Edinburgh, Part II

Today was the all-ISS excursion to Edinburgh! So I got the chance to explore this town a little bit more, which is awesome. What did I choose to do first? See the castle of course.

It was really cool seeing this castle because it is a bit bigger than the one in Stirling. In addition to being bigger, people actually still work at this castle. I'm not entirely sure who, but I'm guessing people who work for the government get to work there. Wouldn't that be sweet? Getting to work in a castle...anyway, it was basically a small village. There were many different parts to this castle, including a Great Hall (not the one from Harry Potter, sadly), a war memorial, a prison, and the crown jewels of Scotland. There were also a few museums in this one, which were kind of fun to walk through. They were mostly war museums, so I got to see all the old weapons and uniforms and the like. Which was fairly interesting. The crown jewels, however, were slightly more interesting. They call them the "honours" of Scotland, because they were used when crowning new kings and queens I believe. It basically includes a large crown, a very, very large sword, and a stone called the Honors Stone, which is where the new kings would be crowned. The cool thing about these honours is that they were actually hidden for about a hundred years, in order to protect them from the English I think? Someone was coming for Scotland, and they wanted to keep these safe. The whereabouts of these honours was unknown for a period of time, and I'm not exactly sure how they found the chest, but they did, about 111 years later. And everything was still there, intact. I think that's a really neat thing about Scottish history.

That was basically the castle. Nothing too exciting, other than it being a sweet castle. After that we walked around for a while. We went down the entire length of the Royal Mile, which was actually kind of chaotic today. They are just kicking off the Fringe Festival, which is basically a very large art festival. So there were people everywhere, and it was very crowded. There were also many people who would come up to you and shove fliers in your face until you took them. I think I got about 15 different fliers in 5 minutes. All of which were useless to me, but try telling it to persistent artists.

After getting through the enormous crowd of people, we stopped to look at the Palace (I'm not sure who owns or lives in this palace, but it had really fancy gates) which is located on the opposite end of the Royal Mile from the castle. It was pretty from the outside, but we didn't pay to go in. We also saw the Scottish Parliament building, which is an extremely modern building. I was very surprised by how modern it was, actually. Those were basically the big ticket items of the day. Other than that we found a nice park that overlooked the city, which was beautiful from higher up. We also saw the Google street-view guy walking up and down the park, which I thought was really cool. I waved to him in case I was on the camera. You never know.

That was the day today. I am pretty tired now, but tomorrow will be much worse. I get to go on an excursion to Belfast, Northern Ireland this weekend, and we leave at 4:30 in the morning tomorrow. Which is awesome. But I'll hopefully have some awesome stories to tell after this weekend. Until next time...

A True Scottish Adventure

Today proved to be a very interesting, improvised day. A friend and I decided to go see the castle at Doune, which is a small village near Stirling. The reason this castle was so special? It was used as one of the best scenes (I might be a little biased now, after seeing the castle) in one of the most famous comedies - Monty Python and the Holy Grail. This very small, unassuming castle was used to film the scene with Monty Python and the French military men. How exciting.

We started the day of with this goal in mind - get to Doune. We weren't exactly sure how to do it, so we traversed down to the bus station and hopped on the next bus to Doune. Things were going pretty smoothly. We rode for a while, and the ride was supposed to be about half an hour. So after a bit, we come up on a sleepy little down, which we assume is Doune. We get off the bus, and slightly regret our decision. Since the town of Doune is supposed to be small, we should see the castle, right? Well, there was no castle. To remedy this, we venture into the only place open, which was a small post office. We asked them to politely point out the way to the castle. They looked confused for a second, then kind of chuckled. They said "Doune castle?"

We said, "Yes."

Their reply? "This isn't Doune. This is Deanston."

Well. How nice for Deanston. Fortunately, they also mentioned that Doune and Doune castle was only about a mile walk from there. Which was nice. We set about walking, and came up on Deanston distillery. Funny thing was, we had talked about going to that same distillery someday to take a tour. And we happened upon it today. So of course, we stopped to take a tour.

