Glasgow, Dundee and Dunfermline

Hello. 

Another busy weekend, during which I did no schoolwork.  The shift back to being a student is very strange.  Writing a paper seems like a massive challenge, I'm hoping that improves before I start my thesis.  I've also discovered that as much as I like what I'm studying, there is very little chance that I will be inspired to work on a weekend or past 10pm.  All of this means that today is devoted to laundry and paper-writing, with only one or two breaks for tea... and updating here, too, I suppose.

On Friday, I went to Glasgow to meet with a photographer.  I'm working on an exhibition that will go up in March.  St.Andrews Chemistry Dept has commissioned Mark Neville to create 10-20 works.  My exhibition group (4 people for my course) gets to help create, process and display the photos!!!  We went to Glasgow on Friday to tour Mark's studio, which ended up being us hanging around his apartment having tea and watching slide shows of his work.  I'm very excited about the project and Glasgow looks like it's worth a weekend trip, too.

On Saturday, I went to the Dundee Contemporary Arts Center to see The Town.  The accents made me homesick for Boston.  It was amazing to sit in the theater in Dundee and watch a movie filmed in Harvard Square and right on Charter street!

Yesterday, I went to Dunfermline, a larger town in Fife, about an hour from St.Andrews, to see abbey ruins and the cathedral where King Robert the Bruce is buried.

Here is the abbey:

And here is the cathedral, I loved the tower!

Hope you are all doing well!

Hugs,
Sarah

Castles and Cathedrals and Loch Katrine

After hiking a full eight hours on Saturday, I got up bright and early Sunday to tour around the area.  We visited this cathedral, but couldn't go inside because of the services.  Fortunately, we also went for coffee in the very charming town.

Next stop was Loch Katrine for a picnic lunch:

Katrine, your namesake is very beautiful.

After turkey sandwiches and lots of cookies, we were off to Doune Castle.

Does it look familiar?  It's the castle used by the French knights in Monty Python, (you silly English k-niget).

And, that was the epic weekend.  I slept 10 hours last night and probably need another 10 tonight, but it was a lot of fun!

Hope you are doing well!  I would love to hear from you and am often on skype.

Take care,
Sarah

Fife Coastal Path

I had a really productive week.  I started my work placement at the University of Dundee's Art Collections, began writing my first essay in three years, and only watched a couple episodes of How I Met Your Mother.  I also planned to walk the coast to the next village, Crail, which is about 12 miles away.

We left around 10:00 on Saturday from St. Andrews.  Here we are at the start, nice and happy and totally unaware of what is ahead of us: 

 

 

The walk was absolutely stunning and lots of fun.  Unfortunately, we were held up by the tides and the Dunhill Classic Golf tournament (you can't walk past people who are putting, can you believe it?) and reached Crail a full 8 hours later!  We were tired and hungry, but quite pleased with our persistence.  

Here are some more views from the hike:

*See Dad, Scottish cows :)

Edinburgh

I went to Edinburgh last Sunday.  It's really nice that it's close enough for day trips, 1.5 hours by train, 2+ by bus.  I went with a classmate and we met up with a friend of hers to walk around the city a bit.  In the evening, we met up with some other people in my course for dinner. 

It was really nice to get out of St. Andrews for a bit.  Here, everyone is either a student or a golfer, it was nice to be somewhere a little more diverse.  Also, since I'd visited Katrine a few years ago, Edinburgh was pleasantly familiar.  I walked past our designated Easter Church, went to Cafe Nero and Top Shop and ate lunch in the gardens by Prince's Street. 

Here are a few scenic views:

Weekend Update

Yes, I'm already behind with blogging....

Last Saturday, I stayed around St. Andrews for the farmer's market and the polo match.  (that's right, polo)  The farmer's market was great, lots of local meat, cheese and root vegetables.  I might get a farm share in the spring. But by far the coolest thing at the market, even better than the handmade soaps, was this:   

 

Have you ever seen so much smoked fish???  I didn't buy any.  To be honest, I was a little intimidated by the idea of taking home a whole fish, but it smelled pretty amazing.

In the afternoon, I went to see the polo match.  I was very ready for lots of tweed and I was very hopeful for ridiculously large and frilly hats.  Sadly there were none, university level polo is not much of a spectacle.  There's not much action and it's somewhat difficult to follow for those of us who don't know the rules.  But it was lovely to sit on a sunny beach and watch the horses.  Maybe Jeff can tell what kind they are :)