BUS 99!

West Sands

West Sands

Just a quick update with a few more pictures.

The Ocean

I rode the 99 down to St Andrews on Wednesday at 10:00 for the first meeting for my programme.  Here we were kindly introduced to a few of the staff and given a layout of modules they thought we might like to take.  We were then given 4 hours to make a decision.  So a bunch of us went to a cafe to mull it over.  —FUN FACT: the Isle of Mull is the second-largest Island of the Inner Hebrides (after Skye)—  By 13:45 we were all waiting outside the office of James Palmer for our one-on-one meetings.  Those were a very long 15 minutes waiting for the Profs to arrive.  And a much longer 40 minutes waiting for my turn.  Luckily, the sample layout of courses given to me was perfect!  I had a few questions that they sorted out right away and I'll be starting Monday at 9:30 with Latin.

I'll be taking my core module both semesters.  It's an in-depth introduction into an interdisciplinary approach to mediaeval history/literature/etc.  We are using a single text, the Middle High German Nibelungenlied (in translation), as a the central focus of this course.

I'll also be taking mediaeval Latin all year, as well as a palaeography course which sounds really cool.

In first semester I'll also be doing a directed reading with Alex Woolf who has done a lot of work with mediaeval Scandinavia.

During the second semester, I'll also be taking Old Norse formally.  I say formally, because I'll also be participating in an informal Old Norse reading group all year.

 But don't worry, the stress of sealing my fate in that meeting was soon forgotten with the help of my flatmates.  We took a nice walk over to East Sands and played in a little park for a while.  Back in Dundee we met with a few other postgrads from our building and got to know each other.

On Tuesday evening, there was a bonfire down on the Castle Sands for the Middle Eastern Society who were handing out free marshmallows and digestive cookies biscuits.

We met some really nice people and left to a pub when it got really crowded as it is quite a small beach.  We went to a pub called The Keys which was voted 'Best Pub in Scotland.'  We were later told from someone who did their undergrad at St Andrews that it's considered one of the 'locals' pubs' and its generally-older patrons usually stand in the doorway glaring at anyone who looks as if they're thinking of entering.  Whoops!  We noticed no glaring.  We even got to talking to an elderly gent who caddies at the Old Course and has met a few celebrities.  He seemed to like us fine, though he kept telling my flatmate to 'get a haircut.'  It wasn't me for once :)


Today was a nice chill day.  We slept in, and three of us stayed in Dundee all day.  And we even had an exciting fire evacuation when someone on the 2nd floor burned their pasta.

Tomorrow we'll head down to St Andrews for coffee in the Undercroft with the History Society, and another bonfire in the evening.

The pics below are of Castle Sands (where we had the bonfire) and the Castle itself which is hard to take a good picture of from the front, as there are buildings right across the street.