Raisin Sunday and Monday

                                                    This was me about an hour ago:
                                                  (And I apologize for the bathroom mirror shot...)

 

And with a friend I met before that:

 

This was me about an hour before that with my friend Marissa. She was dressed as a thief, I was a powderpuff girl.

 

This past weekend until today is considered 'Raisin Weekend' at St. Andrews. Arguably the most well-known and largest tradition and event of the year.

            The raisin weekend tradition involves first-year or study abroad students adopted by and mentored by third-year students throughout the fall and  throughout the year. The term raisin began when students first travelled to St. Andrews bringing only porridge and salt-herring as food to last them a full term. Every November after a months of mentorship and friendship, raisins (a luxury) were purchased as a gift for one’s academic father, as the school was only men then.

            Now, students are adopted by both mums and dads and gifts are given to both mother and father and can be anything.

I baked a few different desserts for my parents and brought those along yesterday for Raisin Sunday events.

On the morning of Raisin Monday, one will go to their mothers to be dressed in a costume, and his or her father’s to collect a raisin receipt. My mum dressed me as a pink powderpuff girl. :)

The receipt is rooted in the tradition of a receipt written in latin involving obeying the rules of St. Andrews and being a committed student. Traditionally, a father would release such receipt to his son as assurance that he is a committed St. Andrews student.

Now, receipts are large and/or strange objects carried along to the large foam fight. Creativity is certainly encouraged, and receipts can be anything. I guess livestock though is banned and is a criminal offense as the mid-twentieth century brought several unfortunate instances of both dead and alive livestock being used as receipts.

My receipt was raw meat, thankfully placed within a bag. As both of my parents had classes during mid-morning, I met up with my cousins and friends Julie and Marissa and went with them to collect their receipts from my uncles Marc and Henry prior to the foam fight. Julie received raw fish from Henry, unfortunately not in a bag. The uncles came along to the foam fight with us and my Aunt Sadie was kind enough to hold and keep my bag storing my camera and wallet. We headed over in a large group to the foam fight.

As we grew closer to the center of town and St. Salvator's quadrangle, there were thousands of students in colourful (oops...I guess I'm really getting used to the spelling here!) costumes and thousands more parents dressed nicely and warmly watching from behind metal police barriers with cameras. Townspeople too, wandered around confused. Police were everywhere, and students continued to arrive in creative and crazy costumes that continued to gain ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ from the crowd. It felt like halloween and was so fun seeing the creativity and ideas involved in costumes. Some students were dressed as jars of jelly beans involving large colourful balloons, others were dressed as vegetables or flowers or characters. Julie was a panda which I really liked. We were shuffled through barriers and students carried receipts involving chairs, cannons, mattresses, fishing boats, tables, wagons, large cardboard boxes and flags among other items. I carried my receipt and my can of shaving cream and headed with Julie through the barriers. I found my Dad at one point who had just gotten out of class, he took a picture of us and we continued on. The smells of the raw fish that Julie and her five siblings each carried didn't smell too good at this point...curving around the town and the barriers holding back academic parents, we crossed streets guarded by police and were led to giant dumpsters where policemen and women asked us to throw our receipts. I tossed the meat deep within and we approached as a giant mob…. St. Salvator’s quadrangle.

It felt a bit like a graduation ceremony as we approached. Members of the media with cameras and academic parents were kept back on either side of the entry way and we were shuffled along. It was narrow and we walked in underneath the entryway to St. Salvator's chapel, constructed of sandstone in the 1400s, the chapel is in the center of town. We walked two by two passing several university officials and we entered…slowly…but boldly.

And it began!

 

Soon we were engulfed by the mob scene, sprayed by foam from all sides. Marissa found Julie and I and commented on how clean I was immediately before cleansing us with foam. Soon hands and cans came from everywhere. Our costumes and bodies were covered and foam was everywhere. It certainly wasn’t the best experience ever, but it was incredibly fun. Quickly though, a few too many foamy hands had reached from behind my head into my face and I used the inside of my powderpuff costume to regain my sight, smell and taste. I can still smell the shaving cream and feel the absent sensation of foam in my ears. Julie and I continued to run around the foam fight spraying others here and there and being sprayed in return. Large camera lenses were situated and clean on one side of the quad, and some (brave) students carried foam-covered cameras as they ran around the fight. We found students we knew and found that costumes were unrecognizable and covered in white foam. Then the attacks grew a bit worse though, and I found I had a bit too much foam in my ear and couldn't hear too much. I pulled over to the outskirts of the foamy fight to try to remove it and wipe some foam off my face when…my face got covered again. Ha ha, it was here too that a photographer from the student newspaper approached me and asked for an unsmiling serious photo… ha ha ha I don’t think I’d like to see that! J I wiped away as much as I could and made my way to the awesome first aid station across the quad. Volunteers moved on from one foamy face to the next, and my mask was lifted off and my eyes were cleaned by a volunteer with some nice towels. She warned me of how cold the water would be, and it certainly was a shock. She took a while with my eyes and I realized I shouldn’t have worn mascara that morning. My face was wiped clean and I felt fresh. I was able to wet my hands too, letting the big clumps of foam attached to my palms drift away in a large bucket. Other students were hosed down fully nearby. It felt a bit cold for that.

