Pub adventures and meeting people

Hi again -
The last few days have been very busy, so I'll try to remember everything that has happened. It might or might not work...
Tuesday morning brought the first of my courses, a seminar-ish class about Britain since 1707. There are three different professors who each specialize in a different century (18th, 19th, and 20th), so just when we get used to one, we'll switch over to a different professor! Anyway, I showed up about 2 minutes to 10am when we were supposed to be meeting, and I was the last one to get there. So we're dealing with a bunch of fellow overachievers! I find it not a great idea to show up super early on the first day of class, because then your being early is expected and being on time after that is like being late. I dunno, maybe I'm over analyzing it. Anyway, I finally met Matt in person (we ended up sitting next to each other), and he is extremely nice. Very talkative too. Everyone I've met so far has been pretty talkative, but maybe that's just the week one talking.
Anyway, our fellow classmates are 2 other Americans and a Frenchman... so that'll be different. The professors are all British (English I think, but there's no better way to offend a Scot than by thinking he or she is English), so the dynamic could be a bit interesting. The first session was very introductory; there was no discussion of history at all, but then again, i'm sure we'll get at it quite enough next week.
After class, Matt and I went over to his wife Bailey's coffee shop to meet her and to get some coffee. She is also incredibly nice. She did her Masters in photography/art history last year at Edinburgh University, so now they're in St. Andrew's for Matt's Masters in history. She's working mostly this year at the coffee shop here, but she's also commuting to Edinburgh once a week to continue working at a gallery where she interned last year. Quite a commute!
My second class met at 11am (so I'll normally go straight on from 9am to 1pm on Tuesday, eek!) and it was the Scottish history core module. There are four of us, and that class will go all year. Two of the people are Scots, Claire, who grew up about 10 miles from St. Andrews. She's a returning student having finished her bachelors doing evening courses at St. Andrews, working two years in education, and then deciding to go back to school. She seems super nice; I hope that we can hang out a bit more. And she would say "wee bit more" which is awesome!! The other Scot is Neil, a Glaswegian (i.e. from Glasgow). He also took a year off last year and decided that pension administration was not for him. I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone for whom pension administration was their passion. Jenny is a bit of a different story. She is from Germany and just finished her undergraduate there. Her undergraduate thesis (which apparently is pretty standard here for people wanting to go to graduate school) was about the Darien incident (the failed attempt for Scotland to control trade on the isthmus of Panama. Apparently it failed miserably and is now know at the Darien disaster). She wanted to have an opportunity to live abroad, but she says she is nervous about her English. She sounds very competent to me in English, but with the amount we have to read, it could be a problem.
After our course (which seems to be quite a bit about identity and nationalism), the four of us students we to the pub for lunch (my first visit to the pub). We hung out and conversed for an hour or so, which was really nice. I hope that we will be good friends; from everything I've heard, that's normally how it goes. We have another reception for just the Scottish history students this afternoon, so we'll see!
After lunch, Claire let me copy some of her articles so I wouldn't have to copy them out of the books again. Not that any of us would imagine copying out of books! Apparently the idea of buying books here is very odd. Almost everyone gets all of their books from the library. There are multiple copies of most books; one copy can be checked out for a while (and is usually the one to go first), but the others only for a week! I'm sure I'll learn the system soon enough, but that seems very strange to me.
Tuesday afternoon the history department had a big reception for all of its new students (and the older students came too), so I got to meet quite a few people. The Scottish history phd's seemed keen to bring me into their fold (and Professor Mason, my supervisor, seems to be already trying to convince me to stay for a phd). One of the phd students is also from Tennessee, Morristown actually. We're going to have a biscuits and gravy fest at some point - apparently his biscuits just haven't turned out right since coming to Scotland; I think its the baking powder. Anyway, I also met another Claire who did an MLitt last year and is now doing her PhD. She also did an undergrad at St. Andrews, so she's a fixure of the community, lol. Anyway, after the reception, Claire (phd), Matt, Laura (3rd year phd), Björn (2nd year phd?), Bailey, and a few others went to the Rule, another pub that doesn't pour ale very well apparently. And then we went to the Central pub, where they do know how to pour ale. I met a few other people throughout the course of the night: Beth, a MLitt turned PhD from Maryland, Adam, a 3rd year? PhD student in English history from Yorkshire, and Dan, a 4th year PhD student from somewhere in Britain who is trying to finish his conclusion by Friday. Anyway, it is an interesting cast of characters, about whom I'm sure you will hear a lot as time goes on.
Yesterday, I got up late and worked on my intense amounts of reading. If I read all I'm 'supposed to' it'll be 10 books and 5 articles before next Tuesday. I'm already about 2 books behind, lol. We'll see how it turns out.
Later, I met up with Jessica (the girl I randomly met Monday on the bus) for coffee and a chat. I think that we'll be good friends; we might do lunch today and go to Edinburgh on Monday for some shopping. I'll have to see how the homework goes. She's from the greater state of Los Angeles, but did about 2/3 of her undergraduate at King's college London. Apparently in late 2007 the exchange rate (like $2.50 almost to £1) got so bad that she had to go home and finish up at UC Irvine. She's back in the UK working on an MLitt in International Relations. I've heard that degree is a 'party' degree, but I can't imagine it being like that. I only have two course meetings each week (and tons of reading in between), whereas Jessica has two lectures each with a reading group and then a language course. A much busier schedule, but I guess for some that could mean less actual work. The only other person I know doing IR is Surabhi, one of the Bobby Jones Scholars, and she will definitely put any people trying to party their way through that degree to shame.
Rest of Wednesday afternoon - more reading.
Last night I met up with Andy (Tennessee), Claire (straight thru at St. Andrews), Adam (Yorkshire), and Dan (conclusion) for the pub quiz. Its a lot like trivia night in the states, but more competitive I think. I didn't contribute much, but I did know that the only national flag in world without 4 sides is Nepal (its like 2 triangles stacked). Yay for contribution! We were one point out of third place and winning a dvd of Tropic Thunder. But apparently we did much better than they did last week, being one point out of last. I might make a regular thing about it.
Today is going to be more reading and then the Scottish history reception at 5.15. Good times.
A random note: You know how in the states, you could (for example) buy a half pint or a pint of beer, but the pint would be a better value? Not so! My pint of Guinness from yesterday was £3.20, and the half pint was £1.60! How awesome is that!