Risky Business. All in all a fantastic night! After that night of mischief and mayhem, I got up for church on Easter Sunday. Then I came back to prepare for the Easter picnic I had decided to host. For once in it's sad life, the weather decided to cooperate - it was one of the most beautiful days we've had since I've been in St. Andrews. We took our tartan blankets (the same ones used in Braveheart) out to the hill overlooking the beach and had a wonderful picnic with sandwiches, hard-boiled eggs, fruit and veg, and delicious treats. The American jelly beans were especially well-received (Thanks, Mom!). Given the lateness of the party the night before, the picnic was suprisingly well-attended (nearly 20 people in total) and made me feel very cool for having so many friends. Although that might have had more to do with the free food... hmmm... :) (Jen obviously is having a good time!) Later that day, I showed Liz and Danni around St. Andrews. On Monday morning they left and I had to get to working on everything I'd neglected over break... totally worth it, though! Until next time, Sylvia

Spring Break Week 1 - Dublin is Delightful!

Hey again! I spent the second weekend of spring break in Dublin visiting of one my friends from Augsburg (Beth) who is studying at UCD. She was kind enough to pick me up at the airport, let me stay at her apartment, cook me delicious food, and show me around Dublin all weekend. As a result, this trip was much less expensive and stressful than my Paris trip - thanks, Beth!

One of the first things we did was visit the Guinness factory. As long as you get within a several block radius of the factory, you can find it by following your nose. The smell is unmistakable! The exhibits were actually really informative and fun, plus you get a free pint of Guinness with your ticket. Drinking a pint of Guinness is like drinking bread. But anyway, you get your pint and drink it while enjoying it a 360 degree view of Dublin.

Later that day, we wandered around Dublin and saw some cool performers on Grafton Street and then went through St. Stephen's Green on our way home.

On Sunday (Palm Sunday it was), we went to Christ Church. They have an amazing choir, probably the best church choir I have ever heard. After the service, we had tea in the crypt. Best coffee hour venue ever. I think I can die happy now that I've had tea in a crypt. :)

In the afternoon, Beth and I went on a tour of Dublin Castle, which was really informative about Dublin and generally very cool. Also very cheap. I highly recommend this to anyone who visits Dublin. (I haven't included any pictures of this because the ones from outside didn't turn out that well and the inside ones are probably boring if you weren't actually there. Again, some of you will probably be subjected to them at a later date). We also saw the Dublin spire, which if you don't know what you're looking for, you will probably miss. We were almost right up to it before I realized it was there, which is why I don't have a picture of the whole thing. That night, Beth took me to her favorite pub and then it was off to bed so I could catch the 3:30 bus to the airport for my morning flight. A bit brutal, but the trip was more than worth it. Thanks again to Beth for putting me up... In a few posts you will see her, as she visited Scotland this past weekend. Much more to come, but that will be later today or tomorrow, since I need to get ready to go to lecture at the moment. Miss you all!

Spring Break Week 1 - Hanging out in Edinburgh

So, I almost forgot that I promised pictures of Amanda and my wanderings around Edinburgh (pronounced edin-burra) before we flew to Paris. We rode a double-decker bus (yay!) to downtown and then made our way to the castle, where we spent most of the afternoon before having lunch at a fantastic tiny restaurant that was plastered on the inside with old movie posters and celebrity photos. So, here are some pictures of our time at the castle:
Our tickets for entry. We have a similar photo of our tickets for entry to the Musee D'Orsay. I think we were trying to create a motif for our trip.

A view of Edinburgh from the Castle entrance. Amanda poses with a kilted bagpiper guarding the entrance to the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Regimental Museum located in the castle.
A fountain in the square at the foot of the giant rock the castle is built on. I got a bit too close and got splashed.

The giant rock and castle. Notice the wire mesh covering the hillside and the tiny orange workman. Our best guess is that they were trying to prevent falling rocks crushing people during tourist season. :) I'm planning on returning to Edinburgh at the end of term for more exploration, so hopefully I will have lots more to report about it then.