Twas the Night Before Hallowe'en

Twas the night before Hallowe'en and all through the union...



not a student was sober, not even a... oh bullocks screw this.



Last night was my hall's Hallowe'en party. I convinced Jan to dress up like Harry Potter and I came as Hermione.



Best costume ever goes to Captain Kirk. He sheepishly confessed to us that his mum made it for him.



The highlight of the evening was musical chairs. The winner was a little cheat though and won by running around the dance floor with the chair held to her bottom.



Best excuse to dress up all pretty like a flower goes to this group who were the "Bee Keeping Process". Sounds like a band name doesn't?



Hall Treasurer Ben, girlfriend and ex-resident Kate, Me and Jan.



All of my favourite Melvillites from last year. Tom, Jamie, David, Johanna, Sarah Louise, Niall and Richard. I seriously think I might be their groupie.

It was a good night, despite the fact that Jan wouldn't dance with me. And now I sit here on the actual Halloween doing, you guessed it, Jack Shit.

I am Fortune's Fool

Twenty days is a long time without an update. But as Tony Pierce says, don't apologize for not blogging, just start blogging, no one wants to hear excuses. Right, so here goes.

What do you do when you don’t know what you want to do? In my case, wait until decisions are made for you.

For the past month, I’ve been cloistering myself in my room during the day, reading, listening to my music too loudly and trying to forget that at some point I must make a decision. It’s hard to seal your fate when you know it will lead you nowhere.

The decision I made in the beginning of the month was to defer my Ph.D. degree for a year. My desire to be called doctor is currently being overshadowed by my desire to live. Being a student is like holding your breath; its escapism dressed up in the robes of academia. Not that I’m against it, I’m just a wee bit sick of it. I would like to have a relationship that isn’t contingent on where I have to do research and how long my degree will take. I’m sick of worrying whether something I want to buy is going to dangerously cut into my ramen budget. Basically, I need a change and, admittedly, that need has a lot to do with my itchy feet.

I adore St. Andrews with all my heart but it is a very small town. I want to get to know someplace else as well as I know St. Andrews. Maybe that next place is New York (or maybe it’s Tokyo but that’s another story). Everywhere I go people are always so impressed that I am from NY, it’s as if I get immediate street cred or something. Somehow, as well, being from New York doesn’t come with all of the baggage that being from America does these days which has often times greatly worked in my advantage and has saved me from saying I am Canadian. And yet, I don’t even know this mythical city I live so close to all that well. Like that young ice cream seller in Istanbul, I too have started to think about NY in these idealised fashions and over the past few weeks, the siren call of the City that Never Sleeps has been nearly unbearable to withstand.

So, what do you do when you don’t know what you want to do? Get on a plane and go home. Start dreaming again and see where fate takes you once more. Paulo Coehlo says that decisions are just one thing that changes the direction of your life but it’s the unforeseen consequences of those decisions that are the most important. Who knew when I decided to choose St. Andrews over other universities that it would lead me where I am now. Who knew that one decision would change my politics, my eating habits, bring me to places I never thought of going and find me some of the most amazing people I’ve ever had the privilege to meet.

When the end is nigh that’s when the second thoughts creep in and you start to remember all the things you will miss…but I’ll save that for another post. Right now, I will end with what I have come to know to be true: there is nothing like leaving a place to show you how much you are actually loved by the people there. It’s the worst feeling and the best feeling wrapped up in one. That is why on such occasions you need alcohol: so you can revel in the love and drown out the sad. Here’s to getting tanked on Sunday night and here‘s to going where the wind may take you.

I'll be home in time for Thanksgiving.



Pictures from my night out in NYC on October 1st:




Headed into the city for a rawkin night out.



The sign just as you get into Manhattan off of the Williamsburgh Bridge.



Empire State Building.



Hot Betty.



We went to a Brazilian restaurant called Boca Chica which translates to Mouth Girl. NYC is so dirty.





Sea and Matt looking gorgeous, as per usual, and making me laugh so hard it nearly sobered me up after my 4 extra large drinks...nearly. I defintely didn't fall in the street afterward. You must be thinking of someone else.



We headed to Misshapes after seeing being sorely disappointed that the line outside of the Magnolia bakery was too long. On the way over I spotted Chad Lowe but kept my mouth shut until I thought he was out of ear shot. Luckily though when I told Sea she had the good sense to shout. "Oh my god, THAT'S CHAD LOWE!" Smooth, real smooth.



Betty is a hipster through and through. Here she is rocking her PBR at Village Tavern. Misshapes was opening late so we were punted off the line and took refuge in the pub.



Debbie, Betty and Happy.



Happy, Sea and Betty. Reading Zagats in Misshapes as we waited for the party to get started.



Three dollar drinks, can't beat that.



Later that night The Killers sat right there. Oh my god, like, I know.

October 2nd:
Fully rested, Sea and I hit the mizzall to get our shopping on. And yes, that town is actually called Hicksville and no, that's not why I took the picture. I thought the advertisement for a band show was just cute.





After a long day of shopping, sustanance was needed so we hit up the Celebrity dinner. I ordered the very Long Island, Challah(!) french toast.



And even though I wasn't remotely hungry, I insisted we stop at Ralph's for some Italian ices. There's the back of Sea's head as she peruses the massive amount of choices.

Strange but true

There is in fact another post from my trip up, just scroll down.

Oh and um, that post right below might have been a bit premature. Just to give ya'll a heads up.


Edit: There is in fact ANOTHER post from my trip below.

No Right on Red

October 4th:

There is a difficult decision to be made when I get make to St. Andrews. Lately there have been so many signs that seem to be telling me I should go home to be with my family and that my time at university is finished. But as I sit at my family computer, drinking a cranberry and vodka at the stroke of noon to dull the emotions of leaving, a thought has occurred to me: Maybe I misinterpreted one of those signs. The weekend before I left for my vacation, I had a visitor from New York. Prior to this I hadn't met anyone outside of St. Andrews for a long time, and none of my friends there are American, so the coincidence that a random visitor would not only be from New York but also get along really well with me I interpreted as a sign that maybe the Empire State was calling me home. Now that I think about it though, perhaps the occurrence wasn't a sign that I should leave but rather one that was meant to remind me of the magical and wonderful things that happen in St. Andrews. Unexpected, happy and beautiful things intermingled, of course, with difficult times that, because I was here, seemed trivial and easy to deal with. Last year I had the immense fortune of meeting the most spectacular people I have ever met, people who challenged the way I thought and made me want to be a better person. Maybe the signs are all there for me to go home but maybe also I deserve one more year in St. Andrews, if only to see what I can see.


October 7th:

As of right now, midnight on the last day of matriculation, I am staying. I needed New York. I needed home even if it was just for that wee while but now, now I am ready to damn the man, rev the engines and various other clichés best said by the ingenious Barry White, 'Let's get it on.'

It's funny, today I also received a Forward from Papa and it said: Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention! God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don't have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us. It's our choice to listen or not.
The Alchemist taught me to listen to the signs life gives you and I don't know whether God was throwing a brick at me to quit my Ph.D. or one to make me go home but either way, I think I just made the right choice. You can't get rid of me that easy St. Andrews.

So Lets Find a Bar, So Dark We Forget Who We Are

Saturday night was my night out in the city.



Sea drove Betty, Debbie and I into the city accompanied by the fine warblings of Soul Decision and S Club.



We met up with the rest of the gang, Matt, Kim and Happy, outside a Brazilian place called Boca Chica where many frozen drinks were downed, hurrah! More pictures to come once I get back to Scotland.