Catholics have the best free food.

To follow up on my last post: yesterday I did indeed meet lots and lots of classicists at last! I got my course schedule sorted out in the morning -- complete with meeting dates and times for everything -- and in the afternoon met all of my coursemates. We had a library tour (first they won't let me in, now they want to show me how to take advantage of all its resources -- will these people make up their minds?), then a meeting with our personal tutor for the MA, then an all-school party. There are about 15 of us doing the MA, and it's a pretty chick-heavy group -- only 4 guys! Quite a few of them did undergrads at Bristol (I guess it's a good sign that they liked it enough to stick around), and the rest are British except for me and a girl from Omaha, of all places. Everyone got on really well, so it should be a fun group to hang out with. Unfortunately, it will be a while before I see them again, because other than our theories and approaches seminar, postgrad classes don't even start until the week after next! It will be almost Christmas before we get around to doing anything. But I do have Greek, Latin and German next week, so I'll definitely be able to keep myself busy.

For the past two afternoons, I've been helping to represent CASSOC (the Catholic students' society) at the freshers' fair. We've been handing out free tea and cakes outside the chaplaincy and signing people up at a table in the union, enticing them with the offer of a free buffet after Mass on Sunday night. I walked around in all the mayhem today and, along with a zillion fliers that are now in the recycle bin, picked up a few useful things such as a flashlight-cum-rape whistle and a spatula.

In other exciting news: I am now in possession of both a Young Person's Rail Card and tickets to Edinburgh for St. Andrew's Day weekend! The big swanky party and ceilidh at the chaplaincy there are not to be missed. Plus, the German Christmas markets and the ferris wheel will be up on Princes Street and the Christmas lights will be strung up all over town, so everything will be extra magical. Oh boy.