Raisin Parties and Medieval Potties

Yeah, sounds crazy but here in St. Andrews it is Raisin Weekend, which kicks off St. Andrews week. This being a university town, Raisin Weekend is basically an initiation period for first year undergraduates where they are adopted by academic "parents" and dressed in unflattering costumes to participate in a war waged with cans of shaving cream. If only all wars could be fought thus.

In other news, Elizabeth arrived safely back home on Monday. The boys and I picked her up from the airport in Edinburgh that morning and I even managed to make back home in time for class. We've all been trying to recover from sleep deprivation this week- Elizabeth because of her jet-lag and me because of not sleeping well (as in only 3-4 hours per night) while she was away. I think we're finally getting a handle on it and should be in better shape this week.

That's a good thing because we have a very busy week ahead. Gabriel begins nursery school this week. I am working on two 15,000 word papers and attending class and I also have a CT scan and dr. appointment at the hospital in Dundee on Friday. This being Scotland, they don't do Thanksgiving, so I will be going to class that day and then it looks like we'll be going to Holy Trinity Church (which is several hundred years old) for a community American Thanksgiving Dinner. It will be interesting to see how it turns out because in our experience the Scottish versions of things tend to be a wee bit different.

Afer church today we had lunch and took the kids to play at the castle. There was a group of about 10 young boys there with plastic swords and shields who were doing some sort of history outing and storming the castle. Of course Gabriel thought he was one of them and instantly joined the throng so that he could help liberate the prisoners in the dungeon. Seeing as he was about half the height of these boys I decided it would be wiser if we found something else to do. So I took Gabe (kicking and screaming) and Noah up a small tower into what would have been the bishop's room. The distinctive feature remaining in this area was of particular interest to the boys. The castle is ruined so all that is left is a window with a gorgeous view of the North Sea and a deluxe Medieval toilet. This primitive "potty chair" as our boys like to call it, is made of stone and has a hole in it that allowed all of it's contents to go directly into the sea. This was considered phenomenally luxurious in its day. Even now it is fancy enough that Gabriel admired it and talked about it for at lest 15 minutes and refused to leave the side of this marvel. What's really funny is that no one in their right mind would want such a contraption today. If you've never visited Scotland, then you may not know how incredibly windy and cold it gets, especially at the seaside. You can imagine how jolting it must have been to plop your buns down on that freezin' stone loo and then to have the sea air blowing in beneath you. Man I'm grateful we live in the age of indoor plumbing.

Tonight we had a nice British dinner. I made baked potatoes and then topped them with Coronation Chicken. This is a dish that was created for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953. It is a mixture of cubed chicken breast, mayonaise, curry, apricot, white wine, mustard, celery, onion, and various other spices. For the sake of convenience I altered the recipe a bit and came up with a fairly accurate alternative version. The most distinctive thing about it is its flaming yellow colour. Of course, I think the taste is pretty great too and it's surprisingly yummy on a nice hot baked potato. The Scottish people also top their potatoes with things like tuna salad, cole slaw, and a variety of other fillings you'd more often find in sandwiches in the USA.

Well I'm sure there are tons of other things I could write about but I must get going so that Elizabeth and I can read the next chapter of Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby.

With any luck I'll have another post very soon to give you our impressions of the town cinema and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire which we're going to see tomorrow night!! Our dear and wonderful friends Simon and Alexandra are babysitting so that we can go on our first date here in Scotland!

Take care everyone!