I envision many visions of revision

Hey! Welcome to Revision week at St Andrews. I'm not going to say much in this post, partially because I haven't done a whole lot. I've been studying like mad and will continue to do so until next Tuesday. I feel like I'm starting to understand my modules a little bit better so I hope this all pays off. So far, in the last two days, I've studied 18 hours. That's pretty good, I'd say :D And I'm off to the library for 4 more glorious hours. I do most of my revision studying in the library, but today was odd. I had porridge with Pat and Katie this morning and got to the library at 11. There was nowhere to sit and study! Everywhere was taken...we had to go somewhere else where we opted for Beanscene. We stayed there until 3ish and then went to the library and studied there until 6. So busy... :) Hope you are well!

Done with class!

I am done! With classes that is...all that is left is studying and 3 finals! I studied a little bit today, but tomorrow is going to be balls to the wall studying. I plan on being at the library the entire day and I am ok with that. I need to make sure I do well on these exams. :) On a lighter note, I go home in exactly 2 weeks. BAMF. Exciting stuff.

Last night, my friends and I had a bonfire on the castle sands. It was a good time, with some hardships. First off, we didn't have any wood. We had this compressed liquid fuel stuff and a wee bit of charcoal. Calen had gotten some coal from the local Shell station, but it was chimney coal...not really for cooking, but it was all St Andrews had to offer. We ended up finding cardboard and some abandoned wood and got stuff going. We roasted hot dogs and had some beers and had a good time. Afterwards, we went to New Hall and played some cards. I walked home alone to Albany Park around 2...I hate walking back. Especially alone because it makes the time go by so much slower. I had a discussion with Katie tonight about our living arrangements. It is really awesome that we live on the North Sea, there is no denying that. However, we feel like we are missing out on a substantial portion of social happenings and bonding that the New Hallians have together. It also would have been convenient for me to live in New Hall as it is literally next to the chem building. Oh well!

I've starting packing a little of my stuff and am unsure if it will all fit for the plane home. I am hoping so...

Here's a list of the things I hope to accomplish at St Andrews before the next fortnight.
1. Golf on the Links...(hopefully on the 23rd at the Strathtyrum course and possibly another...36 holes perhaps? BAMF)
2. Visit the botanic garden once more
3. Take more photos of my friends in social scenes, and black and white photos of town
4. Try at least 4 more (hopefully more! :D) distinct brands of whisky
5. Get the rare 1 pound note (as opposed to the coin version)
6. Swim in the North Sea...since I missed the May Dip

That's only a few things I can think of right now...

Back to studying...peace.

Second to Last Day of Classes

Today...sucked. As I mentioned in an earlier post, my project group has its presentation and group paper due tomorrow...and for most college students (we are no exception), that means we are working very hard the day before. I was in lab from 9-12, then working on our paper from 12-7:30, with a wee break and I had an hour break (I had lecture for Greek...). We got a lot done (gosh, I hope so for working that long...) but aren't completely finished yet. It was definitely rough. The day was made worse by a lingering headache that I had begun to get earlier in the day. It cumulated at 7:30 when I just couldn't stand it anymore and decided I had to go home. It was one of those headaches where it made me want to throw up. Not good...So, I had actually left our group a wee bit early...I'm not sure how long they stayed for. I came back to my room and immediately hit the pillow for a 2-hour nap. I managed to wake up at 11 pm tonight. Uff da. Thus, I am writing this post at 12:36 am. I should try to get to bed soon, as tomorrow is going to be a busy day. I have the group paper at 9, presentation at 3, and a Greek exam at 4. I am SO ready to be done!! But once tomorrow is over, I only have 3 exams left. I am so excited. I am sad though, I haven't seen my friends in a couple days and am beginning to realize I probably won't see them after we part ways in a couple weeks. I still feel like I need to study more this week than anything else. Such is life.

Nothing like good tartan...

Hello everyone! Last weekend was one of fun and hard work. I'll start with hard work, which carries on into this week, because that it's what is on my mind right now. I have been working on an individual paper for my chemistry project (which I handed in today). It was a lot of work and a lot of uncertainty. First off, I had no idea what to expect when writing this paper. I was unsure of how the layout of the paper should be, how to cite properly, ect... I had to do a lot of research on instruments I didn't know a whole lot about and the books I got didn't do much good. Also, the chemistry library, which houses a load of books that I needed, does not have a librarian. Thus, the books in that library are all reference and can not be removed from said library. That's fine...if you live close to the chemistry building, which I don't. It was just more of an inconvenience than anything. So I worked on that last week and most of this weekend. But I did take time out for fun...On Friday night, I went over to New Hall and played cards with my buds and had a good time with that. Probably the most fun was Sunday...however, a little background story to get you going.

