Happy Wedding Day, Wills and Kate

Happy Wedding Day for the Royalists out there, and Happy Extra Day Off for Your May Day Weekend for the Republicans.

I went over to Rachel's to watch the wedding with her flatmate Sorcha and a couple other of their friends. Man, I miss having a television. But considering my other option was to stream it on my laptop (since I didn't get a ticket to the breakfast going on in St Salvator's Quad), I'll walk the 20 minutes to their flat.


Wills whispering to his bride, 'You look beautiful'.


Walking out of Westminster Abbey.


First official kiss for TRH the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Of course, as if there was any doubt, the whole thing was beautiful (well, except for Princess Beatrice's hat/headpiece -- what on earth was that antler looking thing?) Her dress was gorgeous -- how much did I love those lace sleeves? -- and the best part was they actually seemed to be happy. They seemed to genuinely both want to be there, and genuinely happy to be there with each other. Which I think comes from them waiting, getting to know each other, being older than 20... You know, silly little things like that.

And as one of the significant locals in their love story, St Andrews was once again swamped with press. And with 6,000 people vying for the 1,500 breakfast seats to watch the livestream of the wedding on the big screen in the quad, after 1pm, they opened up the quad to everyone in town to come, listen to pipers, mingle and enjoy a beautiful day.


Mingling in the Quad.


Students and townspeople decked out in their tiaras, Union Jacks, and other assorted finery to pose for the cameras of the various news stations alternating broadcasts.


I somehow ended up in the circle for one of the BBC broadcasts with who I was told was one of the Radio One DJs... apparently for an event this big, you pull out all of your BBC employees and put them to work, normally on tv or not!


Masks were also a popular accessory -- one's the real Queen and one's a fake, can you tell which one?

As an American, I find the pomp and circumstance entertaining and so distinctly British. There is no direct correlation to something American. If they were celebrities of some ilk, they'd be trying to keep cameras away from their wedding. If they were elected officials, they would probably be too worried about election cycles to do a big wedding, and we more than likely wouldn't care. But here's someone who was given a public role by circumstance of birth, by fate. Americans don't care much for 'fate' -- but we do like a good party, and a good party with British accents, all the better.

And now the sky is darkening for that rain that's been threatened all week, but at least the festivities went on without a cloud -- at least here in St Andrews. London had a few clouds, but again, at least no rain.

And to the newlywed couple? I wish you nothing but happiness. Goodness knows your family is due for some.

Royal Visit aka Guess Who Shook Hands With a Prince?

Busy week last week in St Andrews. For anyone following the news (or fascinated with all things royal, as my friends back in the States seem to be), Wills and Kate were to make a lovely visit back to St Andrews to kick off the 600th anniversary campaign, as William is the patron of the campaign.

This meant that the school and town needed to make appropriate security precautions. I did NOT realize that this meant that I would have to see K-9 units and mobile CCTV vans and cops on bikes all over town for an entire week, as well as entire buildings of classrooms shut down to clear out a week in advance.

Seriously, when Obama comes to a town there's less prep.

But it all culminated on Friday's visit, with a opening celebration at St Salvator's Quad. Which, as you might imagine of an ancient university is not a huge quad. So, there would be a ballot for the 300 student seats and 90 faculty/staff seats available.

Over 4,500 people applied for these tickets. That's over half the university population.




Bam! Look who ended up with one. Oh yeah. Along with regulations on dress code, since spelling it out for university students on what is and is not appropriate to be seen on tv in at a program with royals involved is common wherever you are.




And while photography was expressly forbidden (and I actually heeded this warning since, as a guest in this country, I'm a little less keen to bend rules than I am in the States -- I don't care to be tossed out of the country Fresh Prince style) I decided to just leave my camera at my flat. This will come back to bite me later in the story, btw. But if you'd like to see what went down, they have a video link up on the BBC News - Scotland page.

Now, this would've been just as cool, but they also blocked off all of North Street so that should Will and Kate wish to wander the street and say hi to the lowly folk, they could. People had been queuing up since 7am, which... I'm sorry, is a bit ridiculous. But then, this is coming from someone who had a ticket for a close seat.

When we were trying to exit the quad, I ended up following the crowd out of the wrong exit and got stuck in front of Younger Hall blocked in by barricades. Which was fine, I'd be able to eventually get out. So I positioned myself behind a bunch of adorable little school boys because they were short and it meant that I'd get to see what was going on, as I am in no ways tall.

I figured they would be walking down the other direction of the road because that's where people had been lining up. I'm foolish to discount the appeal of coming to talk to adorable 8 year old school boys. So of course, one Prince William makes his way to the school boys, which since I'm right there behind them, I get to shake his hand too. It was really nice -- he asked me what I was studying (International Relations) before the girls behind me jumped in with 'Biology!' and he kind of chuckled before saying we were brave for picking those courses and moving along down the line.

He's a lot taller than I thought he was *lol*

But of course, the kicker in all of this is that my camera was sitting on my bed the entire time. The cool thing happens, and my camera is sitting on my bed.

Now that we've shaken hands and are totally BFF, I'm going to insist on seeing a wedding invitation in the post.

The Aero Bar

I admit, I miss a lot of food from back home. Flavors, brands, the fact that salsa can have actual heat in the States, but every now and then I find something in the Tesco that makes me go 'why don't we have this in the States??'




