Internet, finally!!!

Okay, now I am actually going to write in this blog often, because I finally have internet in my apartment! First I had to get the phone line reconnected, which took awhile because they wouldn't take a foreign credit card and had me send a postal money order, and then I had to wait awhile for them to process the internet order and send me the equipment. But it's finally here! Now I don't have to walk into town to the library every time I need to check my email.

I have no classes this week because it's "reading week," which is basically the St Andrews fall break - not many people actually stay here and "read," most are at home or someplace exotic and warm. A lot of the people I know just went home to various places in England (and in the U.S.!), but my training partner went to Salamanca, Spain and someone else from rowing went to Italy. It's really, really nice not to have to go to class - I only have one hour of Latin four days a week and then four hours of seminars on Fridays, but I much prefer to do all my work independently and not have a set time to be somewhere (unless it's for rowing). I have a disorganized mind that likes to fly every which way and do bits and pieces of different things at the same time; I am quite happy to do all my independent reading/learning/writing and then turn in the project at the deadline, but I don't like being checked up on midway through. So, reading week is very nice.

This week I'm still doing some stuff for rowing, going to the gym with the few people who are still around. I had the most awesome day on Saturday! First I was in the gym for two hours doing the rowing machine, learning some new techniques for it. Afterward my coach, Steph, and I went to a tearoom/cafe/bar (I don't even know the word for it, that's not a combination usually seen in America) and sat writing for five hours! Awhile ago Steph and I had discovered that we're both writing books with the same type of ideas (hers is for young adults, but we're both working toward similar things) and that, furthermore, we are similar people in a lot of ways and like to think/talk about the same type of things. We decided that on some weekends we'll camp out somewhere and work on our books for a few hours at a time. We weren't too successful at that on Saturday - we spent a lot more time talking than writing! But still, it was really neat to be able to talk about writing with someone else. I hadn't worked on my book in a couple months because I thought that it was too juvenile and saw too many ways that it was wrong, but now I see I can at least partially fix it and I'm excited about showing it to someone else for suggestions. I'm also starting a second book involving much different ideas, but that's another story...

I spent Sunday doing all the housework that I'd been putting off, and was all set to have a productive day on Monday, but I was so exhausted from the gym in the morning (and going into the afternoon - I spent three hours there!) that I really didn't do anything else the rest of the day. Today I got some reading and other things done, but I still have several books I need/want to read this week, some assignments to do, and then a lot of writing (that has nothing to do with schoolwork). Today I went in a lot of the shops in St Andrews because I had some errands to run and also because I hadn't been in most of the interesting stores. There are quite a few stores with Scottish things, not just souvenirs but also Scottish-made goods that people buy normally, like woolen clothes, tartan scarves and blankets, and kilts (oh, yes, kilts are normal, people wear them around town all the time). The stores are putting things out for Christmas so there are a lot of neat Scottish gift boxes and cookie tins. Oooh... I just remembered Christmas pastries! In England I experienced the Christmas pie, which is a little palm-sized pie with not fruit but meat in it, and also the various other tiny pies that have normal fillings. All of these are starting to appear in the bakery windows along with some that seem to be sold just in Scotland, since I haven't seen them before, so I will have to try some of those. The U.K. does Christmas so much better than the U.S.! Not only the traditional food, but also the decorations. This town is going to have such a neat atmosphere with the lights on the gray stone medieval buildings, the clouds and cold weather, the medieval church towers, and all the people walking around in plaid wool coats. (I went in a store that sells only Christmas stuff year-round, so the excitement rubbed off on me... I love Christmas!)

Speaking of Christmas, there are less than six weeks before classes end - wow, it's gone so fast, it seems like classes have barely started! I'm going home for Christmas, which I'm really looking forward to, and then will come back sometime in the middle of January for my one exam, Latin (other things are assessed by just written work). Then, St Andrews being even weirder than Oxford in terms of breaks, there is a three-week break in January and the beginning of February: the next semester doesn't start until February 6! Hopefully there will be some rowing stuff in there to fill the time; otherwise I will be able to get a lot of writing done.