It was very interesting, and the whiskey tasting at the end was fun. I don't think I'm a huge fan still, but I liked it more than whatever I had in the highlands. After our brief detour, we set about looking for the castle. Part way down the main road, we saw a sign that said "Public access path, Doune Castle." Of course we took it. What could go wrong? One thing I noticed though was that Doune as a whole, smelled awful. Like a ginormous farm that never cleaned its animals. But anyway, we go down this path. We go through a gate. We pass a small farm house. We keep going, now definitely thinking we were lost again. We pause, and face the river, assuming we'd have to turn back. So we turn back around, and there is the castle. It was quite comical really.

So we found the castle. And it was a spontaneous adventure and a great time. But now I can officially say I have been lost in Scotland for a brief amount of time. Which I figured was going to happen anyway, but it took longer than I thought. Doune castle itself was not that spectacular, but now I can say I've visited it, which is always fun when you're watching movies and you've been to wherever it takes place. And that was that. Until next time...

Edinburgh, Part I

Finally getting around to making this post. Yay! A few friends and I decided to take a day trip into Edinburgh on Saturday. For those of you who don't know, that is the capitol of Scotland. And there are a lot of people there. And they walk everywhere. By everywhere, I mean everywhere that's in your way.

But besides that, Edinburgh is pretty awesome. We walked around acting lost for a while, just because it is slightly overwhelming. We found a place to sit down and eat some food, mostly to gather ourselves again. We walked down the Royal Mile, which is much like the Magnificent Mile for those of you in the Chicago area. Lots of different shops and places to eat and what not. The only difference is there is no ginormous castle at the end of the Magnificent Mile.

Sadly, we did not go into the castle. But it looks pretty sweet. The international summer school people are taking us to Edinburgh on Thursday though, so hopefully I'll get to go in. Which is going to be pretty awesome, because who doesn't like to tour castles? Beyond looking at the castle, we found this really sweet tour to go on. It is a place called Mary King's Close, which is basically an old part of the city that is now underground and used to support the new city chambers building. What happened was that after the plague, this area of town was shut down and cut off. It wasn't really deemed livable, but instead of removing all the existing structures - which would have been crazy expensive - they cut off the tops of the buildings and used the rest as the support for the city chambers. But you can still go down and see the old houses and buildings and streets that were a part of Mary King's Close. A close is essentially a very, very narrow street that turns off the main street (the Royal Mile in this case) and then angles down sharply. Very sharply. And Mary King's Close is the one you tour, mainly because it's the nicest one to still exist. At least that's what I believe.

So that was cool. But it was kinda creepy, thinking of all the people that lived in such cramped quarters, throwing all their sewage waste into the street to run down into the small loch at the bottom that also doubled as their drinking water...but at least we don't have to live in times like that any more! After that, we decided to go complete my mission of the day - finding the famous Elephant House Cafe. Again, for those who don't know, this cafe is now considered the "birthplace" of Harry Potter, because J.K. Rowling would often frequent this cafe when writing her famous series. I, of course, had to go, because of a certain person in my life who is a huuuge fan of Harry Potter. It's a lovely little place though, with good drinks and decent food that are way overpriced because they can do that to capitalize on the fact that it is kind of famous now. But of course I still ate there. Mission accomplished.

And that was my trip to Edinburgh. Nothing really exciting, but it was fun to just walk around the city for a while. There were so many street performers out as well. I saw my first bagpipe player that was a woman. I saw a man lying on a bed of nails. Lots of street musicians, adding a nice pleasant atmosphere to the walk. I also met two men, dressed as Darth Vader and a stormtrooper. The stormtrooper man actually lived in Michigan for a while, so he was extremely excited when I told him I was from Michigan. But yeah. An exciting journey! I can't wait to go back and explore some more. Until next time...

Fairies and Witches

Every class I am taking here - and by every class, I mean the two classes I am taking - gets to go on an excursion to someplace awesome, and today was my excursion for the class on witchcraft. We went to two local, small villages to see some sights relating to fairies and witches.