Because I didn't bring my camera into the fight (in the words of my Aunt Sadie, 'It will be destroyed')Here are a few images of earlier today by the Montreal Gazette:

http://www.montrealgazette.com/Photos+Foam+fight+Raisin+Monday/7463914/story.html

                                         And here's an image from the Guardian of last year's foam fight:

 

            I turned from the quad and made my way out of the fight through a peeling black iron wrought gate to be greeted by thousands of academic parents behind more metal police barriers. I was handed a plastic cup of warm fruit juice by a policeman and the narrow walk felt a bit like leaving a battle scene or an Olympic stadium or the ending of a marathon, as along with the few foamy students exitting at the same time I was were stared down i nsilence by such proper-looking students wearing quilted button-down jackets, sweaters, and dresses, complete with scarves, hats, and mittens carrying leather bags and laptop cases. Those of us covered in foam were breathing heavily and regaining our senses. I wasn’t too cold at all, as it was about fifty degrees with sunshine but the warm juice tasted so good. I found my Aunt Sadie pressed against the barriers and my hands were still a bit foamy but I grabbed my bag from her and she wished me well.

            I headed back and met a few different foamy students on the way back. Entering my residence, the Scottish ladies at the front desk greeted me and smiled seeing my appearance. I headed up to my room and passed a couple cleaning ladies, said hello and heard the quiet response of… ‘Oh dear….’ I tossed most of my layers into the sink, filled it with water and took a hot shower. I removed foam from my ears and washed a lot of foam from my hair.

 

As for yesterday, it was Raisin Sunday, the fun/party day before Raisin Monday. It's a full day event and is certainly exciting.

            Arriving at my Mum’s, I was met by a crowd of 25 other children on the sidewalk and five mums standing atop a stone wall above with a megaphone shared between them. We were given the instructions to arrive promptly at 9:03 a.m. and that there would be punishment if we were late or early. My clock told me it was 8:58 when I arrived, but it must have been off, as I was told through the megaphone I was right on time, and anyone who arrived after I did would be deemed late. To enter the flat, the 25 of us were asked to take at least one alcoholic shot of some mysterious drink. It certainly got me thinking about the authoritative theme revolving around the days events, and I had heard how raisin is truly quite close to American frat parties. Because I’m not a fresher, and in fact the same age and year as the mums, that gained me a bit more respect, but we also all were given the choice to drink, and were not forced into anything.

Placed in a group with my full brother Garreth and a few cousins we did enjoy a wonderful scavenger hunt around town at 10 a.m. which was quite a bit of fun. We needed to take pictures of many of the tasks, and a few are included below.

My cousin Peter gaining an autograph:

 

Myself hugging a stranger (a fellow student) wearing purple:

 

With a student wearing an interesting costume and a traditional St. Andrews gown:

 

Other tasks involved two of our group members swimming in the North Sea, creating a horror film on the streets of St. Andrews, and searching for a melon. Another task involved returning with a live rabbit. I had brought along my plastic purple Easter bunny straw for the day, (a twisty plastic straw shaped like a rabbit bought a few years ago at Hannaford) thinking I would use it; and later, when the scavenger hunt task of returning with a live rabbit was called off through the megaphone by the mums,  I pulled out my bunny straw  and found it awarded us 300 points, about 60% of the points we received! I used the straw all day and found constantly everyone loved it and was asking about it. It was quite the conversation starter. 

Much of the afternoon was spent at our Mums and I spent a lot of time with friends and two of my brothers, Garreth and Josh:

 

After an afternoon nap, I woke to a very, very dark 5 p.m. The time change on Sunday morning changed everything around. I gathered my gifts for my dad, including a mug that he really loved which read, ‘My Dad is the Best,’ and some tasty treats that myself and my sisters baked for him in the shape of a ‘T’ for ‘Trevor Clan.’ I met Julie who was just emerging from her Mum’s party and we headed over. The party at my Dad's was mostly a dance party and a reunion of siblings and extended family. Mostly I just spent the evening laughing and dancing with friends. 

