Some place sunny

Barcelona last week was AMAZING. I didn't do much sightseeing, having been there before, just a lot of wandering around the city. It was so nice to just have time to myself, meandering through the streets, soaking up some sun, and eating all food in sight. And of course it was fantastic to see Carli and Ankita. Thursday morning was spent drifting through the gothic quarter, the afternoon strolling down Las Ramblas and along the waterfront. Thursday night we went out to dinner and clubbing...I'm not much of the clubbing type, but every once in awhile, it's definitely I nice change of pace. Also excellent that the clubs in Barcelona are open until after 6am. Fun times. The better part of Friday was spent chilling out in Park Guell and listening to the various musicians playing around in the park; my personal favorite was the one Ankita and I call 'the can man' as he made his instrument out of old cans, violin parts, and an old desk lamp as a stand. Getting up at 4am Saturday morning to get myself to the airport for my 8am flight was an experience in itself, the worst part was really just arriving home in Scotland to find the water heater in the house was broken so have only just had my first hot shower a couple hours ago since Friday. Cold showers wouldn't really be that bad if my sinuses hadn't decided to be all stuffy and make me feel like crap since I've been home. Ah well.

Now, after falling a little behind on my work before I left last week, I am finally ALMOST caught up to where I want to be. Thesis-wise I'm pretty much on track. But I also desparately need to start putting together my presentation for the psychiatric/clinician group I'm presenting for in a couple weeks. And then there are the essays I still need to mark by Friday...my students had to write about a marine organism and three of its adaptations. The first 5 essays on whales were really interesting, but not gonna lie, reading about blubber, blowholes, and echolocation 20 times over is starting to get a little old.

Most epic weekend EVER

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.

This waiting game needs to end

Playing the waiting game is not nearly as fun as it sounds...oh wait, it doesn't sound fun in the first place...20 more days. At least 4 of those days will be jam packed with fun. I can do this. I can do this. After May 15, I can book my tickets home, figure out where I'll be come August and beyond.

In the meantime, I'll just keep trucking through thesis revisions. Chapter 3 is looking pretty good right now, or at least much better than it did 4 days ago. And because I know you all want to know, my word count is up to 13,221 (that's 1/3 done!!). Next up is reworking Chapter 2, which should be done just in time for my trip to Barcelona next week(!!!!). This weekend should be fun, as well. Kicking off Thursday night with a 'BBC3 vs. the Royal Wedding' party, a national holiday on Friday for the Royal Wedding, May Dip Sunday morning. Which brings us to me leaving for Barcelona on Wednesday, getting back Saturday in time for the May Ball on Sunday. Almost too much excitement over the next two weeks, I can hardly contain myself.

I love springtime and all these crazy times that come with it, but then I start getting all nostalgic about how quickly the year went by, and how I'm leaving soon... I must admit, I'm getting a bit too claustrophobic here, so am feeling nearly ready to go. But at the same time, I don't want to go because I know I won't be coming back this time...(excluding the possibility that I'll be back for a few short days in November for graduation).

Today's moment of happiness: running into James on my way to the office this morning. Was so lucky because it wasn't my normal time to go in, and James never walks my way but was taking the long way to the library to enjoy the weather. So we got to have a nice stroll together and some cheeky chat. Loves it.

Tesco cookies are dangerous

...And by dangerous I mean addictively delicious. I find myself craving them, and with no self control, will make the walk to Tesco at any hour (so long as Tesco is open of course...). It was all downhill when they moved their location in Tesco to be on the shelf right next to the juice and fresh soup, so that there's really no avoiding them, ever. And once you've tried them that first time, there's just no going back.

Editing and revision are going alright so far. I've procrastinated writing anything by creating a fairly detailed outline of all the revisions I need to make, noting the exact location in my writing that needs fixing, the general subject of revision, the source that I will reference, the page and location within the reference...should make revising pretty simple, right? Now I need to just sit down and write in those revisions... But on the plus side I think I've worked out that I can actually submit my thesis a few weeks later than I thought (which also means I need to rework my deadline schedule that I've made for myself...).

Today and tomorrow are the oral vivas for the first year biology labs, so I get to give my students a 10-minute oral exam on their lab work so far this semester. Not gonna lie, I actually really enjoyed it, so much easier than teaching a lab, though I know the students would prefer to do a lab than do the viva of course. I have noticed, however, that this semester the students aren't doing nearly as well as last semester. I had been worried that maybe it was me, that I'm terrible at helping them this semester, since it's all plant and animal biology (which I know very little about, versus cell biology, which I actually understand...), but all the other lab demonstrators are finding the same thing, so I know it's not just me. I guess this semester is just harder?

