First Day of Class

I woke up feeling ill and absolutely dreading the day. I really did not know what to expect but everything turned out alright. I love my courses! I began Modern History and Hebrew today, and my first International Relations class is tomorrow. History is a huge class, about 300 people in a large lecture hall, while Hebrew is a nice small group of about 20 and is really relaxed and a bit informal. My teacher told us to call him Drew, he doesn't like to be called "Mr so and so" apparently. We began to learn the alphabet today, practicing our letters and such. I am very excited about Hebrew. It reminds me of my high school New Testament Greek class, which I loved, and I have a feeling I am going to love Old Testament Hebrew just as much. 

It was a typical Scottish day. Grey sky in the morning, then cleared up a bit, and then rained spottily in the afternoon. There was a massive rainbow over the town, it was quite picturesque, I tried to take a picture but it didn't turn out. It is supposed to be in the 50s all week, and rain everyday. I have learned to carry an extra layer and an umbrella always. 

I went to church at the University Chapel yesterday. It was beautiful. It is held in St Salvators, which was built in the mid fifteenth century, with huge stained glass windows, and traditional seating where the rows face each other, not the front. A number of students were wearing their Academic Gowns, heavy red cloaks that are to be worn for special occasions. I have ordered mine but it hasn't come in yet. After church there was a reception held by the University Principal, during which we all mingled and sipped our glasses of wine (what a life!). Afterwards I went over to the Societies Fayre, where over 150 clubs had set up booths and tried to persuade students into joining their group. I joined the History Society and got a laminated membership card which entitles me to special lectures and field trips to historical sites, apparently we also get together and talk about history and play things like Jeopardy. Basically we get to be dorks together, which is great. I gave my email to a number of other clubs but didn't commit yet, a few were the photography society, OneWorld (an activism group for social justice and the like), Azibo (which works with a charity in Africa and focuses on orphans and AIDS victims), Sustainable Development, Hillwalking (which looks awesome, they lead hikes all over Scotland, there is one every week) and a bunch of others that I cannot remember now. I'm not sure which ones I'll seriously join. 

I have a feeling that I am going to be quite busy between lectures, tutorials, coursework, societies and maybe even a sport (yes, I signed up for a sport, we'll see if I actually go through with it...it's Netball, I played it in Africa and thought it was cool, so I signed up for the University's social league), and I am attempting to get a part time job. I'm feeling stressed out already, but there is a yoga class in town 4 times a week, so I may take advantage of that to relax. 

Here is my term address, if you feel like sending me some love :) 

Jenna Luetkehans

2004 New Hall

North Haugh

St Andrews

Fife KY16 9XW

Scotland, UK