The Old Course (now w/ 16, 17, and 18!)

I finally got to play a full round at the Old Course last weekend and it was a perfect day for golf. With barely any wind I somewhat recovered from a rocky start to shoot a respectable 86. Here's a couple of pics on the 17th tee and then atop the Swilcan Bridge.

Hall Ball Pics

One More Raisin Weekend Pic...

The Foam Fight!

Raisin Weekend Pics

I know these are small but if you click the picture it goes to full size. From top to bottom: My name and dorm in case I pass out somewhere; at my academic dad's flat party; my academic mom's flat party; the resulting carnage of the foam fight (I'm on the left, Sean my golfing buddy in the middle, my roommate James on the right); Frank(my academic dad) and Luke as the bartenders at the shanty party.

Raisin Weekend

I have now officially completed Raisin Weekend, a 24 party that has been a tradition at the University for over a hundred years. The partying started off on Sunday afternoon around 1:30 at my academic mom's flat, where many games involving beverages were participated in (clean version), then moved on my academic dad's flat, then to the Shanty party in my hall, were basically the entire second floor in my dorm was converted into a bar/dance club. I remember having a bunch of fun at my mom's party, relaxing with my friends at my dad's party, and then waking up on my bed at 2 in the morning. Needless to say I had a bit to much to drink, but then again so did everybody that night. I was just happy to wake up in my bed, clean, with no signs of anything terrible happening. That wasn't all for raisin weekend though, because Monday morning at 11 was the foam fight in the quad, participated in by the entire freshman class of St. Andrews. I was dressed up along with my academic siblings as a domino, and we all walked to the quad in freezing cold weather, with the rain falling sideways, to the quad for the fight. The fight was crazy and when it was finished we were all covered from head to toe in foam. Finally, after a nice warm shower, I could finally say that I survived raisin weekend!

1-9 Sounds a Hell of a lot Better Than 0-10

Well, Stanford football finally got into the win column this season by beating Washington, who they hadn't beat since 1975 at Washington. It was especially pleasing to me that their first victory came against former Stanford coach (from the 1999 glory days) Tyrone Willingham. All I can say is watch out Cal, because Stanford is on a roll!

Finally, the Old Course*

I finally had the honor of playing the Old Course yesterday when my friend and I went out at 1 PM and hopped on the first tee. It was an amazing experience playing it for the first time, and I was having a pretty good round as well. The highlight of my round was paring holes 8 through 14, with number 13 being the second hardest hole on the golf course. The only big problem was that since we are so far North here in St. Andrews, it gets too dark to play golf at about 4:30 in the afternoon. Unfortunately, we ran into some slow groups on the back nine and could only finish 15 holes, leaving out the legendary 17th and iconic 18th holes. I was having a decent round as well, I was only seven over par after 15, so that was a little disappointing, but fear not my friends, for this Saturday morning we will go out early , and play a full round at the Old Course of St. Andrews.

Florence, Vol. 2

Florence, Vol. 1

I finally got back from Italy Wednesday night after a very fun and very eventful trip to Florence, Italy. The transportation both ways were quite eventful as well, including my friend Jack and I barely missing the last bus to Prestwick airport (after our train to the bus station in Glasgow was delayed 25 minutes), which forced us to spend 30 pounds each on a cab. Not the greatest way to start a trip when you are on a budget. Still, we got to the airport, flew into Pisa, where on the way there was some amazing views of the alps, and took a bus into Florence. We managed to check in successfully at the hostel despite the language barrier between us and the old woman who ran the place. That evening we strolled around the city and had our first authentic Italian pizza at a nice little cafe in Piazza della Signoria. The next day, we a took a walk outside the city and up into the hills, giving us a great view of Florence and the surrounding area. We then strolled back and visited the Galleria degli Uffizi and looked at many famous sculptures and paintings. Monday was spent mostly at the Duomo, the world's 4th largest cathedral. It is an amazing building to look at, especially because of it's enormous dome that took over 150 years to build. We finally left Italy on Tuesday to spend the night in the Pisa airport, where at 1 AM Jack and I were awakened by the airport security guards who told us the airport was closing. We got to spend the next three hours huddling up right outside the airport in the freezing cold. My first travel experience on my own was an extremely fun trip and even more of a wild adventure than I had anticipated.

Going to Italy

Next week is reading week at the University of St. Andrews, a week designed to give students time to read and catch up on their school work. It just so happens that it is also a perfect opportunity to travel around Europe, which is what most people end up doing anyway. I will be leaving Saturday morning from Glasgow airport with three of my friends to go to Florence, Italy for three nights. It should be a really fun and exciting experience, and I'll be sure to take and eventually post as many pictures as possible on this blog. Stay tuned on Wednesday of next week for the complete report of the trip.

Bruised and Battered

After playing my second Sunday league football game (it's soccer) yesterday, I realized how different football in this continent is compared to soccer in the U.S. On Sunday my team played the beavers, a team composed entirely of third and fourth years who were all German. They were also big, strong, and intimidating. Still, we felt pretty confident we could win, and I felt pretty good about playing. The only problem was that in Sunday league, the referee doesn't always show up, which was the case yesterday. It ended up that a substitute player from their team reffed, which proved to be a huge disadvantage for us. We ended up losing the game 6-3, although I did get "man of the match" for giving all three assists. What was frustrating was the physical pounding our team, especially me took. The first header I went up for was uncontested, but after I jumped and was on my way down I was completely blindside by this guy who basically spear tackled me straight into my ribs. My entire right rib cage was extremely sore when I got up this morning. With a inept referee you can probably imagine how thins escalated, and by the end of the game it felt more like I was playing American football. My right ankle is swollen and I have plenty of cleat marks all over my legs, along with a pretty nasty bruise on my left foot. It was still loads of fun to play though, see as I got to return the favor to many of their players. Next Sunday should be fun.

