Nottingham, graduation, and such.

The weekend of November 23-25, I went down to Stapleford, Nottinghamshire to visit the Woods family, who are my second and third cousins.  My horridly infected sinuses made the train journey via York and Derby extremely unpleasant, but I had cough syrup poured down my throat promptly on arrival, and felt very much like myself again by the end of the weekend.  We went on a muddy tromp through an estate in Leicestershire (narrowly avoiding a pheasant-shooting expedition) and to a very crowded Christmas Market being held at Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire.  I met Craig and Kathryn's partners (very handsome, both of them) and generally had a very nice time.  It was nice to be taken care of by family, for the first time in a very long time.

On November 29, I graduated.

Left to right: Andrea, George, me, Anna, Kelli, Kelley, Tony, and Tae.  Paulina, Brad, and Susan had all wandered off, and Jeffrey was absent because he had to return to Singapore.

Graduation was very nice, although the Vice-Chancellor's speech at the end dragged on longer than necessary.  Especially since it was a very quick business overall.  After a short introductory speech, the walking started.  This ceremony was for Moray House, and also the School of Divinity, and each course walked across the stage and had their names called out in turn.  You'll notice we're not wearing caps.  Not only are caps not generally worn at graduations in Britain, they'd also impede a very important and unique part of graduations at the University of Edinburgh: as graduates walk across the stage, they're touched on the head with the John Knox Hat.  I learned at the ceremony that this touching on the head is actually an act of manumission - freeing us from the "slavery" of academia.  Also, the lining of the hat has been taken up in the space shuttle.  Huzzah!

Preparations for my return to the States have become more earnest in the last few days.  My classmates and I all went out for drinks on the night of graduation, and I bade farewell to a few there.  Kelley, Sue, and I went to a party at George's on December 1, and my farewells to them might have been final too.  I officially began packing tonight.  I'm still mostly trying to take things a day at a time, but these next eight days are going to go by FAST, and good lord, I'm not ready.

Cheers, y'all.