Academic Families and Raisin | No, I don't mean the fruit...

When a normal person thinks of the word raisin. They probably think of the dried fruit on the right here...



When a St Andrews Student thinks of it, it's more like this...

What you see here is called Raisin Monday. It's a St Andrews tradition dating back at least decades, probably centuries. It's really the culmination of the academic family tradition and this is what this entire blog post is dedicated to.

If you haven't already been made aware by the numerous returning students in the Freshers groupchats, St Andrews is home to countless academic families (or perhaps just one depending on how you look at it - more on that later). Academic families are a tradition in St Andrews where older students - typically 3rd years - "adopt" first year students as their academic children. This is generally intended as a way for older students to informally mentor the first years and make them feel more welcome in the St Andrews community.

Academic families are entirely optional and some people will be adopted more than once before they find a family that they click with. Some parents adopt without being academically married so you can end up with some children with academic single parents and other weird and wonderful relationships. I myself was first adopted by an academic single mum - who you'll hear from later - and then later found an academic dad, who has a different academic wife (I guess my academic step mum?) giving me a few academic half siblings. See how complicated it can get very quickly. Because of this complexity in relations, it becomes very easy to be academically related to a lot of other St Andrews students as most people will have at least 2 if not many more academic siblings (I had 5 on my mum's side alone!), who all adopt separately. I found out about 5 months into uni that one of my best friends happens to be my academic cousin through our mums.

So you may be wondering what it's like being in an academic family and instead of just telling you about my point of view, I asked my academic mum, Megan, a few questions about what she loves about the academic family system:

"Ultimately, I think that the academic family system at St. Andrews is so special because the sense of involvement that it encourages across the university is completely unique. I love the fact that students of all ages, subject disciplines and year groups band together to participate in this weird but wonderful tradition, giving them the opportunity to form friendships with people they otherwise might never have crossed paths with. In my case, I was lucky (both as a child and a parent) to meet some fantastic friends through academic families. I’m also a big fan of the whole ‘make-your-own-fun’ element that goes with being part of a family, as well as creating and entertaining one, because it generates so much potential for hilarity (especially during Raisin), and simultaneously puts you in control of how involved you would like to be in the tradition."

Megan's point about potential for hilarity is very true. I don't think I've ever spent a day quite so hysterical about everything from condom water balloons to racing into the sea. It's a day that I won't get to experience in quite the same way again because it's so unique and special.

I said earlier that older students adopt first years. This can happen in a variety of ways so I thought I'd ask Megan about how she was adopted and how she adopted me and my siblings:

"I was adopted twice, and moved academic family. The first time, I was doing the pier walk. Some friends from my hall and I got chatting to a third-year anthropology student, who then asked us to be her kids. However, a few days later I went to the Mermaids theatre social and unexpectedly bumped into a friend from my hometown. She was up in St. Andrews visiting her friend from high school, Eilidh, who was doing an English and Film Studies degree. Eilidh and her academic husband, Louis, had come to the social hoping to find some kids, and before I knew it I had been adopted again!

I adopted most of [my kids] at a 601 event, when S Club came to perform. I just kept running up to the first-years who I thought were having the most fun dancing, and yelled “Does anyone need a mum??”. That tactic seemed to work pretty well, I left with five new academic kids. I adopted a sixth at the Mermaids social, then two more joined the family because my kids had friends who still needed parents. However, academic families can chop and change all the way up to Raisin weekend as people continue get to know one another and find who they click best with. Eventually, the size of my family settled at six kids."

As you can see there were a few different methods of being adopted there but I've known people to be adopted before they even arrive in St Andrews (through freshers chats or friend's younger siblings), through society events (a very common one), and through events put on by academic departments.

Academic families can become very close knit, while others kind of fizzle out after raisin weekend. Some siblings become really close friends and host joint events and even collectively hold raisin weekend events together. But the thing that makes academic families so much fun is most definitely raisin weekend.

