Coming home!

Leaving St Andrews tomorrow at 7 or 8 AM. Leaving Edinburgh on the closest flight (probably 11). Leaving London at 3. Arriving in LA at 5.30 (-8 hours for timezone changing). And home. Bitch of a trip. Looking forward to it. I'll miss this, though, which is good. I'm already anticipating next year. But also, I'm really looking forward to the summer. I have never had two homes before. And I feel somewhat torn in two.

Done

with my first academic year at St Andrews. Yesterday I was feeling the negative aspects of the end, today I am feeling excited for a free week and then coming home to the summertime.

Sustainable Development on Thursday went really well-I studied the right things and felt really prepared on my essays and like I didn't bullshit at all, which resulted in finishing 10 minutes early, despite only having 30 minutes per essay (4 essays). Nevertheless, lots of facts and statistics thrown about from good revision, and I felt good about it.

Psychology yesterday is a pain in the ass because the psychology department is either really good or really bad at making multiple choice questions, meaning that half the time you feel that there are 2 possible right answers, even if you're very comfortable with the topic, and have to pick one arbitrarily. This one will be the most luck-of-the-draw, but I felt alright about it.

Philosophy today reminded me of the feeling of taking a maths test...somewhat good, somewhat bad. The easy problems where you know the answer automatically. The really difficult, never-before-seen ones where you try to force your knowledge onto a question you've never seen and make it fit. It left me feeling tired but good.

And now? Is 11.30 AM to early to start drinking?

We'll see what this next week holds.

Empty days

Of revision and games and sitting in the sun with people. Nice, somehow haunting. Most people have exams coming up very soon, but my first is next Thursday, so I'm doing that horrid waiting around while other people stress and act and have their stress relieved. I almost miss the AP booklets...our exams are so similar, but there is no single source that you know you can go to that will have all of the information you may need. And now I'm stalling from learning about the wonders of erosion and how its killing us all with CO2.

Interesting info:
1/3 of CO2 buildup is from organic matter decaying in the soil because of erosion/ploughing/increased rains/etc.
and:
The US spends $300 billion on agricultural subsidies. That's 6 times the entire world's aid budget.

Wee!

Two weeks till home

Or thereabouts. Depends on the post-exam revelries.

Revision week is quiet, but actually kinda nice. In the last weeks everyone is on best behavior again, so interactions are by and large really pleasant. Sunny, so lots of laying around on the grass 'studying'. And sleeping. My first exam is a week away this Thursday, so I'm quite calm and reading through a couple textbooks (bleh) before moving on to notes. Lots of productive reading.

Excited about Costa Rica this summer, though timetables are a question mark at the moment. My mission right now is to find some sort of research or meaningful project to do while I'm there...might see if I can scrounge up a sloth expert or just animal behavior person somewhere and see if there's anything I can do in a couple months with 90-some sloths.

Really looking forward to coming home. And to coming back-which is good. I wasn't as sure at various points. St Andrews isn't ideal, but its interesting enough to be home, at least for a bit.

Problem with infrequent posts...

...is that there is too much to catch up on in a single post. The show went really well--sold out on the last two nights. Tried to videotape it, but the camera crapped out after 5 minutes, so it looks like no record whatsoever of my first directing works. It's all good though, already bursting with ideas for next year.

Have my last two lectures today, then revision week and exams the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th. Then home! Yay.

Promised today would be a productive day, seeing as I spent all yesterday outside playing Risk. It is really warm and clear now, and our room is boiling because the sun comes straight through the massive windows most of the day. Also, it is light until about 9PM.

Monday was a bank holiday, and with the ends of lectures I've gotten into a bit of a laid back party mood that I need to break out of to revise. It's hard with the warmth, the sun, the lack of structured time...

I've started writing just a tiny bit again. And planning for next semester in terms of theatre...oh dear. Three main ideas: First and foremost, a troop of street performers who do a show a week or so, each different, semi-improvised, in some sort of improv/comedia/butoh/who-knows-what style. I've sent an email to the St Andrews Council asking about street performance licensing. Second, Jekyll and Hyde the Musical. Because I want to. Third, some sort of dystopian play that I could adapt. I was thinking 1984 or Farenheit 451, but then I thought about the self medication, numbness, meaningless sex and lived-for-pleasure lives of Brave New World and thought, "there's got to be some sort of commentary on student life there!" so I'll probably be re-reading that this summer.

So that's me right now. Off to play Warcraft III. Should really be reading up on the science of climate change.

Show opening and the May Dip

In the reverse order!

Wednesday, night before dress rehearsal, stayed up until 7AM and jumped into the North Sea at dawn. Twice. St Andrews tradition...amazingly fun.

Then, today, show opened! Went incredibly well, an audience was just what we needed (funnily enough). It was pithy and short and light and frothy and happy, turned some heads for the Comedia stuff, and raised what feels like a decently hefty sum of change for Doctors Without Borders. My cast are awesome, they've gotten quite adaptable. I may make them do the entire show in five minutes tomorrow as a warmup.

Robbie is also extremely tolerant and an amazing roomate. Have a guy from Australia couchsurfing on our floor (aka sleeping on a mattress on our floor) at the moment, and a guy from the Philippines I met in Spain coming in within the next couple months. It's all very hippy-ish, in a good way...though I'm not how much "me" it is. There is always having people there, and there is having someone there truly, deeply. I think, this semester, I've got the first one nailed. It's a start.