I've been adopted!!

Well, half-way. I have a father! Tradition here accepts that first-year students and study abroad or exchange students are adopted as children by third-year students starting families. Mums and Dads host dinner parties and events with their children and act as guides and support systems at St. Andrews. On Raisin Monday, an event in November, a lot like P-Day at Saint Michael's, children attend tea with their mother and attend pubs with their father before a large university-wide foam fight.

I attended a Christian Union event this morning and met so many wonderful people. In addition to hearing others share their faith, I met my Dad! His name is John, and like myself, he is a third- year student. He is from the south of England and studying psychology. I am his third daughter, and he hopes to have three sons as well. He spoke of his own academic father not being involved and rather absentee, and he has planned dinner parties and would like to get to know each of us. I'm still searching for a Mum, often for both Mums and Dads you need to be asked so it can take a little bit of time. Unless I share a Mum with my sisters on my Dad's side, they're my half-siblings.

Yesterday I was able to attend advising and confirmed my classes. I entered a GIANT building and it was quite mosh-pit like inside with students everywhere! I was thrown around to a few different student volunteers in blue shirts, and whisked around corners, up and down stairwells, through groups of people, and finally into English advising! I met other English students and was able to meet with an English advisor. I will be taking Creative Writing and Virginia Woolf for classes this semester. Both are fourth-year honours modules, which wasn't what I had in mind. My advisor, however, assured me to just try both classes and certainly to work hard. He did warn about the shock Creative Writing might be as I come from a very jounrnalism-heavy background in the states. Much of my past writing has been so uniform and factual and very much like an equation.

I feel prepared for the challenge both classes present, and look forward to beginning! Last night I was able to copy down my mandatory reading list for both courses as well as my suggested. Today I hope to dive into the world of book buying/borrowing/lending of St. Andrews.

There are so many small cafes, restaurants, and shops here in the small town of St. Andrews. I’m yet to try it here, but supposedly a fish and chips shop was recently voted the best Fish and Chips in the United Kingdom (I’ll try to mail some back home… J ) and a Thai restaurant was also voted best Thai Food in the United Kingdom. As for American chain restaurants, there is a subway as well as a Starbucks. St. Andrews has been both forceful and successful in keeping most American chains (like McDonalds!) out of the town despite the supposed persistence. I think the golfers, students, and townfolk are pleased with the current selection. As I mentioned before, the pound is very strong right now in comparison to the dollar, and usually runs about a 1 : 1.6 comparison, dollar to pound. Despite this, food has been very affordable I’ve found. I’ve sampled a bit of both Saintsbury’s and Tesco’s, both downtown grocery stores I walk too, and while both are extraordinarily crowded with students moving in all week and both continue to sell out of items, I’ve bought great products from both and have found Tesco to be slightly cheaper. Because I walk everywhere, I tend to do a tiny bit of grocery shopping each day and walk back with my purchases. I’ve loved the access to fresh pasta, vegetables, fruits, dairy, etc. However, this is Scotland, and it is quite north (a few degrees below the 60^th parallel which runs through the former home of my brother – Saint Petersburg, Russia, as well as much of southern Alaska), I have a feeling the freshness I rave about may soon come to an end. Certainly daylight is extended here longer than what I remember at home, and I’ve been surprised to find several bright flowers and many daisies all around.

I was able to do a bit of clothes shopping here which is nice (I know this is becoming a rather boring post… J ) I didn’t shop at all over the summer as I wanted to save my money and found that my job at Café Indigo left me in a tee shirt every morning that by afternoon was covered in flour/sugar/frosting/customer’s food. I hadn’t been to H & M much in the states before, but found some amazing sales at the one in St. Andrews. I was able to pick up some trousers (pants in the U.S.), a few woolen tights and a wool sweater, some nice kitchen towels, and a couple simple wintery dresses to go with the woolen tights. I learned a few days ago about the difference here with pants/trousers/underwear, and while slightly confusing, our American underwear are called ‘pants’ here, so the pair of what I would ordinarily call pants that I bought earlier are considered trousers. As for other differences, today at a drug store, I asked a woman if the store carried rubbing alcohol, (to keep my earrings clean) she thought I was slightly crazy, and when I requested hydrogen peroxide (also known to clean earrings) she referred me to a chemical store. I’m trying to believe that I’m the one in the situation that is just not looking for the right things… J I’ll try to find something else to clean my earrings with in the meantime. Soap and water perhaps?

Also, mincemeat (often Venison) is quite popular here, and sausages are enormously popular! Every supermarket has very large freshly prepared areas of food designed usually for students, and often there are meat pies and sausage pastries among salads, and African and Asian foods.

While I haven’t experienced any of it yet, we’ve all heard quite a bit about a St. Andrews specialty: deep-fried Mars bars. As I’ve never tasted a Mars bar, I’m unsure about trying the fried one first or not, we have heard though, they’re great desserts to split! Supposedly fried pizza is popular among students here too! L I haven’t tried or seen much black pudding yet, but I know it is a Scottish delicacy of black sausage, pig fat, and blood…

Also, a pound or a buck here is referred to as a 'quid.' And one does not 'line', up, but instead queue's up. Often, "Get to the back of the queue!" or "Join the queue!" are heard. 'Questions' too, are 'queries.' As a graduate of Professor Bill Wilson's Globalization first-year seminar in the states, we all know queries quite well...

The St. Andrews policeman I've seen so far wear uniforms that appear to best compare to riot gear worn by policeman in the U.S. They all wear large helmet masks at all times when patrolling the streets or the grocery stores.

As for religion here, the University has societies and clubs representing every religion. I really love this, as I haven’t experienced that before, and it brings so much diversity to the area. As often as I’m hearing Scottish accents, I’m hearing accents and languages of so many different countries, and already have met students from China, Austria, Hong Kong, Germany, Senegal, Denmark, Canada, Northern Ireland and Bulgaria. According to literature I have, about 42% of Scots belong to the Church of Scotland while just under 16% are Roman Catholic. Also interesting is that Scotland has two official languages: English and Gaelic, with Gaelic traditionally spoken in the western islands (must be prepared if I travel over there.. J )