Scotland by the Yard

Tuesday June 14th

2011-06-14T03:01:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I had the best weekend ever! We left last Thursday and headed up to the Scottish Highlands and then to the Isle of Skye! We saw the most beautiful landscape I have ever seen in my life. I was just in complete awe and wonder at God's amazing creation the whole weekend. Ever time I thought that it coudn't get any prettier, it did. Not only that, but all of our prayers for good weather paid off. We had blue skies and sun the whole weekend and not a drop of rain. Apparently this is very very rare for this time of year in the region we were in. I am just so thankful that we were able to experience such a beautiful place in this world with such beautiful weather.

We started our journey on a steam train, then got onto a ferry, and then we rode in a bus the rest of the weekend! Every time that I tried to take a picture in the Highlands, I just got mad. I coudn't capture the beauty and power of the landscape. I did get pictures, but they just dont even compare to what I really got to see. There are no trees really in the Highlands or on the Isle. There is something in the air that prevents them from growing really. Only a few types can really grow, and there aren't many of them. This is what our tour guide told us at least! This makes the Highlands look like giant rolling hills. But that isn't even a good description. They are massive, they are rolling, but they are the most powerful looking mountain/hills imaginable. They are just as tall as mountains and just towering over you on all sides. I can't give a good enough description so I'll just quit trying. It is frustrating me! Haha

These two pictures were of St. Conans Kirk. Kirk is another word for Church of Scotland. There is really nothing important that I know of that went on here. It is just a beautiful church that is still in use today! So we stopped and took a look around! We also sat in the pews and had a little devo and singing session. It sounded absolutely beautiful!

This was just one of the many many waterfalls that we saw in the Highlands! We literally didn't go a mile without seeing waterfalls like this coming out of the mountains! As much as we complain about all the rain we've gotten, it made for some beautiful waterfalls. Last year's group said that there was just barely a trickle of water from most of the falls.

We got to ride a steam engine train as soon as we got to the Highlands! It was a beautiful ride! We also got to ride it across the bridge where all the Harry Potter movies are filmed. It is the bridge that they cross on their way to school every year! I know you are all probably getting sick of Harry Potter, but I'm a Harry Potter nut and I am in Scotland, the birthplace of Harry Potter!! Everything here makes me want to reread the whole series agian! I see inspiration for the books everywhere I go! It is so cool.

This was the ferry that we rode on to get the Isle of Skye!

This is a picture of the Highlands from the Island of Skye!

Our group attempted to get a picture of us all holding hands and jumping off this wall (onto a road with traffic mind you) haha But we failed every time! haha Still a cute picture though. :)

Another of the many waterfalls! I climbed the hill to the top of this one and got a close up picture of this one though!

This was the coolest waterfall we saw the whole time. It is actually spilling off into the sea where the Atlantic and North Sea meet!

These little daisy looking flowers are like the dandelions of Scotland. They are everywhere so I wanted to get a picture of them on a pretty day with blue skies!

This was one of the funnest things I did! These are Highland Coos. They are called coos, not cows. They are all over in the Highlands and on the Isle of Skye! We saw them when we were driving down the road and stopped to get pictures! Of course they were all laying down and we couldn't see them very well. So leave it to me. I jumped the fence and walked up to them and got them to stand up and pose for some great pictures!! The little baby in front was just the cutest thing ever! Haha Those horns were just a little bit scarey up close though.

This is the first castle that we got to go in!! I was set up like a museum on the inside though and half of the rooms you couldn't go in or even look into. I was still very cool though!

I have a new "best picture"! We just noticed while driving by that there was NO wind and that the lake was perfectly still!! It was unreal to see. There is always wind in Scotland, especially here right on the coast! It was the most peaceful and beautiful sight to see.

This, my friends, is LOCH NESS!!!! Yes we went hunting for Nessie!!! Unfortunately we did not find her. We took a boat out onto the loch (lake) and had a tour guide tell us all about the legends of the loch ness monster. It was a lot of fun!

This is a picture of a castle we saw while on the Loch Ness

Wednesday June 8th

2011-06-08T11:42:00.000-07:00

Ok I left off at the P.S. I Love You pictures.

