The Great Journey

Mr. Buchanan,

It has been nearly a month since I last wrote to you. Before I left for Europe I was very busy with school. I had two papers, English and International Relations, due a week after I last wrote, so I spent most of the week leading up to my departure working on those. When I finally turned those in, I spent the rest of my time getting ready to leave for Europe. My last night in St. Andrews I had a nice dinner with my friend from Texas, Allison at "The Seafood Restaurant" (yes that's its name). We had a great meal, which is to be expected from what we paid for it.

The next morning (Thursday, November 8th) I set off for the Edinburgh Airport on the Bus, which ended up being faster and cheaper than the train (my original plan). I got on my EasyJet flight to Paris and arrived at 4:30 Paris time. I took the RER from Charles de Galle to Gare d' Nord, where I encountered my first adventure. I somehow managed to lose my ticket so I couldn't get out of the station! Luckily I found one on the ground and walked down Le Rue de Lafayette to my Hostel. Let's just say that after staying at the Peace and Love Hostel in Paris, every hostel afterwards was an improvement. That's not to say that it was an awful hostel, but it certainly wasn't great either. That night I met one of my roomates at the Hostel bar, and just took it easy, because I knew I was going be busy the next day.

The next morning I woke up with pink eye, which was not the best way to start off the trip. But I knew I had a lot to do, and I wasn't going to let it get in my way of having a great time in Paris. So I set off on the Metro (I made sure I kept track of my tickets this time) and got off at the Arc de Triomphe. It was a beautiful morning after an early morning rain shower, and the sun glowed on the Monument. I went to the top and got a great panorama of the city. Then I walked all the way down the Champs Elysees to the Louvre. On the way I stopped to get a Crepe and a baguette sandwich. They were great (of course, I was in Paris) Even the lowest quality street vender food in France is still about twenty times better than the hall food here. A word to the wise while in paris. DO NOT let the nigerians make you a bracelet. In fact, when going to any touristy monument in paris avoid them like the plague, because they will get you. I had to pay 10 Euros for a string bracelet that is supposed to bring me "good luck, akunamatta." I still haven't seen any of that good luck. Anyway, Then I toured the Louvre. The most impressive piece of art was NOT the Mona Lisa, but was probably the huge, "Coronation of Napoleon" or Rodin's amazing horses. It also amazed me that the building itself was not good enough for Louis XIV, so he built Versailles. After spending about 3 hours in the Louvre I walked across the Seine to Notre Dame. I toured the church and went to the top of the tower as the sun was setting on Paris. It was beautiful! The entire city was glowed in the low sun. After that I went to a cafe on the corner of the Boulevard San Michele and the Seine. I had a ham quiche, traditional roasted duck, a glass of wine, an esspresso, and creme brulee. I felt very parisian. I went back to the Hostel that night and just chilled with my roommates in the bar.

The Next morning, Saturday, November 10th, my first stop was the Sacre Cour. Beautiful domes. Then I went to the Museum of Modern Art, but on the way there I walked through an open air market on the Ave. de President Wilson. It was very cool. I saw everything from escargot to skinned rabbits to handbags to paella. Everything was so fresh. The Museum of Modern art was also very interesting. The best part was this section of "video art". It's difficult to explain, but once you see it, its very interesting and thought provoking. Then I walked across the river to the Eiffel Tower, yada yada yada, it's the eifel tower. After that I walked down the Les Invalides and saw Napoleon's grave. To say that the French love Napoleon would be an understatement. Then I got a sandwich and walked to the Musee de Orsay, which was probably my favorite museum in Paris. For those of you who have not been there, its a old train station with a very modern interior design with many famous paintings including lots of the great impressionists like Monet, Manet and Van Goh. I spent such a long time in there that they finally had to kick me out when it was time to close. That night I went to this great Jazz club called Sunrise/Sunset (it's one club with two rooms/stages, one called Sunrise, the other, Sunset.) and I saw a great group called the Ben Sidran quartet. As I drank my wine and listened to amazing jazz, I felt like I was living in an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. I got back pretty late that night and went to bed.

Sunday morning, I woke up, packed, checked out, and got on my train to Amsterdam. Fortunately that rail company went on strike the next day, so I got very lucky. When I got to Amsterdam I was still pretty tired to I just went to my Hostel (the Flying Pig Hostel, a great Hostel with very good complimentary breakfast) and took it easy. My roommates here were a couple from San Antonio and a guy from Montana, so that was pretty cool. I just went to bed early as I was still recovering from the previous night.

