My First week at St.Andrews, September 2002
I have realised I have not posted in my LJ for a wee while. You know I said I was going to keep up regular posting? Well, it lasted for all of 3 months. So I'm going to try again!
I have already posted this on facebook, so if it sounds familiar, that is why. I'm going to try to add to the story, so I have a comprehensive highlights of the best 4 years of my life so far. Aaaah, retrospective boredom...
"My first experience of St.Andrews was, like many people, during my open day. It was in late February 2002; it was pissing with rain; but still I had fallen in love and decided that this, indeed, was the university for me. I had spotted St.Salvators and thought "aha, that is the place I would like to be". 2nd place was awarded to Mc.Intosh. At this point, I seemed to have missed that great lumbering distinctive red building on the corner of The Scores, don't ask how! On the not so hot list were New Hall, Melville, or David Russell Hall, as DRA was known then.
Early September 2002, I recieved my accomodation form, and found out I was in Hamilton. first reaction was "Well, where the fuck's that? I saw all the halls of residence!" Proceed to dig out accomodation booklet, and then breathe huge sigh of relief. Looks great!
18th September 2002, or thereabouts. Back then, you were offered overnight accomodation the day before halls opened for people who had to travel a long distance (do they still do that? I have no idea!) Anyway, I had the "pleasure" of staying overnight in DRH Lindsay block. The rooms weren't bad at all, although the huge concrete lumps of blocks were not pretty at all. And it took me ages to find out how the damn water heater worked!
Next morning, my step-dad dropped me off at the front of Hamilton at 10:30am, to ask if we could enter early. It said in the book no entry before 2pm, but we tried nonetheless. I walked up the reception of Hamilton, thinking "wow, its just like a hotel!" Everything seemed so big, and huge...like at your first day at school. I approached the front desk, and met Shane Bonetti, our warden, Gerry, our deputy warden, and Alice, the Eden court sub-warden. They said welcome, that I could come in now, and gave me my room key, no 10. I glanced down at the list and saw my room mate was called Jill van Millingen, and presumed she was dutch from the last name. The goddamn lift wasn't working, thank fuck I was on the 1st floor. God knows how the fifth floorers got their stuff up the stairs...
Anyway, my step-dad left me as soon as my boxes were in the room. There was no-one, and I mean, no-one on our floor. I heard movement, and I looked out, and saw all these men in red shirts carrying plants down the hall-way. This freaked me out a bit. So I went back inside. I picked my bed, admired my glorious view of the old course, and was glad that I was in Hamilton and not DRH. And I started unpacking quite contentendly until I heard movement next door. I was quite excited, but a bit nervous...I went on knocked on door No. 9, and a lady's voice said "You have a vistor Clair!" I came in and said something daft such as "Hey, I'm your neighbour!", and introduced myself to the girl unpacking her pink piglet slippers and her mum.
Not long after that, a girl entered my room. I thought "god, she looks young!", and then her older sister entered and I thought "Thats my room-mate!" Jill introduced herself, and I soon found out she was Scottish, not Dutch (although of Dutch origin). She also thought I was called Richmond for the first day. Olga arrived next door later on, I was so happy to see another Mancunian! She was buzzing and full of energy, and it rubbed off on us. She also liked the band Queen, which was another brilliant thing We met Siu Hing and Jenny in Number 16, and Cat and Margaret in No.7. I also said hello to most of the boys living down the side corridor in single rooms.
It took me a whole day to realise there was another room on our floor, No 6. I heard of this "Alison" on first floor, but I was adamant she didn't exist, as no, I had met everyone on the first floor. But on the 2nd day I went into the Regent's room, and met Alison. My first words to her were "So you're the famous Alison!". And she showed me the room tucked around the side, and there I met the darling Katy. The girls at No.6 quickly became known as "the girls who drink". Anyone actually remember why?