As the party had began at 6 p.m., Julie and I left together a few hours later after a long day. It was a comfortable, mild night and we both were back at our residences by 9:30. I made some oatmeal with raspberries and enjoyed a quiet night.

 

With the ending of the foam fight today, Raisin weekend has officially ended. I don't have classes this week, but am ready to jump into some reading. Also, I've been following the news of Hurricane Sandy as it is dominating major news here in the U.K. I'll be thinking of the East Coast the next few days and hope everything is okay.

Images from Crail and Anstruther

Hello!

Yesterday Allison and I ventured to the fishing villages of Crail and Anstruther by bus. I had been a couple weeks earlier with Lydia, but it was wonderful to go again and explore corners of each town I hadn't seen (and of course eat some fish and chips...).
It was a cold but extraordinarily beautiful day. The sky matched the sea, and the sunshine was wonderful. I was hoping to continue on to Pittenweem later that day (a village past Anstruther) but the weather quickly turned and the bus to Pittenweem was delayed.

While bus photos are seldom good photos, and very hard to take, this church is between St. Andrews and Crail, I'd say about 4-5 miles from both, and each time I pass it on the bus, I think it is incredibly beautiful. It overlooks the sea and is so isolated.

In Crail.

Allison!

myself. I bought those black rubber boots quite cheaply here and I was so happy I was wearing them as I was later attacked by some ocean waves!

A cemetary, the Church of Scotland, and a bit of foliage in Crail.

Houses in Crail. These towns feel so Mediterranean/Greek with the white-washed houses.

Quite blurry, but I love this image.

A park in Crail.

The bus we hopped on to Anstruther was a double decker bus, while usually I shy away from the top deck as I'm often concerned about my motion sickness, we were just travelling a few miles, so Allison and I headed up there. We sat in the front row behind an enormous window and the views were beautiful. The ride was definitely bumpy, but so worth it. This scene is so typical in Scotland. Everywhere in the countryside tan hay is rolled up. In trips in any direction in Scotland, these fields and familiar scenes are everwhere.

cabbage I think, and the sea from the top deck of the bus!

looking out into the road, headed towards Anstruther.

This felt a bit like how I would imagine the American midwest.

Once in Anstruther, Allison and I explored this beach and I collected a nice amount of seaglass. The sea looks calm, but this was where a large wave snuck up on me and my ankles:)

In Anstruther.

Out on the pier.

Allison is from Portland, Oregon and we often discuss differences and similarities between our two homes, it was at the moment when this picture was taken she was saying how she would like to visit Maine someday. My response was something along the lines of where we were and what we were surrounded by reminded me a lot of Maine in the summer.

When I returned to my residence, I had a nice halloween card from my parents awaiting me. When Lydia visited she bought a pumpkin hoping to cook with it, but unfortuantely it didn't happen, and it's paired with the card on my halloween-themed windowsill. :)

 

 

While a bit off-topic, I've been following lately the tragic events ongoing in the Middle East. I love using Aljazeera as a news source, and I continue to be saddened by the terrible acts governments are commiting against their own people, and the enormous number of children and civilians that are killed each day and horribly injured. I've been following the story of Malala Yousafzai and while it's encouraging that she is receiving medical treatment here in Great Britain and likely to make a full recovery, it saddens me beyond belief that this can happen in a world where elsewhere and only miles away girls can so easily obtain an education freely. I've never understood why we're born in certain areas of the world, but only know we must choose to remain committed and aware of the plights of those born and living elsewhere.

 

Thursday

Another eventful day in St. Andrews has passed. It feels like the end of the week as my classes have finished and an eventful weekend lies ahead. Leaving the 2+ hour Virginia Woolf lecture with friends this evening, we all noticed it had grown considerably colder. Tonight feels like the coldest I've felt it in St. Andrews. The temperature around 5:15 when leaving the School of English heading for my residence was in the low 40s with wind, tonight should dip below freezing. I have two wonderful heaters in my room, and currently my bed is pushed up against one and I just enjoyed a dark chocolate treat. It definitely feels like winter!

