Back to the real world...

I woke up this morning to look out my window to a garden (back yard) covered in white. It was gorgeous to look out and see snow and the North Sea in a blanket of snow!!! It's that time of year where you sit and reflect on what you are thankful for. Let me assure you that Thanksgiving is not being overlooked here in St. Andrews. The snow this morning and this week in general remind me of how blessed I am to have amazing family and friends even if they are thousands of miles across the Atlantic, such an opportunity as this year's experience, and of course, even in the shadows of a tough loss, to be a TAR HEEL. God is truly good!! Oh how I am missing American football games and basketball....the withdrawal is getting worse every day!

My days in London last were very much needed and great! After spending a week in Sweden without seeing ANY sunlight, I was ready to get back to the UK. I never thought that I would feel like that, but London was closer to "home" than Sweden was. Never have I experienced the feeling of my body craving sunlight like I did last week....life looked so much more promising as soon as I stepped off the plane in London to a day of sunlight and weather in the mid-50s. It was glorious!! I was lucky to stay with some friends of a friend in Knightbridge, a very "posh" part of London near Hyde Park. We stayed in a 2-story flat right on the main drag of Knightsbridge. It was absolutely beautiful, and our hosts were so nice! I spent the days walking through the city, enjoying the beautiful weather that we seldom get anymore up here in St. Andrews, walking through the many parks taking in the gorgeous trees with their multi-colored leaves falling. I felt almost like I was back in NC for a second. I also went to Parliament to hear a debate in the House of Lords with my friend Dan from Deans Court who was in town as well, visiting various pubs along the way and feeling almost like a local rather than a tourist. I couldn't help but think about how when we were sitting in these unique pubs that the writers of the classic stories, like Charles Dickens were once sitting in them writing their now-famous novels. We also met up with a few other friends one afternoon to have tea in Covent Garden. It was a perfect way to spend a few days of vacation...just wandering through London enjoying the weather, company, and surroundings. I took the train back to St. Andrews with a few friends on Saturday. It was almost weird to be back in COLD St. Andrews that night....but good to be back as well.

It was back to the real world on Sunday, with a full day of work. I had two big papers due this week, one of which I needed to finish early so that I could participate in the Postgraduate Formal Dinner on Thursday night. I won't lie...I'm a bit tired of doing school work. But such is life, huh? If I can just make it through next week, I'll be finished with all big assignments except one for the semester. I've got one exam left this semester now and a big project, and then after Christmas I have exams. I can't believe this semester is almost over!

So Thursday evening was the St. Leonard's College (of which all postgraduates are students)Postgraduate Dinner. This means that dressing up is a must and consists of pre-dinner cocktails, a 4-course meal, and a speaker after dinner. I was really looking forward to a fun night with friends and fancy dress! I was successful in finishing my paper on Thursday morning so that nothing was hanging over my head that was due on Friday. I am sitting here writing this to you with a very black left eye 3 days later....a result of Thursday's dinner. Funny story actually, because before dinner could even get started, my French friend Francois-Xavier and I had a bit of a head collission. Complete accident, of course. And he was the lucky one - the back of his head hit my eye...and really hard at that. FX, as we call him, had said to my friend Meg and I that we smelled good, and then proceeded to determine whose perfume was the nicer scent - mine or Meg's. In an effort to smell my perfume, I guess, the back of his head hit my face. It was definitely a hard hit, and it hurt quite a bit, but I didn't expect any bruising. Especially not a black eye! I like to refer to it as an act of Deans Court domestic violence....I remind FX of it daily! No worries, though, the bruising will go away eventually....hopefully!

I should admit, it's been a tough week. I've been a tad homesick....for all of you! It's all sinking in that I can't put a date on when I can look forward to seeing you all again for a while. That makes me sad. I am missing everyone terribly! Don't get me wrong, I'm still having a blast meeting new people and developing relationships with others, but nothing can replace you all. During this Thanksgiving time, I can honestly say that being so far away and absent during the holidays makes me more aware of how much you all mean to me, and how thankful I am that you are a part of my life. Words cannot describe how much you mean to me or miss me. I think about you all often, wishing you were here to experience aspects of this year with me.

Last night an American friend who is not a member of Deans Court, had some of us over for Thanksgiving dinner. It was soooo nice. About 8 of us from Deans Court walked over to her flat together....and honestly it felt like Thanksgiving. You know how people arrived with their prospective family members...well that was the Deans Court family....arriving together for Thanksgiving dinner. We even brought along a South African and a few Brits to experience the celebration of the harvest. Dinner was perfect and so nice to just fellowship with friends, American, Brits, Canadian, South African, Maltan, and German, and enjoy the Thanksgiving feast. And feast it was....today I am still miserably full. It was so nice to have some American cuisine and share a holiday tradition with those who had never experienced such. I've only been invited to 3 other Thanksgiving celebrations, so it should be a very filling week, to say the least! It definitely doesn't replace Thanksgiving back home in America, but it is a nice substitute....for a year at least!

This weekend (today and tomorrow...Monday) is known as Raisin weekend here in St. Andrews. Raisin weekend is a celebration of University life and of an age-old lost-in-the-mists-of-time tradition. Almost every student at the University is a member of an 'Academic Family', and Raisin Weekend is the time of the year to celebrate yours, by getting together and fulfilling the requirements of the weekend's oddball itinerary. An Academic Family consists of Academic Parents - students at St. Andrews who have studied here for at least a year...ask you to be your mom and dad. Then any children they adopt become your Academis siblings. My academic parents are Katharina and Steve (both students in Deans Court who studied here for undergrad as well). There is a full itinerary beginning at 3pm and lasting through tomorrow. Unfortunately, the postgraduate professors aren't as keen on cancelling class as they are for undergraduates....imagine that! So there may have to be some absence from class by some of us....we'll see how it all goes! There is a traditional foam fight tomorrow in the quad, where apparently the Academic parents can dress up their children however they choose (even with hardly any clothes on in freezing cold, snowy weather!) and then you just get covered in shaving cream apparently. That is tomorrow at 11am.

One website writes this about the weekend: "The tradition dates back hundreds of years, when students gave their "parents" a pound of raisins for their help. Long ago, the raisins morphed into bottles of wine, and afternoon tea into a big bash, followed by a pub crawl. It culminates in a massive shaving cream fight in St. Salvator's Quadrangle." There's a bit of St. Andrews history and tradition for you...look forward to more information and stories about the weekend to follow...Maybe FX will even fix my "bad makeup job" by giving me a shiner in the right eye! Hopefully pain will be avoided though!

I wish every one of you a Happy Thanksgiving...and know that you are in my thoughts and prayers always. Sending Love across the Atlantic...