Sweet mother of Hershey, why don't we have this in the States??

For those who've never had a taste of this amazing little concoction, it's a solid milk chocolate bar. Pretty standard. However! It's been aerated, so the bar is full of little bubbles. Why would you want bubbles in a candy bar? I'm glad you asked.

The bubbles make the chocolate melt. on. your. tongue.

It tastes lighter, melty-er, choclatey-er.

Mars bars are great, Galaxy bars good, but this... oh, sweet Aero bar, why are you not in the States and therefore present me with the sad fact that at some point I will have to leave you and not have you again? Not cool, candy gods, not cool.

I feel like I should mail a box home, just to share the love.

A Calendar Made of Chocolate?

Oh yes indeed, a calendar made of chocolate!

My Advent calendar -- complete with festive Santa and other arctic livestock.

In the States, the candy Advent calendar isn't nearly as popular as it is here in the UK.  To be honest, I'd never had one growing up.  We have a felt doorhanging calendar -- two, actually.  One with a cute little mouse that you move each morning (we would fight to get to be the one to move the mouse when we were little - what a breakfast/early morning conversation that was) and we had a newer one that had an ornament in each of the day pockets that we decorated the felt tree with until the star in the pocket of the 24th to top the tree.  Always a family thing, always in the kitchen, and always part of the decoration.

My flatmates were talking eagerly about which Advent calendars were the best (don't get one at Tesco because they're child sized, so the chocolate is child sized as well -- go for the Lindt ones because they're adult sized, even if they don't have Santa Claus or Doctor Who on the front) and I piped up that I'd never had a chocolate Advent calendar growing up.

They looked at me in sheer horror.

So, when in Rome, do as the Romans.  The chocolate shop in town was out of Lindt calendars, but they had these festive ones, which are obviously made for children, but the chocolates are good sized, so they pass muster.

When I brought it to the till to pay, the lady asked what name I wanted on the bar.  I replied 'Oh, I don't need any... Rebecca.  Put Rebecca on there."  Which makes me feel like I'm eight, but you know what?  I could use some good old fashioned child-like Christmas cheer at the moment.  Class is hard, my papers are a bit soul-crushing, so if getting my name in icing on my Advent calendar is going to put a smile on my face, gosh darn it I'm gonna do it.

And you know what?  It does put a smile on my face.  Simple things.  And the best part?  I get another chocolate tomorrow morning.

St Andrew's Day

Happy St Andrew's Day, all.

30 Nov is the feast day for St Andrew, and as he's the patron saint of Scotland, his day is the Scottish national day as well. Legend has it that St Regulus (aka St Rule) crashed on the east coast of Scotland at Kilrymont. He was at that time in possession of the relic bones of St Andrew, one of the original disciples of Christ. Kilrymont was renamed St Andrews in the 10th century to honor St Andrew. Fun fact: The name St Andrews is not possessive (a mistake many people make in the beginning), but instead comes from the original Scots name for the saint, Androis.



Normally, many historical sites are open for free and it's also the graduation day here at the university for students who finished their dissertations in the summer (aka all of the MLitt students). Which means that this time next year, I should be wandering around in an awesome black robe and hood feeling all accomplished.

Usually it's bustling. However, with the great Snow Dumping of '10, as I've decided to start calling the weather, most of the country is screeching to a halt. Roads are ice, sidewalks are ice and slush, and snow and sleet keep falling from the sky. Making it really rather miserable. About a third of the shops in town were closed because people couldn't get into town to open them. The university gives 30 Nov as a day off anyway, but even if it wasn't, people would've had a snow day.

I wandered around a little, thankful for my buff because the wind... oh the wind just cuts across your face.


East Sands and the Pier at St Andrews Harbor


South Street, with the Christmas decorations and Saltire banners up


St Mary's Quad

Chips, er... Crisps

I will be so happy when these papers are turned in. I'm tired of looking at them, tired of thinking about them, and tired of contemplating natural law. I get it, I can find 2,000 words on it. Which is not many words at all in the grand scheme of things. But I don't feel like I have a real direction and I'm just kind of typing and seeing what comes out and going with that. I'll give it a bit more tonight but I have to go to bed at a decent hour since I have to be up early for hiking tomorrow. Yay, hiking!

But for a break, I wanted a snack. And potato chips are my weakness (crisps... I must remind myself to call them crisps). And what did I find in the Tescos?



Sweet Chilli!

For those who don't understand my excitement since we don't have this flavor in the States, if you've never tried sweet chilli, you don't know what you're missing. It's just the right amount of heat without a lot of bite and it is amazing. I was introduced to sweet chilli flavoring by my former housemate during the Olympics in February. McDonald's had a number of limited time international dipping sauces for the McNuggets and sweet chili was one of them. Now, she'd fallen head over heels for the flavor when she spent a year in New Zealand and she got ridiculously excited when the commercial came up. I asked what the heck she was yelling for and within 15 minutes, we were in the car, through the drive-through, and back tasting this amazing taste.

Oh Tesco, you've made my night. And I will enjoy you, dear, delicious, Sweet Chilli Kettle Chips, and you will making talking about Aristotle and Aquinas and Natural Law that much better.

And then I can't have another bag in the house, cause I'll eat the whole thing *lol*