Today really tested me, and I know in a good way. Each week in Virginia Woolf the group of five students that I'm apart of presents on a topic assigned to us. This week we were assigned to choose our own topics and present. Three of the students were never heard from again and weren't seen today in class. I chose a topic and my sweet friend Megan, a Scottish student chose her own topic and we each presented. Megan and I presented in many ways for the five of us and filled the time necessary. It was challenging at times, but we felt like we really did it well. I chose to look at the role of women in the Victorian era in Woolf's novel To the Lighthouse and had done research the last few hours before class Still though as I began to speak I absolutely felt the 15 other pairs of eyes on me and I stayed focused on the tutor. But it really went well. I had imagined the tutor was a Virginia Woolf genius but found that he really is just like the rest of us and happens to be teaching the class as he writes and studies. Our actual professor (who is the Virginia Woolf genius) has only been around once, but is equally as kind and friendly. I didn't think Megan and I would teach our tutor anything through each of our analysi (plural to analysis? I hope!), but we did. He engaged us back and forth, and was surprised to hear of my research on Woolf, and was interested in the topics we spoke of. We each left feeling accomplished and like we had just defined Virginia Woolf...well, maybe not completely, or at all, but it was a good class. :)

Before Virginia Woolf today, I nearly got lost to a storm! I was looking for a nice outside destination to eat the lunch I packed of lentils and hummus and veggies when it started to get VERY cloudy VERY quickly. I was by the sea, and a few days ago, extremely thick fog rolled in from somewhere off the coast (who knows where) so I've begun to treat the ocean as a bit of a weather threat. The farther away, the safer...but I was eating my lunch, and it started to grow DARK. Not dark enough to be tornado-dark, but CLOUDY-dark. I packed up my remaining lunch and headed for the nearby School of English to eat my lunch somewhere. Once I stood up though, it became windy. Not WINDY, just windy. I began to walk fast when the wind started to actually make noise, I know its common to hear and feel the wind, but the previous wind I could just feel, now I could HEAR and FEEL the wind. The wind delayed the rain just long enough that I had arrived at my destination as the rain just began. The next few days though should be quite cold. My friend Allison and I were hoping to explore some fishing villages tomorrow but we'll have to weigh the weather situation.

I'm off now to discuss poetry with a Creative Writing classmate, Nick, at a local pub, it's time I shape up my poetry skills:)

Images of St. Andrews

Greetings! Today has been a beautiful day with warm temperatures and blue skies. I had a lovely lunch with my friend Connor and was in for a huge surprise when I went to the School of English to pick up a recent essay. I jogged there, as it's on my jogging route, and stopped here and there to take a few of the below pictures, but planned on taking more pictures as I walked back with my essay in hand. I had set my expectations at the lowest grade above passing, honestly preparing to not earn the grades that I've earned in the U.S. I had worked hard on the essay, but much of Creative Writing continues to baffle me. During our workshops, my work on poetry is always off, and I've never received verbal positivity ever about anything I've written. I've grown comfortable with needing to share it, but then need to develop a thick enough skin once having read it. It's a cycle, but I know I'm learning from it. I picked up my essay and didn't want to see the grade immediately in the school office where I grabbed it. I sheilded the bunch of paperclipped papers below my waist deciding I would check the essay grade once outside where I could hide the essay and take pictures walking back to my residence. When I did check the grade moments later, I immediately said "Whoa...." outloud and had to re-check it a few times. I somehow earned the equivalent of a high A/low A+ which continues to shock me. The marks from my tutor and another anonymous tutor who read the essay were wonderful, and provided great feedback. I read the comments over and over and a few bits of the essay on the walk back, forgetting to take the pictures. However, below are a few I did take this morning and afternoon, and over the last few days:

It was quite rainy here the other day, the photo doesn't work too well, but this bush was laced with raindrop-infused spiderwebs.

My feet this morning near some cobblestone I walk on everyday.

lovely hydrangeas and ivy.

The Old Course this afternoon, it was so bright:)

near the Old Course, looking out to the sea.

I'm baking some surprise desserts this weekend for my academic family for Raisin Weekend, I think these eggs I picked up today were very fresh!

 

Lastly, I really loved this video about 'first world problems'. I first heard the term this summer and find it pretty neat, it really just refers to 'problems' we may think we have in our own daily lives (food being too cold, laptop not working, water bottles that are so filled with water they become cumbersome to carry) ...that last one is an original from me...I tend to fill up my large water bottle in the morning before trekking into town/the library/classes. Anyway! The video certainly makes you think and be thankful. Please enjoy!

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/23/tech/ad-campaign-twist/index.html?iref=allsearch

 

 

Weekend News

Greetings!

