Passports can be hiding places

So for two weeks I've been pulling my hair out over nothing. I sent my visa application promptly, got 24 hour notice that it had been accepted and my visa issued, and two days later received all of my documents back, including my passport and such other essentials to get into the UK legally, which is always a good thing. So I'm waiting......and waiting.....still more waiting.....and I'm starting to sweat because I'm wondering why my visa has not arrived. So this morning, I'm minding my own business, eating a bagel, and wondering how on earth I'm going to get everything done by Monday. Suddenly Megan pops downstairs and shouts "Let's hear it for Josie (the British Consul lady we were in contact with)! The visas are in the passports!" I ran upstairs and opened my passport....and found nothing! Then I realised that it was randomly pasted into a page and I nearly passed out with relief. Then I was mad, because I'd been freaking out over NOTHING!!!!!! Leave it to the Brits and the passport! Five days and counting!

The beginning

To the few, the proud, the people who actually read this......
Well, here we go. We are t - two and a half weeks to leaving the warmth of Socal, and arriving in 30 degree St. Andrews, Scotland. For those of you just joining me, I am leaving at the end of this month to study abroad at the University of St. Andrews until the end of May. I will be studying English as well as taking one divinity class. Along with being there as a student, I will be completing my theater internship at the Byre Theatre right in St. Andrews, a very popular entertainment in the area. I will be living in New Hall, a lovely accommodation off the main drags of the town (of which there are a total of four!).
For those of you who didn't know this already, St. Andrews is a small coastal town, dominated by the University which has been in place since 1413, and is Scotland's first University, as well as being the third oldest in the UK. Despite its small population of only about 15,o00, St. Andrews is a very popular visiting area, not only for its lovely and famous beach West Sands (the beach from the opening of Chariots of Fire!), but for being the birthplace of golf (shout out to all you golfers out there) and has been host to many of the British opens, both men and women.
But to me it is a second home. I had the privilege of studying there the summer after I graduated high school, and have always desired to go back. To me, St. Andrews is a place where friends are made, stories are remembered, history is made, and, of course, beaches are run! So as I embark on this next chapter of my college life, and take in the beauty of the culture I will be surrounded by, I would like to take you all with me as faithfully as I can, since we are talking about a girl who cannot even keep a diary on paper! But bear with me as I attempt to relate to you all the happenings in the little town that is to be my own for the next four months. And so it begins!