There are two types of people in St Andrews: uni students and golfers. It's a really small town, and just the right mixture between posh and rustic.

At 9am, I went down to the registration point for the open day/offer holders day, where I was given a free totebag (yay!) and a map. Then I strolled over to North Haugh, where the STEM faculties are located, for a presentation by the school of Physics and Astronomy. It was really nice: although the department just looks like another concrete building on the exterior, the interior was large and had high ceilings. We were maybe around 80 to attend the presentation, students & parents combined; after an overview of the course, we were separated into small groups each led by a professor on a tour of the faculty. Something that came as a surprise was that they treated us like we were freshers—I know it shouldn't be surprising, since we all had received offers already, but I guess this was my first taste of being a uni student, so it was terribly exciting.

The most memorable part about the tour was the underground labs (I'm making it sound so illegal lol), where we got to see up close equipment and machines to study lasers, milliwaves, and low temperature physics among others. A few doors had warning signs on them saying "DANGER: DO NOT ENTER", but of course we entered them anyway. Although, there is a real danger if you have a Pacemaker, because some experiments involve very strong magnets that could potentially create disrupting interferences. Fun fact: St Andrews also have the biggest operational telescope in the UK!

Peppered throughout the building were student ambassadors, all wearing the characteristic St Andrews academic gown: a knee-length red robe, with wide sleeves that double as a short cape. Apparently they make for excellent blankets; I have no doubt, since they are made 100% out of wool. A fun tradition I learned before arriving: depending on the student's year, they wear their gown differently:
First-years wear them fully up on both shoulders, second-years slightly off both shoulders, third-years wear the gown either fully off the right shoulder if studying science or the left shoulder if studying arts (“Arts have hearts, but scientists are always right”!), and fourth-years wear it off both shoulders, across the elbows.
Some professors were wearing astronomy-related clothing: one of them had a tie with the Solar system printed on it, another was wearing a shirt with floating astronauts. I think it might be a physics teacher thing, to wear tacky physics-related clothing, equal parts ironic and sincere.

Student life at St Andrews seems to be one of its best qualities, having over 100 student-led different clubs and societies. I think this is partly because the university is located in a small town in the middle of nowhere, and there aren't any nightclubs to go to or anything like that, so the students have to come up with more unique ways to have fun. One of the societies, HoleSoc, consists of the sole activity of going down to the beach and digging big holes in the sand. Iconic, really.

en français pour une fois! (fret not—english version is under the image)

J'ai passé mon bac blanc de philo ce matin. c'était fatiguant. surtout j'avais rien à dire dans mes grandes parties alors que je trouvais mon intro était assez bien du coup c'était frustrant. En plus j'ai oublié mon tipex... truc de fou.
Le sujet que j'ai choisi était: "La pensée de chacun perd-elle à se dire dans le langage de tous?" Je pense que c'est facile de tomber dans le piège de réciter le cours sur le langage, alors que le vrai sujet c'est la pensée. Ou peut-être j'était le seul à faillir le faire.
Un regret: J'ai cité Hegel mais j'ai oublié que ça venait de lui du coup j'ai pas mis l'auteur...rip

Hier j'avais accompagné O* à la librairie pour acheter un annale de bac de philo, puis quand je suis rentré j'ai révisé en notant tous les notions importantes que je me souvenais de chaque thème (voir photo en-dessous).

Lundi: bac blanc de physique-chimie, et mardi—celui de maths. Ça c'est les matins. Le soir, répétitions de théâtre parce que le spectacle c'est mercredi et jeudi. Je vis litéralement la vie de Hannah Montana—étudiant le jour, acteur la nuit mdr. Par contre j'ai trop hâte pour ça! y'aura tous nos potes qui viennent ça va être génial.

I had my philosophy mock baccaleaurate exam this morning. it was tiring. mostly I had nothing to say in the main parts of my essay when I thought my introduction was pretty good so that was frustrating. Plus I forgot my correcting tape... crazy.
The question I chose was: "Are each one's thoughts wasted by being expressed in the language of all?" (Oh gosh now that I translated the question I think I totally misinterpreted it when I was writing. fuuuuuuck) I think it's easy to fall into the trap of regurgitating the lessons on language, when the real subject was thought. Or maybe I was the only one to almost do it.
One regret: I quoted Hegel but I forgot who said the quote so I didn't write down the author's name... rip

Yesterday I went with O* to the bookshop to buy a book of philosophy baccaleaurate past papers, then when I got home I revised by jotting down all the concepts I remembered from each theme (see image above).

Monday: physics-chemistry mock exam, and Tuesday—the maths one. That's in the mornings. In the evenings, it's theatre rehearsals cause the play is Wednesday and Thursday. I am literally living the life of Hannah Montana—student by day, actor by night lol. Though I'm so excited for this! all our friends will be there it's gonna be amazing.

It's only mid-February but spring feels imminent. The middays are now often warm and sunlit, and the bustling of the streets all morning culminates in the climax of the noon bell toll which forgoes the usual twelve, instead continuing for a glorious two minutes. A new bird has arrived in our neighbourhood—I heard his unfamiliar call through one window and the bells through another, disonnant yet strangely hopeful, like the addition of a novelty to the quotidian domesticity. This year of the dragon, which promises bittersweet ending and exciting new beginnings, seems to be finally settling in.

I went to a friend's house to make props for our upcoming play—Antony & Cleopatra. We needed two long-handled "ancient egyptian" fans, so I cut out two semi-circles out of cardboard for the fan part. As for the handles, we went into the woods behind the gymnasium to scour for long, thin yet sturdy sticks. To our surprise, in less than 10 minutes we had found multiple suitable candidates and we finally decided on two that were not too crooked and the right length. Afterwards we headed back to her's to paint the fans as well as a rare "orient pearl" that Antony sends as a gift to Cleopatra (do orient pearls even exist?). Shakespeare provided no description, so we just took a ping-pong ball and painted it white with iridiscent glitters (impressive size for a pearl indeed).

Revision for my mocks are calling but as always during the holidays I excel at procrastination. Tomorrow I'll try to get at least 2 hours for serious work in.