Monday morning I woke up, ate breakfast, and bought an I AMsterdam card (that is not a typo, its a play on words, like I Am Amsterdam, but combined). For 40 Euros it got me free admission to almost all the museums, and a 2 day pass to ride the metro, and various discounts at restaurants and shops. Then I headed to the Rijksmuseum, and saw many Rembrants and other great Dutch artists. I ran into some University of St. Andrews first years there as well, one of which I knew from my IR tutorial. So we went to the Van Goh Museum next door, which was very impressive. You could really tell how his art evolved over his lifetime and see how his mental illness at the end of his life was reflected in his art. Very cool stuff. After that I took the tram to the Anne Frank House, which was totally amazing to see. It was unbelievable thinking about how I was standing where she hid for so long from the Nazis. It made her story very real to me. That night I went out with my friends from St. Andrews on a wine and cheese dinner cruise through the canals.

Tuesday, I woke up and set off to see Amsterdam's churches. First I went to the Museum Amstelkring, a house that has a secret catholic church in the upper floors. It was made because after the reformation Amsterdam's catholics had to to into hiding. Then I went to the Oude Kerk (the Old Church). It's very interesting because now it is in the middle of the red light district in Amsterdam so as you walk down the alley to get the entrance on your left is the church oldest cathedral in Amsterdam and on your right is prostitutes selling themselves in the windows. Needless to say it was a very odd juxtaposition. After that I went to the Museum of Amsterdam's History and ran into my St. Andrews friends again. We went to the Museum's restaurant and had a surprisingly good lunch. Then I walked around and sent my many Paris and Amsterdam guidebooks and souveniers to scotland at the post office. That I night I was supposed to stay at another friend of mine's house in Amsterdam, but she never turned on her phone so I had spend the night at the Flying Pig again. Which actually turned out ok because I had to wake up early to catch the train to Berlin and the Flying Pig was really close to the station.

That morning I woke up at 6:00 and got to the train station at 6:30. I got on my train to Berlin only to realize that I now had a cold and a slight fever (my pink eye had gone away by the time I got to Amsterdam thankfully). So my train ride was not the best, seeing as I had to spend about 7 hours on the train. When I got to Berlin and tried to purchase my ticket to Prague the next day, I found out that the German train line, DB, was going on strike that day, so the only way I could get to Prague was that day. So instead being able to spend the whole day with Niclas, I only had enough to time to meet him for coffee and catch up. But we still had a great time. I got on my train to Prague at 5 PM and got to Prague at 9:30PM. I checked into my Hostel a day early went to bed.

My first day in Prague was great. I went out with some friends that I made at my Hostel and saw many of the sites. We walked to the Old town square, up to the Castle and the Cathedral. On the way we Stopped at the Church of St. Nicolas, which is spectacular on the inside. In front of the Castle we saw this great music group, a upright bassist, an antique flute player, a violinist, and an accordion player (Prague's smallest orchestra, haha). They were great! Then we saw the changing of the guard in front of the castle, which was pretty cool. Then we toured the Cathedral and saw great views of the city from the top of the cathedral's tower. We then walked to Petrin Hill and walked around the park because the observation tower was closed, which was disappointing. We then got lunch in "The oldest pub in Prague." I'm not sure how true that claim was, but it did have a cool atmosphere and good food. Then for dinner we went to what appeared to be the Czech version of Chilis or some chain restaurant like that. But it was good czech food. I had goulash soup, potato dumplings, and this good dish that like a beef stew or mix on a potato pancake. My friends had whole Pork Knees, where they bring you a whole leg of pork in this holders that hold it diagonally so you can cut off the meat easily. Needless to say the main staples of the czech diet are potatoes, beef, pork, and beer. Because of this my friend Jenna likes to call Prague "a man's city". I'd have to agree. That night we went to this club that had five levels, each with a different type of music, but since it was a thursday only 3 of the levels were open, Pop hits, House, and Oldies. It was still pretty fun though.