We started by heading to Aberfoyle, which is just a great name for a town associated with fairies. Or at least I think it fits well. I'm not sure why, but it's just a weird name for a weird place. The town itself was very cute though. Our first stop was visiting the grave of Robert Kirk, who was a protestant priest in the area many years ago, sometime during the 1700s. Kirk is important when talking about fairies, as he wrote and published a famous book detailing the lives of fairies. And I mean detailing. He wrote about what they looked like, where they lived, how they live, what they ate, what they did, etc. And everyone took this to be fact. They took it as a legitimate book. Robert Kirk went out to visit the fairies often, on top of a hill just outside Aberfoyle. He met them at what is now considered the "clootie" tree, or holy well (not really sure why they refer to it as a well, but whatever). He even brought people along with him who verified that he talked with the fairies.

Now this may seem weird to us, but fairies were just thought to be real. People avoided them, as they could be quite scary. It may also seem weird that a man of the church would write this book all about fairies, as it would be considered heresy. But in those days, if a person confirmed the existence of fairies, you confirmed the existence of God. How this connection was made, I don't know. But it is very strange.

The tree that Robert Kirk visited is thought to be the entrance to a Fairy Queen's palace. I guess they had more than one queen? But the sight itself was slightly unsettling. Many trees in the area are just draped with ribbons, covered in small trinkets as offering, and surrounded by pieces of paper with wishes written on them. Originally people would write wishes or even secrets and sorrows they wanted to forget on pieces of linen. The idea was that the linen would disintegrate over time, causing the wish to come true or the troubles to go away. Of course people left these here because they thought the fairies would help take care of them. Now people just seem to write wishes down - a surprising number of people want cats - or they bring trinkets of remembrance for those who have died, perhaps to ask the fairies to watch out for them. So yeah, it is kind of a creepy spot. Robert Kirk even died at this spot. His body was found near it, only dressed in a night gown. It is commonly believed that the fairies came for him, since he revealed all their secrets...

And that was Aberfoyle. Kind of interesting. Our next stop was very short, and took us to the small village of Dunning. Here we visited a memorial of sorts to a woman named Maggie Walls. This memorial is literally right off the road, but it is in the middle of fields of sheep. So a strange location. Another strange thing about this is how it is built. There is a bottom, cairn-type part that looks pretty old. The next part is a long slab of rock that looks more recently placed than the cairn. Finally, it is topped with a cement cross. The cross is fairly new, as cement has not been around long. No one knows who put the cross up there, or when, but it is strange.

More strange things about this place. There is writing on the rocks, detailing that a Maggie Walls was killed there in 1657. It is painted on, and my professor said that every few years the paint is touched up, and again, no one knows who does it. The second weird thing is the cross. Why would a cross be put on a memorial to someone who was supposedly killed because of involvement in witchcraft? I think it is a way for people to sort of apologize for what happened to those people back then, as most, if not all, of the people killed during the witchcraft craze of the 16th and 17th centuries were innocent. It is a way of trying to be forgiven, by putting the cross on there and declaring their innocence. The third and final strange thing - there are absolutely no historical records anywhere of a Maggie Walls. So who was she? Was she real? Was she just a symbol for anyone accused of being a witch and executed at this spot?

This was a very strange excursion, but it was kind of cool. It was like learning about the local history in a very strange way. But Scotland was a very hot spot during the witch craze, and many, many lives were taken during it. Mostly I think the places we visited today were creepy, but interesting...so yeah. That was that. The other weird thing about today was the weather. It reached 80 degrees today and was super sunny, which never happens here. And of course, no one believes in air conditioning here, so everywhere was super hot. There really was no relief. But I survived. I just hope it doesn't get that warm too often. This was not the weather I expected coming here at all! But whatever. Until next time...

Shopping in the Shopping Capitol of Scotland

Today I got to visit the lovely city of Glasgow, which is Scotland's largest city. It is also considered the shopping capitol of Scotland, so of course it is a great place to go spend a lot of money! But really.

