Historical markers are the best coffee study breaks locations

I went to a wine/cheese/drawing gathering at St Andrews Natural History Museum tonight, loved goat cheese (in spite of the animal), talked about museums versus galleries for longer than I ever have (more then 2 minutes), then sat in front of stuffed birds, drew a skeleton of a ground turkey, realized I have no artisic talent whatsoever, and left to walk home alone. My roommates Paige and Stephane are still there. Paige is here for Museum and Gallery Studies M.Litt. and she has regular discussions with her friend about the requirements for the very few words to put next to items in an exhibit, that the guide has to be written at a 15 year old level, because that's best for the level of the average public, and why galleries are more appropriate for some exhibits than others. "I like to touch old objects. I get attached to them."-Paige. I like her more for it.

I had my first fish and chips ever, don't even like fish, and devoured the whole dish. Just got it with salt, vinegar and brown sauce and was pleasantly surprised by the whole experience. We waited half in hour and the little Scottish woman took all the orders, shouted them back to the kitchen and made every dish packed up when it was done being cooked right there in front of us. She was full of pleases and thank yous to, even when shouting them back to the fryers. I can't wait to take my Dad.

Before that, I went to a lecture on "Weapons Strategies, Targeting Civilians, and Ethics" where I learned that the British and US air forces (RAF and USAF) actually practiced something known amongst themselves as "terror bombing" against Germany, and Winston Churchhill called it impressive even questioning the efficiency of it in terms post-war gains from Germany. Then, as I tried to sneak out to get to the library, I pulled my sweater off the back of my chair, knocked the laptop off the tiny chair desk behind me, and broke the screen. The woman was very nice about it, saying it was entirely her fault for leaving it like that, but my stomach is still recovering from the situation.

Class was cancelled today. I only go to class four hours a week, two classes two hours each, one Monday, one Tuesday. So one getting cancelled is actually a big deal. This means that the almost non-stop reading I'd been doing all the week leading up to this particular class, and no I am not exaggerating, was for naught. Nobody to impress, stand up to, or answer thoughtfully. My professor's sickness prevented her from hearing the millions of things I had learned for her. I suppose it's good that I also wanted to learn them for myself. I discovered great coffee for a pound fifty at the Old Union diner which looks like something from Pride and Prejudice but with an espresso machine, and is a historical marker, so I parked out there instead of class, with some light reading about the post-Holocaust trials of Adolph Eichmann. I happened to run into some other students who were all bonding with eachother while I left class as soon as it was over each time, and ended up in a reading group with two guys and planned to go out on Thursday night with the class...so my social network is widening and I do not know if I am thrilled about it. Maybe I should have gone with Terrorism studies.

Music of the week: Mont Lyons..their new EP is coming out exclusively on newdust.com and they're great guys. I know one at least!

Quote of the week: If you want peace, prepare for war.

More Holocaust reading now.

K

Right as Rain

I'm listening to Adele right now on an overcast day...which we haven't seen much of at all this week. It's been consistently sunny. After reading for most of the day yesterday, I decided to have some original and non-violent thoughts for my blog. By non-violent I simply mean not any of the four books I am attempting to read over the course of the week. Here is the most time-consuming struggle of my week: the only books I can find not checked out in the library for either of my classes, when I can find them, are in the short loan section. The rules of the short loan are that you are only allowed to have each book for four hours at a time, you cannot renew them online. The trick is to return them then check them right back out (they have machines here where you do it all yourself, thus enabling such cheatery, and if you check them out after 4:55, you get to keep them all night. If you check them out after 4:55 on Friday, you get them for the weekend!! Up to a four book limit. So, since Wednesday, I have been making three trips to the library a day, in four hour increments to be able to keep books long enough to finish them. It's a beautiful walk and not incredibly far, but I will not pretend to appreciate this fully. I feel like I am in an invisible battle for these books at every hour of the day.
So I spend most of time reading like I can hear the clock ticking, and I really want to find a way to scan my reading list from my classes on here to show all of you because it's mindblowing. I have 5 books and two articles to read in entirety this week for just one of them. And these are lengthy novels...not booklets. My roommates tried to get me out last night for a Friday night, or tonight for the ball. But until I get my first week of reading behind me, to know how much it affects or does not affect class, I don't think I could enjoy myself. This morning, I did enjoy traditional pancakes with Canadian maple syrup with Paige (from Canada), my flatmate, at Northpointe before we went grocery shopping. Last week we began a tradition of Sunday night flat dinners, where we rotate who cooks each week. Tom, from Scotland, cooked a crackling roast pork, carrots, roast potatoes, grilled onions, gravy, and an apple sauce gravy. Tomorrow is the Canadian Thanksgiving, though, much like ours. So Paige has taken over duties and we had to both haul the groceries back. I'm most excited about the rhubarb and apple charlotte pies that are delightfully fancy from Fisher and Donaldson's bakery in town. I sometimes pass that place when I'm in town, just to look in the window. I also stopped in a Bouquinique, a bookstore in town that looks straight out of Notting Hill and found a little booklet called Hospitality at Home, an Exhibition of Furnishing for Entertaining, that looks like its straight out of the 40s...I think it is. It was in the antique section but I only paid a pound and am going to pull it apart and make a wallpaper collage out of it for my wall. It has teatime sections, nightcap sections, and children's tea party sections--all on how to decorate with furniture for these different occasions.It made me laugh but seemed fitting.