The next day I was pretty tired so I walked around Prague, across the Beautiful Charles Bridge and then through the Jewish quarter, where I saw the oldest Synagogue in Europe. That night we went out to a nice restaurant and then to U Flecu, an old beer hall. Then I went to the train station to catch my sleeper train to vienna, only to find out it was running 2 hours late! (thanks to the german train strikes!) so I went back to my hostel ( i still had paid for a bed that night, so it wasn't a big deal) and then woke up at 4:30 to catch the 5 AM train to Vienna. I finally arrived in Vienna only to discover that I left my guide book in Prague. After panicking for about 2 hours, I realized that I had turned into my mother, and that contrary to what I had learned, you could still tour a city without a guidebook. So I checked into my hostel and then went to the imperial palace, the Hofberg. I saw the Crown Jewels, which were simply stunning, and then the Imperial Apartments. I then had a late lunch in a cafe outside the palace, which consisted of traditional viennesse soup and chicken and a sachertorte. They sure know how to do tortes in Vienna! It was excellent. I was very tired from my 3 hours of sleep the previous night so I went back to my Hostel. That night I had a craving for american food, so I went one of the more popular chain restaurants in Vienna, KFC. Yes, I know, I stooped very low, but in my defense, I needed some greasy food. Then I went to the Hostel Bar (which was the best hostel I stayed at the whole trip) and played some guitar (they had a guitar that you could borrow) in the hostel. Then I went to bed.

I shall finish this post very soon, (I only have to write about my last full day in vienna, and the return trip to St. Andrews) but right now I have to go out to dinner with Jenna, and then its off to Josh's house for Rasin weekend festivities.

-Tyler

Currently Listening to:
John Butler Trio - "Live at St. Gallen"

Power, Harmonicas, and Wine

Mr. Buchanan,

I apologize for the lack of activity in the past two weeks, I've been pretty busy. But for starters let me pick up where I left off last time. As promised, here is the Set List for my Open Mic two weeks ago:

Two Coins
Hotel California (reggae Style)
Dancing Nancies
Farmhouse (by Phish)
Slide
Carry You
The General

That night was actually pretty eventful. Before I came on this guy named Gordon got up and played harmonica. He was good enough that the bartenders gave him a free drink (they never gave me one!? I was a little bitter about this). Anyway, afterwards I introduced myself saying that I knew some songs that I thought he would like and that we should get together and Jam sometime. He seemed interested and promised to friend me on facebook. More on this later. Later that night a girl and guy duo got up and started playing. The girl (whose name I never got) stunned everyone in the bar as soon as she opened her mouth. It was like Eva Cassidy was performing in the bar for us! She was unreal. She sang "Summertime" "Walk away" and "Babe, I'm gonna leave you". The Led Zeppelin cover was particularly surprising and yet pleasing. I didn't think that a female singer could pull that song off, but she sang it in such a way that someone who had never heard it would have thought that it was written for a female singer, not Robert Plant. My friends said that despite the fact I had a really good set, it was good that I went on before her, because she was impossible to follow. I couldn't have agreed more.

That week we had lectures in IR concerning Power and its place in the discipline. These were perhaps some of the most interesting and thought provoking lectures thus far. With discussions of Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Marx, to current IR theorists and sociologists, my favorite of whom was Michael Mann. His theory basically says that instead of thinking of power as the ends (like machiavelli), he thinks of it as the means for whatever desires humans have. He then divides power into what he sees as its four sources: political, military, economic, and ideological. While this may seem like a no brainer, its actually considered a pretty radical in the field of IR.

In English we finished Wuthering Heights, which I loved. I found it to be my favorite writing that I've read in a good while.

In Swimming we swam against Dundee, who beat us (sadly). Not much else to say about that, other than the fact that at the post-meet dinner at the Whey Pat Tavern I found out that ale must be an acquired taste because I found it to be DISGUSTING. I think I'll stick with beer, cider, and wine for now. Speaking of Cider, I'm wondering why cider isn't popular in the United States because its really good. It's pretty popular here.

Another international difference in Taste-buds I found interesting is the Scottish obsession with anything fried. Fried Snickers and Mars bars are pretty amazing. But, fried Pizza? come on now, that's just ridiculous. Jenna and Josh tried some last week, and thankfully reported it to taste just like it sounds, disgusting.

A few weeks ago was the Rugby World Cup. In case you didn't know, the England/ Scotland Rivalry is similar to that of Yankees and Red Sox, which is to say, "I support two teams, The Red Sox, and whatever team beats the Yankees" (insert scotland or england for yankees or red sox, depending where you are from). Needless to say, the Bars were packed to see England play France. St. Andrews has kids from all over Great Britian so the supporters were pretty evenly split, which made for a fun but tense atmosphere. England barely outlasted France, but went on to lose to South Africa in the Finals (much to the happiness of all the Scots).

