Still getting settled in

I have now been here for a little over a week and am still trying to get things in order so I can function properly! I can finally access wireless networks on my laptop, so no more going to the library once a day to check my email on their computers. However, I'm still trying to get internet set up at home. It's a pretty complicated process: the internet will be a cheap broadband package, but in order for it to work there has to be a landline, which was disconnected in the house and has to be reconnected first. They say someone has to come out to check that the house already has a BT (British Telecom) landline installed, which it does, so it will take a few days for them to take care of that. I can't order internet until I have a phone number, and then the internet installation package takes 5 business days to arrive by mail.

Despite all the problems, I really like where I'm living. It's a first floor apartment (“flat”) in a building with 4 apartments, and the apartment has its own front yard and half of a backyard. The inside is nice – wood floors, nice decorating. There are 2 bedrooms (I have one housemate), a bathroom with shower and tub, a living room with couches and a TV(so I can finally watch a lot of British TV, which I didn’t get to do in Oxford because I didn’t have a TV in my room), and a kitchen (with dishes, pots and pans, etc., so I didn’t have to buy any). There is a washer/dryer in the kitchen so I don’t have to go to a laundromat.

Although this is a really small town (15,000 - okay, not small compared to Plains but a nice change from Philadelphia), I still don't know which streets go where and exactly how to get home if I'm anywhere out of the town center. The old part of the town has a few straight streets, but lots more winding medieval streets whose directions/endings are unpredictable. My house is in the newer residential part of town, built in the last century as St Andrews was expanding, and the streets in that area are NEVER straight so it can be hard to find my way back! For example: the first day I was here. I slept in until 1 in the afternoon that day and by that point hadn’t eaten in almost a day and hadn’t showered for over two days, so I wanted to find a store to get some food and shampoo. I had heard there were several grocery stores within a few blocks of the apartment. However, I apparently went in exactly the wrong direction because I spent about 2-3 hours wandering around various residential streets before I found a grocery store – hard to do in a small town! And at first I thought the store I finally found was a car dealership because I thought the sign said “Audi” and there were lots of cars in the parking lot. Actually the sign said “Aldi,” a supermarket chain! And then it took me forever to find my way back because I didn't know where any of the streets led; since they're not straight, they often curve around in a direction you really didn't want to go when you started down it.

On top of all the directional difficulties, it's been a little hard getting settled into life as a student here because this seems to be a place where no one tells you (or has any information when you ask) where to go, what to do, or how to do it. St Andrews is even worse than Oxford when it comes to being organized - didn't think that was possible! It was difficult to find out how to matriculate (formally enter as a student and get my i.d. card) because my advisor forgot to give me the form when he was supposed to, and when I finally had the form they wouldn't let me have my i.d. card because the university's automatic system had never issued me a computer account username a month ago when everybody else got theirs. It took another day to get that straightened out, with my parents checking my email for me back in the U.S., calling me to tell me what was in it, and then impersonating me if a reply was needed.

Fortunately the School of Classics did have some orientation-type events. One afternoon there was a lunch for all the new postgraduates (the term for grad students here), so I got to meet people in my program and also some of the professors. The next night there was a social event for all the Classics postgrads, including returning PhD students, and I went out to eat with some of them the next two nights. Everyone seems nice; about half are English and the other half are American, with a couple Scots and a couple Canadians thrown in the mix. I also got a tour of the Classics building from the school secretary and a tour of the Library from the librarian, so once classes start I will actually know where to go to get work done. Ahhh, classes. There's another problem with organization here. I'm supposed to be in a Latin language class for the whole year, but I had never gotten any emails about when it was supposed to start. I just happened to ask another new student in my program if he knew when it was going to start, and he said, well yeah, it starts on Monday at 3! Then Monday at 2:50pm I checked my email and there was a message from him, saying just in case I didn't get the next email (no, of course not!) the classroom had been changed. Of course I didn't know where the new building was, so I walked around the block a couple times and was 5 minutes late (not a big deal because lots of other people apparently couldn't find it and were late, too).

I have Latin four days a week (off on Wednesdays) and my core course for Classical Studies will meet weekly, on Fridays. I also am taking a class on Scientific and Encyclopedic Writing in the ancient world, which will be taught in tutorials (one-on-one with the professor like at Oxford) every two weeks. I decided to join the St Andrews rowing team so will have as many as 8 exercise sessions a week for that, plus 4 nights of swimming a week with the swim team. More on that later!

This is a really long entry, so I'll leave it at that, but later I'll post more on ST ANDREWS! I love this town and the surroundings are so beautiful.