The Last Days in Scotland
I am far too behind in my weeks in reviews of my time at St Andrews to even attempt to write everything down, but I do want to try to record the best events of my last two months in Scotland before they grow any dimmer in my memory. So here goes:
Trip to Edinburgh with Alex, Sarah, and Elaine: A Shopping Expedition of Epic Proportions. An attempt to find costumes for Alex's and my joint birthday celebration in May: Nymphs and Nomads. Although we found some sparkle hairspray, we didn't find much else...but we enjoyed perusing a marvelous vintage store on Haymarket street! I found some black elbow-length gloves for Hall Traditions Ball and then we enjoyed window shopping along posh Princes Street before collapsing on the train back to Leuchars.
Easter Morning in St Sallies. A packed chapel and then the Oak Rooms with Alex, Lydia, Carolyn, and Gillian for an Easter dinner. Here I was "adopted" by both Alex and Carolyn! :-) I have two mommies!
Ma Bells Cheezy Tuesdays. All of them. With Alex and sometimes either Elaine or Gillian we danced the night away, tried Goldschlager and then went to the Bop for more dancing. Oh. And I wore sketchy clothing, courtesy of Alex. My "mother" has a bad influence on me.
The 57th/67th Annual John Burnet Hall Traditions Ball, founded 2005. Held in the Scores Hotel, there wasn't much dancing, but it was full of good banter...including with some very good-looking atholl guys who allowed me to get photos with them! Ahhhhh...the crushes of the merry sister of fate.
The Valedictory meal; our last formal meal. All the fourth-years gave speeches and we had boat races before going to TP's (our hall pub) for after-dinner drinks. Much coining ensued. The dinner also involved a very strange, very long, very phallic carrot.
A trip to the playpark with Elaine and Sarah! We had the LotR photo shoot - Frodo and Gollum on Mount Doom, Elaine and Sarah chained up by Orcs, etc, etc. Very fun and it ended with a trip to West Sands where the tide was all the way out. It was mysterious and somewhat eerie to walk across the damp sands into the dark abyss holding only the sound of waves, but no sight of them. Afterwards we walked into town to Empire where I discovered the guilty pleasure of chips and cheese. Yummmmmm.
The Homerathon! Alex and I joined Victoria in raising awareness and funds for the sponsored charities by standing on the street corners dressed as Aphrodite, Athena, and a sea nymph. We ourselves collected over 100 pounds sterling for charity and had a great time doing it. That same day was crowned by my first Team Flat party: Sci-Fi Mania. I was in fancy dress all day! Wore the treasure I found in one of the charity shops: a black lycra catsuit. I went as Emma Peel from the Avengers, complete with a gun made out of a toothbrush holder and aluminum foil. Met the inhabitants of Team Flat - Chris, Gordon/Quagmire, Nick and Frank - they used to live in John Burnet. Stayed talking to people at the party until 4 am, including a guy who went to high school (in Peru!) with the girl who lived next to me freshman year at w&m. Small world, eh?
The May Dip on the first of May. Alex and I stayed up all evening watching films and talking with various people in hall before preparing to immerse ourselves in the North Sea at dawn (a uni tradition). There was a long queue to get down onto Castle Sands and it was miserably cold and trying to rain, but we ran into the sea together to fulfill the tradition. It was sooooooo cold!
The Dance Show - with Elaine, Lydia, Desiree, and Blair. Pretty well done and it was amusing to watch Irish dancing accompanied by Beyonce's "Lose My Breath."
Elaine and Sarah's Birthday Bash - a good dinner at the Grill House to celebrate the early May birthdays of the crew. Unfortuately I had to leave early to finish an essay and a bunch of lab reports. This was the week that Alex and I figured out that we worked best accompanied by one another in her room. Surprisingly we accomplished more (even with frequent five minute study breaks and a longer break for chips and cheese) when studying together than we did on our own. This was a precursor to the "joys" of revision week and exams.
The Last Day of Classes...celebrated by the traditional Crusaders vs. Jihad Pub Crawl! Yes, I know it is terribly politically incorrect, but it was a heck of a lot of fun. Costumes for both teams and then to the pubs Monty Python galloping or camel-ing respectively. TP's, The Lizard, Aikmann's, The Central, The Gin House, The Whey Pat, The Central, and The Castle Tavern. Then to the bop for post pub crawl dancing!
Castle Ceilidh! It's a ceilidh...in a castle. It was also a horribly blustery and chilly evening, but fun nontheless to ceilidh dance in the ruins of the St Andrews Castle. Then there was the torchlit pier walk afterwards. Plus the Celtic Soc Committee made lots of money. Yay! They can hold Highland Ball again next year! (Too bad I won't be able to make it!)
Euro Soc barbecue on East Sands. It was cold and sand got into everything, but it was fun to talk to friends and then walk back with Alex and Dutchess in a glorious sunset. Got ready in Alex's room for the Bop with our recently put together Bop playlist and then to another Cheezy Tuesday and (unfortunately) a rather sketchy Bop.
