Second semester, first update! The first month and a bit has been jammed packed and this entry will be lengthy, so I’ve divided up the happenstances into themes in case you (for some reason) don’t want (or don’t have the time) to read a short story 😉 You can pick and choose what you’re interested in.

Outline:
Events – Southern African Ball, Mumford & Sons concert, Valentines Day, Schwarzman Celebration, Chinese Lunar New Year
Travel – London, Pittenweem & Anstruther, Belfast
Sports – Supporting friends, pickleball, Mt Kili Prep, Ice Hockey (All Stars Announcement!)

Events
Tis the season for semi-formals and events galore – first formal back called for a shake-up with secret girl initiative: an Adam-Sandler look-alike competition. The Friday after several of us took the train down to Edinburgh for the Southern African Ball! A pregame at, where else, than ‘Spoons. set the tone for our arrival to Ghillie Dhu. The night consisted of a three course meal (fresh tomato/burrata situation, tender meat & whipped/mashed potatoes, and sticky toffee pudding), an auction, a raffle, awards, music, dancing, and running to catch the last train out of Haymarket.

Glasgow is the well-known Scottish hub for live music and tours, but Dundee showed out when Mumford and Sons performed a pop- up event promoting their new album Prizefighter at the intimate Livehouse venue. No, they did not play “I Will Wait” but I came away with a lot of good, new music, and an appreciation for folk rock.

Valentines Day called for a Champagne and Shackles mixer. Beforehand, party-goers took a personality/opinion test to entered into the pool wherein an algorithm paired up the most compatible matches. Rules were simple: in order to be unshackled from the pink fluffy handcuffs, you and your newly discovered compatible match must finish your bottle of champagne.

It’s been a long-time coming, a dear friend, Lucas, received the prestigious Schwarzman Scholarship for a one-year master’s in global affairs at Beijing’s Tsinghua University. To celebrate all his hard work and this massive honor, we threw a little partyyyy. Games galore, our worst behavior, everything purple, and the best snacks (including homemade queso, which no one outside the Americas seems to be familiar with??).

In more China-related news, Lucas hosted a dumpling-making party (he learned his recipe straight from the mainland) in celebration of Lunar New Year! He walked us through the folding technique, Lunar New Year traditions, the zodiac, and, of course, handed out some special red envelopes (sorry Mrs. Skeele for the consistent parallelism issues, I know, I know).

Deans loves a themed event (which always seems to coincide with friend/family visiting). Sorry, Ryan, you had to see us in our Y2k/2000s-best. Thankfully, we had enough social graces to change before leaving the house, but the dining room staff really has seen us at our best. The night wouldn’t have been complete without shots from Mollys, chicken wings from Bucks, discussion of the midterms, bananagrams in the common room, and late-night shawarma.

For her own birthday-not-birthday (she’s a leap year twin!), Julia cooked up a storm and hosted us in the Garden Suite. Basketball friends, serendipitous travelers, the usual suspects, chocolate trifle, room-rearrangement compliments. The weekend capped off with a partially-comped meal @ Bucks. Hands-down best fried chicken in town.

The perfect segue from events to travel as it captures both…

Travel
In mid-February, Courtney and I headed down to London to attend Jen and James’ baby shower! They did such a great job converting their home into a hosting space – bagel bar, cheese and crackers, fruit and pastries, and booze. Certainly a different crowd than St Andrews, but my goodness the South Africans know how to have a grand ol’ time!! We passed the time guessing the nappy, playing the don’t say the ‘B’ word pin-game, watching the ‘urchins’ (small kiddos) run around frenetically, wrangling in the dogs, sippin’ mimosas, pulling our hair out over Six Nations rugby, devouring James’ homemade pizzas, and forcing the guys to dance to Taylor Swift and ‘I Love London’.

But the journey didn’t stop there! Already in London, we had to make it a day. In one day, we sped-run London. After easing into the morning with a movie, facetime to the homeland, and James’ homemade-above-café-grade flat whites, we trained into the city. Quick bag drop in Paddington before hitting the streets. We walked through Hyde Park and St. James’ Park (not as many esoteric fowl as my last trip, but the greenery was much more lush).

In order to make it to the West End, we passed through Trafalgar Square where there was a massive Lunar New Year Festival – big spectacle, street food stalls, a massive dragon (no wings, remember) on stage, and beautiful music.

