St. Salvatore’s Quad, St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland. Photo taken by Maxx Borges, 15 September 2016.

Hey everyone! Apologies for the late update.

To start: what’s worse than running across town for a class in 10 minutes? When you’re running across town for a class in 10 minutes with a twisted ankle and a bad head-cold! Yikes! I’ve been busy this past week and though not all of it ended in rainbows and butterflies, it was definitely still worth it. It gets a little long, so there’s more under the cut!

Now, about the ankle and cold. For the first, I was jogging as it got dark and I face-planted in a parking-lot after I tripped over a parking block. I was laying on my back for ten minutes with a sneaker by my head, wondering if anyone would come get me before realizing I was alone and should probably just get up on my own. That’s my last attempt at staying fit for a while, I think. For the second, everyone in the hall has a cold. They call it Fresher’s Flu and it usually does follow Fresher’s Week, so I guess I’m doing it right? Not that I’m sure what it actually is, but I’ll let it go for now.

With that unpleasantness out of the way, I’ll get to the good stuff! Yes, my week started off pretty terrible with hurt ankles and head-colds, but I finished my first week of classes mostly unscathed! I can actually find the places I’m meant to be with a small amount of wandering aimlessly about and I’ve been able to keep up with all the work that’s been thrown at me. I feel very accomplished, to tell the truth. There have been so many first years that I live with who have been panicking and staying up late into the night trying to figure out what their professors, and the university in general, want from them. I’m sympathetic to their plight – I really am. Being a first year in such a large university must be daunting, and while I can relate on some level as it’s my first time at St. Andrews as well, I think there’s something different there when you get to the heart of it, something I have to go digging in my memory for, going all the way back to my first year at Whitman. No, I won’t reminisce about all the small disasters that hit me those first few months, but they happened and I’ve discovered that just talking about them to the first years really helps them realize it’s all okay. A little give, a little take.

I’ve been noticing that, recently. It’s a pattern that’s popped up and established itself in the past week, even though it’s been such a short amount of time: a little give, a little take. Common sense, Maxx! you’re all probably thinking, and that may be so. But it’s coming from places that I wouldn’t expect it to come from. Take the first years. I don’t mind asking them why they look stressed or upset during meals, I don’t even mind talking about my experiences and giving them something to look forward to. But how do I benefit from this? Besides the obvious camaraderie that comes from sharing those little anecdotes, these younger students gave me a place. To be completely honest, I had no idea what I was doing, culturally or otherwise, when I first got here. Most of the people freaking out in territory I’ve been navigating for two years are those same people who gently tapped me and explained something (like how not to disturb, question, or cut the line – I mean the queue) or casually pointed out where I needed to be as I flailed about in confusion. In that initial week, I took. Now, I’m giving.

It’s not just them, though. St. Andrews has an interesting tradition where older students ‘adopt’ first years. As it is technically my first year here, I’ve been adopted by a fourth year. There’s a whole tradition going along with these Academic Parents, and it all comes to a head in late October – something I’m definitely looking forward to as the proceedings (shaving cream fight? awesome) sound fun. Academic Parents aren’t just there to do crazy things with you – at least mine isn’t. She mentors me on the best places to go, whether for eating or entertainment, checks in to make sure I’m still alive during the week, and brings me to events to get me involved with campus life. I’m not new to mentoring; I’ve mentored for First Generation Working Class in the past. I think I just forgot what it felt like to be on the receiving end of it with someone so close in age to me. In return, I fight my introvert tendencies and get involved. Everyday is a new exposure to Scottish culture and I’m so grateful for that.

I think the more staggering give and take that I’ve been realizing is with my professors, specifically my language professors. Both are native speakers of their respective languages (Russian and German) and are very open to discourse on not only their languages, but also the English language. The first time my Russian professor sat down with our small group and started debating translations from Russian to English, I was a little surprised. She was deferring to us? But then, we were the English experts. My German professor started doing the same, and it makes me remember my Portuguese professor from high school. He always told us:

Translation is an art.

And I can see that as we all sit and refine words, phrases, and stories from English to another language and vice versa. Again, I’ve been sitting and taking from lectures, but I loved the feeling of being able to give as well, in this sense, and work with professors and a small group of students on translating different texts.

This past week has been a lot of give and take, a lot of discovering new things about the people and environment around me. And it’s only the end of week one. Halfway through week two now, I can’t wait for what’s in store.