Alright! Onwards and forwards through my 5 weeks in Scotland! Woot!
26 May 2008: Departure Day
Well, this was the day that I had been waiting for for quite a while. I was ready to leave for Scotland to pre-student teach. What an opportunity! My dad and grandmother brought me to the airport and dropped me off. I went through security and sat down at the gate and waited for the plane to arrive. That took two hours, but I was okay with that because it was some good quiet time with my Assessment textbook. I finally got on the plane. I had a seat next to the window, which I was excited about! Found my seat at the back of the plane only to discover that my "window" was covered up with hard plastic. I was not happy. It terrified me because I couldn't see where I was going. Landed in Detroit and I met up with the rest of my group. Well... almost all of them. Mr. Mike Wood, his daughter Emilee, and Josh Mills. They were stuck in Little Rock because of bad weather. The plane they caught to Detroit landed about 10 minutes after we had left Detroit. So, the 7 of us that were there left together for Amsterdam while the stuck 3 had to arrive later.
We boarded the plane to Amsterdam and I settled in for an 8 hour plane ride, certain that I would not get any sleep. Oh, well. At least the food was decent. I watched Juno (for the first time. It was good) and most of AI: Artificial Intelligence. Then I played games on the little TV screen in front of my face. I had to keep myself entertained for a long time... give me a break.
*Look! A sunrise! ...The sun never actually set. It was always light. It was weird
When we landed the next morning (27 May 2008), we were all exhausted. We had to wait two hours for our connecting flight to Edinburgh, so we found our gate and sat and waited. Then onto another plane for Scotland! I sat next to this really nice Dutch man who spoke really good English. They even fed us food on an hour and a half flight. I love Europe :-)
When we landed, we found Jacqueline Dillion, who was one of my teachers last Fall in London. She lives in London and does whatever the Harding International Office tells her to do. So she met us and we got a bus from the airport to our new home for the next month. It was a nice drive. When we had finally unloaded all of our stuff, we took it up to our rooms. I got a shower, then took a nap. At 6 we had dinner and as soon as dinner was over and I had informed people I had made it safely to Scotland, I went to bed. It was about 8:30. I slept like a baby that night. It was so good!
28 May 2008: About the town
I woke up for breakfast (that's right, BREAKFAST!) and was still really tired. Mike and the others still hadn't arrived yet. We all decided to go to Falkirk, which is the town right next to Larbert, where we are. It has a High Street (basically, like Poplar is for Memphis or Race Street is for Searcy) and grocery store. Jacqueline thought it would be nice if we were able to wait on the rest to arrive and then go for lunch and hang out around Falkirk. So we did. The rest of the group arrived soon after breakfast, we loaded up and walked to the bus stop at 11. Ate lunch at The Comma (which was superb, and cheap) and hung out in Falkirk. Funny thing about it though, there's nothing else to do in Falkirk. High Street isn't that long and I'm NOT much of a shopper. So after exploring the high street, I explored a little more of the town. I couldn't leave soon enough. I was ready to get back and get to bed. At 3, we all met up and took the bus back to Carronvale, where I proceeded to take a nap. It was fantastic. For not ever really being a good napper, I was impressed that I could sleep that much during the day time. Dinner that night was good. I got to meet the teacher I will be in the classroom with for the next month. He's really cool. I like him and we had a good get-to-know-ya session. I stayed up a little later that night, about 10, before I crashed again. It's so good to get lots of sleep, especially if you're trying to adjust to a different time zone. Ahh, sleep. I can never get enough of it.
29 May 2008: High rise water ride
This was our first field trip day. Everyone woke up early and had breakfast (it's good every morning) and we left soon after for Falkirk. Caught a bus in Falkirk city center for the Falkirk Wheel. It's this ingenious device that replaces the lock by taking a boat, rotating it on a wheel and either bringing it up or down to the next canal. It's the only one on the world. It took 1000 men to build it. 17.5 million British Pounds were poured into its funding, and 14,868 bolts were used to hold everything together. It was truly fascinating. And it only takes 4 minutes to get to the top, which is about 130 feet in the air. It's also VERY quiet, too. I almost didn't know we were moving. And the view was spectacular! It would have been much better had the metal fence not been so high in the stall, but it was pretty, none-the-less.
After the Wheel, we caught a bus back to Falkirk where I and another proceeded to exchange money and do a little shopping at ASDA (Britain's Wal-Mart. It's the same company). It didn't take us very long. We got back just in time for dinner. Ate dinner and then stayed up entirely too late on the internet. Me and my addictions.... I finally went to bed around 1 in the morning.