And now...back to work...must resist the Tesco Belgian Triple Chocolate Cookies sitting on the side of my desk...we'll see how long this lasts...

With Beautiful Weather Comes Allergies to Match

As the trees and flowers are finally in bloom, making the town even more gorgeous, of course I want to get outside and take advantage of the good weather. Then I wake up Wednesday morning feeling like a truck has just driven over my face, and then dumped a pile of bricks on me. Wonderful. In any case, got myself some allergy meds, and by Friday was feeling much better (though still not 100% even now, but I can function so I'm not too bothered by the stuffy sinuses...).

Yesterday was the Kate Kennedy Procession. Basically the 'KK' is a gentlemen's club here in St Andrews (think: a sort of British elitist club not too unlike a fraternity, which is founded on being a charity organization, but is widely known for excluding anyone that isn't a trust fund baby and more...). Anyways, the KK guys put on a number of traditional balls here throughout the year--the Opening Ball, Christmas Ball, and May Ball--which are great events, though largely overpriced in the name of charity...(That being said, I'm going to the May Ball in three weeks and I'm really excited!) So the Procession was yesterday, and they have a bunch of people dressed up in old period clothing and march around the town center (and past my house) with a pipe band (think lots of bagpipes and drums), horses, a couple carriages, the whole lot...this was the first time I saw it, and not gonna lie, it was pretty cool. And I was surprised by the number of people I knew who were in the procession. It was a beautiful day for it, too, so Anna and I got some ice cream from Jannetta's and sat in front of the Cathedral to watch. Towards the end, we were both given a small bouquet of daffodils by some KK guys, so I now have some flowers to decorate my back hallway, nice touch. (Since my camera batteries died, I will have to steal pictures from Anna later to post here...)

After the Procession, I went to the office for a few hours in the afternoon/evening. I actually really like being the only one in the office, much more productive that way. It is sort of weird to be in there on weekends, but I actually enjoy it. I had met with my supervisor on Wednesday, and among a million other things I have to do, I will be going back to revise and gather more research for my second two chapters before continuing to draft the rest of my thesis. Sensible, but frustrating because I will most definitely fall behind on my timetable now...

"Well, at least I've backed up my work"

You know thesis has taken over my life when it even starts coming up in my dreams. Last night, I had an interesting dream. I decided to go traveling for awhile, so I met up with my cousin Beth at a hostel in Geneva because she wanted to take a break from her job in Belize. After a couple days of wandering around with her and her friend that had come along, we had to rush to get to Zurich, the next stop on our trip. I don't remember why we were in such a rush, because we were driving to get there, so we didn't have to catch a train or bus or plane or anything... The more interesting bit was we were driving a flying car (think Harry Potter, except it was a convertible). Anyways, we had to rush out to the car and I was in the backseat, sitting next to my sister (who magically appeared on this trip as if she'd always been there, as happens in dreams), and in my frantic packing to get out the door hadn't had time to put my laptop in my bag, so it's sitting on my lap. But as we pick up speed and altitude, it's slipping around, and not wanting anything to happen to it, I scramble to put it into my backpack at my feet, but we're going so fast that it actually slips out of my hands. Somehow, my sister just manages to catch the edge of it as it had opened up as it fell, so I ask her to hold onto it as I tried to grab it/close it. In the process of doing so, however, she accidentally dropped it, and we watched as my laptop fell what was now at least 100 yards to the ground, shattering into a thousand pieces. And all I could think as I saw it go was, "well at least I've backed up my work, so I can just pick up where I left off on my thesis" (the fact that I no longer had a computer was completely inconsequential of course). And I woke up thinking, I'm so glad I have each of my chapters saved in emails and on my flashdrive.

Thesising

This weekend I have hit a great routine: waking up around 9:30, writing for a couple hours, one-hour lunch break on the beach, writing a couple more hours, 4ish-mile run, writing another hour, dinner, attempting to write another short bit, dessert, and ending with treating myself by watching BostonMed reruns online. Quite the life. My word count is up to about 10,000, so I'm 25% done...only slightly an issue that I'm nearly done with half my chapters yet I'm nowhere near 50% of the word count. Hmm.... No matter, must keep going. All this sunlight and exercise is making me rather optimistic. We'll see how long this lasts.

I'm also happy because Tesco value ice cream is on offer at the moment--two big cartons for only 3 pounds! I also heard a rumor that Ben & Jerry's is on offer at Morrison's for only 2 pounds, may just have to make the 20-minute walk out there to get some, surely walking so far would earn me some quality ice cream...