Uni Hall Ball!!

I apologize for posting so late, but I've been catching up on my reading assignments lately or hanging out. But despite my tardiness, I've got some fun adventures to share :-)

Each Hall has their own Ball each semester. Uni's Hall Ball was last Friday night and it was great. First, the night began with a themed dinner that started early at about 5:30 instead of the usual 6. One could have dressed up for dinner but I just couldn't because napping was far more important than getting ready at the time. I didn't feel too bad about not dressing up though because only a few people dressed fancy for dinner anyway. The meal was delicious! The menu consisted of wild rice, roast pork, red cabbage, and mango/pineapple honey beer sorbet (so GOOD) for dinner followed by vanilla ice cream with a chocolate syrup swirl covered in frozen white chocolate and shortbreak cookies with chocolate drizzled across the top for dessert. It was FANTASTIC!! After dinner was time to get ready for the ball.

May I just reiterate the Scotland is cold and windy, and my ball dress, pretty as it is, was not going to keep me warm. So, I had to put on my worst nightmare: pantyhose. Hoisery is probably one of the most uncomfortable pieces of women's clothing next to high heel shoes, which of course I had to wear as well. I don't think the pantyhose really kept my legs warm, but in my mind, I'd like to think the itchy discomfort was not in vain. Before going out the the ball, I looked like a hobo. I had my black ball gown on which hung low enough to see from beneath my big brown overcoat, multicolored gloves on, a blue/purple knit scarf around my neck, a big brown bag with my high heels protruding from the top, and my plaid multi-colored keds to save my feet for the dance from the walk to and from Younger Hall. It was an amazing get-up but at least I wasn't going to freeze entirely.

The Ball was in Younger Hall, as previously mentioned, which is on North Street, a bit of a distance away. But once we got there, it was apparent that the location was worth the walk. It was a large venue. The lobby area was designated for a full bar, a side table where free champagne was handed out early, and free ice cream from B. Jeanette's (a really good local ice cream shop). There was a separate cloak room to one side and then downstairs, there was a casino set up. The dance floor was pretty spacious. Before the ceilidh band got set up, a few dancers attempted to hold the crowds attention by dancing "Brazilian." Once the dancers exited (whoohoo!) the ceilidh band was ready to roar and they did. I don't know if I explained this before, but a ceilidh is a traditional dance that reminds me of super fast square dancing, involving kicking, stomping, clapping, rapid spinning, twirling, and a bit of river dancing. Basically the best thing ever!! I was able to dance with a few gents who knew what they were doing. And my French friend, Manuel, and I did a ceilidh round together. It was confusing but at the same time glorious and fun. After the ceilidh band left, a new band called Soul Food Cafe performed. They were awesome and played old-school favorites. And finally, the last few hours were DJed hits, including but not limited to Big Girls by Mika, Eye of the Tiger by Survivor, Wannabe by Spice Girls, Summer of '69 by Bryan Adams, Piece of Me by Britany Spears, and the Cotton Eye Joe... hahaha clearly it was still awesome!

I was saving my favorite part for last!! Almost every guy was wearing a kilt!! Usually I've only seen old men in their kilts, but young Scottish college boys in kilts are flippin' gorgeous and handsome. It's not about your trousers, America... in other words... the pants don't make the man, but a kilt will. ;-)

A little sherry goes a long way.

I haven't done a lot of church shopping yet, but I plan to very soon. These last two Sundays, I've just gone to St. Salvator's Chapel which is basically like the University Church service. Eric and I made it to Sunday morning service just in the nick of time and heard a great sermon. It was a guest speaker from a Baptist church across town. He was really good. I decided to take communion Sunday and I rather liked it. Afterwards, there is always sherry in the Hebdomadar's room (the Hebdomadar is what they used to call the disciplinary adminstrator back in the day... like 1500s or something... but it's a fun word to use). While there Cynthia and I talked to church leader named John for a bit, and just as we wrapping up the conversation and leaving, the Head Chaplain invited us to his house for lunch. It felt a bit random but we accepted... who would turn down a free homecooked meal??