Last weekend was pretty fun. Friday was the "Fancy Dress" bop. However, don't be fooled by the name the way I was. When somebody told me it was fancy dress, I assumed I would be wearing a coat and tie to the dance. However, "fancy dress" in this context actually means the opposite. There were pirates and togas and I dressed up as a rapper, wearing warm ups, a Michael Jordan Jersey and a sideways Texans hat. Pretty "fancy" hunh?

As promised, Black Cat Bone came back to Aikman's bar and again played a killer set. I saw my harmonica playing friend Gordon was there and suggested that we should jam sometime. We realized that we couldn't jam between then and then and the next open mic, so we planned on jamming before the next one.

That night I found out there was an open mic at the Union, hosted by the St. Andrews Music Association. I played three songs (hotel california, steeples, and the general). I had a good enough set that the Presidents of the MUSA asked me to give them my contact info in case someone around town had a gig and needed someone to play at it. So that was exciting.

At the open Mic on Monday, however I got an idea. I asked Gordon if he could just solo over a progression in A minor. He said that he could. So I played him the riff so he could get it in his mind before he got up there. I told him I would play that song last in my set. So i proceeded to play the following set:

Steeples
Here We Go
All Along the Watchtower (DMB style)

Gordon played amazingly during the solo for Watchtower. It sounded awesome. Josh and Jenna said it was by far the best set I had played thus far. Hopefully I'll be able to play up to it next time. Gordon and I had a great Jam session on Wednesday. We played some DMB, Dispatch and good ole' classic blues. It was so fun that I forgot about my Laundry in the washing machine!

This week in English we learned about my grandfather's favorite subject of criticism, Feminism and Queer theory. While my first lecture on these subjects I absolutely hated, the lecture I had concerning a feminist reading of Pride and Prejudice was actually very interesting. It discussed gender roles in the book and explained many characters actions through these gender roles. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I was interested by and agreed with much of what was said in this second lecture.

Then on that night I had dinner with all of the Febs here at St. Andrews. We went out to Pizza Express and spent the night just talking and sharing stories of our adventures thus far. One girl got meet Hugh Grant while he was here for the Alfred Dunhill Tourney!

Then Yesterday Jenna, Allison and I went to the Luvians Wine Tasting Festival at the St. Andrews Golf Hotel. Allison is a friend of mine that I met in English Class who is from Dallas and went to Hockaday. She actually met two girls in my grade, Hannah Herzog and Anna Nutter, while she was on a "City term" in NYC. The wine tasting was really fun and informative. It was supposed to be the biggest festival of its kind in Scotland. Jenna found out about it through the St. Andrews Wind and Cheese Club. I'm pretty sure we were the only students there (there may have been some post grads, but it was mostly adults). I got to try many wines and I found that I like basically anything from New Zealand, that my favorite kind of white is Sauvignon Blanc and my Favorite Red is Shiraz. Prior to this I really didn't know much about what kind of wine I liked, I just knew what kind of wine my parents liked. I also learned that no matter what, its pretty hard to screw up champagne.

Anyway, since tonight dinner is not served at the dorm, Jenna and I are going to the Dunvegan, which will be the first time I will have gone there since Dad left. I can't wait for the Sticky Toffee Pudding!

Cheers

Tyler

Currently Listening to:
"Dog Problems" - The Format

And so it begins...

Mr. Buchanan,

This past week has been less exciting than the previous two, but good nonetheless.

Academically speaking, I had my first tutorials in every subject. These were good for the most part except they I came to the realization that the work was actually beginning. For this reason, I'm afraid I'm going to have to make this post shorter than normal.

Wednesday night I had my first swim meet against the University of Edinburgh. We got killed. Imagine University of Texas vs Middlebury in a swim meet. It was not pretty. I came in dead last in both of my events (50 Breast and 100 IM) a first for me. But, in a clear effort to make us feel better about the shellacking they just had inflicted, they (out of pity no doubt) treated our team out to dinner afterwards.

Friday and Saturday night were pretty fun, despite the fact that I ended up taking care of sick people both nights, I managed to have fun with everyone who kept the contents of their stomachs. Saturday night, a friend joined me as I took a walk down memory lane and snuck into McIntosh Hall with me. It was crazy walking down the halls that had become so familiar only a year and a couple months ago. I walked up to my old room (but was too afraid to knock and take a peak in). The only major change that I noticed was that the old elevator closest to the entrance had been completely replaced with a brand new shiny elevator with automatic doors.

