After plodding my way through the couple days after May Dip, my family showed up in St. Andrews! My mom, dad, and sister arrived Saturday afternoon, and after not seeing one another for a few months, we were understandably pumped. I was a little nervous before they showed up, just because I wasn’t sure what they wanted to do during their trip. After my feverish trips around Europe in which I ripped through swaths of land like a trailblazer tourist, I was unsure of how to help schedule a more relaxed trip for my family. But looking back, it went pretty much as well as I could have hoped.
One small hindrance during the trip was the weather. The weather here is very rarely great, but it has been fairly pleasant for the most part, dry, temperate, and occasionally warm. However, my family’s arrival coincided with the most rain that I’ve seen during my time at St. Andrews. It didn’t really burden us too badly, but it ruled out playing excessive amounts of golf and any ambitious hiking trips, which were both possibilities for the squad. However, it gave us a convenient excuse to just relax and enjoy St. Andrews at a #chill pace.
One major highlight during the trip was the food. In my time here, I’ve mainly eaten at the cafeteria or take-out, because I’m ballin’ on a budget. However, when the fam came to town, I got to really get indulgent and try out all the nice restaurants St. Andrews has to offer. We ate an obscene amount of sticky toffee pudding, and other than my sister getting sick of eating fries with every meal, we were all pretty stoked on our culinary tour through the town. Also, we found out later that the majority of the restaurants we went to are owned by the same people, which means that St. Andrews is basically commandeered by some sort of restaurateur shadow government. This is a very dark truth.
Another highlight was playing a couple rounds of golf with my dad. We played the Jubilee Course and the Old Course, and were fortunate to play in the rare moments when the weather was good. It was pretty special to play with my dad in the “Home of Golf,” kind of one of those bucket list “father-son” things. We both played decent, not that that really matters; we had a lot of fun, and I don’t think it was ever lost on either of us that we were pretty lucky to be playing together in St. Andrews. My mom and sister even joined us for the last couple holes on the Old Course, which was a lot of fun. My sister carried my bag for like a hole and a half, but then handed it back and said she was done. My sister is a good sister but a terrible caddie.
We also went on a day trip to Edinburgh, and it was cool to know where to go and show the fam the sights. We went on a good hike down the Fife Coastal Path and saw some nifty nature, and we walked around St. Andrews and saw the ruins, beaches, and other things that make the town unique. I’m sure I’m leaving out other things that we did, but I was mostly just happy to spend time with the family. They are my best friends and it’s pretty neat that they seem to like me too. And the cool thing is that I’ll get to see them really soon when I go home!
I’m studying for finals right now. The end is nigh. I think I’ve got one more blog post in me though. Later skaters.