St Andrews...at night!

So the moon is almost full tonight, and I couldn't resist taking some pictures. They are here if you want to see them!

Hmmm, what else is going on? I haven't been out too much because I have a lot of work! Oh, I need to post one more picture...will do that later! But I did discover that the Byre Theatre has a lovely cafe in the bottom of it, which is where I studied this afternoon. Then I went to chorus practice. Oh, here's a nice bit of information for you...our director kept talking about "quavers," and it took me awhile to understand what he meant; I finally asked someone to make sure. "Quavers" are eighth notes, while "crotchets" are quarter notes. "Minims" are half notes...This very much confuses me! :) I think I've got "quavers" down but not the others.

That's all I got for the moment! :P

Special collections...again! :)

Part of our homework for class this week was to register with special collections and actually look at a book(in the library--rare books aren't allowed out) that is semi-relevant to what we are studying. I found an edition of the epistles of Hildegard of Bingen--it's a 1566 edition (Hildegarde was alive in the 12th century), but still really cool. Unfortunately, it's in Latin, so I couldn't understand much of it, though I got the gist of the layout. Pretty cool, though. For those who don't know who Hildegard is, here's an excerpt from Wikipedia (not the greatest source, I know, but still, it gives an idea of who she was):

"Hildegard of Bingen (German: Hildegard von Bingen; Latin: Hildegardis Bingensis; 1098 – 17 September 1179), also known as Blessed Hildegard and Saint Hildegard, was a German magistra who later founded (Rupertsberg in 1150 and Eibingen in 1165) in the third quarter of the 12th century.
Hildegard of Bingen was an abbess, artist, author, counselor, linguist, naturalist, scientist, philosopher, physician, herbalist, poet, activist, visionary, and composer. She is the first composer for whom a biography exists and one of her works, the Ordo Virtutum is the first form, and possible origination, of opera."

So the book I was looking at is a collection of letters from her to other people (and their letters, too, I think). It also gave a history of her life at the back. Just as a side note, there are CDs out there of her music being performed; they aren't very difficult to find.

I also looked at the King James Bible again--the first edition one. I couldn't resist. Even though the King James is horrible as far as translations going (if you're actually going to study the text for a religion course or something), it it written in beautiful prose...and this edition is HUGE! Like, it definitely takes to hands to lift it. Perhaps two arms. It is probably a foot and half long by a foot wide, and maybe half a foot thick. Big enough for you?

One interesting I noticed it included the Apocrypha, which is unusual for Protestant bibles (though, it is a Church of England edition, which at that time, really wasn't that different from Catholicism). Also, it put Esther in the Apocrypha, which has changed now...also interesting.

So I spent the day with old texts! Nothing like old books to get an English major all excited. :)

Beach!

Today I finally got my act together and went down to the beach! I haven't been yet...well, I've go past the ocean quite often, along the top of the cliffs, I just haven't been down to the beach. Shame on me!

Anyway, it was lovely. The one closest to me has rocks all over, as well as sand. The rocks are cool, though, all different sizes and shapes and colors. And there was bunches of sea glass--broken bottles that had been rubbed smooth by the sea. It's a shame there's so much glass on the beach, but when it gets smoothed out, it really is cool.

And I dipped my feet in the cold, cold ocean! Several times...It's chilly out now, but it was nice when I was down on the beach. Cold, but not too cold. Of course, the ocean is ALWAYS cold, coming off the North Sea--Someone told me it only warms up 2 degrees celsius in the summer!

It was a nice day. :) Oh, and all this happened when I decided to get coffee...got coffee but then was distracted by the ocean on the way home! ;)

Queen Mary's Library

So the people in my program got a tour of Queen Mary's Library today, which is actually a working library for a boarding school here, St Leonard's. Actually, apparently they don't give tours to many people, so it was a privilege! :)

Anyway, Queen Mary stayed in the library when she visited St Andrews for extended periods of time, and so she has a room in it... Rumor has it that she wandered around town dressed as a commoner, though there's not really anything to confirm that. :) But it's fun nonetheless.