Today I spent mostly working and sulking that I am missing the craziest, most exciting year of college football ever. There are so many things I wish I could watch over the next two weeks. Among them, Texas Tech's amazing passing game (and next great receiver Michael Crabtree, who shattered a NCAA record for freshmen with 17 TD receptions in only 6 games (the previous record holder had 14 TDs in 12 games)), any SEC team (except Vandy, haha), UT's bounce back win this week, OU's loss to Colorado, USC's loss last week, and the emerging power house that is USF.

Oh yea and how about the fact that my best friend from pre-school J.J. McDermott made his first start this week after the Junior first string QB got injured last week. He went 29-for-40, with 319 yards and two touchdowns. But despite the fact he got the job done, his Defense did not, allowing Louisiana tech to have a 13 point rally in the 4th quarter to beat the New Mexico State Aggies 22-21.

So despite being here, that's what I've had on my mind today.

I did not play at open mic last week, but I expect to play tomorrow. A set list will follow next week.


NOTE: due to some sort of error with the blogger website I am currently unable to upload the photos which this following picture refrences. Sorry for the extra confusion. The pictures will be up soon.

This week's picture is my dorm, Andrew Melville Hall. Constructed when this kind of crazy architecture was popular (that it was EVER popular is hard to believe) the building is supposed to resemble two ships converging. Ironically it was built on very marshy ground and is sinking. It has actually sunk a few feet since it was built, originally the lowest floor was ground level, but that is not the case now. The interior's design/floor plan is even weirder. The building is separated into five blocks, which are basically separate stacks of rooms that are only accessible by their individual stair cases. So say you live on the 4th floor (the american 4th floor, the british 3rd floor) and you live at one end of your block (room 1 in the picture). You will have go down the stairs to the 3rd floor (the only floor that access other blocks from) and walk down to the next set of stairs go up and walk down to the end of the block, if you want to say hello to your neighbor in room 2. This is because instead of connecting the two hallways, they inserted two sets of bathrooms (the Red WC's). Not shown in the picture are the other halves of each block, which are mirror images of each-other. However, because I live on the 3rd floor (2nd british floor), I only have one neighbor (for reasons that are a little complicated to explain) and everyone who lives in A block has to walk by room to get their rooms. interspersed are 4 suites and 4 wardens quarters. the middle section (between the two ships) houses two common rooms and the dining hall.

So Now I will leave you thoroughly confused as I go to read more of Wuthering Heights

Tyler

Currently Listening to:
"So They Say" by Pete Francis

Week 2

Mr. Buchanan,

After a very exciting and fun Fresher's week, On Monday it was time to settle down and get started with school. Monday is what's called enrollment day, in which you go to every one of your classes and (even those that you do not have on Mondays) and officially "enroll" in that class. In each class our instructors told us about expectations, how the class will work, rules, etc.
Basically how the system works is similiar to the one at the Summer Program. All three of my classes consist of lectures and tutorials. You have 3 lectures a week (except for music, which has 2), in a lecture hall packed with about 200 kids (again, except for music which has about 15 kids) and one tutorial a week. The tutorial is a group of about 5-10 students with a graduate student in which discussions and excercises take place. I prefer this system to the normal St. John's class style.
Here's a basic run down of what we learned this week

IR: That there are many ways to define IR and that there are many theories which you can use to go about studying IR, and many methods of to use in your analysis. Basically this: IR is complicated and not straight forward like many of the social sciences or natural sciences.

English: Intro to Literary Theory and Victorian Sonnets

Music: Basic Figured Bass and Counter Point, How the Organ Works.

Elements of Music is a pretty cool class because we have two lectures a week, one on theory and one on instruments. So basically each week we will learn the basic history and function of one or more instruments. But my teacher is kinda crazy so I'm still not quite sure totally how an organ works (I know the basic idea, but not the inner workings)

Anyway, as far as the sports activities that I talked about last week, this is how they panned out.

