Fernie Castle, Golf, School

Last night, almost the entire hall went to an annual party at a place called Fernie Castle, about a 25 minutes drive away from St. Andrews. It was the first semi-formal party of the year. Unfortunately the castle was not as grand as I expected, it is more like a hotel made out of stone, but the party was great. Also, I think I can tie a neck tie now. Don't laugh, that's big news for me. Anyways, the party was great with lots of dancing and fun and I got to me a lot more people from my dorm, and I think I have pretty much met all 106 of them now.

As for golf, I played the New Course on Wednesday, similar to the Jubilee, but enjoyed the New Course a little more. My friend Sean, from the Orkney Islands to the north, and I were going to put our names in the daily ballot for the Old Course to play on Monday morning, but the Dunhill Links Championship is coming to town next week, so we'll have to wait. This is a Pro-Am Tournament featuring many European Pros plus Ernie and Vijay and then celebrities like Samuel L. and Hugh Grant. It should be really fun to watch and students get in the ropes for free.

The first official week of school has just come to an end today. I've plotted points on maps in a Geography practical, identified different types of minerals in a Geoscience practical, and learned about the importance of the clergy in the middle-ages of Europe. The work hasn't been terribly difficult and the reading not too intense, but it seems it will get a little heavier as the weeks go on. I'm also getting great workouts power-walking across town from History to Geography in 10 minutes every day.

To conclude, it is surprisingly staying virtually rain-free so far in St. Andrews apart from one afternoon a couple days ago. I'm sure the rain will come, but I'm enjoying the nice weather as it lasts. So long!

*Any questions? Post a comment to ask me and I'll try to answer back.*

Freshers Week Pics

Finally, some pictures of my last week in St. Andrews. Clockwise from top left: Getting ready to teach the Europeans about wiffle ball; finding another pot bunker; my roommate James from the South of Scotland; Pub Crawl; my first St. Andrews Ale.

Freshers Week Over

It's back to reality for me as today was the first day of classes at the University of St. Andrews. After eight straight days of total partying, I had to get up nice and early this morning for breakfast and then head off to my first class, medieval History. Before I go into more details about my classes, let's take a look back at probably the most fun I've had in a week in my entire life:

-Played golf on real Scottish links
-Played football in a country where it is actually appreciated
-Purchased alcoholic beverages at a bar
-Consumed too much of said beverages
-Bought my own groceries
-Woke up at 1 in the afternoon with very little recollection of the night before
-Picked up a slight Scottish accent
-Played extreme rounders (American Football and Baseball in one)
-Watched "Top Gun", my dorm's "Official Movie"
-Drank tea (it's not very good, but better than coffee)
-Joined Golf, Sunday League Football, Table Tennis, and Breakaway (Hiking) clubs
-Shorted my room's circuits with one of my electric adapters
-Met numerous guys and girls from all over the world (Singapore, Australia, Scotland, Italy, Connecticut, L.A., Canada, Germany...)

So, now for my classes. My first was medieval History, which sounded moderately interesting, and I'm sure will get a lot better. The good news is that throughout the semester, there are a total of about nine or ten lecturers, so it won't be the same old boring Englishman teaching every single day. Another good feature of this class is that it is only 3 lectures a week as opposed to five for Geography and Geoscience. My next class was called "Foundations of Geography", and is quite a long way to walk for the ten minutes I have to get there, but it's manageable. This seems like a very good subject. I especially look forward to "human geography" which looks at how we as a people inhabit, utilize, and change the land. Finally, there is Geoscience, which is similar to Geography, but deals more with rocks and volcanoes and how the earth was shaped into what it looks like today.

Other than that, there is nothing much more to say. I'm settling in nicely and am really having a great time. If you ever have any questions you would like me to answer feel free to email me or use the comment link on the blog. Cheers!

Classes Start Tomorrow

It is finally Sunday and Freshers week is coming to an end. It has been very fun so far and I'm sure it will only get better. Yesterday I went to the Sports fair and signed up for golf, table tennis, mountaineering, and the Sunday league football team. Today is the society fair. I am also getting ready to start classes tomorrow. Medieval History at 10, Foundations of Geography at 11, and Geoscience at 12. Also today was the first day so far that it has actually rained. I woke up this morning, looked out the window and saw the 18th hole of the old courses covered in puddles. I am really have a great time though and I hope to hear from anyone who wants to write.

spenner13@hotmail.com

Settling In

Two more pub crawls, a soccer game, and a "beach brawl" later I think I have finally regained my consciousness enough to tell everyone a little bit about what's going on around here. Amazingly, the weather has been spectacular. I'm looking out my dorm room right now at 4 in the afternoon and all I see is blue skies. A couple days ago a bunch of guys from my dorm went down to the "pitches" and played a game of football (soccer). Today our entire John Burnet Hall went down to the beach and soundly defeated University hall in British Bulldog, football, and hardcore rounders (its a mix of baseball and full contact tackle football). I'm pretty tired right now and unfortunately tomorrow I will have to start working on school-related things. Time to get some rest though.

First Night Out

I have officially completed my first night roaming the town (pubs) of St. Andrews. It seems strange because its only 8:45 PM local time but considering that I have been awake for 24 hours, I think it is time I get a little shut eye. First we (my entire dorm of about 100 people) went to this pub whose name has now slipped my mind but it was amazing. A hundred of us packed into this tiny pub about, oh 20 meters (that's right, I've converted!) away from the 18th green of the old course where I ordered a pint of Tennant's ale which for me was absolutely delectable. After the fire alarm went off in that pub because it was so hot from all the people crammed into it, we headed on over to the Union Pub. While there I ordered a tall glass of St. Andrews Ale which was much darker and harder to drink. It's okay though, I'm already making progress. After the union I decided to call it quits because I haven't got a wink of sleep for a LONG time. Other than that, I might be playing the new course at St. Andrews tomorrow with my dad and mom. By the way, I forgot my camera this time but next time I promise there will be pictures! Cheers!

Packing for School

So it's three days before I leave for Scotland and this morning I realized how incredibly bored I've been at home for the past three weeks. I'm posting about packing clothes for crying out loud. Apart from a quick trip to LA to visit my friend at LMU, I've spent the last three weeks looking for anything to do to pass the time. It's getting so bad that even the daily trips to the Cheese Steak Shop and the nightly Super Mario Strikers tournaments have gotten pretty old. Just let me go to Scotland already.
Backing up to the original point of this post, after getting together all the clothes I'm bringing to Scotland I have realized two things: 1. The sheer amount of clothes I own and will be bringing, and 2. The insane amount of clothes that girls must be bringing to college. If I'm bringing a total of almost 20 shirts to Scotland, I don't even want to think about how many blouses the average girl takes to her freshman dorm. I'm even bring four pairs of shoes which, for me, is completely ridiculous. Each freshman girl will probably bring a duffel bag full their "favorite shoes" to bring to college. As little as I care about my own clothing, there is one thing I'm truly happy about, and that is the abundance of fresh new socks I'm packing. Believe me, you can NEVER have enough socks.

5 Days Left

5 Days left until I leave for Scotland.