So this city is slightly strange, in the fact that there is very old-style architecture throughout the city, but also very modern architecture. It's quite fascinating really. I decided Glasgow reminds me of a larger Chicago, minus all the very tall, modern skyscrapers. Everything was also more spread out than Chicago. You never really felt closed in. That, combined with all the outdoor bars in the middle of the streets, sets Glasgow apart from Chicago.

Glasgow seems like a really fun, interesting, and lively city. It would probably be beneficial to spend more than just a few hours there - it would take more than a few hours to find all the Starbucks in Glasgow - but it is really busy at the moment. The Commonwealth Games kicked off last night, and this year they are being held in Glasgow. For those who don't know, the Commonwealth Games are like the Olympics, but only for the commonwealth states to compete in. For those who don't know what states are the commonwealth, they are basically whoever recognizes or follows the Queen of England. So places like Scotland, England, Canada, etc. Apparently these games are a really big deal for everyone here, so Glasgow was filled with people. I was sitting in a nice little square, listening to the seemingly ever-present bagpipes in the background, and I thought that there was about the same number of people in that one square as the population of Mount Pleasant, minus the college students. And Glasgow is huge. Not as huge as London though, with it's approximately 8 million people. But it is still a pretty big place.

Today was a very lovely day. It was extremely warm, by Scotland's standards, so it was around 77 degrees I believe. And sunny. Very, very sunny. It was a great day to just walk around a city. I might go back to Glasgow, but the only things to do there are shop and go to art museums. I already did the shopping, and I don't have a great desire to go to art museums. I would much rather go to Edinburgh, the capitol of Scotland, where there is always lots to see and lots to do. But we will see about Edinburgh this weekend. Until next time...

The Highlands (a.k.a. the best trip ever)

I don't really know how to organize this post, seeing as there is so much stuff to put in here. I guess I'll start with a bit about the travel company. I went with a group called Heartland Travel, which is a little business started just about a year ago by a man and his wife, Nory and Louise Hope. It was probably the greatest guided tour I have ever been on, and I cannot recommend it enough. So if you ever find yourself in Scotland, use Heartland Travel for any highland adventures you want.

We all got on this little 16-seater bus and drove up the winding roads into the highlands. If I thought there were scary roads in America, it was nothing compared to these roads. Everyone drives so fast on them, around these tiny, blind curves. But that was part of the fun? Anyway, the first stop was to the most photographed mountain in the higlands, known as Buachaille Etive Mòr. It means the Great Shepherd of Mor, which is why of course, I had to take a picture with it. The next stop was also kind of related to my family, as we ate lunch in front of a range called the three sisters. So that was pretty cool.

The next three places we stopped at were all related to Harry Potter, for those Harry Potter fans out there. At the first stop, we were all confused why the driver stopped. It was just a plain old mountain, with a thick line of pine trees. He (Nory is his name) told us that one of Hagrid's Huts was built behind the line of pine trees, and the scenes in the 3rd movie were shot there, I believe. The second stop was to this beautiful meadow called Steall Meadow. It might possibly be my favorite place. Just so picturesque. But this beautiful meadow was where the dragon fighting arena was CGI-ed, along with some of the flying scenes in that part. The third stop was the most obvious Harry Potter related stop, to the Harry Potter bridge in Glenn Finnich. At the same time, we saw Loch Schill, which is the lake Harry flies over on the hippogriff, Buckbeak. So ha, to all you Harry Potter lovers, I got to see lots of Harry Potter stuff. Ironically, at the last stop we ran into the groundskeeper, who was there during all the filming. He told us about the film crews coming in, how the first film crew to come through was bigger than the population of the town (4 times bigger, to be exact). The groundkeeper's shed was in the scenes with the bridge as well - just cleverly disguised as a large rhododendron bush. 

That pretty much sums up the first day. Lots of sight-seeing basically. But every place we visited was more beautiful than the last. I really cannot put into words how absolutely breathtaking the highlands are. No picture I take can ever show the real beauty of it either. Which is sad, but I'll always have the memories. If you ever find yourself in Scotland, GO TO THE HIGHLANDS. With Nory and Heartland Travel, of course. 

