the first week

So, I've been here almost a week. Moved in to St Andrews on Monday and now it's Sunday night, well Sunday afternoon for most of you back in the states reading this. I still find that strange...

First things first, let me just say that this was a huuuuge culture shock for me. I did not adequately mentally prepare myself for this. I moved in to a double, but had it to myself until earlier tonight when my roommate moved back in. So, I had to deal with a lot of alone time. Also, my particular group from Arcadia was rather small and I didn't really click with anyone. So, I called a couple of the girls to get together and pass the time but was definitely not enjoying my first couple of days here. It didn't help that my dorm was pretty dead because everyone was on holiday.

I experienced dining hall life for the first time as well. It's strange here because there isn't a main dining hall on campus, there's a dining hall in each dorm. The food is horrendous, but I guess it's cheaper than eating out all the time. Unfortunately, breakfast is not something I will ever be awake for since it's from 8-8:45. It's a pity really because I hear it's the best meal of the day...Everything pretty much tastes like nothing yet manages to leave a terrible after-taste. I will love American food when I get home. I keep eating it because I'm hungry enough for now, but I think fairly soon I'll be so dissatisfied that I'll not just shovel food in. Luckily, I can get cheap snacks at the local grocery store(Tesco) which is open til midnight while every other store closes by 5:30.

On Wednesday afternoon Maddie moved in *phew* and I almost immediately felt better. I like to think of myself as an independent, highly adaptable person, but I definitely overestimated myself. Having Maddie here is a huge plus for me. We even had a sleepover in her room that Wednesday night. Plus, a big bonus is that her group is far larger than mine and we got to hang out with them for the first couple days. While hanging out with them one night we were somehow spotted by a very odd student by the name of Malcom. Malcom wore Harry Potter glasses, large headphones around his neck, and those gloves with the finger tips cut out. He was nice, but definitely at the top of the weirdest people I've ever met list. Turns out he recognized us as "JSAs" which are junior semester abroad students, and decided he should take us under his wing and show us around town a bit. He took us to a couple local bars and showed us around, but we didn't stay with him long. He is an American here for all four years who has apparently lived in DC Texas Ohio...who knows.

After Maddie got here things started to look up and more people came back to my dorm. A few boys played a very good joke on me, but had they known my mental state they may not have pushed me so far. So, I haven't had a random roommate since freshman year, and it was not really something I ever wanted again. But since I have a double, it's something I was facing here. These boys thought it would be great fun to convince me that my roommate was an absolute monster who forced her other roommate out because she was so gothic and weird. If I hadn't just met them I probably would have broken down and cried because they kept it going for so long with straight faces. And the joke was only ended when a girl who wasn't in on it came over and told me otherwise. I've just met my roommate, her name is Charlie, and so far she seems very nice, so we can hope that continues.

It's very strange but most people in this dorm are first years, so even though I'm young for my grade I feel old, which is highly unusual for me to feel that way. The kids are fun though, the boys who played such a mean joke on me are actually very nice. We ended up hanging out with them Friday and Saturday night.

Unfortunately, Maddie lives about 20 minutes walk away from me, I live right in town, near all the important things and Maddie lives off on the outskirts of campus near nothing. Literally. So, she ended up spending a lot of time with me in my dorm...she even eats here. The kitchen staff thinks she lives here, which is good because unless you live in the building you're not supposed to eat here without paying. How long she'll suffer through the food with me is unknown, but it is free for her. Although the dorm was fairly empty until tonight there were a few people and more and more kept filtering in as the week went on. So, I imagine that tomorrow at meal times will be much more crowded.

I have class tomorrow starting at 12, not sure how that is going to go but I'm not really worried about it. Everyone has pretty much said that American students usually find classes a lot easier, as long as they're good students in the states. And I'm pretty sure I fall into that category, so I should be fine.

I have another class on Tuesday. Yup, that's right. I'm going from taking 5 classes per semester to taking 2 because of the way the credit system works here. I will have what's called a tutorial for one of my classes, I'm not sure when yet because it hasn't been scheduled. All I can hope is that it will be on Monday or Tuesday so I keep my long weekend. Tutorials are like recitations in the states, and attendance is mandatory, but you can skip as many lectures as you want.

So the gist is, with only two classes, stores closing by 5:30pm, and not much to do this is pretty much the opposite of my life in DC. Even though I'm obviously from small town NH, I think it's safe to say I've become somewhat of a city girl after 2 1/2 years in DC. Maddie and I are bored out of our mind. We have no clue what to do with ourselves. Today we passed the time by waking up at 11 or 12 and taking a tour of the castle and cathedral ruins, but if we do all the tourist things now we'll run out of things to do. There are only 3 main streets in town. North St, Market St, and South St. Original I know. I think this is really the hardest part for me to adapt to. I'm so used to a very busy schedule: 5 classes a week, plus yoga twice a week, plus running everyday, plus homework, plus about 15 hours of work a week tends to keep a person rather busy...I'm hoping though that Maddie and I will be able to take a lot of weekend trips and explore Scotland, the UK, and Europe with our extra time. We've already begun planning our Spring break...

Well, I think that's it for now. This has been quite a long entry. If i remember anything else I'll suplement it, but if not I will report back to you next weekend to let you know how the first "week" of classes went!