The Chaplain's house is on The Scores! The Scores is the street nearest the beach and the golf course. Everything off of The Scores is expensive and fine. The houses are gorgeous, and most of the department offices are on The Scores. His house was so nice. Another girl, Rachel also came along. Rachel is from Holy Cross and knows my cousin Paige (small world!) and the guest Baptist preacher and his wife joined us as well. The head Chaplain's wife prepared a lovely meal. We had vegetable lasagna, peas, lima beans, and chuttney. It was all so good especially the lasagna! Then she brought out the pudding (that's the term for any dessert) which was a black current and apple crumble with ice cream. I had two servings of that! I haven't really been full this whole time since then. Then we all retired to the parlor for tea and coffee. It all felt so proper. We chatted about the different cultures and they explained Scottish and British slang words and we shared some American lingo. It was so funny. We were there for about two and half hours. As we were all leaving, the Chaplain asked Cynthia and I to read one Sunday during service. It's all pretty exciting!

Today, Dr. Evans female, invited just the girls over to her house for afternoon tea and snacks. She made great strawberry/rasberry tea and brownies. The Evans' house is amazing. Just walking through the neighborhood to get to the house makes me want to move here for good. Scotland is so pretty. We spent a good 3 hours at the house just chatting. It was interesting to hear Dr. Evans open up to us. She told us about how her and Dr. Evans male first met, dated, and whole marriage thing. They're an interesting couple those two haha. It was a good time.

This Friday is the Hall Ball. The theme is a mascarade at a Brazilian Carnival! I can't wait! I'm really excited and I hope to find my French dance partner there. I love Uni Hall.

Boob cakes, Togas, and Castles

Wow... So Tuesday and Wednesday were great days. Wednesday was our first Baylor class which will be interesting and practical, plus I like our group. Thursday was of course Valentine's Day. I think it was the best Valentine's Day I've had thus far. Usually Val's Day makes me think of S.A.D. (Singles Awareness Day), but instead this one did not. Us Baylor kids decided to have our own little Valentine's Day party. So all of us agreed to wear red or pink Thursday and meet up at dinner and do something fun together afterwards. That day, waiting for Jesus and the Gospels to start, four girls stood at the steps of School 1 obviously looking for someone. Then this girl appears down the steps, and they sing to her and by the end of the song, her boyfriend has appeared and gives her a big hug and kiss. Usually this would gross be out but it was really cute. I want singing acapella friends. ;-)

The special Valentine's Day dinner was shark! Umm... it was an experience. One that I don't intend to repeat. hahaha. But after dinner, we went to the ever-popular Tescos and got wonderful chocolate, discount baked goods from this morning, and drinks. From there we headed to Julia's apartment to eat, party, and watch a movie. Marshall appeared at the party with a cake... but not just any cake. This cake was a Boob Cake. Yes, complete with bra. hahaha. What a way to say Happy Valentine's. After devouring the Boob cake and sharing a few laughs, we all watched Love Actually! which I absolutely love and is just the right love movie for a love day.

Friday was glorious this time around. I didn't have class because tutorials don't start until this coming week, in which, I will only have a 10 o'clock tutorial on Friday! Friday was good and lazy, but followed but Uni Hall's Toga party. I believe all the halls had parties, but ours was of course the best. Togas, music, and a vodka bar. I really think my hall loves vodka... But anyway it was fun just to hang out with the girls and guys of Uni. And the dancing was so fun. After the toga feast ending here, it carried on to the Union for a Toga Bop or to the Lizard Bar. I was dragged to the Lizard despite severe fatigue, but we couldn't go in because the line was extremely long and it was cold and therefore not worth it. After all of that sleep is all I wanted.

So this morning was Edinburgh trip day!! WHOOOHOOO! We caught taxis to the train station and then took the train to Edinburgh from Leuchars. Edinburgh is by far one of the most amazing cities ever. It's the capital of Scotland and the second largest city behind Glasnow. We visited the Art Gallery, the castle, walked the Royal Mile, and just got to be really touristy. I took a picture with a bagpipe player in a kilt outside of a magnificent church. It basically made my life! Around dinner we divided up to have better chances at seating, and Daisy, Cynthia and I found ourselves at this little place called El Barrio which is supposed to be Mexican/Cuban/Latin. Well I ordered fajitas and got a burritto that was nowhere close to a real burrito! But what can you expect?? I doubt there's a lot of Mexicans in Scotland or the right ingredients. The sour cream turned out to be cottage cheese and the salsa was more like marina sauce... hahaha. Scotland is so amusing.