The second day was all spent on the Isle of Skye, which is considered one of the most beautiful places in the world. I like to think of this day as the fairy day, as three of the places we visited were fairy related. We ate lunch at the fairy pools, which is really a series of waterfalls running into these pools. And man, was it a hike to get there. But worth it. They say this is where the fairies bathe, so anyone else who bathes in them will have eternal beauty. I bathed my feet in it, so my feet will always be beautiful I guess. The water was absolutely freezing though, and people really were swimming in it! I can't even imagine. Next up we saw a mountain that looked like a man's face, which is associated with fairies through a story, that will have to be a different blog post. The last fairy stop on this day was to the Fairy Glenn, which houses the entrance to the fairy realm. This place was exactly like I pictured a fairy place to be. There were these stone spirals in the ground, one of which has been there for hundreds of years. The hills were really green, and the hills themselves seemed to have little stairs or pathways all up and down them. It was one of my favorite places in Skye. 

Besides the fairy places, we visited a cliff called Kilt Rock, which supposedly looks like the folds of a kilt. I kind of saw it, but it was questionable. We visited the Quarang as well, which is a spectacular outlook, but as Nory put it, just really weird. And it was weird - like nothing I have ever seen before. But like all things in the highlands, very, very beautiful. And that was the second day. Already my trip was half way over! But there was always lots to see, lots to do....

The last day, bright and early in the morning, we were taken out on a local fisherman's boat, to fish for scallops. It was such an awesome and unique experience, and I am so thankful that I got to try it. We caught the scallops in a net that was dragged along the bottom of the ocean. Along with scallops, the net brought up all sorts of sea life, including sea stars, hermit crabs, and even jelly fish. I got to hold a jelly fish, which feels exactly like you might imagine it to feel. I tried the scallops raw, and I actually kind of liked it. Enough to have two! The fisherman also fried up a few for us in garlic butter, and those were even more delicious. Which is funny, since the last time I tried scallops I didn't really like them. But maybe these were so fresh, my taste buds changed their mind. 

After that, it was time to head home. But not before seeing the most infamous location in the highlands, Loch Ness. Sadly, there was no sighting of the monster, of the dear, beloved Nessie. However, the loch is the second longest loch in Scotland, boasting 24 miles. It is the deepest loch in Scotland, at a whopping 800 feet deep in some spots. It houses more freshwater than all the lakes and lochs in England, Wales, and Scotland combined. It is so deep and long that you could fit the entire world's population in the loch 10 times over. So I personally like to believe that there could be some huge creature hidden in the depths of the loch....I believe that Nessie really could exist. 

And that is an extremely shortened version of my trip to the highlands. There are so many stories I could tell, so many small, less popular places that we stopped I could write about. I could post so many pictures of all the places I went, but I won't. And I shouldn't. Because this trip is something I can never really describe perfectly enough. If I haven't said it enough already...if you ever find yourself in Scotland...GO. TO. THE. HIGHLANDS. Not for me, but for you. I want everyone to see the stunning beauty of this place. It is better than any mountains in the U.S. that I have seen, just because it is so green and lush and the hills are perfectly rolling and ah. It just really takes your breath away. I might get around to posting some more stories from the highlands, but I think this is probably long enough for now. So, I shall close as I always do, because there is always lots to see and lots to do. Until next time...

St. Andrews!

This is probably not the first post most people (mainly my family) were expecting after this weekend. For those of you who didn't already know, I went on a tour of the highlands this weekend. But I have to make sure things go chronologically here, so I have to talk about St. Andrews first. Stay tuned for the highlands post, because it should be awesome. Sneak preview: Harry Potter, fairies, liquor, and tons and tons of walking. So yeah. Be prepared.

Anyway, first things first. St. Andrews! It was absolutely beautiful. It is not a huge place, but it is a rich place. Meaning lots of rich people go there, so it looks like a lovely, rich, coastal town. Which it is. What attracts all the rich people, you might ask? Well if you didn't know, St. Andrews is the birthplace of golf. And yes, I say the "old course," which is the first golf course in existence I believe. So obviously I was very, very excited about this because I am a huge fan of golf...not. But it was still very cool, because I stood on the first golf course in existence. Which I'm not sure if I was really allowed to do that, but here in Scotland there are very, very few signs that tell you not to do things. So I went for it.