For those who don't yet know how my class system works, I have one lecture from 2-4 on Monday afternoons called Issues in Peace and Conflict, and one on Tuesday from 2-4 called Theories in Peace and Conflict. There will be 1-2 hour seminars to go to once a week sometimes, but I missed the only one so far by being late. (Segment deleted from this location due to hazards of public consumption.) I work better when left to my own devices, but have heard that we're splitting up into reading groups since no one person could do all the reading in a week...which I guess is a comfort to me. The rest of the week, outside of class, is entirely at my disposal. But its been harder for me to get to sleep at night and get over jet lag than I thought and the readings are conducive to relaxation. I'm ready to get the first week behind me and hope that I don't spend the rest of my days here making thrice-daily trips to the hideous library. Even if the way there is an absolutely perfect walk.

And The Office episode this past week was one of the best I have ever seen.

K

no longer canterbury, i found a castle.

It hasn't been quite a week yet, but yes I have been putting off this blog...mostly because everytime I had a clever blogworthy thought, I had to read at least 100 pages that same hour so could not justify blogging my little observances instead. I have been here five days now and let me tell you, life is never what you expect it to be. I don't have a coffeepot, my flatmates have better views than me, the shower is tiny and dark, our entryway floor glitters like a sad housewife's throwback to the 70s, there are more americans than anything else in my classes, the library is the ugliest building in the town and full of very sickly people causing me to think i may be discovering some sort of late onset young adult phobia of human germs and the spray out of facial orifices, I don't have enough money to go to the ball, people think I'm a prude, and only the undergrads get to wear robes all around town. Oh and I still haven't gotten over jet lag and can't fall asleep or get up on time. Do you hate me yet? Because that rant, though true, was for all you tiny dots on the horizon of america, following me, to ease the jealousy I am sure would fester within me if I were in your place. But...now that we've gotten it out of the way and the truth must be told. I live between a castle and a cathedral, can see the sea from my window, can't remember what sweat feels like, am fascinated by everything I read and hear, get to take pictures and not feel like a tourist because I'm not one, buy crumpets at the local store, follow traditions like not stepping on certain stones so that I can graduate, walk the entire Old Course looking for Hugh Grant and Justin Timberlake on a sunday afternoon because they came to play golf, live with people of all different nationalities (yes, every single flatmate) and love them, have bonfires on the beach called the castle sands because it nestles up to the castle ruins, hear the waves at night, walk anywhere i want to go, drink hot chocolate during happy hour with maltesers in it, drink hot tea with cookies that they call digestives and/or biscuits so of course i forget i am eating cookies and, best of all, be more challeneged than I ever have been academically before. I fret about graduating-and not because I forgot paperwork, but because it takes more than you've thought to get all the reading done for one week here, much less a year. I do not mniss Texas. I miss my family and the few friends that mean as much as family, and I miss having a full refrigerator, good coffee and...seriously i sat here trying to think of something else but couldn't. Ok..I miss my daddy being ther to give me whatever I needed and sometimes wanted, seeing movies and eating mexican food, surprisingly enough. But this place is everything it seems to be in pictures, but you need to taste, smell and hear it too. So don't be jealous-I assure you that you're eating better food, but I cannot wait to share everything I can in the oh so short time that I'm here. I love you all. Please do write me!

3 Gregory Place, North Street
St Andrews, Fife KY16 9PU
SCOTLAND, UNITED KINGDOM

Nothing would make me happie.

Mwah mwah OOO

K