The walk along Lade Braes with Elaine and Lydia. It was a gorgeous day and we got to visit another playpark! Flowers were starting to bloom and it was nice to find pastoral beauty in the middle of St Andrews...I wish I had found it sooner! We climbed a hill and then sat down and made daisy chains. :-) A very innocent break in the midst of revising.
Watching Rocky Horror Picture Show with Alex. I now need to find a showing so I can truly experience it!
The spur-of-the-moment trip with Alex to Alnwick Castle and Gardens and then Durham. Alnwick Castle - Harry Potter's first quidditch lesson was filmed here and the state rooms were dripping with opulence. Alex and I approved of the current Earl's drinks cart in the library and I drooled over all of the amazing books stored there. The State Rooms were a nice respite from the cold weather outside. We ended up wearing all the clothes (including our pajamas!) we had brought along for our overnight. We tried to warm up with hot chocolate in the courtyard cafe, but our table was stolen by an elderly couple. Then it was off to the gardens where we marveled at the Grand Cascade, ran across the swinging rope bridges of the Treehouse, went into raptures over the beauty of the trained fruit trees and didn't touch, eat, or smell anything in the poison garden. We met aardvarklf in Durham and had a relaxed and quiet evening in her house.
Team Flat's 80's Party. Woohoo! Such memories...and then the Bop! (There were Bops every night of the last week)
John Burnet's Traditional Garden Party. People spread all over the warden's garden eating barbecue and drinking two varieties of hall punch. Then there was the binning (put upside down into a trash can) of Mike (next year's senior stud) and the burning (carried out to the old course and thrown into the picturesque burn (stream) there) of Dardar and TAB. Huzzah for John Burnet's Traditions.
That evening was the Rocky Horror Bop. The most memorable events of the evening - everyone wishing me a happy birthday at midnight and Orkney Rob showing up in Cece's skirt and a stuffed bra. Oh my.
Birthday picnic in St Mary's quad! Frollicking around in the Divinity library!
The Nymphs and Nomads party - jello shots, circle of chat, and "Baby, if you love me..." followed by a short stop at Ma Bells and then the Bop! We had bought flowers for the party and still had quite a few left...so Alex and I enjoyed handing them out to random guys at the Bop...and then noticing them wearing the flowers in their buttonholes, behind their ears, etc for the rest of the night!
My last day at St Andrews was drizzly and cold. But front hall was still warm (my radiator still being turned on), the banter was good, the music cheezy, and the final Bop was fun until it got too crowded. Then I stayed up the whole night with Alex and a tearful goodbye before I left very early that morning for the airport.
Trip to Edinburgh with Alex, Sarah, and Elaine: A Shopping Expedition of Epic Proportions. An attempt to find costumes for Alex's and my joint birthday celebration in May: Nymphs and Nomads. Although we found some sparkle hairspray, we didn't find much else...but we enjoyed perusing a marvelous vintage store on Haymarket street! I found some black elbow-length gloves for Hall Traditions Ball and then we enjoyed window shopping along posh Princes Street before collapsing on the train back to Leuchars.
Easter Morning in St Sallies. A packed chapel and then the Oak Rooms with Alex, Lydia, Carolyn, and Gillian for an Easter dinner. Here I was "adopted" by both Alex and Carolyn! :-) I have two mommies!
Ma Bells Cheezy Tuesdays. All of them. With Alex and sometimes either Elaine or Gillian we danced the night away, tried Goldschlager and then went to the Bop for more dancing. Oh. And I wore sketchy clothing, courtesy of Alex. My "mother" has a bad influence on me.
The 57th/67th Annual John Burnet Hall Traditions Ball, founded 2005. Held in the Scores Hotel, there wasn't much dancing, but it was full of good banter...including with some very good-looking atholl guys who allowed me to get photos with them! Ahhhhh...the crushes of the merry sister of fate.
The Valedictory meal; our last formal meal. All the fourth-years gave speeches and we had boat races before going to TP's (our hall pub) for after-dinner drinks. Much coining ensued. The dinner also involved a very strange, very long, very phallic carrot.
A trip to the playpark with Elaine and Sarah! We had the LotR photo shoot - Frodo and Gollum on Mount Doom, Elaine and Sarah chained up by Orcs, etc, etc. Very fun and it ended with a trip to West Sands where the tide was all the way out. It was mysterious and somewhat eerie to walk across the damp sands into the dark abyss holding only the sound of waves, but no sight of them. Afterwards we walked into town to Empire where I discovered the guilty pleasure of chips and cheese. Yummmmmm.
The Homerathon! Alex and I joined Victoria in raising awareness and funds for the sponsored charities by standing on the street corners dressed as Aphrodite, Athena, and a sea nymph. We ourselves collected over 100 pounds sterling for charity and had a great time doing it. That same day was crowned by my first Team Flat party: Sci-Fi Mania. I was in fancy dress all day! Wore the treasure I found in one of the charity shops: a black lycra catsuit. I went as Emma Peel from the Avengers, complete with a gun made out of a toothbrush holder and aluminum foil. Met the inhabitants of Team Flat - Chris, Gordon/Quagmire, Nick and Frank - they used to live in John Burnet. Stayed talking to people at the party until 4 am, including a guy who went to high school (in Peru!) with the girl who lived next to me freshman year at w&m. Small world, eh?