Obviously the whole golf thing was not the main attraction here. I was super excited about going to St. Andrews for the land yachting excursion. Sadly, it wasn't windy enough to go land yachting, which is essentially golf carts with sails. But instead we got to go paddle boarding! And I am super thankful that I actually have tried paddle boarding before this trip. I should not have told that to the guys running the excursion, because when we were on the water they tipped me in twice.

The fun things about paddle boarding? I got to experience a wet suit for the first time. Let me tell you, they are not easy things to put on. Second fun thing was the actual paddle boarding. The ocean was super flat, so that was nice. We went right up along the coast of St. Andrews, and the view was spectacular. It was the best view of the city anyone could ask for. We even got to see the castle and cathedral ruins, both of which were very, very cool. I just thing ruins are pretty awesome.

That was pretty much St. Andrews. I wish I could have spent more time there, but I could always go back if I wanted. Which I probably will, because there's a highland games being held there next weekend. And who doesn't want to see a bunch of Scottish men throwing logs around? Sounds like a great time to me. But stay tuned for the highlands post, which promises to be pretty awesome. Until next time...

Trying New Things

It's been a few days since I've been here now, so I finally sort of feel adjusted to the time change. Which is good, because getting a good night's rest is very important to me. In the few days that I have been here, I have already tried many new things, including haggis, Guinness, and the popular soft drink, Irn Bru (Iron Brew). I definitely not a fan of the Guinness, but the haggis was not as bad as I was expecting. Would I choose to eat it frequently? Probably not. The Irn Bru wasn't bad either, but I don't think it will become my soft drink of choice.

Beyond trying new things, I went on my first real Scottish adventure yesterday with a few people from my trip. We decided to brave the walk up the enormous hill in Stirling to visit the castle that rests at the top. But honestly, even though the walk was difficult and it cost 14 pounds (roughly 25 dollars, but it's a lot if you're trying not to spend too much), it was completely worth it. I have not visited too many castles in my time, but this was absolutely beautiful. I would go back there many times, just because I'm pretty sure I did not see everything there was to see.

The best part about visiting the castle was the views of the surrounding area. It was amazing. The castle rests at the highest point in Stirling, so I could literally see everything, even the windmills on the wind farm way off in the distance. It was a great strategic spot for a castle, because not only is it the highest point in Stirling, but it is known as the gateway between the north and the south. It resides close to a river that divides the river, so whoever was in control of the castle was pretty much in control of who or what could travel through this location. Which is why many battles were fought in the area, because everybody wanted to control it. It would be too much to go into detail now about the history of the castle, but if you're ever bored I would encourage you to read up on it. It's truly fascinating stuff.

After the castle tour, we decided to join the locals at a pub, as everyone seems to do in the evening. We only spent a brief time there before we decided to embark on a local ghost tour with a fellow calling himself the "Happy Hangman." It was kind of a cheesy tour - it was meant for tourists after all - but I had a lot of fun. It was a twist on some of the local history, twisted by including the supernatural element of ghosts. If I have time, I'll try to share a couple of the stories here. They are, of course, fictional stories, but they are all based on true events that happened around Stirling. So it was neat, with a lot of cheese. But hey, I have to do touristy things here at some point.

So yeah. It's been a good couple of days. I have my other class today, so hopefully that will prove to be as interesting as the one on witchcraft. If it doesn't, I'll survive. We only have four class periods anyway. I guess that's all for now then. Until next time...

In the Heart of Scotland

I'm on a roll posting two days in a row! How exciting...really it's just because I finally have a lot to talk about.