Swimming: My first day was horrible, but I pulled myself together for the try outs the next day. Basically what happened the first day was: I started things off well with a large dinner about an hour and a half prior to getting in the water. Not a good idea. Second: No goggles. Had to borrow someone's intense racing goggles that do not stay on if you dive in. Another mistake. Third: Getting in the Water Polo player's lane. They are waaayyyyy to fast and intense man-children. I could not keep up after warm up. Fourth: After running into a backstroker after getting in, I realized that not only do they drive on the wrong side of the rode in the UK, but they swim on the other side of the lane!! Needless to say, my turns still haven't adjusted. But the next at time trials I recovered and with my new pair of goggles (yes I was also amazed that they sell goggles in St. Andrews) I managed to make the team. So all is well in Tyler's swimming career at St. Andrews. Oh yea, i forgot to mention that one pool is a good 15-20 minute walk from my dorm (then again so is class), but the other we use is a good 45 minute walk. Ridiculous. Unfortunatlely the farther pool is also the better quality pool, so its a trade off.

Speaking of walking, Since my dorm is so far out of town I have to walk briskly to class pretty much every morning if i want a good seat. I take such long strides that it appears as if I am doing the Ryan Jewett speed waddle (if you've ever seen the man walk you will totally understand me, if you haven't then I'm sorry)

Anyway Riflery is going pretty well. I was set up with my jacket and sling on Wednsday. I have never shot with a jacket an sling put its pretty cool. It's pretty hard to explain, basically the jacket and sling support the weight of the rifle and help keep it steady. I've figured out that I need to start shooting with contacts as well. Glasses are not going to cut it.

On to the more social events of this week.
Monday I played again at Ma Belle's open mic.
Here's my setlist
Crush
Questioned Apocolypse
Cannon Ball
Grey Street
Elias

I'll be playing again tomorrow night. I hope to make this a regular thing.

Saturday Night was the big event of the week. The Kate Kennedy Club hosted the Charity Opening Ball. A formal Black Tie event, this took place behind the quad. And consisted of two main rooms, A dance floor with a DJ and a large Bar Room with a three piece dispatch-esque cover band (they didn't actually play any dispatch) called Black Sheep. They were pretty sweet. Outside there were carnival games and a tent set up by Le Rondezvous, the best pannini/sandwitch shop (yes, better than cherries, trust me). I, of course, rented a kilt outfit. I must say I looked quite dashing. The tartan was a Lindsey tartan. I was one the few people with a red based tartan (most were green based). Anyway, everyone had a great time, definitely worth the 120+ bucks I ended up spending on everything (Kilt hire, ticket, food, and beverage). And for those of you wondering, I did NOT wear my kilt the traditional scottish way (nothing underneath). As this was a hired kilt, I figured this would not be the best plan, hygenically speaking.

Anyway, Reading week is coming up in November and I need some input for travel ideas.
Right now I'm thinking in the 10 days that I have off I'll go to:
Paris
Prague
Vienna
and/or perhaps
Berlin
Amsterdam

Granted I only ten days so I will probably on go to 3 cities, so keep that in mind when making your input
Feel free to email me @ dtg2007@gmail.com


Anyway I to go read some for IR now, but I'll probably make another post next week or the week after


-Tyler


PS. In the picture above is my academic family, Jenna (sister), Ashley (mother), and Josh (father). hopefully you'll be able to recognize that dashing young man on the far right.


Currently Listening to
Red Hot Chili Peppers "Stadium Arcadium"

Freshers Week

A quick note before I begin:
For all intents and purposes, I will be addressing this blog to Mr. Buchanan, as in James Buchanan, because it is in Scotland where his heart truly lies. However that is not to say that this blog is for his eyes only, but infact quite the opposite, it is for all those who wish to be informed of my activities here in scotland. However, most blogs (like diaries) have someone to whom they are written and so i only saw it fitting to address it to Mr. Buchanan. My apologies to anyone who is offended by this.

Mr. Buchanan,

Today concludes the orientation/party week called Freshers Week (freshers, aka freshmen, but nobody calls us that)

This weeks activities included Orientation activities such as:
1. Speeches from various administrators including the vice chancellor, academic dean, and heads of departments.
2. Matriculation
3. Getting books, and organizing dorms etc
and the Club fair, (like the one in high school)

basically these things resulted in:
Me being officially mariculated and enrolled as a full time student,
and signing myself up (willingly and unwillingly) for:
Swimming Club
Rifle Club
Men's Golf Club
Livesaving Club
and Shinty Club

If you are wondering what in the heck Shinty is (as I was) It is basically full contact field hockey with no pads at all. Pretty much what Rugby is to American Football, Shinty is to Ice hockey. The club's many catchy slogans include my personal favorite "Give Blood, Play Shinty" Needless to say I was signed up for this un willingly by one of the club's representatives whose tatics were akin to those of a used car salesman on crack. I do not intend to actually participate in this. (another sign on their table said in big bold letters "The shinty club does in no way encourage binge drinking" a signal that not all they do is play shinty)

However, this is the case for most clubs here at St. Andrews. They are very social and hold many events and such outside of their main activity. The sports are much more laid back than those in the US, even though there is still a high degree of competion.