Due to the lack of bagels in St Andrews, we made a quick B Bagel stop to tie us over. Then, we headed to Lyceum Theater to enjoy the famous Lion King! The interior is a ornate – red and gold everywhere. I enjoyed that the actors made use of all parts of the theater: birds flying from the luxury boxes and the animal procession through the crowd aisle. Above all, the set design and costumes were engineering and artistic feats. My favorite costume was the cheetah because the actor/actress is connected to animal prosthetics via their arms and head, so however the actor moves, it is mirrors live by the bright costume (Check out the link I’ve included if you’re not already familiar)¹

The matinee performance allowed us an entire evening to run around the city! First, We trekked over Waterloo bridge (in the tune of ABBA), to get to ‘Draughts’ a boardgame bar. Hello to the London Eye, Walkie Talkie, the Shard, the Cheesegrater, and the Scalpel. At Draughts, located in graffiti tunnel,² you pay a base rate for access to library shelves full of games and can also purchase food and drink.

Continuing the London speed run, we walked over Westminster Bridge by Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. Because we hadn’t gotten enough kms in, we continued back by St James park, through Knightsbridge and Kensington, and to the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Pittenweem & Anstruther
On a local level – it only took me 5 months to get to one of Scotland’s most famous fish and chips joint. The bobbies met up with another former Bobby, Sarah, at a hidden gem in Pittenweem. She showed us The Cocoa Tree Café which has the most delicious, decadent hot chocolate and pancakes.

We took a quick car ride to nearby town Anstruther to the world-famous Anstruther Fish Bar. Boasting Scotland’s ‘Best Fish and Chips’³ for years, we eagerly awaited our beer battered fresh catch. I’ve never had such a large quantity of fried fish in my life. If we weren’t already full enough, the meal came with complimentary tea and fries.

Search criteria for spring break: cheap flights & no visa requirement
Destination decided: Belfast, Northern Ireland
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The bus ride to the airport from St Andrews was double the amount of time we spent in the air. With great fortune, Lucas got us into the airport lounge where we enjoyed complimentary breakfast. I’d never seen a pancake maker like this before – you press the yellow button to dispense batter and it cooks pancakes for you along a conveyer belt in a minute!

From the airport, we took an eco-friendly bus to Queens Square. Hot take: Belfast’s Albert Memorial clock is more proportional than Big Ben. There are few things I enjoy more than perusing google maps to find random sights or local attractions. A block towards the river stood a beautiful blue mosaic salmon. The Salmon of Knowledge. New tradition derived: Kiss da Fish. 

We walked past the home ice rink for the only professional ice hockey team on the whole island of Ireland (Belfast Giants) until we arrived at the Titanic Museum. Honestly? Much higher entertainment and educational value than I anticipated. The museum began with an overview of Belfast’s dominant trades, linen, shipmaking, and engineering, and sociopolitical orientation. 

After the city overview, they honed in on shipmaking and craftsmanship. How amazing to think about each and every rivet hammered into place. I can only imagine the pride these people took in their work. What a massive-scale project that took so much labor, time, coordination, and calculation. From the laying of the keel and steel skeleton, to the riveting of the hull plates, the fitting of watertight bulkheads and decks, the installation of the massive steam boilers and engine machinery, the rising of the four great funnels, and then inward to the opulent interior fit-out: the grand staircases, stateroom paneling, upholstery, and furnishings — and finally the enormous logistical undertaking of recruiting and training the crew, and provisioning the ship with everything – the scale of the operation is just staggering.

One of the museum rooms had a three-walled immersive screen that started from the very bottom of the ship and slowly panned up each of the floors. Seeing the inner belly of the ship,  through the different class cabins, and up to the decks was so cool! 

Even though the Titanic’s story is so well-known, (at the risk of hearing a bunch of ‘well, duhs’ and eyerolls from these reflections… and maybe I would’ve felt that had I watched leonardo in action, sorry Rebecca) I can honestly say, until I went to the museum, I’d never really felt the weight of the tragedy to this degree.

Like.. On the SS California, which was the nearest ship, their ship’s only radio operator had already gone to sleep for the night. The lookouts had no binoculars — the pair that should have been on board had been moved back in Southampton and never replaced — leaving them to navigate a field of deadly icebergs with naked eyes. Once she Titanic struck, the sinking came with terrifying speed – it took less than 3 hours from collision to go beneath the surface. The simple fact that there weren’t enough lifeboats for the passengers and crew. The lives lost. the men, the women, the passengers, the staff, the crew. Each one a person who had gotten on board that ship with somewhere to be. Then there is the ship itself. The raw materials, the years of labor, the human ingenuity and pride poured into what was genuinely a feat of maritime architecture. All gone on its maiden voyage, barely two weeks into its first crossing to America.

