I spent a large part of this summer at an Arabic immersion programme in La Crosse, Wsiconsin. It was an unique experience. I spoke very little English that whole time and basically had to live my life in Arabic. By the time I finished that, Arabic had firmly replaced Latin and Spanish as my default non-English language. I wasn’t quite thinking in Arabic, but, by the end, I was able to understand and speak Arabic sometimes without using English as an intermediary step. When I think back, I can’t remember if things were in Arabic or English. I just remember them.

I came back to Scotland a little bit before I started my second year here at St Andrews and spent an amazing time travelling around the Hebrides, from Lewis to Barra. It was absolutely wonderful.

I only have one more week of lectures this semester, then exams in January. I am not going home over the Christmas holiday, but going to Bangkok to compete in the World Universities Debating Championship. I’m not very good, but I’m being sent as part of the “development team” in an attempt to teach me something. It should be fun, and I will have some time to explore things in the Bangkok area, too.

Another thing I have started here at St Andrews is my involvement with the Gilbert & Sullivan Society. I had barely heard of Gilbert & Sullivan before coming here and. to this day, have yet to see a production of one of their operettas. I just joined randomly and stuck with it. I had also never really sung before joining, so I’m working on that as well. Right now I’m at the level of tone replication. I can listen to a song a million times and sing along with with it, and get rhythms fine, but I can’t really get the notes. I have to see it written down and just sit down and get every note from a piano to learn music. I also have huge difficulties with memorising lyrics, which makes things even more fun. So far I’ve been in Patience and The Grand Duke. Next semester we will be performing Iolanthe, which is my favourite of the Gilbert & Sullivan works. I am very excited about it and will audition for it next week.