1st Week of Classes

Sorry I haven't posted in a couple of days, but there really hasn't been anything to post.  The excitement starts up again tomorrow with Laurel (my roommate from Hamilton) coming in from London on the afternoon train, but for the last couple days, I have just been hanging out waiting for classes to start.  I only have two classes at St. Andrews for the semester, since I am taking what they call Honours courses (or upper levels).  They are the classes taken by 3rd and 4th year students, who by this point in their education, have had significant background in their major.  Apparently, in their last two years of schooling before university, UK students often specialize in one or two areas of studies as opposed to being required to taking english, science, math, and history like in the U.S.  Although I haven't actually attended a class yet, based on what people have said and the course outlines I have received, the courses (or modules as they call them), are based much more in independent study and reading than assigned work.  I might have 3 required readings per class with a weekly recommended reading list of 15-20 books.  Although we aren't expected to read all of them, students are generally expected to pick a few sources that interest them, and read through them, bringing this additional knowledge to seminars.  Since I am taking honours modules, there is even less class time and more independent reading, meaning that I only have 4 hrs of class time each week.  In fact, my schedule for this week is 9-11 am and 3-5 pm on Friday, so I am basically having a 6-day weekend.  I am enrolled in a Social Anthropology class called Regions in Ethnography I, which focuses on studies of South American (specifically Brazilian and Amazonian) indigenous peoples, and a Scottish history class about the early Stewart Dynasty from 1306-1467, in which we will compare the reigns of the first four Stewart kings.  I am a little worried about having absolutely no background in Scottish history except for Braveheart, but I guess I will see what happens :)  I will definitely have more to post after my first day of classes, and Laurel's trip to visit me, so keep posted! 

Lots of love,

Heather

Here are a couple pictures of St. Andrews Castle, Cathedral Ruins, and the Sea Side:

Here is a link to a photo album I made of many (more) of the pictures I took over the last few days in St. Andrews (just copy and paste the url):

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/hmotis/StAndrewsPhotoAlbum1?feat=directlink 

Pictures!

Here are some pictures of the inside and outside of my dormitory, Wardlaw Wing, the all female part of University Hall.  Basically, I live in a castle...

St. Andrews-Arrival and Orientation

To everyone's relief, we finally made it to St. Andrews yesterday at around 17:00 (aka 5:00pm) after a grueling day of orientation given by representatives of our Butler study abroad program.  It started snowing again as soon as we left Edinburgh, so the hour and a half bus ride to St. Andrews turned into a 2 hr bus ride instead.  The scenery was beautiful though, lots of farmland (complete with hay bales and sheep), rolling hills, and a couple snow covered mountains.  We also got a chance to drive through a couple quaint towns including Anstrhuther, which houses Anstrhuther Fishbar, voted the best "chippy" (aka best fish and chip restaurant) in the UK this year.  When we arrived at University Hall, we met the hall warden who gave us our room keys.  While everyone else from our group assigned to Uni Hall was given a room in the New Wing, my roommate, Lauren Tom, and I were sent off to the building next door, a separate women's hall, which was integrated into University Hall in 1947, although it is much older.  Basically, we were sent to the castle next door...(i will post a picture asap).  I had a little trouble finding the room because of all of the fire doors the British love so much, but after knocking on the wrong door, the really nice girl who opened it showed me to the other rm. 1 on the 1st floor.  We are in the "flats", basically a small, secluded wing off from the kitchen with 3 rooms and a private bathroom right next to our room.  The room is pretty nice, although it gets a little cold at night, when they completely shut off the heat...which meant, since it was in the 20s last night, that I wore my fleece pajamas, a fleece bathrobe and my fleece blanket to bed on top of the standard duvet that came with the room.  Tonight I plan to scale the staircase and find the way to the top of the tower.  

After I got settled, I went with my roommate into town to purchase some laundry detergent and then came back for my first meal in the Uni Hall Dining Room.  The food was actually much better than I expected, and hopefully will continue that way.  I had orientation lectures for St. Andrews throughout the day today, and so have got a chance to see a little more of the town.  It is very chilly out though, so, I am leaving the longer walks/photography for tomorrow after I matriculate and officially enroll in classes.

P.S. To reach me by post, us this address: 

Heather Otis

University Hall

Kennedy Gardens

St. Andrews, Fife KY16 9DL

Edinburgh

We made it to Edinburgh late this afternoon, and although it was too late to do much exploring, what I did manage to see was beautiful.  Next time I make the short trip from St. Andrews to the capital of Scotland, I will spend time along the Royal Mile and other historic districts.  Tonight, I only managed to make the mile and back to the phone store to purchase a SIM card for my UK phone.  Here are a couple of pictures of me in London as well (unfortunately, they were all taken in the dark, so sorry about the poor quality):

             

Let it Snow!

Although my group flight had us arriving in Edinburgh at noon (UK time) today, we ended up getting stuck in London-Heathrow airport due to the largest snowstorm London has seen in twenty years.  What are the odds?  Even though we spent a frustratingly long time locating everyone's luggage (5+ hours), we did get to witness British people going nuts over snow.  Apparently it is not a common thing in London, and everyone in the London area enjoyed their snow day as much as any kid in New England.  In fact, I have never seen so many snowmen and snowball fights all at once in my life.  We are staying at a hotel in London tonight, but (if the weather proves better than today), should be on our way by plane to Edinburgh tomorrow.  I will post some pictures tomorrow if I can!  It's shower time then off to bed early for me!

Here is a map of where I will be studying this semester.  St. Andrews is a small seaside town in the county of Fife, located in the middle Highlands (right side of the country):