But anyway. The post is titled In the Heart of Scotland, because Stirling is considered to be the heart of Scotland. By that, they mean it rests roughly in the middle. When I say roughly, I mean pretty roughly. Mainly it's because it rests right between Edinburgh and Glasgow, which are the two biggest, most populated cities in Scotland. So Stirling rests between that. Fun fact: Stirling used to be known as Starling, but that was changed many, many years ago. I'm not exactly sure why, but Starling was a pretty cool name.

So I'm studying at the University of Stirling, which is actually about 20 minutes outside of the city of Stirling. Today, as part of our lovely orientation day, I got to actually go see the city of Stirling. I also finally was able to exchange some of my currency, which was nice. Now I sort of kinda feel like I'm in a foreign country. We didn't stay in Stirling long, but I will have plenty of opportunities to explore it. Part of our trip included going to the Stirling Castle, but we didn't stay there long either. Which is unfortunate, because it was super awesome. At least the little I got to see without having a ticket. So I'm definitely going back there. It's considered to be the most important castle in Scotland, both architecturally and historically. I would tell you about why that is, but I have no idea. So maybe another time.

After the brief pit stop in Stirling, we were able to venture to the local supermarket to get some groceries. That was an adventure. Mostly because I had no idea what to get or how much to budget or anything. But I think I got enough food to last me a while, which is all that I really care about/need. Luckily there's a lot of similar stuff in the US, except in smaller portions and different brands. But I'll figure it out. As long as I have some sort of food to eat, I'm good.

There was not much else to do tonight, so a few of us ventured to a pub in a local town called Allanwater, which is a super cute town, to watch the final match of the World Cup. I didn't pay attention to it really, so I can't say who won or even if the game is over at this current moment in time (people nearby were getting excited about Germany, so I'm guessing something good happened) but it was fun to just hang out with the people in the program.

And that was my second day. It's been pretty awesome so far. Very relaxed really, which is a good way to start. I'm excited to actually get into the area a bit more and go exploring though. That should be awesome. But for now, it's bedtime! Until next time...

Scotland, Day 1!

Well it's official. I am now on a different island. In a different country. On a different continent. And it's pretty awesome so far. The whole getting here part almost proved to be a disaster - thank you flight delays - but I made it. Cut it super close, but I made it. The first flight I was on - the delayed one, that almost cost me a day of travelling - offered a lovely aerial view of New York's skyline on the way in, which was kind of sweet. The view coming into Edinburgh was not quite as awesome, as it was basically farm farm farm OH LOOK A LANDING STRIP farm farm farm. But it was still cool knowing I was in another country.

So far Scotland is pretty much exactly as I imagined it. Lo and behold, we were greeted by the rain as we walked out of the airport. Even as the rain stopped, the misty atmosphere stayed, which kinda gives the whole place an air of mystery. Which is what makes me think I chose the right place to study abroad. So many things to explore, so many unusual places to unearth. There are so many hills and so much green and as you drive along the highway - the condition of which are so much better than in America - you look around and just see so many castles. Almost every major hilltop seemed to have a castle on it, of which I cannot wait to see if I can get a closer look to take some pictures!

Today was just a super long day, with the travel and all. Made even longer by the fact that I only managed to get about 2 restless hours of dozing in on the plane. But that was to be expected I guess. Then we get to Stirling, and we have to sit around for hours until the welcome reception. I was told not to fall asleep when I got here, as it would only make getting around the time difference that much more difficult (thank you, Manda!) but those boring, long hours made it really difficult to stay awake. But I did it. I filled the time through some minor exploring, getting some cash out (which is in pounds, like England's currency) and getting to know my flat mates. Speaking of which, there are five of us that share a little flat, complete with one and a half baths, a very small kitchen, and a room to ourselves. I'm from Michigan, another girl is from upstate New York (she likes to specify), the other girl is from Madrid, Spain, one guy is from Alabama and the last guy is a complete mystery to me as I have not met him yet. But I think we should get along fairly well in our little apartment.

But yeah. There is so much I want to comment on but I am super tired at the moment, even though it is only 8 o'clock, 3 o'clock if I was still back at home. But it's been a long day so I think I deserve a little early relaxation time. Especially since tomorrow promises to be just as long! Until next time...