It has been a truly beautiful weekend here, my natural instincts continue to tell me that it's spring, when in fact, it's close to winter. The temperatures here are temperate, and as you can see above, occasionally beautiful blue sky appears. Today was in the 60s (fahrenheit) and the mornings continue to smell fresh and like spring mornings in New England. I can't quite understand if it has to do with the ocean air or not. The foliage is subtle with few leaves left on the trees, and there has been no sign of frost. I've determined that much of the northeastern U.S. is trapped in a pocket of extreme temperatures. English/Scottish friends here are shocked if I mention that at home the temperature throughout the winter is almost always below freezing, with temperatures occasionally dipping below 10 degrees fahrenheit, yet in the summer, days can be extremely hot and humid. I do miss the extremes (slightly), but it's nice finding that the same jacket here can work for a couple months at a time.

More photos from today:

This family of bunnies lives near my residence on the edge of these bushes. I see them at all hours of day and night as they constantly munch the grass here. Each time I walk by I have the urge to snatch one up.

On Friday night, Allison and I attended the ceilidh and it wasn't the greatest ceilidh as ceilidhs go. A few too many people for the small space and about 80% female. Very few kilts and rigid instructions for ceilidh-ing properly. Allison and I left after a couple hours and ended up talking for the next three hours. We're on the same study abroad program and first met at our Edinburgh homestay. Allison is a pre-med student from Portland, Oregon and it was wonderful being able to honestly discuss all aspects of studying abroad with someone who completely understands it. As it's the middle of the semester, we both feel like we're adjusting, and beginning to plateau but also recognizing aspects and challenges that remain present.

While everything in this blog is accurate and I am loving my experience here, there certainly is more than traveling and having fun that comes along with living alone in a foreign country for a year. I didn't realize until I had spent eight weeks here that it's incredibly hard to not be yourself. In this case, I mean be less American and try to blend in. While there is no anti-American anything here, as an American, you still feel a bit on the outside, one can't adapt to culture and all customs associated with it and in a short amount of time, and while I'm proud of where I come from, I think everyone wants to blend in to the culture they're living in and feel that acceptance. I've grown to have an enormous amount of respect for the international students I've met in the States and have come to understand why they may act, speak, and understand nearly everything differently.

Saturday was spent finishing up my Virginia Woolf essay and pouring over the School of English handbook to be sure everything was in place. I was able to turn in the essay tonight and it feels great having it finished.

Much of my weekend reading:)

I met up with Allison again for a wonderful afternoon lunch/brunch meal at a local cafe here. I had a delicious meal and it was a nice break from studying. That evening I met up with my friend Marissa for a local wine and cheese party. It was quite fun and beautifully warm weather.

This morning I was set to attend the Catholic Mass and meet a friend (who also happens to be my academic Aunt Jeannie) after for tea at her flat. I was a bit late and wasn't totally feeling like a Catholic Mass. I ran into Allison randomly when headed to Mass and she was headed to the University Service I had attended with her and Lydia last week. I chose to go along with her and was delighted to find that the non-denominational service included a nice choir as part of the weekend's St.  Andrews music festival. St. Salvator's chapel is so gorgeous, and as we were late, we sat in the back behind the intricate stone architecture that encases the inner chapel. We stayed after for a small communion service which was nice. Rather than accepting the host and wine seperately, we were led to dip the host into a glass of wine, and the sign of peace was incorporated into the communion service.

The choir leaving the chapel, taken from out spot in the back.

An intricate ceiling piece.

The balcony and the very top of the organ.

Earlier this week, I received a large manilla envelope in the mail from Saint Michael's. It included some information about registering for classes next semester which I don't need, but also, tucked behind it, was a Defender! The Defender is the campus newspaper at Saint Michael's that I spent writing for last semester as the News Editor. I was walking across a field when I spotted the Defender, and laughed loudly. I read the full issue in the hour before the class I was heading to, and so enjoyed reading about everything going on on campus. Also included, a beautiful Vermont postcard which now hangs on my wall:

For dinner tonight, I tried an experimental dish that was extremely delicious! I made some quinoa (a protein-rich grain a bit like rice), boiled chunks of sweet potato, slices of carrots and onions and then mixed everything together. I added some garlic and halved cherry tomatoes and a sprinkling of grated parmesan cheese. I baked it in the oven and when it emerged I knew it would be completely delicious. But it wasn't quite finished. I'm not sure if this is super crazy, but I added greek yogurt on top and it made it even better! Mmmm..I also have a wonderful lunch to take with me to the library tomorrow.

Mmmm..almost there.

Perfect! It was good.