30 May 2008: Hunting Royalty
This Friday was one that I had been waiting for since I left Scotland the last time. We were going to Edinburgh! And this time, we were going on a Scavenger Hunt. It was really cool! It took place on the Royal Mile and I walked it about 4 times, up and down, up and down. I was so tired by the end of the day that I fell asleep on the train home. I saw the Elephant House again, I found the Greyfriar's Bobby statue that I had somehow missed the last time, I bought stuff and had a grand time in the rain. We did Edinburgh Castle. It was good to actually have all the time I wanted to explore the castle. It was great! I was so exhausted that I went to bed at 9. *sigh* I had another good nights sleep before another busy day back in Edinburgh.
(Break for dinner)
31 May 2008: Climb every mountain
This was day 2 of 2 in Edinburgh and it started out with a train ride into the Burgh. From the train station, we walked to the Sevens arena. The Sevens are Scotland's Rugby team and we went to a tournament thing there. We saw several teams play from around Europe and other countries. It was quite spectacular. They played short games - 7 minutes each, with 11 instead of 15 players on the field - and a few of the teams were outstanding. Some were surprising in the last few seconds of the game. If there was a tie, it stayed a tie. Good times. I bought a Scotland Rugby jersey to add to my grand collection of 2 rugby jerseys, the other from England. P.S. The Sevens are really very good. They played the Aussies and won! Yay! After we had tired of the 5 or 6 games we watched, we got lunch and proceeded to Princes Street, which I had already traversed the day before. I wanted to go back to the Royal Mile for pending purchases and also to see and climb Arthur's Seat, the mountain-thing that overlooks Edinburgh. I got separated from the group shortly after lunch and continued on my own through Edinburgh. It was actually really nice to be by myself. I could take whatever time I wanted and go anywhere I wanted at my own pace (which is quite a bit faster than everyone else here, unfortunately). It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and there were no clouds in the sky, which guaranteed that there would be no rain. So, I walked down the Royal Mile towards Holyroodhouse and Arthur's Seat, bought a couple of things on the way, and generally enjoyed the sunshine. Then I made my way past Holyrood Park and up to the foot of Arthur's Seat. This time, I was going to take the easy way up. Last time I climbed it, Liz and I made the mistake of going the hard way that takes almost an hour and you walk around THE WHOLE mountain before you can get up to the top. And it was steep. So, I opted to take the chicken way up, which was a lot harder than I remembered... probably because I had only ever come DOWN the easy way, not up. But it was harder than I thought, but the breeze was welcoming as the sweat started pouring down my back because it was so hot. But I finally made it to the top. It was pretty :-) I saw the North Sea bay area that Edinburgh sits in, birds-eye pictures of Holyroodhouse (which, if you didn't know, is the house the Queen and any other royalty stay in when they're in town) and the modern but ugly Parliament building. Got a couple more pictures of Edinburgh Castle along with some of myself on the very windy mountain. *sigh* Hard work always pays off in the end.
I finally decided that I should leave the mountain since it was close to closing time for several shops. I walked back up the Royal Mile and stopped at a Starbucks because I was in the mood for coffee (Starbucks moods don't happen very often). I got the new Dulce du Leche frappachino. It was FANTASTIC!! I wanted to go back to the Elephant house and get a T-shirt, but I forgot... so now I don't have one and it kind of makes me sad. If I get a chance to go back to Edinburgh for whatever reason, I'll make it a point to stop and get one. Oh well. Can't do everything I suppose.
I caught the train back and was the first one of the group. Then I got online and the rest of my evening was spent catching up with friends and family back home. Oh, and then I played Taboo with Courtney, Kelly, Kurt, Megan, Aubrey, Camille, and Josh. Oh, we had so much fun! Then we did Taboo-ish Charades... but you had to act everything out with a partner. It was a hoot! There were things like milking a cow, playing the piano, drinking poison, the long jump, speed dating, and having a baby on the list. Oh, good times and GREAT bonding moments! I definitely think that would be an awesome ice breaker one day in my classroom. Totally awkward, but SOO much fun!
1 June 2008: First Sunday in Scotland
Not much has happened today. We went to Cumbernauld Church of Christ which is about a 30 minute drive away. It's VERY small, but the people are really nice. I actually enjoyed the sermon today. We ate at the Beefeater pub. Um... YUM! It took forever, but I guess that's okay. I got back around 4 and started checking stuff online and starting this post. Then we had dinner of Mac'N'cheese and chips and pork chops and peas. The food here is awesome! We are DEFINITELY NOT starving people. They take such good care of us. Now, I just have supper to look forward to. Yay tea!
Well, that is successfully everything I've done thus far. Tomorrow we spend the first day at school with our teacher. I'm kind of nervous, but also very excited! I will keep you updated about the goings-on here in Scotland. Miss you all! See you when I see you.
Cheers, everyone!
Aimee
P.S. I'll put pictures up when the internet starts working properly again... sorry about that. Some of them are on facebook, though. Check them out if you haven't already!
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