Boozeday Tuesday

HAHAHA. I love the Scots! Apparently, Tuesdays have been called Boozeday Tuesdays because Tuesday night is the night to hang out, party, and drink the most. Tuesday night started out with a hall meeting with a talk from one of the THREE cops in St Andrews (can you believe that there are only 3 cops here?!?!) and the warden. It was a short meeting about safety and things, and was very much like hall meetings at the beginning of the year at Baylor. Then we were dismissed for our hall parties. I've come to realize that the residence hall that I live in is like one big sorority house and fraternity house combined. A hall, my lovely hall which is mixed and always busy, had an interesting tropical theme. In the middle of the hall the moved tables to serve coke and vodka and cake on. And then put Pringle cans over the motion sensors so the lights wouldn't turn on. They converted the hallway into a real party complete with loud music and balloons. The other floors were less exciting but had more food items to choose from which is always a plus. From the hall party, every goes drunk to the Union to get more drinks, only this time you have to pay, and then moves from the bar side of the Union to the club side of the Union to dance. It's an experience. They played 'crank dat soulja boy'!!!! It was great hearing the people around me sing it in different accents. Then that was closely followed by an interesting remix of Bittersweet Symphony.

Today, we were planning on going to Perth, but early in the morning around 7. That didn't happen. I went to sleep after 2 and 6 o'clock just didn't happen. But no one else went either, so I don't feel too bad. At least I wasn't left out. Instead, when I finally did wake up, I went into to town to buy books, and there saw a Chinese New Year celebration on Market Street with about 3 Asians participating. Then I got the most wonderful jelly-filled, sugar-coated pastry from Tescos for only 12 pence (cents). So I got two. I'm going back everyday for those things; they are that amazing.

Tonight was the required Baylor, Philosophy of Religion class. It went well and I really like our group. We went out for drinks with Dr. and Dr. Evans to a nice pub. Eric, Cynthia, and I left and came back however, because the three of us missed dinner so we just grabbed a burger from this cheap and good place called One O One Connection. The first real week is not even over yet, but it feels like it's been a month already. I guess it's because everything is so overwhelming and different still. But I just love this place. It's great.

Happy Early Valentine's Day!

Modules

First, I would like to apoligize for the lack of pictures. I have tons of gorgeous pictures but I can't put them on the computer yet because I don't have internet in my room and these computers in the lab (my current location) are resricted. But I will have some pictures here soon. ITS called me this morning on my way out the door to tell me that someone should be by in the next... 48 hours... maybe.

So... Today was the first day of modules. My first class is at 10: Church, Rituals, and Politics. I think I'm going to love it. There will be dancing during the first half because we are studying Christianity in Latin America and Africa and then the second half will cover Celtic Christianity and church in the UK, so there will be hymn singing. :-) This makes my heart happy. My second class is called Jesus and the Gospels and the prof. is great. My history class: Scotland, Britian, and the Empire 1603-2000 sounds like it should be great but it's hard to tell because the prof. was very quiet and lacked personality. But I don't want to judge him too hard. This was the first "lecture" and we were there for about 15 minutes out of 60.

After class, Julia, Victoria, and I were all going to meet up at Tescos (which is a ghetto HEB equivalent) to hang out for an hour until the reception at St. Mary's school of divinity. At Tescos I found my new good friend Katryn, who has been showing me the ropes, and we hung out until the others arrived and we all went to B. Genneva's for some very delicious ice cream. When 4 rolled around, the reception began. First of all, this reception is held by the School of Divinity which is equivalent to Baylor's religion department. We were given our choice of red or white wine while we chat with the divinity profs. I talked for quite some time to a couple of grad students named Fiona, a wife and mother probably middle-aged who is Presbyterian, and Kenny, a young crazy Catholic kid that wants to work with addicts. Kenny was absolutely hilarious and the two of these kids together with all the free wine was an amazing combination of laughes. At the end of the reception, we were all invited to go out to a pub with some of the divinity TAs?!?! I love Scotland. Baylor would never allow this. Could you imagine, the Baylor religion department serving free white and red wine at a reception and then taking students out the pub afterwards?!?!

Well, then there's a thing called a 'Bop' tomorrow night which will be free at the Union. It's supposed to be like a big dance party. The Union of course will be selling cheap drinks and food, and apparently everyone goes and it's a lot of fun. Then our residence hall is hosting a toga party this Saturday and a Ball the following Saturday. And these events are catered with free drinks... this is my residence hall?!?! Can we say CULTURE SHOCK?!?! I wonder how these ideas would go if presented to the social committee at Brooks?

Culture Shock!

Clearly, life in Scotland is a bit different then America. But St. Andrews is nothing like Baylor.

