The night before I left, quite honestly, I was more apprehensive than excited. I knew I would love it here as soon as I'd settled in a little, met a few people, and knew what I was doing. But it was that first week or so that concerned me.
Oh, how terribly foolish I was!
It's currently approaching midnight of my first full day here and I'm definitely in excited-mode. I spent the majority of the last couple of days unpacking all my worldly belongings and finding them all places in the little room I now call "home". More accurately, "home" is a four-girl flat: one of six similar flats in Stanley Smith House, a postgraduate residence. I say "similar" rather than "identical" because all the other flats are apparently all the same, but ours is bigger and more glorious because it's the wheelchair-accessible one... which makes me a little sad for everyone else because our place is tiny!
My building is in a sketchy little alleyway that the Madras College (it's a high school) kids frequent as a tucked-away place to get drunk and smoke. That being said, it's also splat in the middle of town, with nothing I have yet wanted to attend more than a seven minute walk away. St Andrews is ridiculously small, but considering its size, it has a decent number of shops, bars, etc.; actually, if you consider the fact that nobody from Queen's bothers to venture any further than Princess Street, it's not really that far off. Apparently what it's quite good for is "charity shops" - essentially second-hand stores. Just today, I was walking towards the Psychology building to see if my professor was in (he wasn't), and I fell in love with a coat in a charity shop window. It was this beautiful offwhite, knee-length, quilted thing with fur trim - practical, yet stylish. And wonder of wonders, it was my size! And a mere 25 pounds (or should I say "quid" - I'm planning on coming back with some obnoxious British slang in my vocabulary). I didn't want to walk into my prof's office with shopping, however, so I decided to pick it up on my way back. Ten minutes later, I'm coming up to the store and notice the coat is no longer on the mannequin... because someone had bought it! In those intervening ten minutes! Frick on an effing stick.
Other than pretty coats, I've been shopping for various things I actually need: groceries, another blanket (it's cold!), a lamp, dishes, etc. You may already know that I adore grocery shopping (almost as much as toothbrush shopping!) but it was even more exciting today. Everything is a tiny bit different: the layout of the store, the meat selection, the strangely packaged vegetables that come with cooking instructions, the availability of liquor in a grocery store - well, I got used to that one this summer in Europe. I think the best part is the fact that Indian food is so common here! Glory.
Now I'm going to tell you about my flatmates. Danielle is Chinese and rather quiet and I've barely seen her yet, although she does make a mean egg-tomato soup. Mohira is the building's RA. She's from Tajikistan, although from what I gather she's also lived in the USSR, USA, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. She already did her Masters here so she answers all our inane questions about how to do things and get places. I was introduced to my final flatmate, Urvashi, when she accosted me on the street yesterday demanding to know whether I was Shilpa, and if so, where in India was I from and did I want to hang out later? She's from Delhi and one of her friends from home, Rithvik, is also here and hangs around our flat a lot because his residence is far away from downtown.
Earlier tonight, Mohira and Urvashi ran into the girls from the flat right above ours who they met the night before I got here, and they came back to our place to drink a couple of cocktails and watch Friends. So, I hung out with them as well which was cool although I can't remember their names for the life of me. They seem like solid people and I think we're going out to "The Lizard" tomorrow, whatever that is. They're from the Philippines, Holland, and Toronto. Seriously, the international-ness of this school is completely ridiculous!
And that is the very beginning of me in Scotland.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I didn't know you were going to St Andrew's! I was there for a conference like 2 weeks ago... enjoy, and look to the Cellar Bar for later-night drinking.
On the note of being accosted, I went to the international studies fair in Grant - <3 - and was promptly accosted by a man from U of Glasgow who had a delicious accent to see if I wanted to go to his school. Perhaps I'll join you in Scotland :P
hi Frag! how many jars of Branson Pickle did you purchaaaaaaaaaase?????
Post a Comment