The Study Abroad Blog

This Weather is Really Cramping My Golf Game

Life in St. Andrews when the weather is at it’s worst

Urquhart Castle - Actually went there

It hit me yesterday that tomorrow is the beginning of March and 2/3 of my trip is already over. It’s weird because with only 3 months left, there’s still so much I haven’t done. I’m really looking forward to coming home. It’s tough because while I can’t wait to come home, work for the summer, and then be back at Holy Cross next year, I don’t want to think about it so much that I lose sight of everything I want to do here. (more…)

How I played Golf at St. Andrews for $300 while studying abroad

The Old Course - Every golfer's dream

I just got an email from someone studying abroad at St. Andrews next year, asking about the difficulty of getting a membership to the St. Andrew’s Links and playing on the Old Course. I know that golf was one of the biggest factors in my decision to come to St. Andrews, and I realized, had I not known someone who had come here before me, I would have never known about that opportunities for students to play golf here for dirt cheap. They don’t actually publicize it at all on the Link’s site, like it’s some big secret. So essentially, here is a copy of the email I just sent describing the process of gaining access to the world’s golf heaven. (more…)

I Turned 21! Which Doesn’t Mean Much in Scotland

I went to a whiskey tasting on Wednesday night. I realized that I hadn’t done much in the way of experiencing Scottish culture in the past few months other than golfing, so it was good to taste one of Scotland’s most popular drinks. (more…)

A Wombats Hostel review from the study abroad student perspective

Wombat's Hostel Review Germany Austria A little while back, I had written about the best method for finding and booking hostels. Having had one of my best hostel experiences while traveling around Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic, I decided to write a follow up post giving a little shout out to the hostel I stayed at while on the trip: Wombat’s hostel chain. Since we stayed at Wombat’s in both Munich and Vienna, I was able to get a really good feel for Wombat’s Hostels, and you can read my entire Wombats hostel review below. (more…)

Start of Second Semester at St. Andrews

Classes finally started this week. It was kind of hard to get back into things seeing as I haven’t actually been to class in about a month and a half.

On Monday afternoon, I had Scottish Pirates and Privateers. I’m not going to lie; I figured a class on pirates wasn’t going to be all that difficult, but it turns out it’s probably going to be one of the hardest classes I’ll take in college. At least it’s interesting material; I mean who doesn’t want to read about pirates, so I don’t mind doing the work – right now anyway.

I had my second class on Wednesday, Melanesian Anthropology. Supposedly it’s going to revolutionize the way I think about anthropology – thank god. Most of the anthropologists who studied Melanesia lived in 1900 so trying to decipher their century old intellectual lingo wasn’t exactly appealing. Hopefully this class is the anthropological revolution that the professor promised.

I officially applied to become and Asian Studies major on Friday. I was originally an Anthropology major but Anthro and I haven’t been vibing too well lately so I think the change was necessary. Now I’m an Asian Studies major, taking classes in Medieval History and Anthropology in the middle of Scotland. It all fits together so well.

Attempted to get out on the Old Course on Friday morning, but frost on the ground halted that venture. We ended up playing 9 holes on the Eden – the third time this week I have been on that course. I can’t complain though, I’m still playing golf in the middle of February. A little frost here and there isn’t the worst thing in the world. The days are getting longer and its been much warmer lately, so hopefully I can get on the Old next week.