Here I am in front of the ruins of the old castle in St. Andrews. It sits right on the water and is an impressive sight.
Swimming in the North Sea. Sounds fun, right? Well, it would sound especially appealing when you come to St. Andrews after one of our lovely but scorching Texas summers. Granted, I have been wearing a wetsuit, but it is an interesting bragging rite. Especially since I lately have ended up swimming in the North Sea after I have capsized out of my kayak when surfing on some of the lovely waves. Can't do something like that in Dallas!
This is the building where the economics and management classes are held. Looks a bit different from the one we have back at UTD!
St. Andrews is quite different from Dallas. For one, I still haven't quite gotten used to which side of the road the cars will come at you from while I'm walking to class. Or walking anywhere in town for that matter, being that from just about anywhere in town it takes no more than twenty minutes to walk to the center. The town is small and beautiful. On my daily walk to classes, I pass the beach, the old cathedral, and the lovely St. Leonard's College. My psychology classes take place in the Old Library in the Psychology building in St. Mary's Quad, which had a tree that is said to have been planted by Mary Queen of Scots. The Quad itself is a square of striking old buildings. My Russian lectures are held in the other quad, St. Salvator's Quad. It's a bit smaller and newer (the current buildings are only from the 18th century) than St. Mary's, but events often occur in the big grass square in the middle. Last week, I participated in a student protest led by the Ethical Investment group against some of the university's business affiliations. And on Raisin Monday, a university tradition, all the first year students (the freshers) participate in a huge foam fight while dressed up in costumes that older students, their "academic parents," dressed them in.
The lovely building I am blinking in front of is St. Salvator's Hall (nicknamed Sallies), or at least the back of it. It's one of the dormitories at St. Andrews.
There's also a thriving campus life. In the Student's Association, a.k.a. the Union, they have "bops" where you can dance the night away. There are lots of student societies and sports clubs as well. I personally belong to the Canoe Club, Psych Soc (the psychology society), J-Soc (the Jewish society), and Knitting Society, along with others. With the Canoe Club, as I mentioned earlier, we practice twice a week in the pool and go out to the shore once a week to surf in our kayaks. Psych Soc sponsors weekly talks by various professionals about many different facets of the field. The last speaker was a prison psychologist and spoke about the programs she is involved with for rehabilitation of prisoners. The one before that worked for social services and talked about the many career opportunities in the field of social work. In J-Soc Friday night dinners are held for Shabbat about twice a month that the students cook themselves. I've helped with the cooking and it's always been fun. The Knitting Society not only helps teach people to knit but is going to be participating in "Afghans for Afghans," a program where people send items like blankets, mittens, and sweaters to Afghanistan.
Behind me is a view of one of the famous golf courses in St. Andrews. I'm pretty sure this one is the Old Course. It's huge.
St. Andrews is also famous, other than for the university of course, for its golf. Early in the semester Dunhill Links had a celebrity golf tournament and we all kept our eyes peeled that weekend for celebrities walking around town. The golf courses are picturesque and on Sundays they let non-golfers walk around the course. They are exquisite to see and fun to explore.
This is one of the university's buildings. It does not hold any classes, but the administration building looks neat. Imagine if our Multipurpose Building looked like that!
The history surrounding you in St. Andrews is amazing. Not only are there the old golf courses, but just about everywhere you walk you can see a sign denoting some event that occurred there. Every time I go to my Russian lecture, right outside the main entry to the St. Salvator's Quad in front of St. Salvator Chapel, I pass the initials P.H. marked out in cobblestones. These denote the spot where Patrick Hamilton, a Protestant martyr, was executed. Superstition states that if you step on the initials you will fail your degree at St. Andrews. The way to fix the error of stepping is the May Dip, where freshers jump in the North Sea. Hearing about the May Dip tradition makes me happy that I will be able to avoid such a feat since I come back to Dallas in January. I prefer the aid of a wetsuit before swimming in the North Sea.
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