I typed up a blog entry last night that basically went “um, my room is weird, I have my own bathroom and a queen sized bed and a temperamental radiator” except it took me almost a page to say it. I think this was because yesterday was a bit lonely. After a mostly uneventful journey (except for the part where I went through the security gates, started taking off my shoes, and then realized I had left my laptop with my father. Cue me sprinting back to the glass partition and jumping around wildly, waving my hands to get my parents' attention and then pantomiming typing while they stared the stares of parents who have just realized the child they're sending away to foreign country is mentally unstable and will be on the streets muttering to herself in about a week. “Laptop! LAPTOP!” I mouthed. People edged away from me (yeah, fun places to start acting crazy: post 9/11 airport security lines). My parents stared some more. Finally a security person took pity on me and went to get it.) I arrived at New Hall and found...no one. Evidently the woman who normally works at the front desk took a holiday. So I wandered around the biggest dorm in the world for awhile before a janitor found me and my giant suitcases rambling forlornly about the second floor and took me back downstairs where she dragged some woman in a blazer out of a back room. Blazer Woman gave me a packet of information mostly consisting of how not to set off the freakishly sensitive fire alarms (the shower apparently sets them off quite a bit) then let me “show myself up.”
There was nothing on the orientation schedule for that day so I unpacked, took a shower (in my own bathroom! That I share with no one!) and then took a nap only to wake up confused and lonely and jet lagged. This mood was not improved by internet troubles and trying to navigate St. Andrews which was planned by medieval architects. A word on medieval architects: do not let them plan your town. They have never heard of grids. I was too tired to properly appreciate anything except to note, with a gleam of hope, that there were half a million pubs and coffee houses and two bookstores before buying some honey cheerios (not honey nut in the UK, insert your own pun about lack of nuts in Europe here) and “orange squash” (super concentrated orange juice) at a chain grocery called Tesco's and scrambling home. The one person I talked to all day was a nice boy named Tom who showed me where the library was. I managed to kind of offend him a bit in the first couple minutes of our conversation thusly:
Him: So you're new around here?
Me: Oh, yes, just got off the plane today. I'm American...but I guess the accent gives it away?
Him: No, actually you don't have a very strong accent at all.
Me: Oh, um, good? Are you from around here?
Him: No I'm from England, but I guess my accent gives it away too.
Me: Actually I thought you were Scottish at first, I'm bad at accents.
Him: (laughing) How rude!
Me: I'm sorry! Was that? I don't know!
And then he laughed at me and told me no one can understand Scottish people and showed me where to turn for the library. I thanked him, he hesitated, I whirled around and raced off before realizing
oh, wait, I was supposed to give him contact information there! This is how people make friends when they don't already know everyone on campus! The library couldn't fix my internet and all told I went to bed hungry (cheerios, they are not filling, but I hadn't yet found where to buy silverware or plates) and a bit dejected.
My mood was still low when I awoke this morning and went to the library tour which was mostly just confusing with a few other people who didn't talk to each other. Visions of spending the next four months completely alone drove me back to my room where I sent Jacque, a sorority sister who studied here the year before last, an e-mail basically going “AHHH ahhh AHHH!” and then moped about setting up my internet stuff until about 4:30 when I looked out my window and saw...a bunch of big grey lumps.
What the hell? I thought and pushed open my window to look out at the blurry things which eventually resolved themselves into...ridiculously fat rabbits. Somehow seeing the St. Andrews campus answer to Knox's squirrels made me feel better and I forged on out determined to go get myself lost in Scotland.
The rabbits though you cannot really make them out. I started out walking away from the town center and, now that I was rested, actually took time to look properly at what was around me instead of frantically searching for the library/a food source/a bank. You know in Galesburg or Albany when you come across something beautiful in the most unexpected place, a bunch of ivy growing over an old fence or a building with some of its original facade? Imagine a whole town built out of those bits and pieces and you have St. Andrews. It really is the most beautiful place I've ever been, the grass is greener, the air is cleaner, the sky at sunset is a prettier blue, the buildings are older and within walking distance of my dorm there is this:
The Atlantic Ocean!
The colors are really like this, I haven't edited these at all and I didn't even use a flash when I took them. It's just that damn pretty here.I walked along the coastline till it got dark, taking out my i-pod earphones to listen to the waves and feeling better by the moment. I can't really express how lovely it is or how much better I felt after walking around and seeing this coastline as well as some old ruins and the harbor with its duck families (too dark by then for pictures) and thinking
I get to see this every day for four months. There were plaques everywhere with history and commemorations for martyrs and...this:
Reads: "The memorable beach scene from Chariots of Fire was filmed here 1981" Clearly on par with epic religious struggles, political intrigue, and the grand scope of medieval history!By the time I got back to Market Street (main street) it was pitch dark but I somehow stumbled on another supermarket where I bought some more groceries and actually found some silverware. I then returned to the dorm to an immensely helpful and reassuring message from Jacque and a message from the other Knox student studying here, turns out she is in my hall and so we are walking to the informational talks together tomorrow. So I'm staying up to talk to my mom and then going to bed tonight much happier than I ever was disoriented.
I leave you with this little video I made to test out my webcam and demonstrate the accent I am embarrassed to admit I have already begun acquiring after two days (though after an hour or two in my room it seems to have gone away). Also you may have to turn the volume up as I have sort of a quiet voice.
Amount of haggis consumed: None
Number of days in a country with socialized medicine where I contrarily remain healthy: 2
Times I have set fire to the kitchen cooking for myself: 0
I'm doing pretty good.