Anyway on the subject of those many clubs I am signed up for, I do not think I will be participating in them all. The first three I will try to manage to participate, but I will probably not be joining the lifesaving club because the UK Royal standards are different from the YMCA so they would probably confuse me rather than keep my skills sharp.


Now for this week's Social activities:
Monday night: I went to a pub crawl with many members of my dorm visited the following pubs
Ma Belle's, The Lizard, The Gin House (on south street), The Rasin, and the Victoria Cafe.
Needless to say it was an expensive night. But it did give me the oppourtunity to meet many people from my dorm.

Tuesday Night: This was the "Back to School" night at "the bop" aka the main dance/concert venue at the student union. I thought the theme was pretty clever, many British students wore their old school ties, and looked reminicent of Angus Young of AC/DC. A fun dance, however, the DJ was horrible (by american standards) and the music was remincent of (as my friend Jenna put so perfectly) "a 7th grade bat mitzfa" Way too much techno, line dances, and oh yes, the hit of the night the "Grease" medley

Wednsday Night: I went to the Swimming Club Meet and Greet and after my last dinner with Dad, I took it easy and chilled in my room.

Thursday Night was a disaster avoided. Jenna and I set out to go to a salsa lesson and meet some friends she had met earlier. However, the hispanic food was pretty poor (big suprise), and after an hour of waiting for the dancing to start, it wasn't a lesson at all. It was just two people who were good at salsa, dancing on stage while everybody else sat around awkwardly. So we left pretty early to go hang out with our new found friends, Josh and Ashley (graduate management students), who at the end of the night adopted us and became our academic parents. More about that later.

Friday Night: Josh, Jenna and I went to Aikman's Bar (pretty randomly, we were looking for a bar that Josh had liked the last time he came to St. Andrews to visit, and found it on our first try). A small blue grass band happened to be playing that night (a local Scottish one, called Black Cat Bone) We had a few Stella's and sat near the band and had a great time. Probably the best night out thus far. The band was rockin, and included many classic bluegrass instruments, such as the washtub bass (except instead of a washtub, it was a box). They performed many bluegrass standards including "Midnight Special" in which I made it known I was from Houston after hearing the lyric "If you ever go to Houston..." After that song the singer apologized to all the Americans for his "accent" They were great.

Saturday Night: We saw two bands at the students union Interloper (a good band, even though they ripped off the name from Interpol) and The pidgeon detectives who were also quite good. After that it was back to Josh's dorm for some post concert socializing.

Today I basically took it easy since there wasn't much to do. I watched Kill Bill vol 1 and 2 among other things.

So that was my week.

Here are some side notes.

I am taking three Classes: Introduction to International Relations, Ghost And Doubles: an Introduction to 19th and 20th century literature, and Elements of Music.

On "Give it a Go" day (in which you can try out for any and as many sports teams as you would like) I went to the RIfle club and gave it a go. I shot a particularly close grouping (even though they adjusted my sights mid round) and when asked about my skills I attributed them to my texas heritage and my grandfather teaching me how to shoot at a young age.

Also I have met 4 other people from Middlebury, 3 febs and a JYA (junior year abroad). So that's pretty exciting since I will be seeing them all semester and then when i go to middlebury.

And I have gone out and hit balls twice on the driving range and intend to play a round next weekend with my new golfing buddy, Rory.

Anyway its very late and classes start tomorow, So I have to go.

-Tyler

Expect the next update in about a week or two

Currently Listening to:
Dispatch "Silent Steeples"

My first post

My first post after creating this blog. I am creating this blog to share my experiences at St. Andrews with out the hassle of sending out emails to all interested parties. My first real post is soon to come, but now its time for lunch!

-Tyler

Currently Listening to:
"Before These Crowded Streets" - Dave Matthews Band