Apologies!

Hello everyone!
Sorry for the outrageous delay in updating my blog, honestly there isn't too much to report on, but I'll get on a new report soon. Please hang in there :) I'll be sure to write about everything since my previous post including a British Christmas, dull Scottish new years, a trip to the states and getting back in the swing of things here.

Cheers!
Tori

Rasin Weekend & Foam Fight

If you know anything about St. Andrews, you have probably heard about Raisin Weekend. There is a tradition here of having academic families, Steve is consequently the dad of most of us in Deans Court and our friend Katharina is our mum, given they were both undergraduates here. The weekend of Raisin Monday, you basically have loads of parties, get a bit drunk and have loads of fun with your family. This includes kid’s games, scavenger hunts, dressing up, giving and receiving presents, and other such shenanigans. Our Raisin weekend was quite mellow as it was only Sunday, but it was a blast. Then Monday comes. The whole point I guess is to get utterly pissed on Sunday, go to class hung over, then get dressed by your parents in ridiculous costumes on Monday morning and go to the foam party. The foam party is a foam fight that takes place in St. Salvator's quad with shaving foam. It was amazing. I am so glad that I was involved. You have to buy foam early because the whole town and surrounding towns totally sell out of the stuff. This fight is renowned worldwide, and most big papers will have a picture on the front page of it. Steve actually made the front page of an Australian newspaper when he was an undergrad! Moral of the story is, it was an amazing fight, bloody cold, but so much fun. Pictures will be provided later, but you could Google search for the University of St. Andrews Foam Fight and would probably get some fantastic shots. To follow, later in that same week, we had a formal dinner for postgraduates, which was an excuse to get all gussied up, drink wine and spend a load of money on a nice dinner. It was excellent, I simply love it here!!!

Oh just another day here at St. Andrews.

Snow, Charity Shop Challenge & Turkey Day

Snow!

I just thought I should mention the weather here in St. Andrews. All fall it has been quite mild, what I would expect for a coastal fall, wet and chilly, honestly not much different from Vermont. Well let me tell you, when that wind starts whipping down the scores, it gets damn cold. Last weekend it was very cold, cold enough to SNOW! I was so jealous of mom and dad because I had talked to them on the phone and they said it was snowing, even in NJ and I really wish I had snow. Saturday morning there was a nice little dusting on the rooftops and covering the grass in the garden, I thought that was fantastic as it hardly ever snows here. Then on Sunday morning I awoke to a solid several inches on the ground and everywhere. It was absolutely gorgeous. It really made my day to see some snow, I hope it snows again, and I hope there is some snow for Christmas at Steve’s in Birmingham.

Also in the past week we had Thanksgiving! So happy late Thanksgiving everyone! I was quite depressed that I couldn’t watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. That is such a critical part of my thanksgiving that it was truly sad I couldn’t watch. The dinner Deans Court made us was utter crap; I can’t even describe how awful it was to come down to dinner, on Thanksgiving, to essentially have thick lunch meat which had been cooked in water, a poor excuse for mashed potatoes and some mushy cauliflower. There wasn’t even any proper pie. BUT most of us were planning to do our own Thanksgiving dinner thing on the weekend which was good. I am working with the education department at the museum here at St. Andrews and I worked there for an event, a kid’s workshop, on Saturday and Sunday so when I got back on Saturday I made a mini Thanksgiving meal for me and Steve. It turned our pretty well given I didn’t have a proper kitchen, proper cook ware, or even all the right ingredients. Another highlight of the weekend was Deans Court (or at least the cool kids who live here) all went out for a Charity Shop Challenge Pub Crawl. Basically you had 10quid to buy the most hideous outfit in charity shops, and then we go on a pub crawl. It was pretty spectacular, and hey, it was a bit of good for charity!

Right, well I think that about catches me up to what I’m doing right now, other than planning a birthday for Steve on Wednesday, so take care until my next post which will probably be after Christmas. Let’s be honest, you won’t want to hear about my exams, papers, or how much I’m stressing.

Cheers!