Of Ceilidh and Fire Alarms and First Class

This past weekend, St Andrews hosted an event open to all fully matriculated (registered) students called a Ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee). Ceilidh is a traditional Scotch dance, done in both pairs and groups. This dance is very tiring. After multiple dances, I was out of breath and sweating profusely. Now I know why they typically wear kilts at Ceilidhs. None of us were very good (me especially), as we were mostly JSAs (junior semester abroad students) and Americans. Nonetheless, it was incredibly fun. Lots of spinning and running and jumping is involved, each with their own special step which I never quite got. In the end, I just made up my own steps to the sound of the music and smiled like a goon. Of course, by the end we were all parched and so we went to the pub across the street and bought beer for some much-needed hydration. Just kidding. We went to the drinking fountain and got some water. Then we went to the pub across the street.
     Speaking of pubs, my tour guide on Wednesday last told us that St Andrews, of all the places in Europe, has the most pubs and bars per person, at 64 for about 20,000 residents during the school year.

The remains of the cloister of St Andrews Cathedral

     The days after the Ceilidh have gone pretty well, replete with exploring cathedral ruins, piers, and the town in general... At least up to this morning at about 5.30am. At 5.30 am, all of David Russell Apartments had a fire drill. Normally I would understand the need of a fire drill. But 5.30? It couldn't have waited an hour? What's more, the fire alarms are not like the alarms in the States that pulse and incredible shrieking sound. No, the one's in Scotland are a constant shriek about ten times louder than in the US and are situated directly over your bed. I think I might have even screamed myself as it woke me from my slumber it was so loud. At any rate, the wailing stopped after we all shuffled outside to be accounted for and told that it wouldn't happen again this semester. However, as the information sheet on my bulletin boards tells us, the fire equipment in the dorms is tested from '0915 to 1045  each Tuesday.' Today being Tuesday, right at 9.15am the alarm over my head sounded again. I kid you not, when it woke me, my heart pounded so hard that the rest of my bed shook.

Tolkien in the '30s

     Other than that abrupt beginning, the day was great. I had my first class at St Andrews today: JRR Tolkien. About half of us are JSAs, the others full-time St Andrews students, both British and American. It was interesting to observe that most of the JSAs arrived for this first day of class about 15 minutes early while the full-timers, including the professors, got in not 3 minutes before 2pm. This could just be a culture difference. However, I think not, since a lot of the full-timers were American. As I am quickly learning, a lot of the loads of down time St Andrews students have is dedicated to reading and studying. Studying comprises, essentially, the equivalent of a blue collar work week, about 40 hours, give or take how fast you can read and still retain all the information. Maybe I'm just a slacker, but this seems like a total change from the US. However, I really like it. Since we're expected to do a lot fo research on our own and check out books from the library, I am already finding myself checking out books that I otherwise would not pay any attention to. Books full of essays about The Lord of the Rings and the origins of Middle English history and verse (for my Chaucer class tomorrow). All very interesting stuff. Okay, cheers, I should probably get back to reading...