Day 53: O, The People You'll Meet!

There’s something about travel that makes people open up to each other. I don’t know if it’s the boredom, or the close proximity, or simply the feeling of newness that comes from changing location, but it suddenly becomes okay to strike up a conversation with complete strangers.

This past weekend, when I went to visit Hannah, I met a man on the bus from Glasgow to Dumfries. He was Glasgow born and bred, middle aged and married, owned his own mechanic shop, and was about as different from me as you could imagine. But, for the hour and a half down to Moffat, we chatted about basically everything, from books to busses to Scottish separatism to religion.

It was fascinating to meet someone from such a different background from me, who had so many different ideas—especially about Scottish Nationalism! So often I tend to get caught up in my little bubble of university friends that I forget there’s a whole world out there of people who don’t spend their life in the library.

On the way back from my visit, on the short-ish bus to Dumfries, I rather inadvertently met an older lady. There was a small child on the bus, using his finger to draw in the steam on the windows. The older lady was sitting nearby, and she started drawing with the boy. It was so cute: they gave each other suggestions for what to draw, or guessed what the other person had just drawn.

Eventually, however, they ran out of room on the window. I was sitting right behind them, and when the little boy turned around and suggested they start on my window, I didn’t say anything, I just started drawing. They both enjoyed this immensely, and before long we were all covering our windows in little pictures.

When the bus finally reached Dumfries, I got off with the older lady and chatted to her for a bit as we walked down the street, since my next bus didn’t leave for another hour. Once again, it was a fascinating conversation because this woman broke so many stereotypes. I expected her to be a sort of small-town grandma, but instead she was a feminist, with distinctly sharp words for anyone who looked down on her for being old! She was also the great-niece of the first woman to be granted a degree from Edinburgh University, which I thought was pretty neat.

In one journey, I met two people so very different from myself. It seems like every time I travel, I meet more people who continue to break stereotypes and expand my horizons. While I may not be a huge fan of busses, the people I meet definitely make it worthwhile.

Tardis in Glasgow! Not the best pic, but I just asked a random passer-by.
I should go back at some point. :)

Interesting art at the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art

A pedestrian street in Glasgow

Part of the Modern Art Gallery.
(I caught the attendant singing, and she was rather embarrassed. I thought it was lovely that she was singing)

Atrium ceiling

Main hall. It was full of interesting forms of art all inspired (or in reaction to) war.

It's not just a stereotype...

For all my fandom friends, I present: the Town of Moffat.

The bus just dropped me off by the side of the road...

Inside of Kircudbright parish church, celebrating its 175th anniversary.
(Kircudbright is pronounced Ker-coo-bree)

Hannah at the piano

Outside of the church 

Random street in Kircudbright

Another church: they're EVERYWHERE here

Bridge

I enjoy this sign far more than I really should

Boatses

And more boatses! (well, the same boats. But in landscape, not portrait)

Every small town has to have their own castle.

So many empty windows...

Brightly coloured houses.

I don't know The Wind in the Willows that well, but isn't Toadhall the name of Toad's house?

Apparently plants grow out of stone walls in other towns...

I love church spires.

One of the info sheets for Hannah's fancy-dress party

Hermione has been murdered!

Tree with a really random growth at the top...

This is where we caught the bus to head in to Dumfries.

Drawings on the windows :)

Miniature rapids on the river through Dumfries

Bridge

Seagull

Hills... AND CLOUDS!

Day 49: Life is (possibly) Under Control

Apparently I haven't blogged in over two weeks. Whoops.... I have a good excuse (two essays and the bothersome vocab test) but I still should have updated a little more frequently.

To that end, I think I'll start allowing myself to write some shorter posts from time to time. Often enough there are little topics I want to mention but they're really not important enough to expand into a five hundred word blog post, so they don't get written about at all. Also, when I force myself to write a lengthy post each time, I end up not blogging whenever I get busy... So, all that to say that you may get shorter posts more frequently. :)

At the moment I'm down in south-west Scotland, visiting Hannah again. We haven't done a whole lot, but tonight Hannah's hosting a fancy dress party (that's British for 'costume party') where everyone comes as one of their favourite fictional characters. It's also going to be a murder mystery... I'm going as Eowyn, despite the fact that I look nothing like her. She's just such an awesome character that I wasn't going to let my short dark hair stop me...

In other news, as the title of this post suggests, my busiest time of term has ended. I handed in my essays last Monday and wrote the vocab test on Thursday. I can't really relax, because other deadlines are coming up all too quickly, but I can ease out of panic mode.

If there's one thing the past few weeks have taught me, it's the importance of time management. I hadn't realized how much time I wasted every day just puttering around the house or on my computer. I'd get back home from rehearsal at 9pm and then spend the rest of the evening on facebook without even noticing. However, when crunch time came, I realized that the hour before bed could be used for doing half of my readings for the week, leaving the next morning much freer.

I want to start making time for people. Yes, I've been going to plenty of events, but whenever someone asked me to hang out I'd tell them I was too busy. I want to be able to get my school work done on time so I can actually invest in people's lives. Procrastination hasn't just been hurting me-- it's been ruining my ability to be a friend.

My half term goal, then, is to be more efficient in my work so that I can focus on relationships. I don't want to look back on this year and see all the times I pressed the snooze button rather than heading off to early morning prayer meeting, or the hours I scrolled through instagram rather than going for a walk with friends. I want this to be a year where I make connections, with friends, with professors, with God...  and I'm going to start by taking back my wasted time.