First shock: As new students we were invited to a reception to meet professors from all the different schools (departments). The reception was held in the Student Union building. I hadn't been it in yet, but oh my goodness!! The bottom floor is called The Bop which consists of a Bar with apparently the cheapest drinks in town and a dance floor. Baylor's SUB definitely doesn't have a bar in it. Then, the reception, which was on the top floor that reminded me of a smaller 5th floor Cashion, has a stage, sound system, and lighting for future concerts, I suppose, turns out to be a wine reception. One of the advisors then asks us what we are studying, asks if we prefer white or red wine. She wasn't going to tell us who to talk to until she had poured us a glass of wine. Drinks all around in Scotland!

Second shock: My residence hall is co-ed. In the past the hall was divided by different floors but because they are refurbishing the hall, they have rearranged us all to fit I guess. A floor is mixed, B floor is boys, C floor is girls, and D floor is mixed. I'm on A floor so I was expecting to see boys of course. A floor is shaped like a 'T' and I hadn't seen many people. I had only seen a guy on the other side of the 'T' from my side so I figured that the guys were on that side. Apparently I was wrong. Thursday morning, I woke up to take a shower and was locking my door with only a towel wrapped around me, and there I see a guy two doors down from me. Unfortunately, he was fully clothed and passed by me with that headnod thing... Then after hanging out all day, I returned to the dorm to freshen up in my room before dinner and my hall was filled with guys! Apparently the room directly across from me is a guy. And about 6 six blokes were gathered around a round table (that they probably swiped from the common room) and each with a large beer and were playing poker in the middle of the hallway!... MY HALLWAY! At least during this encounter, I wasn't naked...

Third shock: There are very few Scottish boys that go here. I've mostly only meet other new Americans or English fellows. Sad day :-( But never fear, I'm sure my Scotsman is here!

Fourth shock: There is no class on Wednesday. This is because football (soccer) is such a big deal. I hope to take a trip to Edinburgh to watch Scotland play England! It promises to be a good match. Apparently the French whipped the Scots last match... poor Scotland. :-(

Storytime

The last post covered my adventure to Le Rendezvous with Cynthia for lunch. That seems forever ago. So much has happened and I'll do my best to recount all that's important or funny or cool to tell. After lunch, Cynthia and I walked around and did a bit of shopping until dinnertime. The dorms each have there own private dining halls and you're only really supposed to go yours. I guess this is a good thing because each hall becomes such a tight family. Dinner is promptly at 6 and ends at about 6:45 because it's still holiday hours. It's unlike Baylor. There's a small window of time when you can enter the dining hall and once it's over you leave and can't come back until the next meal. If you miss it, then it's too bad and you have to go eat somewhere else and pay. After dinner, most of us met back up at 8 for drinks at Vick's. Four of us split a bottle of wine (Chardonnay) ironically from the US (California to be specific). Then planned for Thursday activities since it was free day and there was nothing planned.

A few of us, Cynthia, Eric, Joe and I thought it might be fun to take a trip to Edinburgh. That Thursday morning, I didn't really want to go because the Evans' hadn't given us our Britrail passes which means we would have payed almost £20 ($40) roundtrip and that's without considering food. So that was a NO! So instead we meet up at the bus station and from there decided to walk to the castle and check out the mines and remaining dungeons. It was so neat. The mines were narrow, low, and hard to breath in. But it was all really fun. Then we had lunch and went back out with more people to check out what's left of the old cathedral! I paid £4 to get into the St. Regelus' tower and the view from there is absolutely breathtaking (or maybe that was the hundred+step winding spiral staircase.) And then we went along to the West Sands. The beach is gorgeous, but there is no way I'm getting in that water. They say it's warm, but by warm I think they just mean not frozen. Afterwards, it was dinner again and then Thursday nights are £1 at The Raisin. I tried the apple cider beer that was surprisingly good, and met up with a girl I'd met earlier from my hall. Her name is Kathyrn and she's a first year from Boston, but she's going here for all four years and getting her degree. She introduced us Cynthia and I to some really crazy and fun people.

Funny story: We're standing outside of The Raisin getting ready to head back to the dorms and we meet these two guys. One named Fox from Tenn. and the other I believe was Daz, a Scotsman. I think Daz was tipsy and dares us to disprove that he's not a real blackbelt. And then out of no where he just punches Fox in the stomach. Poor Fox looks likes he's in real pain or the punch to gut was going to make him puke. But then Daz says, "Don't worry, if I punch you, you're fine, but if I kick you, you're fucked," in that authentic Scottish accent. And there was much laughing and forced hugs that followed.