The students in red are those that wore their gowns to chapel. It is tradition to wear your gown but not mandatory. The students who wear red are undergraduates while those in black are generally postgraduates. You can't see but my fellow subwarden, Jaime, is a bit of black on the Pier walking in Masters robes. I am afraid I made him a bit late for chapel with my sore foot and begged his apology later on but am glad to have gone, it was very beautiful.

Here is a shot of Pier walk after Chapel. It is tradition that after Chapel on Sunday all the students should go down to the Pier and walk to the end then back again along the top (the wall on the left). This is a pretty crap shot because my foot hurt too much to make it down the hill so instead I stood on a grassy knoll with my shoes off and watched then limped back to hall.

Mounding

The Mound. The tradition is to just put things on top of the mound for a laugh. My job as subwarden includes preventing these "moundings."

My Hall, Andrew Melville. It is meant to look like two ships crashing into one another, or so the story goes. Most students here don't like it but I quite enjoy it. Up and down the hall are large portholes looking into the kitchens and stairwells. Very amusing.

My room, Sub Warden 3. On my door is a little sign that I adjust to say whether I am in or out. Got a look at one of the of sub's rooms yesterday and his was quite a bit larger than mine! First come first serve he said, but still, I am not complaining.

North Sea

View from the water towards my the Art History building. Bit hard to see but mine is one of the mansions right up on the cliffs. Yesterday while waiting for my supervisor I sat over looking the water in the garden of my building.

View from golf course towards the large club on the left and one of the halls on the middle right. This is where I usually see all the older posh people going to the various clubs up and down this street and onto the course.

View from the water up towards town. Bit dark, there was a glare. I'll try again later today maybe.

View of the large golf course. Evidently there is some tournament going on there right now. Two nights ago I saw a bunch of people in tuxes going towards the big club greeting each other "My Lord".

False Alarm!

Sources confirm that it was apparently not Prince Harry last night outside of Bridges but a security guard who looks suspiciously like him. Damn.

Lovely view from my window of our lake which is populated with swans and on nice days, students studying.

My wee kitchen. No cooker, but I do have a microwave and hot pot.

Breaking News

Just saw Prince Harry outside of Bridges Pub.

Fuzzy view of my wee, but cozy bedroom

Home Is Where The Heart is But Your Heart Has to Roam

Did you hear? I am living in Scotland. I am tempted to write that it is all very strange, but to be honest, it's not. I suppose the best place to start though would be the beginning. I'll admit to you, my dear friends, that I cried just about all the way to the Cross Island Parkway before I gained some composure. I wasn't nervous in the least, it was just having to leave home and everything behind that really got to me.

Well back to my story of my trip. Next came the flight from Amsterdam to Edinburgh in which I managed to sleep for an hour. At the airport there were in fact people in blue shirts there to pick us up. I found an HSBC atm easily enough, had my luggage tagged for my dorm and loaded onto a truck which would deliver it for me and then we were off.

I walked into my hall an hour later and spotted a young guy whose name tag upon closer inspection identified him as the warden Steve. I told him my name and he promptly grabbed me in a bear hug; splendid way to be greeted into a foreign country I would say. I was then introduced to the deputy warden, Dawn, and other sub wardens, Jamie and Crawford. Everyone is exceedingly friendly thankfully. Dawn then showed me to my room right on the main hall, it is not just a room, it is a small flat complete with private bathroom, fridge and microwave. Hurrah! I asked Dawn if she has made a mistake in giving me this place. Apparently not. All mine. There is also a lovely view of a lake out my window which is populated with swans.

Meals here are a lot like boarding school or camp maybe. There is a dining room in the hall and all meals are eaten there. There is a specific set time for meals and you only get 45 mins for it. If you are late then you're sod out of luck. All the wardens eat at the high table up front though other people may sit there too, we have to sit there all the time. Before dinner we enter through a private door leading right to the head table and get our food before everyone else.

So what I have been doing these past two days is attempting to set up my internet, which I did just a few hours ago and find out when I meet with my supervisor (Wednesday) so that I can matriculate and get all my fees in order. The weather here has been fantastic so far, nice and sunny if not a little bit windy. Actually, that might be an understatement. If you had spotted my yesterday afternoon walking back to hall you would have seen me stumble a few feet to the side from the sheer gale force, but I am not complaining. My department is in an old stone mansion on the ocean in the middle of town and seems a pleasant place to spend hours working. The main road has a Tesco and lots of little shops. There are nine golf courses and the main one is just across the way from my hall. I believe that is it for now. I think this post is long enough.

A Hard Day's Night

I am sitting in Schipol airport right now wishing I had a wireless connection while a fat man pretends to fiddle with his mobile instead of stare at me. It seems that the airport has stuck all flights leaving for any destination in the UK in this dingy basement I now sit in while the rest of the gates are upstairs having I right old time no doubt. The even have a casino and small Rjiksmuseum off shoot up there.

The flight over was not bad. There was a slight scare that I baby sitting behind me would be screaming throughout, but he was soon quelled. My worries over the inflight movie were also calmed when I was presented with a complicated looking remote and personal screen which informed me that I now had the choice of over 50 movies, and numerous television programs. Well done KLM. Just as good as Virgin, but with better beverage service. For those of you who are wondering, I watched The Prisoner of Azkaban (comfort movie), an episode of AB FAB (so that I might embarrass myself laughing out loud on a quiet plane while people are sleeping) and most of Troy (for obvious reasons having nothing to do with the amount of times they show Brad Pitt's bare buttocks.)

And now I wait. 1 more hour till my plane leaves for Edinburgh. I long for bed and a shower but I still have a long time to go for that.

I'm Not Dead, I'm Packing

My last post was nearly three weeks ago so I thought I should throw some sort of update on here.

I'm actually not packing; the title lies. But that is how I get ready to go away. I say that I am packing for two weeks then do it all the night before, and/or day of, while eating junk food and sipping a cocktail. And this time won't be any different. The plan for Friday is to go out to dinner, go to a movie, come home get drunk and pack. Which will probably mean I forget to take something vital like underwear but pack enough socks for an army. Which reminds me, I need to buy socks.

Last weekend was The Party. It was so successful that I think I will throw another one for my coming home. Mark your calendars you lucky few, Sept 3rd or 10th 2005.