Raisin weekend happens about 6 weeks into semester 1 every year and sort of happens over 2 days. Raisin Sunday - where academic families get together for several events and competitions - and Raisin Monday - when your parents will dress you up in ridiculous costumes (I was a von Trapp family singer) for the foam fight. The supermarkets will get foam really cheap in the run up to Raisin and Hall Committees will also sell some cheap as well.

Raisin Sunday is something that is unique to everyone. Every parent runs it differently. Every child has a different experience. Most parents will get you up at a ridiculous hour in the morning (one of my friends had to arrive at her parent's flat at 5.30am). I was lucky and my already relatively tame 7.30am start got pushed back to 8.30am due to my mum's hangover from the ABBA Bop the Union had that week. You'll be given instructions for where to arrive, what to wear and anything else to bring with you - for example I had to arrive at the East Sands, wearing blue, and with washing up liquid (which I bought from Sainsbury's on the way there if I'm quite honest). From there your parents will likely give you tasks to do which normally consist of some sort of competition - such as splitting into teams and burying a teammate in the sand using only spoons (that one was rather exhausting if I'm honest). If you're at the beach you'll likely end up in the sea at that point (which is warmer than it'll be in May).

Over then next few hours you'll likely be fed by your parents. I can't guarantee it'll be amazing. Mine was really nice (to line my stomach) while other people did have Bailey's and Coco Pops. From there the drinking games will ensue (assuming you haven't started already). Every parent will do things differently but there is one thing I must impress upon you.

YOU NEVER HAVE TO DRINK!!

This is universal - not just for raisin. Don't feel like you have to drink. If you don't drink for any reason, your parents should respect that. They can't force you to drink. They also don't want people who do drink to throw up all over their flat so if you feel like you need to stop. Or just have a break. Tell them and they'll let you.

The rest of the day will most likely contain the scavenger hunt. Set up by your parents. This will most likely be the weirdest scavenger hunt you'll ever do. Mine had everything from musical numbers on piano in Uni Hall, to selfies with  the police (who are really good sports about it all), to the dreamiest portion of chips (see left), to stranger's socks (that was a weird one that got harder as people sobered up). My mum made ours a competition with a punishment for the loser (too gross to even talk about in my case...)

Since I've been talking about my Raisin quite a bit, I asked Megan about her experiences of the tradition, both as a parent and as a child:

"As a parent, my favourite memory was dressing up my kids as the von Trapp family singers for the foam fight. I gave them some sheet music and they sang songs from The Sound of Music all the way to the quad. I was so pleased because they completely embraced the ridiculousness of the moment and took on their roles with real gusto!

As a child, one memory that stands out is also related to the foam fight. On Raisin Monday, academic parents tend to entrust their children with a ‘raisin receipt’, which they then must transport, somehow, to the quad. My academic brother was bound up in wrapping paper, like a present, thereby becoming ‘the receipt’, and my academic sisters and I had to carry him as far as we could from my mum’s flat. We failed miserably, but some passers-by seemed to appreciate the comedy of it."

I've got to say that had I not gone through the hilarity of the previous day, and been slightly hungover, I might not have been quite as enthusiastic about the singing on the Monday morning before the foam fight (where I took pleasure in attacking my friends and family with shaving foam).

I thoroughly enjoyed my experiences of raisin weekend (irrespective of how exhausted I looked after the foam fight... - see right) and to be quite honest, I'm looking forward to adopting in third year, but

since Megan has a lot more experience of academic families than I do, I think I'll let her end this blog post with her advice to you about finding families:

"Get involved! At every single event running during Freshers Week (a 601 club night, halls of residence social, society-run activity, etc.) you could possibly bump into students who are eager to adopt. Just relax and get chatting to people! Keep in mind that many potential academic parents will be just as anxious as you might be to make a good first impression. Also, try not to feel too disheartened if you don’t find your academic family during Freshers Week. The adoption process is completely random, and it may be that you don’t meet your family until closer to Raisin. It could also be an idea to keep your eyes peeled for adoption ‘meet and greet’ events, which sometimes run during the weeks leading up to Raisin."