First meal: Chicken nuggets and chips. I have a vivid memory of that first meal. For some reason. First evening: drinks at One Golf Place, and then a walk on the beach with Jill. That week I was introduced to Keelin, and I have to admit now that I had to write her name on my hand because I kept forgetting what it was. And I asked what part of the U.S she was from, when she is in fact from Nova Scotia, thankyou very much! If you are reading this Keelin, sorry on both accounts! I also met Helen, and her roomie "Crazy" Ambra. Which actually isn't crazy at all. In fact, she is really sweet. I remember us watching the opening credits of "Chariots of Fire" on video in Helen's room, and yelling, we live THERE! When Hamilton came on screen for all of, oooh, 4 seconds. Then we rewound it and watched it again.
Floor parties: met Shana for the first time, complete with Weezer T-Shirt. I said "I like Weezer too". Still really good friends 4 years on, must be the Weezer connection. I offered people Tia Maria, straight. And Malibu. I met Christian properly, and wished I had asked him to my my academic dad. All the time I was talking to him I kept thinking "Ask him you dumbass!" But I never did, sadly. Never mind...as some might say, he was much, much more like an academic father to me than dumbass Julian ever was. Jill told me one night in Freshers week how to commit the perfect murder with Nitogen Oxide. How I got to sleep that night, I will never know. I remember the cult of Jim + John. The T-Shirt that had to be signed, the posters, the fact that they were named the two hottest guys (as voted by the Hamiltonian ladies) in Hamilton Happenings. It is time to admit that I actually voted for Lenny and Dustin who I don't even think scraped the top 5 rankings. Going against the grain there...
It is very true to say that I seriously, truely loved university life from the word dot. In fact, I actually felt odd that at no point during the first few weeks did I feel homesick. In fact, not once during my 4 years did I ever feel homesick. I felt scared by Mr Milner during our introductory Biology talk, as he convinced us all we would fail, but other than that, I embraced it all. I was shyer than most of you know me now, but Clair helped me with all that. It was "Richey, come bopping!", "Richey come out", "Lets go crazy Richey, hell yeah!" My favourite ever bop was the Fresh Midori bop (remember them 06/07ers?) in freshers week of my first year. It was when I realised that this was going to be a great ride. And it was. All four years."
I have already posted this on facebook, so if it sounds familiar, that is why. I'm going to try to add to the story, so I have a comprehensive highlights of the best 4 years of my life so far. Aaaah, retrospective boredom...
"My first experience of St.Andrews was, like many people, during my open day. It was in late February 2002; it was pissing with rain; but still I had fallen in love and decided that this, indeed, was the university for me. I had spotted St.Salvators and thought "aha, that is the place I would like to be". 2nd place was awarded to Mc.Intosh. At this point, I seemed to have missed that great lumbering distinctive red building on the corner of The Scores, don't ask how! On the not so hot list were New Hall, Melville, or David Russell Hall, as DRA was known then.
Early September 2002, I recieved my accomodation form, and found out I was in Hamilton. first reaction was "Well, where the fuck's that? I saw all the halls of residence!" Proceed to dig out accomodation booklet, and then breathe huge sigh of relief. Looks great!
18th September 2002, or thereabouts. Back then, you were offered overnight accomodation the day before halls opened for people who had to travel a long distance (do they still do that? I have no idea!) Anyway, I had the "pleasure" of staying overnight in DRH Lindsay block. The rooms weren't bad at all, although the huge concrete lumps of blocks were not pretty at all. And it took me ages to find out how the damn water heater worked!
Next morning, my step-dad dropped me off at the front of Hamilton at 10:30am, to ask if we could enter early. It said in the book no entry before 2pm, but we tried nonetheless. I walked up the reception of Hamilton, thinking "wow, its just like a hotel!" Everything seemed so big, and huge...like at your first day at school. I approached the front desk, and met Shane Bonetti, our warden, Gerry, our deputy warden, and Alice, the Eden court sub-warden. They said welcome, that I could come in now, and gave me my room key, no 10. I glanced down at the list and saw my room mate was called Jill van Millingen, and presumed she was dutch from the last name. The goddamn lift wasn't working, thank fuck I was on the 1st floor. God knows how the fifth floorers got their stuff up the stairs...
