Spring Fling

Spring has finally sprung in St Andrews! The darkness is fleeing. Flowers are blooming.  Skies are clearing. The bitter cold is now more like a "chill".  While I have spent most of this lovely spring buried under the Mountain of Books, I have managed to escape briefly every now and then.  Below you'll find photos from my little diversions.

The first album has pictures from the installation of the new University Rector and a weekend trip to London, as well as photos of some new friends.  

Every three years the student body elects a new Rector.  The Rector, someone from outside of the University community, presides over the University Court (the supreme governing body of the University). Previous Rectors include J.M. Barrie (the author of Peter Pan), Rudyard Kipling (author of The Jungle Book), and John Cleese (from Monty Python).  As with most of the University's activities, there are quirky traditions that accompany the March installation of the Rector including a candlelight procession and a carriage ride around town.  The new Rector is Kevin Dunion, the head of Oxfam, an important charity in Britain.

At the end of March my housemate Mary and I took a quick trip to London.  Mary had to sit an exam in the city on a Tuesday morning, so we went down the previous Friday.  Mary had never been and since she is moving back to the States soon, we had to make the most of our time there.  We ran all over that town!  On Sunday we met up with Pete, a friend of mine from St. Andrews who lives in London.  He took us to the Oxford v. Cambridge boat race on the Thames--the biggest inter-collegiate sporting event in Britain.  It was a gorgeous day and a glorious way to spend it!

Since then, I have been spending a lot of time with my friend Heidi and her three children, Charlie (6), Jane (5), and Kendra (2).  Heidi and her husband Jason are in my Bible Study group from church.  They're from California and Jason is here working on a PhD in Theology.  Heidi and I have been keeping each other sane!

The second album is from this Saturday's Kate Kennedy Procession.  Every year the Kate Kennedy Club (KKC) hosts this rite of spring.  Legend has it that the Procession dates back to the early 1400's, when Bishop Kennedy, founder of St. Salvator's College, brought his niece Kate to stay with him at the University.  Needless to say, the young men of the University were smitten and hosted a procession in her honor.  In the nineteenth century, the Victorians claimed that the procession was getting too rowdy and smacked too much of pagan spring festivals, so it was disbanded.  But when J.M. Barrie was the Rector, the tradition of the Kate Kennedy Procession was revived.  The members of the KKC--a club of rather posh young men who do a great deal of charity work--and their friends dress as important historical and local figures who have been associated with the University and the town.  They go all out, with fancy costumes, horses and carriages, and even a fly-over by the Royal Air Force.  The Procession winds it's way through town, while crowds gather along the route and traffic is held at bay for 2 hours.  In the old days, all of the characters were played by men, including Mary Queen of Scots and Kate Kennedy herself. Now the procession includes men and women as participants, though that usually involves women dressed as men!  But fair Kate is ALWAYS played by a male student; the most promising first-year member of the Club, who's responsibility it will be to organize the Procession next year.

On an academic note, I handed in my first 15000 words on Friday!  It was a stressful week for me.  I couldn't have survived without the aid of my friends, the support of my family (which included calling my Dad at 3am a couple of times!), and God's help. Somehow I managed to squeeze out the necessary work for my One Year Review (even though it has only been 6 months!).  Now I'm going to be working on a paper I hope to present at a conference in York (England, NOT Pennsylvania) in July.  Oh! And I'm going to a conference in Geneva, Switzerland at the end of May!  The Sixteenth Century Society is celebrating John Calvin's 500th Birthday.  I'm finally starting to feel like an academic!

Spring 2009


Kate Kennedy Procession


(To view the photos at your own pace, and in more detail, just click on the slide show. It will take you to the site I made the show on.)