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On our first and only full day in Belfast, we booked an all day tour bus adventure. Honestly, 10/10 would recommend. For 20ish pounds we got a 9 hour excursion to many a Game of Thrones Site (most notable: the Dark Hedges), several castles (Carrickfergus, Ballygally Castle), the Glens of Antrim, and the famous UNESCO World Heritage Site Giant’s Causeway – known for its stunning basalt columns. 

Our bus driver was insane in the most delightful, cheeky, sometimes crude manner. He liked to play songs over the group speakers based on our destination. Tunes included: (The Antrim Coast Road,⁴ random irish folk music, Galway Girl, despite being in Northern Ireland, and 80s throwbacks). He also played Game of Thrones show clips for context. I was majorly impressed that he could DJ, movie-clip-project, tell jokes, offer historical tidbits, and drive a massive tour bus along narrow winding rural roads all at once. 

Giant’s Causeway was wayyyy cooler than I expected, too. We had a good two hours to hang out, so we took a short hike around the cliffs, then headed down to the beach and rocky coastline. The basalt columns looked like slightly unorganized honeycomb. I enjoyed looking at the small depressions in the center of many of the stones from the footsteps over hundreds of years. 

As a reward for the long day we found the BEST burger place in town – and their bizarre online marketing tactic⁵ worked. Lucas snuck ranch inside the establishment and i tried lemon fanta. What a luxury to have even just a slightly pink burger (no offence saint sizzle, you’re amazing, but there’s nothing like a hefty, juicy medium rare burger). Oh, and despite being flagged for carrying a bomb, Lucas successfully brought that bottle of ranch dressing through airport security.

Because the only objectives for this quick spring break trip were to see a new city, rest and rejuvenate, visit the Titanic museum, and see Giant’s causeway, we far exceeded our expectations, and also spent a good chunk of restorative chill time giggling on the couch watching our belovéd Derry Girls. How wholesome😍🥰

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SPORTS
The first half of semester 2 has been full of athletic endeavors. We made a boozy morning/afternoon out of Julia’s basketball game – and her coach (nicel) asked us to livestream the second half of the game. A pitcher into spiked rum slushies, the ~10 online spectators got an unfiltered stream of commentary. I also watched my first ever Ultimate Frisbee tournament. Lydia K absolutely dominated on the field – leaping, blocking, sprinting. Go team! the cutting and passing felt a bit like lacrosse, the lack of forward movement allowed with the ball felt like rugby, and the endzones felt like american football. First to 15 or whoever is up at the end of regulation time. Makes enough sense to me! 

In pickleball news, David and I have been playing in a beginners league most Thursdays. Beyond the student population, It’s been refreshing to make acquaintances with people who live in the area and have established lives. The other week we got the tap for the intermediate practice sessions! There’s certainly a significant and humbling increase in the level of play! 

In preparation for climbing Mt Kilimanjaro at the beginning of September, Lukas and I decided to take on the stairmaster challenge: climb the height of Kili on the Stairmaster in a week. This works out to 5,895 meters (19,341 feet).  We hit the gym 1-2x per day – an average session was 60 min on speed 9, which earned us 720-800m. Needing to make up two days that I wasn’t able to make it to the gym, one Sunday morning/afternoon I spend 2.5 hours straight climbing. I managed to watch an entire episode of Drag Race, all the reviews, several Connor McDavid highlight reels, and the Olympic Ice Hockey post-gold medal press conference. My legs felt like jelly. But we both completed the challenge!!!!

Lastly, big announcement!!! I’ve been scouted to play on the Womens International All Stars Ice Hockey team on April 4th against the UK All Stars team! I’m psyched to play womens ice hockey for the first time since before COVID. It’s unreal to think back to 8th grade when I picked up a stick and got on the ice for the first time (finished dead last in sprints, barely could do a crossover) that 10 years later I’d be playing at this level in the UK. I could not be more excited. 

Save the Date: Wookey Memorial Ice Hockey Game vs (St Andrews Typhoons rival) University of Edinburgh: April 17th, 2026, 7pm GMT 2PM EST. If you want the livestream link, shoot me an email or text. 

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1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk8v6UhfuoY ↩︎
2. https://www.leakestreetarches.london/ ↩︎
3. https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotland-now/scotlands-best-seaside-fish-chip-36031300 ↩︎
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLz8Rofd8Gw ↩︎
5. https://bunsen.ie/ ↩︎