It was a cold and foggy Wednesday morning....when my parents and I landed in Edinburgh airport. St. Andrews is approximately an hour from the Edinburgh airport, so we straightway went to check on my new home (woot woot). The first culture shock that arose was that what was appropriate attire to leave the 90 degree heat in Virginia was going to give me hypothermia in Scotland. I'm Egyptian. I don't do cold. The second culture shock was that I was the odd one out now, as in I was the one with the accent and weird American quirks. But, I'm a pretty odd person as it is. Anyways, I didn't move in until Saturday, so over the next few days I did the necessities like open a bank account, get a UK phone number, and take a day trip to visit Manchester
St. Andrews is not William and Mary, but in a good way. My classes span from the old architecturally sound buildings that make you feel like you're studying alongside royalty (shoutout to Prince William, one of our most esteemed alumna) to the newer, less-pretty math and science buildings, which are closer to where I live (I live very far away from town). The town of St. Andrews is magical though. You can take a walk down Market Street and try one of the many fabulous restaurants or pubs, shop at stores like H&M, or even grab a pumpkin spice from Starbucks. But, if you go just two streets over, you can engage in more romantic notions by getting lost in the ruins of old churches, walking along the beautiful coastline, or appreciating our well-kept golf course. Even if you try your hardest not to, it's fairly difficult to not fall in immediate love with this town.
I moved into my on-campus, apartment style housing on Saturday of that week. I have one roommate and 4 other flatmates who are wonderfully glorious yet polar opposites of people. It goes from the very sane and put together person to the very eclectic and dependent person in Lindsay 11. My life is "New Girl", minus the awkward relationship issues. (See my twitter feed for more details).
Freshers Week had many, many events, and on Saturday night, we kicked off the week right with something called "The Bubble," which is this massive party with bubbles (love them). I met tons of cool Freshers, and constantly had to explain to them that no, I am not a Fresher and no, I am not a transfer, but I'm this weird in between called a Joint Degree Student.
The next day, We had a WaMStA (William & Mary/St. Andrews) Joint Degree Programme (JDP) Lunch where I finally saw all the peers. I actually am really thankful that such cool people are in the JDP because I probably would be very lonely and introverted if it weren't for them (shocker I know). The W&M and St. Andrews reps of the program graciously bought all the students a lovely dinner. As a college student, I have a deep appreciation for free things, especially food.
Sunday night, our event was this thing called Clan Warfare. Every dorm complex had representative colors and went to the Union to engage in "clan" warfare/competitions, or whatever you want to call it. My roomie and I also met up with our academic dad in the Union later that evening to learn the secrets of what we needed to know as newbies in this town. Academic parents are a tradition at St. Andrews. For Americans, you can equate them to bigs in a sorority or fraternity except every student has an academic dad and an academic mom as well as many academic siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. Their purpose is guidance and love (?) among other things. My academic parents are both wonderful people who are WaMStAs that I met through the program last year.
On Monday, I spent my last day with my parents enjoying the foodie parts of St. Andrews, and doing last minute shopping for my flat. Tuesday morning, I said my final goodbye to my parents before they boarded their plane to head off to their French adventure and leave me amongst the lovely British people. There were tears and hugs, but we made it. Oh yes, we made it. Tuesday night was an event called Afishal. Afishal is this DJ with drums. Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like. He just has a huge set of drums that light up when you hit them and for each song/remix he would play the song on the drums. He also had a frontman who "controlled the crowd" by pumping them up and rapping/singing the songs. Being the music aficionado that I am, I was front row with my friends. Being Stephanie Gaber, I managed to catch the attention of Afishal's frontman, which ended in him jumping off stage and handing me the mic to sing "All Night" by Icona Pop. Guys. I have pictures.
Wednesday, I became a real REAL student because I registered for classes, and against the advice of my advisor, I am taking more credits than is allowed. But, would you expect any less. I then attended a Music Fayre where I decided to try out for a cappella (PS I just found out while writing this that I will in fact be in an a cappella group called the Belles). I'm currently attempting to live out my Anna Kendrick Pitch Perfect college fantasy, and I have absolutely no shame.
Thursday night, our lovely Union had a British pop-rock band come perform called Scouting for Girls. Imagine 90s Counting Crows + The Script + Andy McMahon's piano skills in Jack's Mannequin all combined into one, and there you go. I obviously had never heard of this very popular British boy band before but every single other person in the crowd knew every single word to every single song. There was a moment where I became nostalgic with this indescribable feeling of being in a crowd of people who were so united by music.
On Friday night, we continued our weeklong party of Freshers Week at the flat-warming party of my academic dad. It was a nice calm after the recent crazy that we had experienced. BUT. On Saturday, we went to an all day music festival. Flower crowns, face paint, and all. Not only did I add another flower crown to my ever growing collection, but I also discovered new bands.
Flower crowns+ music = my two favorite things.
At night, the union planned this thing called Hot Dub Time Machine. Hot Dub is this travelling dance party featured by DJ Tom Loud. DJ Tom started his music in the year 1954 and played a 2 and a half hour mashup of all the hits up until 2014, including but not limited to The Beatles, ABBA, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, AC DC, Macklemore, Icona Pop, and Scotland's very own Calvin Harris. Similar to the Scouting for Girls experience, it was surreal to be in a crowd with that kind of energy. It was unbelievably sweaty and gross, but just imagine yourself in a crowd of people who can sing pretty much every pop, rock, indie, R&B, hip hop, rap hit from the 1950s and you'll get a sense of what it was like. You can go listen to DJ Tom Loud's other mixes on his Soundcloud if you're interested here .
St. Andrews is not William and Mary, but it's a beautiful and wonderful place nonetheless. I'm still getting used to the various cultural shocks (like stores closing at 5, the incessant cold and rain, and that "fit" actually means attractive and not athletic), but I love it nonetheless. I love that I can go to the beach whenever I want to. I love that I'm planning really cheap trips to other places in Europe. I love that I'm going to be doing a cappella with some really cool people this year. I love my academic family, my WaMStAs, and most importantly I love St. Andrews. And I can't wait to share more of my Scottish adventure with each and every one of you.
"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."
~John F. Kennedy
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