On Saturday morning, I went to St. Rules tower to get some tokens for my friend Calen and his girlfriend Brittany who was visiting from Edinburgh. I have a membership so I get free admission, why not help out some fellow students! Anyway, once I got the token, I got a text from Calen and I called him. He was in town and he had just purchased a kilt! Kilts are expensive! He spent a good chunk of change for it, but he got his clan name tartan. The Henderson clan! Good stuff. I met him in town and he had also hired a kilt for the Castle Ceilidh (pronounced kay-lay) on Sunday. Calen had been trying to convince me to go since he started taking ceilidh dancing lessons. I hadn't budged yet, mostly because of the cost (7 pounds) to get in. However, somehow he convinced me to hire a kilt as well and go with! I was a little apprehensive at first, but getting a kilt was one of my goals in Scotland...so at least wearing one is close enough. I hired it and was excited the rest of the day...I went home and tried it on before working some more on my paper.

The next day was the day of the ceilidh...I put my kilt on and headed to church (the ceilidh was at 7 and church as at 4...we were meeting at 6 so I didn't have time to go back to Albany Park. Plus, it was pretty BAMF to wear my kilt to church.) Finally, we meet in New Hall at 6 (after I beat my friend Katie in foosball 10-0, thus making her crawl under the table) and we made our way to the Union. We were bummed because the ceilidh was supposed to be held at the castle, but due to inclement weather, was held at the Union (definitely not as cool...). We had a great time and I did Scottish dancing! Scottish dances are pretty much lining up in circles around the room and switching partners almost constantly. It was almost like line dancing but neater. After the ceilidh, there was a torch procession to the end of the pier in St Andrews and back. It was a good day and a lot of fun. Thanks Calen for persuading me to hire the kilt!


Monday was spent writing my paper and proofreading it...all day. It was lame...even more lame because it was May Day (observed bank holiday) and we didn't have classes...it was rubbish to do work on a beautiful day like that day was...

Today...I think I am catching a cold and it is definitely lame. I don't want to get sick on the last fricken week of class. I got up and went to lab where I waited to hand in my paper. As I stood there, I thought over my paper and realized certain mistakes I had made...I was able to change them quickly on the computer, but it was a rough start to the day. Lab went well; we are making a display for our nanoparticles (which I will take a picture of when finished!) and we worked on our group report and presentation. I went to BeanScene and had a large latte and did studied Greek. I can't wait til I can make my own coffee again, but BeanScene is so good...I've been working on chemistry powerpoint stuff and I am getting sick of doing it. This project is so close to being over and I can hardly wait. I need to start revising for my exams coming up in about a week and a half. I am NOT excited. Also, I did some calculating today and found out that the paper I just turned in was worth about 2.5 credits in the US. One paper is determining 2.5 credits. Oh boy...Only 19 days til I come home!

So...Yeah...

So I opted out of the May Dip. I just couldn't come to terms with not getting enough sleep. I am glad for it, but not. I think it really would have been a good time, but I managed to get a lot done on Thursday. Hopefully, that work will help ease the workload for the weekend and I will be able to enjoy the fantastic weather that we've been having. It's a long weekend, since Monday is when May Day is observed, and thus we don't have class. That would make next week my last week of class here at St Andrews. I am both excited and not...I've made good friends here and will be sad to leave them (especially since they all go to school out on the East Coast!) but I am ready to be done. I am not having a whole lot of fun with my lab course...it was interesting for awhile, but now it's getting kind of lame. Our supervisor has been gone for Wed, Thurs, and Fri of the past two weeks, and our individual papers are due Tuesday. I don't know if he planned his trips too well... It is also difficult having classes from other disiplines while taking 3rd year chemistry modules. The reason why is because all the 3rd years only have this lab course right now, and thus can study for their exams for the other modules they have. I, on the other hand, have to continuely study for Greek and thus can't put too much time into the other modules yet. That, however, is going to be reserved for revision week. Also planned for revision week, I will be going golfing at St Andrews! I am so excited...I was beginning to get scared that I was going to leave the home of golf without actually golfing there. Alas, that will NOT happen and I will be hitting the Links soon. We get a badass discount on green fees for being students, but not for clubs. They, of course, use very high quality clubs and thus, charge a LOT to use them. Oh well..it will be fun! I'm going to be golfing with my friends Calen, Adam, and Pat. It is going to be a blast!

This weekend did not come soon enough...I was definitely ready and can feel myself (oddly) becoming more prepared for studying. Finally, at the end of the semester when it counts most, I will hopefully be more organized and prepared for exams. I'm not positive, but I'm praying for it.

I recently got a care package in the mail from my fantastic girlfriend! Thank you so much Justine!! I enjoy every part of it! The M&M's are almost gone! :D

I've been writing my paper for a good chunk of time now and I think I'm going to go chill with my friends. It will be good to just relax for awhile...