Anyway, my step-dad left me as soon as my boxes were in the room. There was no-one, and I mean, no-one on our floor. I heard movement, and I looked out, and saw all these men in red shirts carrying plants down the hall-way. This freaked me out a bit. So I went back inside. I picked my bed, admired my glorious view of the old course, and was glad that I was in Hamilton and not DRH. And I started unpacking quite contentendly until I heard movement next door. I was quite excited, but a bit nervous...I went on knocked on door No. 9, and a lady's voice said "You have a vistor Clair!" I came in and said something daft such as "Hey, I'm your neighbour!", and introduced myself to the girl unpacking her pink piglet slippers and her mum.
Not long after that, a girl entered my room. I thought "god, she looks young!", and then her older sister entered and I thought "Thats my room-mate!" Jill introduced herself, and I soon found out she was Scottish, not Dutch (although of Dutch origin). She also thought I was called Richmond for the first day. Olga arrived next door later on, I was so happy to see another Mancunian! She was buzzing and full of energy, and it rubbed off on us. She also liked the band Queen, which was another brilliant thing We met Siu Hing and Jenny in Number 16, and Cat and Margaret in No.7. I also said hello to most of the boys living down the side corridor in single rooms.
It took me a whole day to realise there was another room on our floor, No 6. I heard of this "Alison" on first floor, but I was adamant she didn't exist, as no, I had met everyone on the first floor. But on the 2nd day I went into the Regent's room, and met Alison. My first words to her were "So you're the famous Alison!". And she showed me the room tucked around the side, and there I met the darling Katy. The girls at No.6 quickly became known as "the girls who drink". Anyone actually remember why?
First meal: Chicken nuggets and chips. I have a vivid memory of that first meal. For some reason. First evening: drinks at One Golf Place, and then a walk on the beach with Jill. That week I was introduced to Keelin, and I have to admit now that I had to write her name on my hand because I kept forgetting what it was. And I asked what part of the U.S she was from, when she is in fact from Nova Scotia, thankyou very much! If you are reading this Keelin, sorry on both accounts! I also met Helen, and her roomie "Crazy" Ambra. Which actually isn't crazy at all. In fact, she is really sweet. I remember us watching the opening credits of "Chariots of Fire" on video in Helen's room, and yelling, we live THERE! When Hamilton came on screen for all of, oooh, 4 seconds. Then we rewound it and watched it again.
Floor parties: met Shana for the first time, complete with Weezer T-Shirt. I said "I like Weezer too". Still really good friends 4 years on, must be the Weezer connection. I offered people Tia Maria, straight. And Malibu. I met Christian properly, and wished I had asked him to my my academic dad. All the time I was talking to him I kept thinking "Ask him you dumbass!" But I never did, sadly. Never mind...as some might say, he was much, much more like an academic father to me than dumbass Julian ever was. Jill told me one night in Freshers week how to commit the perfect murder with Nitogen Oxide. How I got to sleep that night, I will never know. I remember the cult of Jim + John. The T-Shirt that had to be signed, the posters, the fact that they were named the two hottest guys (as voted by the Hamiltonian ladies) in Hamilton Happenings. It is time to admit that I actually voted for Lenny and Dustin who I don't even think scraped the top 5 rankings. Going against the grain there...
It is very true to say that I seriously, truely loved university life from the word dot. In fact, I actually felt odd that at no point during the first few weeks did I feel homesick. In fact, not once during my 4 years did I ever feel homesick. I felt scared by Mr Milner during our introductory Biology talk, as he convinced us all we would fail, but other than that, I embraced it all. I was shyer than most of you know me now, but Clair helped me with all that. It was "Richey, come bopping!", "Richey come out", "Lets go crazy Richey, hell yeah!" My favourite ever bop was the Fresh Midori bop (remember them 06/07ers?) in freshers week of my first year. It was when I realised that this was going to be a great ride. And it was. All four years."