Katie arrived in Edinburgh yesterday afternoon and it's been wonderful having her here. From the airport, we boarded a double-decker bus for the city center and spent much of the afternoon walking around Edinburgh.
We visited Henderson's, a vegetarian restuarant that was quite delicious,
and Katie made a friend as we departed. We found ourselves pretty lost between the train and bus stations for awhile, and a little before 6pm found our bus for St Andrews. We arrived shortly before 8pm and enjoyed a quick dinner before we headed back to my residence hall for a chaotic unpacking-changing-showering-finding-preparing-ourselves before heading off to the exciting DRA ball. 'DRA' is a residence hall at St Andrews and is rumored to host the best ball of the year. I had never been to a ball before, but they're quite common here. It was exciting that the date of the ball coincided with the date of Katie's arrival. My friend Michael, a DRA resident who couldn't attend the ball was kind enough to give us two tickets. Along with Katie and I, we journeyed over with Kerry (my roommate), our kitchenmates Conor and Joseph, and my friend Marissa. We took the 11pm bus leaving from DRA, and arrived at the ball a few minutes later. I believe the setting for the ball was in the town of St Andrews, if not just right outside of the town. The venue was beautiful! I think I can best describe it as the skeleton of a castle. There were roughly one thousand students there, and several large white tents, couches, lights and tables before one entered the castle-like area where much of the dancing took place. The dresses girls were wearing were beautiful, and their was no shortage of tuxedos. I'm not completely sure why this happened, but the group of us arrived and headed straight for the free ice cream cone area... :) The three flavors available were vanilla, chocolate, and rum raisin. Rum raisin didn't seem to be the most popular. Over the next few hours, we split up, found eachother again, found other friends, danced, visited the bar, and took several photos. :)
Katie and I. :)
myself, Katie and Marissa.
Kerry, myself and Joseph.
Katie with a kilted ball-goer. :)
Kerry and Joseph. :)
My best attempt at photographing the dancing.
Both Katie and I were so pleased we were able to attend the DRA ball. It was an incredibly fun experience and an amazing opportunity. I've continued to realize that my days here are limited, and I want to have a positive outlook about it all. As I've said far too many times, I love St Andrews so much, and I hope to make the remaining months here as wonderful as I can.
Today, after a serious late-morning sleep...Katie and I ventured onto what one might call 'the ultimate tour of St Andrews...' we explored the coast, the library (I had my first overdue book...), the Cathedral ruins, Tesco (the grocery store - always a highlight...), we ate paninis and an afternoon scone, and made our way to the botanical gardens! I hadn't visited the botanical gardens yet, but have been wanting to since I arrived in St Andrews. They were quite a challenge to find, but once there, the glass houses we explored were so so warm and relaxing. We walked along this woodsy trail in search of the gardens,
which reminded us both of Vermont. :)
We crossed this bridge,
and I thought the peeling green paint might make a nice picture,
We found this mossy peace stone,
and then stumbled upon...the cactus room! The room was in the botanical gardens and was a large greenhouse of dozens of different cacti.
It brought me back to a 2008 trip to Arizona. :)
The remaining rooms were tropical and so, so so humid. I took several photos but my camera lens completely fogged up and the photos of tropical flowers appear rather ghostly. Here's a non-rotated sample:
Tonight we'll be attending a 'St Andrews voices' concert with a friend from my Tudors module who is so sweet. We'll be having her over for dinner beforehand as a sort-of dinner party. Time to get started on that. :)
Ohh PS: I learned a few minutes ago that the feminism photoshoot I participated in the other day (and the photo of me holding the sign I wrote) was published in this St Andrews news source: http://www.stand-news.co.uk/news/st-andrews-tells-the-world-we-need-feminism
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