My lovely alma mater, St. Andrews turns 600 this school year. And it briefly crossed my mind to attempt to come up with 600 things, but then I remembered that one of the perks of being a college graduate is that I don't have to. (Ha! Sorry folks in school. Those of you pointing out that university students are likely not makes lists of six hundred either can shut it.)
1. My freshman dorm overlooked the Old Course. (Yeah, that's really what they call it.) On Sundays, we could hang out and watch all the tourists take pictures of themselves. (The course was closed Sundays.)
1a. I have not ever golfed. People who do golf think it's weird that I went to St. Andrews and don't golf. Apparently the 600 years of educating folks (okay, so it wasn't quite six hundred when I was there) did not seem like reason enough.
2. Even though I have graduated, I still won't step on Patrick Hamilton's initials. Even though I know the secret uncursing maneuver, it still seems unwise to toy with such things.
3. My Scottish accent (which I was told was quite good) still slips out if I watch too much Ewan Mcgregor. (Funnily, two of my classmates were from his same hometown and went to high school with him, so if he does a movie with Kevin Bacon, my number goes to two!) The accent is probably pretty crap these days, and I cannot do it on command. Unless you make me talk to a Scottish person. Then weird things happen.
4. Intriguingly I got my best grade in the worst taught class. I ended up going and getting a textbook and working it out myself.
5. I was there for the sequicentennial of women being admitted, which was simultaneously awesome and weird. They've been educating women a long time, but, it's a little sad when you stack it up against the length of time they've been educating people. I realize this is people like in the book America where there's a little footnotes that says by people we mean white, middle or upper class males from good families, so it's not like everyone on the whole planet except males. Also, they should be commended for doing it that long really.
6. I was there for the choosing of the Rector which interesting and not just because I had to start with, what is a rector.
7. I learned enough about Scottish history that "Braveheart" annoys me. (My Scottish friend tells me who cares, its a fun movie. But the battle of Stirling Bridge appeared on three of my history exams, so I am unable to get past the film version which lacks, you know, a bridge.)
So, Happy 600th and here's to 600 more!
Rants About New (and old) Things
