You know I want to, don't you? But as you asked so kindly I won't.

:)

Andy

St Andrews Uni, that paragone of virtue and respectability, encourages all the freshers to acquire an "academic family" (third and fourth year students who are supposed to show them the ropes and look out for them)

One weekend in November is called "Raison Weekend" and this is the chance for these "academic families" to get as wasted as possible and for the senior students to embarrass the hell out of the freshers.

As a thank you for looking out for them, the fresher gives their 'father' a present on the Friday - traditionally a pound of raisons, but that usually miraculously transforms into another product of the grape - a bottle of wine. The 'father' then gives the student a 'receipt' for the present which the fresher must carry at all times on Raison Weekend.

On the Sunday, the freshers go to their 'mother's' room/flat/doss-house for a 'tea'-party (again, more alcohol than tea is drunk) and they are given a "raison string" which the fresher has to attach to their gown and wear for the rest of the year. This string can have anything tied to it, but it's supposed to reflect something about the student who's wearing it.

Monday morning, the 'parents' lead their 'children' on a parade around St Andrews with the 'children' dressed up in whatever the 'parents' choose.

I was in a dysfunctional family with no 'father' (which is just as well since my room mate had to carry her receipt around pinned to a bull's heart the sick bastard had gotten from the butcher's shop - it was humming by Monday afternoon!) so my 'mother' decided to go all out and dress her entire 'family' as babies.

Hence me wandering around St Andrews dressed as a baby when I was 17.

Bet you really wanted to know that didn't you? *g* And now you know part of the reason I didn't stay there all that long....

There's nothing you can say to that is there?

Andy

not much. Except to add, they end the parade in St Salvator's quad where there's a huge foam and water fight every year.

Gosh, that's fun.

No, really, it is.

Hmmm, sounds it.

You calmed down yet?

Andy

just about, the organiser is blanking my "who told you that?" questions (even though I think I know) which is irritating.

Now I'm just hungry.

What you doing answering my annoying questions then, go get something to eat, and not high sugar content stuff or I'm gonna slap you.

Andy

see, we have this thing at work called scheduled lunch breaks.

*g*

My lunch hour doesn't start till 1.

See, I thought it was between 12 and 1 as that's when you usually post your mid-day LJ post.

Andy

used to be, since the job-swap it's been the second break.

So that now makes two people I know who've walked around city centres in a nappy as part of some university ritual for new students! I'm pleased I went to a sane uni where the only thing you had to do in freshers fortnight was drink!*g*

Beck.

You had a fortnight, we only had a week.

Andy

Well we had 5 bars and 1 nightclub on campus, then there were the pubs in town to get to know - we really needed that extra week!*g*

We did start the courses in the second week though and I think everyone was fed up with the 'what course are you on', 'what A levels did you do', 'have you passed your driving test yet' questions by that time, so it felt a bit less fresher like by then:)

Well, we had three bars on campus, no nightclub though. Which Uni did you go to and how come I missed it?

:)

Andy

Did you know that St Andrews has the highest number of pubs per capita of any town in the entire country? We had weekly pub crawls along the three (and a half) main streets and it was a hardened drinker who could make it to the second street!

The Scores (the half street - full of hotels)
South Street
Market Street
North Street

and of course we used to do them with various handicaps - the three-legged one the night before the Dunhill Cup sticks in my mind (mostly since we sprinted across the Old Course nicking the flags whilst still tied together...)

So that was you then was it? What's the phone number for the old course again?

:)

Andy

*g* but I didn't tell you what year is was so...

and the fact that we nearly got caught anyway doesn't even factor into it...

I didn't think you were at St Andrews for the second year, and you've mentioned your age at freshers week, so I can work out what year it was from that?

:)

Andy

you can try....

'92.

Andy

Or '93, can't remember what month the Dunhill cup takes place in.

Andy