Jet Lag

At the urging of several friends, I have decided to join the twenty-first century and blog. Why?

1) I'm in this really neat place I've never been before.

2) Supposedly I am a writer.

3) Peer pressure.

University of St Andrews: Day 1.

The town of St Andrews is about 45 minutes to an hour outside of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. The University and the town are completely intermingled, so there is no "campus" to speak of. Apparently, this happens with older Universities, and is also the case at Oxford and Cambridge. Fancy.

Also as in other old universities, St Andrews has Martinmas (fall) and Candlemas (spring) semesters. Wikipedia tells me that they are so named because they follow Scottish holidays from the Middle Ages. Both holidays were mostly for feasting, and Candlemas was the Purification Feast, or Presentation of Christ. People really do history here.

Despite the gloom and overcast skies (though, surprisingly, it is not raining), St Andrews is a beautiful town. The architecture is gothic, and most of the buildings are stone. It looks like I've just walked onto the set of Harry Potter. The bus dops me off at my hall (I paid big money for this service), which is set in a sort of courtyard, with St Salvators Hall at the center.

The man at the reception desk has a thick Scottish brogue, but I manage to catch "lift" and "top floor," so I find the elevator and take it up. My room is much bigger than in the dorms at Knox and I'm impressed with what the University has provided everyone (much more than we get in the States): a desk, wardrobe, clothes hangers, cork boards, a desk lamp, bed, sheets, pillows, duvets, duvet covers, set of drawers, bookcase, sink (in the room), free health care, a map, a pad of paper, a pen, the opportunity for me to put a picture of my choice on my student ID card as opposed to them snapping one of me jet lagging and already exhausted, and (get this) cleaning people who will come to clean my room and wash my sheets once a week - for me, a nice lady named Dawn who just popped in to say hi, and whom I can understand a little better than reception desk man. There's also a nice big radiator under a huge window, outisde of which I can see a pretty building across the street which I think belongs to the University, some garbage men throwing bottles away, what I'm pretty sure my map tells me is what's left of St Andrews Castle, and the North Sea. My roommate isn't here, though some of her stuff is. I spend a while checking all this out, and then go to sleep, since I didn't sleep all night on the plane.

When I wake up, it's dark outside. It's also about 4 p.m. local time, which is not comforting, since it was also dark when my plane landed in Edinburgh at 7 in the morning. There's probably little danger of sunburn here, though I may need some extra vitamin D.

My roommate still has not arrived, and after a while I wander downstairs alone to find out when dinner is. A sign standing at the bottom of the staircase tells me that, between semesters, dinner is served between 6 and 6:15. Luckily, it's around 6, also luckily, I hear some people heading downstairs, and also luckily, they're heading to dinner too and invite me to eat with them. One is from Boston (St Andrews is a pretty international school), one's from a town in Scotland where the accent must be pretty thick because I can't catch the name of it, and another is from somewhere in England.

The Brits certainly are not known for their food, and for good reason. For dinner, I can choose from a gray-colored soup, a small quiche, and either a plate of rice, limp veggies, and some sort of meat - probably lamb - or a plate of rice, limp veggies, and chicken with some red sauce on it. There's also a bowl of fresh fruit that doesn't look very fresh. In the future, I may have to get my nutriets from beer and whiskey, some things the Scots are better at cooking than food. The food was edible, though, and the company good. Plus, the dining room is wood-paneled and has stained glass windows. This has to count for something.

And here I am after dinner, blogging. I'm too tired to go out and do anything, and I still have all of tomorrow with nothing to do before orientation starts on Wednesday.

Things that have already pegged me as a stupid American:

1) At the border, getting in the line that said "UK/EU passports only" above it, and having to literally crawl under the railing to the side that said "all other passports."

2) Standing by the wrong side of the bus waiting for the door to open, alongside a bunch of other stupid Americans doing the same thing.

3) Not knowing which door to use to get in my building and wandering around it for about 10 minutes.

4) Using my dinner tray upside down.

Our reputation preceeds us.