Rain and Work (and Fun)

Today marks the first of potentially many days to come of torrential rain in the town of St. Andrews. It also marks the first day that I have come to the realization that I have a ton of schoolwork to do before we get a week off in early November. I have an essay about the "Sanctity of Gerald of Aurilac" due next week on Friday, and by November 3rd I am supposed to have written a 1,200 word report on the economics of Dundee for Geography. There is also a group project due that same day for Geoscience on the Yellowstone Caldera. This comes immediately following a very fun and much more interesting Tuesday night in which:

1. John Burnet (my dorm) dominated at interhall basketball (I scored three baskets)
2. I went to a pub with my friends, one of which was still wearing the pink bunny mascot suit.
3. I went to the "bop" and danced the night away.
4. I went to a flat and ate hash browns with my friends at around 2 AM.

Now that the work is really piling on, I am devoting the majority of my free time this weekend to school work, which won't be hard seeing that I will be in Dundee all day Saturday taking notes about the different neighborhood structures. Well, enough of my whining. I guess I am in college after all.

Kinlochleven- Day 2

This morning we drove north to Fort William where we started our second hike up to a munro that supposedly had great views of Ben Nevis, which is the highest point in the UK at 1340 meters. Once again, we started the hike at sea level, so I spent the entire morning and the early part of the afternoon walking slowly but surely uphill. Unfortunately, the batteries in the camera died at the summit of my 4th munro, but I got some good photos of the surrounding area from the shoulder just below along with the video, so the beautiful day in the highlands did not go completely undocumented. The weather was PERFECT today. Barely any clouds in the sky and very warm in the sun while nice and cool in the shade. The view from the top of the munro was amazing, and Ben Nevis was looming large across the massive valley we had hiked up. It was another great hike, and another very tiring hike, but it was a great way to finish my first weekend away from St. Andrews and let me get away from the stresses of school work. Cheers!

Kinlochleven- Day 1

After spending the night in a very nice hostel, we set out at around nine in the morning on Saturday from the town of Kinlochleven with a goal of reaching the summit of three "munros". For those of you who have no idea what that is, which should be all of you, a munro is a Scottish summit of over 3000 feet. Compared to the mountains in California that may seem pretty small, but if you consider that we started the hike from sea level, it was definitely quite a climb. The first summit that we reached three hours later was called "Sgurr nan Iubhar" at 3284 feet (see video), and I had a nice lunch at the top. Unfortunately it was covered in clouds, so there wasn't much of a view. The second munro we reached was "Am Bodach" at 3392 feet and finally "Stob Coire a Chairr" at 3225 feet. The only thing harder than climbing these mountains was trying to pronounce their names! All in all the trip was about 8 miles and gave me my first real taste of the Scottish highlands. Luckily, Sunday would prove to be much clearer with better views of the surrounding mountains.

Kinlochleven Trip

After staying up until 3:30 in the morning two weeknights in a row only to feel the anguish and suffering of two A's home losses, I have decided to go on a trip this weekend. Okay, in all seriousness this has been planned for a couple weeks now, but this weekend I will be hiking (it's called hill walking over here) through the beautiful terrain of Kinlochleven. This is a trip organized by the hill walking club I have joined, which has a very good website at. There are also plenty of good pictures if you just google "Kinlochleven". It should be very fun and I will finally be able to see some of the countryside of Scotland that I have not yet experienced. Hopefully by Sunday I will have plenty of pictures/video up for you to see from the trip. Cheers.

Random, But Funny

I just can't get enough of the Oakland A's right now. Hope everyone will be watching on Tuesday!

Geography Field Trip

I had my first geography field trip today to Arthur's Seat, a large hill made up of two volcanic plugs that sit on the East side of Edinburgh. We got a good look at all of the various rock types around the Arthur's seat area. In the first picture you can see the "Lion's head" and "Lion's Haunch" volcanic plugs that make up the mountain. Although it was extremely cold and windy, I had a really fun time and the 3 hours of riding in the bus gave me a chance to recover from the night before. Enjoy.

Is This a Dream?

I am still not completely convinced that what I just saw on the internet was true. The oakland athletics have done it. We swept the Twins, and now its off to the ALCS. WOW!

Dunhill Championship- Round 2

Got up early today, meaning 8 AM, to get a good spot to see all of the pros and celebrities that were out on the Old Course today. Along with three girls from my dorm who would not stop talking about Hugh Grant, I camped out at the 2nd tee and waited for everyone to come by. I know some of the pictures are small and blurry, but the celebrities never came very close. There is Hugh Grant, Michael Douglas, Bill Murray (kneeling down acting like a dog), Monty, and Vijay. Enjoy.

Dunhill Championship- Round 1

There weren't many big stars out on the old course today, but I did catch a couple people I was familiar with. On my way to a mediaeval (British spelling) history tutorial I stopped by the 18th fairway to catch some of the action. That is when I saw Stephen Dodd hit his approach short into the 18th green. After watching about four or five more groups after that I came to the conclusion that, for the pros at least, they were either putting for birdie from within 5 feet or all the way to the bottom of the "Valley of Sin" ,as they call it, for their 3rd shots. Then it started to rain :( so I figured I better get on to my tutorial. Oh yeah, about that. Now I have essays to write. I guess you really do have to do some work in college. If any of you are planning on watching on the golf channel, tomorrow the big stars are coming to the old course. I will wear my USC red sweatshirt so I'll stand out in the crowd. Look for me on the 1st, 17th, and 18th holes.