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.)

Day 25: Escape from the Bubble

This post may be titled Day 25, but I’m actually going to talk about days 18 through 21, when I escaped from the Bubble of St. Andrew's and traveled across Scotland to visit my wonderfully crazy friend Hannah, who’s from Canada but has been working in the south of Scotland since February.

I shouldn’t really complain about the trip, since it only took five hours to cross from the north(ish) east side of Scotland to the south west side, but still… five hours is a long time to be sitting on busses. I also had to transfer twice, in Glasgow and Dumfries, meaning that the whole trip actually took closer to seven hours (from 7am to 2pm). I did manage to buy a lovely pair of slippers in Glasgow, though, so I didn’t mind that stopover.

One lovely thing about bus travel is that I got the opportunity to see more of the country. It’s not like a plane, where I just see the tops of clouds, or driving, where I spend most of my time staring at the road. On a bus I can sit back and do whatever I jolly well please, which usually involves taking pictures of the countryside. Thankfully, my camera takes pictures really quickly, so I actually got some decent shots while barrelling down the motorway.

Another thing I like about travelling solo is how it gives me the opportunity to meet new people. When I first arrived in Scotland, somewhat overwhelmed and with nearly a hundred pounds of luggage to carry, I had so many people willing to lend a helping hand. This past weekend luggage wasn’t an issue, but since Hannah lives in the middle of nowhere I was literally dropped by the side of the road in the middle of a field. A wonderful older lady I met on the bus made sure I got off at the right stop and a girl around my age actually walked with me all the way up to the camp where Hannah works. Without those people I would have been so lost, and I’m so thankful they took time out of their days to help me out.

Anyways, my weekend with Hannah was lovely. While I haven’t been homesick yet, it still was really nice to see an old friend, someone I have a bit of history with. It was weird to realize that since I arrived in St. Andrew’s I’ve been hanging out almost exclusively with people I’ve met in the past three weeks. So, I really enjoyed seeing Hannah again, going for walks, watching films, and meeting her co-workers. I definitely plan to go visit her again, and have more crazy shenanigans.

It was also a lot of fun to visit somewhere that’s really the middle of nowhere. St. Andrew’s might be small, but it’s still quite a bustling town. Down where Hannah lives, the nearest town has maybe fifty houses. It’s much more stereotypically Scotland, with the rugged hills and winding roads and sheep in pasture. Also, this was the first time I had ever properly visited the Scottish countryside, since when I’m here I tend to stay in the actual town of St. Andrew’s. Hannah and I went for a couple semi-successful rambles, once in the mist/rain and once right after sunset, and I really enjoyed being out in the open air again.

To sign off, here are a number of photos from my trip. 

CAUTION: May contain excessive amounts of Scottish grass. Also sheep.

Sunrise over the fields (as viewed from the bus)

Slightly farther along on the trip-- not quite sure what town that is, but it's close to St. Andrew's

Glasgow is known for its architecture. This art display is right inside the Enoch mall

Typical Glasgow

This is what a Glasgow street looks like

Gallery of Modern Art. Apparently it's free, so I'm definitely planning a trip here at some point.

I feel like this photo accurately captures the spirit of Glasgow

Imposing facade of the art museum

Random art on a building near the bus station

Rolling hills between Glasgow and Dumfries

SHEEP. EVERYWHERE. SHEEP.

A river. Cattle. Hills. Trees. SCOTLAND.

There're actually quite a few windmills around the countryside. And clouds. There are quite a few of those.

They say a man's home is his castle... Or, in this case, his B&B.
(BTW, for all you nerds, this 'castle' was in a lovely little town known as Moffat...)

This is what a Scottish bus stop looks like...

I admit this pic is more heavily edited than usual, but THE CLOUDS.

Bridge in Dumfries

The whole bridge. There are several bridges, and the river is quite peaceful.

Had to walk along this narrow road to get to the camp where Hannah works

And over the adorable little bridge...

Along the narrow laneway...

Until we find Hannah! <3

The view from Hannah's work at sunset

Evil Scottish cows

Going for a ramble

More sunset....

A stream (that runs under the little bridge previously shown)

Sheep at sunset. (which are way cooler than sheep at any other time of day, because they're now pink)

Cows on the road. NBD. 

So, we were trying to reach that monument thing, but Hannah forgot where the path was....

Hills at dusk