The land it's built on has been occupied in one way or another since the 12th century...there's evidence of pots and such dating back to then. And plow marks not long after that. But the present (stone) house has been around since the 16th century. It's quite lovely! :)
Oh, one bit of information, there's a lot of paintings of Mary in the house...we didn't see that many of her, but the archivist/curator said that paintings of Mary show either a very frail, feminine woman or a huge strapping woman with a cross...usually. :) Mary was actually 6 feet tall, so she was quite a large woman!

That's about all (I can tell you more later, once I read more of this rather long but interesting pamphlet!), except here are some pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennibenni/sets/72157602522232630/

Bye!

Oh Oh! Special Collections...

When I hear "special collections" in a library in the states... I don't get that excited...but our lecture this morning was on the "the history of the book" which really just consisted of a librarian pulling out books from the special collections and showing them to us with a little bit about the actual construction of the book thrown in...what it was printed on, how certain things were printed and so on...very interesting. But they really have a fabulous collection of old, old material here. She had a Psalter from the 12th century, I think...and a first edition King James Bible. And also some quite amazing facsimiles...one was of Chaucer. Also, a collection of Sophocles plays from way back...that was an actual edition not facsimile. Anyway, it was all quite fascinating. I am excited about actually going and exploring the collection at some point. So cool! :) The end.

Courses and a Chorus

Life here is going on pretty much normally! Well, as normal as it can be in another country. I'm still in love with the ocean, of course. It's so nice to be so close to the water. I've also been writing a lot here (creatively), so that's been good, though that slowed down once I got my laptop! Bad Jennifer!

My classes are going fine so far. There's a lot of reading, but actually not quite as much as I'd thought there'd be. I have papers due pretty soon, though! aack!

Oh, last night I want to my first rehearsal of St. Andrews' chorus. It's an open choir, composed mainly of town people--it's nice to meet some people in the town. Anyway, the best part is there are no auditions! So I'm thinking I'm going to join up. I'm not a great singer or anything, but I do like to sing... They're doing the Messiah right now, which my friends and I were totally lost during the rehearsal...but I think it will be fun to sing once I get the hang of it.

Hmmm...a bit of Scottish history now! Last week we read sonnets attributed to Mary Queen of Scots. However, no one really knows if she wrote them or not...She was married to Lord Darnley at the time, but they didn't get along very well. If she did write the sonnets, they would more than likely be written to Bothwell, the man Mary was in love with. Anyway, Darnley is murdered, and Bothwell and Mary both are accused of the murder...it boils down to, though, that if she wrote the sonnets (and another set of letters), then she probably did help plot the murder--but that's the only evidence, really. And if she didn't write the sonnets/letters, then she is probably framed for it. There's no original manuscript for the sonnets...they suddenly appear a little bit later...And one man in particular, Buchanan, was trying to use them to prove she did it. But it is a really interesting text. Also, did you know we have the Queen Mary library here? It's actually a part of a girls private school. But it's where Queen Mary stayed when she was in St Andrews.

Alright, enough. :)

More pictures...

I posted some more pictures. Here are some just around town:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennibenni/sets/72157602273318398/

And actually of my room:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennibenni/sets/72157602279560301/

:)

Hey hey!

So, the first week of classes is almost over. The classes have been relatively easy so far. But I'm sure that will pick up.

I think my favorite part of the day is walking by the ocean on the way to class... :)

Last night, I went to an English department party for postgrads. The professors are so kooky! I love it. :) One of the professors absconded with a bottle of wine for the evening (wine was served at the party). You could see him in the back, pouring himself more wine. :) But I also went to a open mic reading put on by the creative writing group, Spotlight. It was pretty fun, though mostly undergraduates.

Well, I wanted to post the link to where I've put pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennibenni/sets/72157602267709315/

I'll post pictures of my room soon.

See ya!