For starters, 4 day weekends are always a good idea. I had my last lab practicals last week, which is good because I could definitely use the extra time to work on my thesis now, but I will definitely miss teaching. My Thursday group got me a card, everyone signed it, and it made me very happy. Will definitely miss my weekly dose of banter with that group. Thursday night was the BBC3 vs. the Royal Wedding party at the JFK house. Basically, BBC3 is the trashy TV station here, think shows like 'Snog, Marry, or Avoid' and 'Underage and Pregnant'...The fancy dress was amazing, so much spray-on tan and heavy eye make-up everywhere (see picture of James and Sara below).
Friday was surreal and probably the most 'St Andrews'-themed day I've ever had. James, Fred, and I met up early to go to the Royal Wedding Breakfast on St Salvatore's quad. What a British experience. There were TV cameras everywhere. It was weird to be the alternate media destination after London for the wedding broadcast. Granted, for all the media, St Andrews only appeared on TV for a matter of minutes--seems like a silly amount of effort put in on the media's part. But it was really amazing to be celebrating the wedding in the place where Wills and Kate met. I think that made it more real in some way, or something? It's both sweet and slightly ridiculous to see Wills and Kate paraphernalia all around town, like the picture of the royal couple made entirely out of jellybeans in the window to the sweets shop (will try to get a photo of that to post later).
Bagpipe procession to start the breakfast festivities in St Andrews.
We found Anna at the breakfast as well. Notice on the screen behind Anna and James that the BBC is showing a segment in St Andrews which is occurring just a few feet away from us.
After the wedding, we got some lunch and ate it in St Mary's quad across town, where we were met by some crazy seagulls. Then we decided to go up to the top of St Rule's Tower next to the Cathedral for an amazing view of the town and the sea (see picture below), despite the fact that I was wearing heels. It actually wasn't as bad a climb as I was expecting. This was followed by a trip to the castle, obviously. I ended my day with a few cocktails at the West Port, which seemed appropriate enough.
James and me at the top of St Rule's Tower.
On Saturday I attempted to get some work done in the morning. I had a pleasant pub lunch with Matt and James, followed by coffee with Katie. I love catching up with Katie, who is in the last year of her PhD here. She's one of the few people that truly understands the bipolarity caused by thesis writing. Later in the evening, Sarah and I went to the castle, where students were led by a bagpipe in a procession down to the pier with torches at sunset. It was one of those 'You know you're in St Andrews when...' moments. Standard. After making some dinner, I made my way to a friend's apartment next to the beach where the May Dip would take place. After drinking a few glasses of Pimms and lemonade, I went back to my house to join some other friends for late night snacks and a few more drinks. And at 4am, we made our way back down to the beach, where there were a number of bonfires going, fire twirlers, and a rave as thousands of students prepared to run into the North Sea at sunrise. It wasn't long before it was light out, and people started running into the water long before the sun came up. An incredible spectacle (see pictures below, also note that despite the fact that everyone is wearing bathing suits, it was definitely not warm outside). Another one of St Andrews' notable traditions, the May Dip is when students go into the North Sea at sunrise on the first of May. Originally, the May Dip was to commemorate John Honey, who was a 19 year old student in 1800 who is said to have rescued 5 men from a sinking ship off the shore of East Sands, and also to supposedly make you beautiful, but if I remember correctly, now it is also said to reverse the curse if you step on the cursed 'PH' stones in front of the quad (which will make you fail your exams if you don't do the May Dip as a remedy), and maybe balance academic incest(?...too many traditions, I can't keep them all straight).
Got back home by about 6am on Sunday morning, and spent the better part of the morning sleeping. Of course the weather was beautiful when I really needed to be doing work. But I did manage to take an afternoon break to grab a smoothie and sit on the Cathedral lawn to enjoy a little bit of sun. So I've tried to get through some Chapter 2 revisions between yesterday and today; it's coming along slowly. I may not get it completely squared away by the time I leave on Wednesday, but I feel like it's going alright.
In other news, I'll be moving to New York at the end of July. Haven't figured out exactly when I'll be leaving here, but I should be around Boston for a few days in the last week of July, in any case.
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