The May Dip on the first of May. Alex and I stayed up all evening watching films and talking with various people in hall before preparing to immerse ourselves in the North Sea at dawn (a uni tradition). There was a long queue to get down onto Castle Sands and it was miserably cold and trying to rain, but we ran into the sea together to fulfill the tradition. It was sooooooo cold!
The Dance Show - with Elaine, Lydia, Desiree, and Blair. Pretty well done and it was amusing to watch Irish dancing accompanied by Beyonce's "Lose My Breath."
Elaine and Sarah's Birthday Bash - a good dinner at the Grill House to celebrate the early May birthdays of the crew. Unfortuately I had to leave early to finish an essay and a bunch of lab reports. This was the week that Alex and I figured out that we worked best accompanied by one another in her room. Surprisingly we accomplished more (even with frequent five minute study breaks and a longer break for chips and cheese) when studying together than we did on our own. This was a precursor to the "joys" of revision week and exams.
The Last Day of Classes...celebrated by the traditional Crusaders vs. Jihad Pub Crawl! Yes, I know it is terribly politically incorrect, but it was a heck of a lot of fun. Costumes for both teams and then to the pubs Monty Python galloping or camel-ing respectively. TP's, The Lizard, Aikmann's, The Central, The Gin House, The Whey Pat, The Central, and The Castle Tavern. Then to the bop for post pub crawl dancing!
Castle Ceilidh! It's a ceilidh...in a castle. It was also a horribly blustery and chilly evening, but fun nontheless to ceilidh dance in the ruins of the St Andrews Castle. Then there was the torchlit pier walk afterwards. Plus the Celtic Soc Committee made lots of money. Yay! They can hold Highland Ball again next year! (Too bad I won't be able to make it!)
Euro Soc barbecue on East Sands. It was cold and sand got into everything, but it was fun to talk to friends and then walk back with Alex and Dutchess in a glorious sunset. Got ready in Alex's room for the Bop with our recently put together Bop playlist and then to another Cheezy Tuesday and (unfortunately) a rather sketchy Bop.
The walk along Lade Braes with Elaine and Lydia. It was a gorgeous day and we got to visit another playpark! Flowers were starting to bloom and it was nice to find pastoral beauty in the middle of St Andrews...I wish I had found it sooner! We climbed a hill and then sat down and made daisy chains. :-) A very innocent break in the midst of revising.
Watching Rocky Horror Picture Show with Alex. I now need to find a showing so I can truly experience it!
The spur-of-the-moment trip with Alex to Alnwick Castle and Gardens and then Durham. Alnwick Castle - Harry Potter's first quidditch lesson was filmed here and the state rooms were dripping with opulence. Alex and I approved of the current Earl's drinks cart in the library and I drooled over all of the amazing books stored there. The State Rooms were a nice respite from the cold weather outside. We ended up wearing all the clothes (including our pajamas!) we had brought along for our overnight. We tried to warm up with hot chocolate in the courtyard cafe, but our table was stolen by an elderly couple. Then it was off to the gardens where we marveled at the Grand Cascade, ran across the swinging rope bridges of the Treehouse, went into raptures over the beauty of the trained fruit trees and didn't touch, eat, or smell anything in the poison garden. We met aardvarklf in Durham and had a relaxed and quiet evening in her house.
Team Flat's 80's Party. Woohoo! Such memories...and then the Bop! (There were Bops every night of the last week)
John Burnet's Traditional Garden Party. People spread all over the warden's garden eating barbecue and drinking two varieties of hall punch. Then there was the binning (put upside down into a trash can) of Mike (next year's senior stud) and the burning (carried out to the old course and thrown into the picturesque burn (stream) there) of Dardar and TAB. Huzzah for John Burnet's Traditions.
That evening was the Rocky Horror Bop. The most memorable events of the evening - everyone wishing me a happy birthday at midnight and Orkney Rob showing up in Cece's skirt and a stuffed bra. Oh my.
Birthday picnic in St Mary's quad! Frollicking around in the Divinity library!
The Nymphs and Nomads party - jello shots, circle of chat, and "Baby, if you love me..." followed by a short stop at Ma Bells and then the Bop! We had bought flowers for the party and still had quite a few left...so Alex and I enjoyed handing them out to random guys at the Bop...and then noticing them wearing the flowers in their buttonholes, behind their ears, etc for the rest of the night!
My last day at St Andrews was drizzly and cold. But front hall was still warm (my radiator still being turned on), the banter was good, the music cheezy, and the final Bop was fun until it got too crowded. Then I stayed up the whole night with Alex and a tearful goodbye before I left very early that morning for the airport.