Day 34: Study, Panic, and a St. Andrew's Sunset

It happens every term. You’d think I’d be used to it, what with being in fourth year, but it still hits me every time.

The shocking fact: going to university means you actually have to do work.

Revolutionary, ain’t it? It seems like it should be obvious, and it is, really, but sometimes the obvious things are the ones that slip your attention.

Obviously, I knew that coming to study at St. Andrew’s would require a certain amount of, well, studying. But all the hustle-bustle of Fresher’s week and auditions and general craziness made me forget about the actual point of being here.

The end result of my thoughtlessness was that essays that were apparently due far in the future were suddenly not so distant. And trying to learn five hundred Old English words in two weeks is certainly not optimal.

I’m kicking myself now for not working harder in the first few weeks, since it means that I’m currently quite busy, and will potentially get lower marks on certain assignments because I simply don’t have the time to complete them as well as I really should. However, at least I have an excuse—everything else going on in St. Andrew’s distracted me.

The odd thing is that this happens every year, even when I don’t have a million societies to steal my attention. Every year, about two or three weeks in, I suddenly realize that I have an essay coming up that I haven’t even thought about. Or a test in a few days that I haven’t studied for. Or a presentation on a book I haven’t read.

Once the realization hits, I kick into full study mode and get everything done, but there’s always that moment of panic when I find out how “behind” I am. And, at this point in my academic career, there’s the frustration when I recognize that I still haven’t fixed my study habits in order to combat the week-two-shock.

I suppose there’s not much hope for me, considering that this is the last autumn I’ll spend as an undergraduate student. Maybe things will get better in grad school? We’ll see… For now, though, all I can do is to make the best of the situation and tell myself that even if my marks aren’t as good as they really should be, going to St. Andrew’s was still worth it.

After all, even studying is tolerable when my break involves a walk along this beach:

Castle Sands at Sunset

The Cathedral and graveyard

PURPLE CLOUDS (slightly edited, yes. But they were definitely close to this colour!)

The pier 

Fishing boats. And lobster traps. And people ask me if St. Andrew's is very different from home... :P

Having the ocean here means so much to me.  It's amazing how much I love it, how just walking by it and watching the waves thunder along for a minute makes me feel so much calmer. Coming to the sea is like coming home. 

View up towards the castle

From the end of the pier looking up towards town

The waves were really crashing against the rocks

Tip of the pier

Reflections at East Sands

And there was even a heron who posed obligingly 

The Castle at sunset
(the upload made this picture look pixelated... sorry...)

Day 31: One Month!

A month ago today, to the hour in fact (and I mean the hour that I’m writing this, not posting it, because, you know, editing takes time), I arrived in St. Andrew’s.

It’s been a whirlwind ride. Life is only now finally fitting itself into a routine, and, for better or for worse, that routine actually involves a lot of school work. The first few weeks were like a vacation, but now I spend most of my time in my room hunched over a book. Things should get better in a few weeks, though, once my two major essays are handed in and I’ve written the Old English Vocabulary test.

 

(Old English Word of the Day: anfloga means “solitary flyer” and its only recorded use is in an elegy known as “The Seafarer.” I’m not quite sure why I love this word so much, but I think it’s because its flowing sound captures both the sadness and beauty of being alone.)

I realized the other day that being here for one month means that I have already lived through a 9^th of my time in Scotland. Now, I know that a 9^th isn’t exactly a huge fraction, but it is a substantial chunk. I’m not a complete newbie anymore… and I don’t have unlimited time ahead of me.

 

I don’t think too much about how many days I have left, though, because I simply don’t have the time to mope about how my time here won’t last forever. Aside from school work, I’ve settled on these activities:

Christian meetings such as bible studies, worship nights, and prayer meetings happen nearly every day. The Christian community here has just been so welcoming and kind that I felt right at home from day one. Definitely an answer to prayer! The Christian Union also lets me get a little more involved in giving back to the town, by volunteering at Toastie bar (which sells 50p toasties and donates the proceeds to charity) or doing yard work for elderly neighbours.

 

Performing Arts are also a huge part of my life here. While I’ve had to drop my dance class due to a scheduling conflict (sadness…), I landed a lead-chorus role in the Gilbert and Sullivan Society’s Iolanthe, which rehearses twice a week until the show in mid-November. I’m also co-directing (and possibly teching) one of the Freshers Plays (plays put on entirely by Freshers), and auditions for that start next week. Finally, the St. Andrew’s choir, with over 150 members, is singing Handel’s Messiah this year, so I’m considering joining.

I’ve been trying to write a bit, by keeping this blog going and writing for the student newspapers of both St. Andrew’s and King’s back in Canada. The creative writing society, Inklight, frequently hosts workshops, which I attend whenever possible. A couple people I’ve met are also into writing, so we’re trying to encourage each other and might end up collaborating on a play, if we can get our act together (no pun intended).

Getting so involved in St. Andrews has made me realize just how silly it was of me not to be more active in student life back home. I may have had an excuse—the school workload was definitely heavier—but I missed out on so much by not auditioning for plays or going to writing workshops or volunteering or joining Campus for Christ. Academics were definitely a priority, but there was so much more I could have done at Western. And now I’ll never get the chance…

 

Well, then. No use moping over a couple partly wasted years. Time to stop blogging and head out to paint the elderly neighbour’s fence, then off to Iolanthe read-through, and then Bible study…

(NOTE: The random flower pictures are from an afternoon when Kayla (one of the other Canadian exchange students) and I visited the Botanical Gardens and I went a little crazy with the macro setting on my camera.)