The University's only been around for 600 years....you know, nbd

HAPPY MARCH!  I apologize for my long absence from the internet world.  I have no idea where the time has gone -- I can't believe that I have been in the UK for seven weeks already!  On one hand, it feels like I just arrived here, somewhat daunted by the idea of learning to adapt and fit into a completely new, yet foreign, environment.  But on the other, I am now completely at home here and cannot imagine what it would be like to study anywhere else other than St. Andrews.  Every day I become more and more convinced that I am supposed to be here right now, that God has always wanted me to be here.

I have so much to fill you in on, so bear with me as I somehow systematically (meaning chronologically) work through the last two weeks worth of adventures! (oh goodness, I am SO behind....)

Friday, February 25th, 2011
Okay. So. On Friday the 25th day of February, I awoke to find this outside my building:

The view of North Street from my window

That's right: Police. and lots of them.  I mean, increased security is to be expected when a prince is visiting, especially when the prince is the future King.  Since Sallies is the former home to Prince William and Miss Middleton, and therefore more likely to be a target of the media/crazed fans, my hallmates and I received emails earlier in the week detailing the temporary security procedures, i.e. to enter the building while the Prince was on campus, we would be required to show our school IDs to an officer.

Even though I had not merited a ticket to the official start-of-the-600th-aniversary-celebrations ceremony, I knew several other study abroad students who had (yay!).  They were required to be seated by 10:30am (even though the ceremony wasn't going to start for at least an hour after that), so most of them left Sallies around 9am to secure good seats. [For example, my friend Bess snagged a seat in the 3rd row! Pretty impressive!].

Unfortunately, Margaret Ann and I had class at 11 - which meant we missed the ideal time for staking out excellent Prince-spotting places on North Street.  Prior to their arrival, the Prince and Miss Middleton had announced that they might walk along North Street after the ceremony -- so of course the entire town showed up just in case they might catch a glimpse of the Prince or shake his hand.  [In the instance, "entire" even includes kindergarden-aged children on field trips from local schools.  I am not kidding - when I looked out my window and saw the above picture around 9am-ish, I also saw single-file lines of five year olds led by their teachers pass in front of the gate.  Ridiculous]  Here's an idea of what North Street looked like at about quarter til 11 (keep in mind that the official ceremony on the Quad hadn't even started yet):

Crowd-control barriers like these created a complex maze spanning the majority of the length of North Street, meaning that I had to find a semi-roundabout way to get to class because, of course, the easiest and most direct route was blocked off.  Go figure.

North Street was completely blocked off from incoming traffic

Not even 11am, and the crowds are already starting to line up.

The little blue sign in the picture above marks St. Andrews' police station which reminds me - the town was so intense about the Royal Visit that they closed they temporarily closed the police station.  Who closes a police station?!  That is one of the few state institutions that I would prefer to always stay open.  However, if there were need to find a police man, it wouldn't be too difficult.  I am convinced that every police man employed in St. Andrews was stationed either at 10 yard intervals on North Street or along the Scores (which  runs behind the University) or at the various entrances to the Quad -- besides the fact that cops here apparently don't believe in blending in with the crowd and insist on wearing neon colors.  So even when the Prince is not coming, they aren't exactly hard to find. :)

As I turned down an alley to head to my 11am stats lab (who wants to do stats when royalty is in town?!  Apparently the majority of my class thought the same thing because class was severely underpopulated that morning), I spied several news trucks parked outside the library with reporters typing away on their computers providing real time coverage of the event.

I didn't even know NBC existed in the UK!

Class ended around 12:30 -- about the same time that the ceremony on the Quad was wrapping up, and by that point the crowds on North Street had multiplied significantly.  I managed to shove my way to the front of the crowd on the west side of the Chapel, camera-in-hand, ready for my first Prince-sighting!  Here's some of the pictures that I took as I waited (ever so patiently of course!):

I mean, if I'm waiting, I might as well take pictures of the sky, right?  Especially when the sky looks like this!

The clock/bell tower of St. Salvator's Chapel.

Look at that blue sky!  The Royal Couple certainly

picked a lovely day to visit St. Andrews!

Every window of every student apartment had at least 2 girls hanging from it

Looking after the Royal Couple as they sped away

Thankfully, I had a few very tall guys standing next to me who could see over the crowds to the entrance to the Quad and were giving their not-as-tall friends a play-by-play of what was happening (which I found to be very helpful!) - such as "Oh look! The ceremony just ended ....William and Kate just came out of the Quad ... They're walking ... Oh! oh, they decided to walk the other way" [aka away from where I was standing :( ] After talking with the crowds, shaking hands, and being just generally awesome, Will and Kate hopped in their Royal Ranger Rovers and sped away (supposedly to lunch somewhere in town - and (fun fact!), according to the Sallies rumor mill, the Sallies Senior Student got to go to said lunch with the Prince!).  So, while I sadly didn't get to see either Will or Kate :( , I DID get to see their Royal Range Rovers!!!!!!

While I wish I had been able to see them, I still think that its amazing that they came to visit while I was here!  Royal visits don't happen every day - and to even have been in the same town as them is enough for me! :)  Several of my JSA friends, however, did get to meet him.  Those that were invited to the ceremony ran to the correct end of North Street (haha) at the end of the ceremony and were able to shake his hand!!!  Another one of my friends, while he didn't go to the ceremony, was able to get some great video of his sightings of the Prince, including William and Kate walking by Sallies on their way to the ceremony on the Quad!!!! (the groundskeepers had been manicuring the flowerbeds in front of Sallies for several days leading up to the event - just in case the Royal party came by :) ) Another fun story -- apparently when William and Kate walked by Sallies, the building's housekeeping staff came out on one of the balconies of the buildings to see him - and he waved up at them! so. cute. (especially since they probably were the ones who cleaned his room while he was here! :) )

The whole town of St. Andrews celebrated the arrival of the Prince and his bride-to-be.  For example, several of the bakeries in town (which are fantastic might I add :) ) commemorated the event by screening the faces of William and Kate onto various kinds of cookies and cakes.  Strange?  Perhaps.  But cute :)  I wish I had a picture of them to show you -- however, I sadly did not get out to the bakeries until after they were all gone.  Sad day :(

That night, Sallies had planned to celebrate the Royal visit with a "Royal Pub Crawl", but cancelled it due to lack of interest (which I personally don't understand since most of my JSA friends and I were planning on going....), SO we created our own pub crawl! :)  We hit up some of the popular pubs in town, starting our night off with the most intense Foosball game ever at Ma Bells and ending it with amazing nachos at Whey Pat :)  (seriously, if you ever come to St. Andrews you have to try their nachos -- so. good.)

Foosball at Ma Bells

(the guys were getting a little, um, intense when it became clear that they could possibly

lose to a bunch of girls...)

In conclusion (hahaha, I just had to write that in honor of the papers I've been writing :P), I did not get to see the Prince, BUT the excitement surrounding the Royal Visit in both the town and the university was totally worth it!  I am so happy that I was here for the kickoff of the 600th anniversary celebrations for the University (as well as the excitement of the Royal Engagement!!!!!!).  Here's to another 600 years! (wow - and I thought William and Mary at 318 years was old!)

In the words of Hagrid from Harry Potter: "It's not every day that your [university] turns [600]!"

(okay okay, so I modified it a little :P )

P.S. If you want more info on William and Kate's visit/want to see his speech at the ceremony (which I am told had a little bit of pomp and circumstance lol) / etc, check these out:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-12578449
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCpyziJpPpI  (yes this one is from a Golf site -- I mean, it's St. Andrews hahaha)