milan kundera

I'm sorry to disappear like that--I haven't been keeping up my paper journal, either.

Scotland is beautiful. I've started running more (and when I say running, I really mean I jog for 15 minutes, then walk back) through the fields behind my apartment and out towards the ocean (more properly "sea"). St Andrews is situated on a bay, with golf courses looking out into the water. The town itself is based around three (mostly) parallel streets, and at the end of them are a set of ruins (castle and cathedral) that just drop right into the water. There's a tiny little cafe that serves panini and soup to go and a couple times now, for lunch, I've gone and gotten soup in a coffee cup and gone to sit near the cliffs.

I've had both of my classes now--'Legend and History in Sub-Roman Britain' and 'Queens and Queenship in Early Medieval Europe.' My class for 'Legend and History' is about half and half boys and girls, and no one seems very friendly. But my 'Queens' class is almost all girls, and they seem super chill.

I've been having a hard time meeting people here. I've been to a couple of LGBT events, which are a lot of fun, and the people seem nice, but other than that--the guys all seem stuck up and the girls run around in packs, which makes it hard to meet people.

My new job started last night, though. I'm waitressing at a grill, which seems pretty laid back. Plus, one of my co-workers is a third year, and has offered to be my Raisin Weekend Mom (St Andrews has this bizarre tradition for freshers or transfer students where one weekend in November, you are adopted by an academic 'family' who basically just get you very very drunk--I'm stoked).

I've been reading a lot, too. I'm almost done with 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' (which, while a great title, sort of reminds me of 'A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius' in that I'm a little embarrassed to admit I'm reading it) which I'm loving. I think I've got a thing for Eastern European writers (Kafka, Nabakov, Dostoevsky, Bulgakov, etc).