This was the best picture I feel like I took all day long and I actually took it out the window of a moving van! Haha.. This is Loch Tay. They call their lakes lochs. The loch is actually owned by the Guinness Beer people. There is a huge house near the lake, but we were so high up and so far away that I couldn't get a good picture of it. They actually imported sand and made themselves a private beach, but the beach is not natural. Here are a few more pictures from different angles.

The house is in this picture but it is hidden behind trees so my camera could not pick it up.

The next set of pictures is of a place called Glendelough, an 11th century monastic community that was founded by Saint Kevin. Most of the buildings are gone, but the stone buildings are still standing! Some of them are in pieces, but standing.

The next set of pictures is purely for my mother. The sheep woman! Haha Believe it or not, I have seen WAY more sheep here in Scotland than I saw in Ireland. Also, every time I saw sheep in Ireland, we were in a moving van and I coudn't really get a good picture. I did not see any huge flocks though! I just saw a few here and there. The most that I saw together at once wasn't more than a dozen. But here you go mother :) I will be going to the Scottish Highlands this weekend and I bet I'll get way more sheep pictures for you there! :)

Sunday June 5th

2011-06-06T13:30:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, I know its been a few days since my last post, but I spent the whole weekend in Ireland with my group! This was a free weekend that we had and all 13 of us flew to Ireland on Friday morning at 7 am! To start the trip, the fire alarm went off in the house we are staying at about 3 am. We all had to get up at 4ish to be ready for our flight and needless to say, we started the trip off by being sleep deprived. Haha I stayed in my first hostel on this trip also! All thirteen of us were in the same room in bunk beds for 14 Euro per person. It was quite an experience to say the least.

On our first day in Dublin, we all split off into groups of 4 or so people and explored and shopped. My group decided to walk around and see all the Cathedrals in the area. We went into St. Patricks Cathedral and I got some pretty neat pictures!

We also went and saw the remains of Dublin Castle! It was beautiful. It was right in the middle of town which was different. There wasn't much left of it, and what was left, they had built a church around! The big cylinder tower is the part of the castle that is left. Some of the wall around the castle is still there too, and I have pictures of that as well!

The next day of our trip was unbelievable! We found a tour that took us out into the countryside all day long! They picked us up in a van at 9:30 in the morning and we didn't get back until 6 that evening. We drove at least an hour out of Dublin and got to see some amazing scenery. We made so many stops along the way and got to get out of the van and walk around and take pictures.

This picture was taken from the top of a huge hill. It is a view of the city of Dublin and of the coast line of Ireland! None of these pictures are going to do justice to what I actually got to see while there. It was amazing.

These pictures were just taken at one of the few lakes that we stopped at along our drive

This is the road and bridge that was in one of the scenes of "P.S. I Love You" If you haven't seen it, it is a chick flick that of course, all of us girls had seen. In the movie, one scene is of the girl walking down the road lost. Her knight in shining armor comes along and gives her directions and they live happily ever after. Haha This is the bridge and the exact spot on the road that she walked, so of course we all took turns taking pictures of us "walking" down the road! Haha

Ok, I have been trying to upload more pictures from the rest of our day tour through the countryside, but my computer wont let me! I am just going to leave my post at this and tell you that Our God has created such a beautiful and wonderful world. I am so happy that I am able to see and experience it like I have so far this trip. I promise that I will finish this post and upload more pictures when my computer allows! Love and miss you all!

Wednesday June 1st

2011-06-01T14:41:00.000-07:00

Since Monday, I have been going to Carron Primary School in Larbert, Scotland. I have a P4 class. They classify the grade levels differently over here. They start in Nursery (3 and 4 year olds) and then they move into P1 when they are 5. The Primary School has up through P7 which is 11 year olds. They then go into High School where they are classified as first years, second years, so on and so forth. Anyway, I have P4's! They are all mainly 8 years old, some of them 9 because its the end of the year for them. They are absolutely precious! I can hardly understand a word they are saying when they talk to each other though because they talk so fast! Of course that is no different than American elementary students do! Haha. There are several things that I have learned since I've been in the schools. Most of them are words that have different meanings over here than they do back home. The children call their erasers "rubbers" and they call their notebooks "jotters" there are a few words that I learned not to say because that they have inapropriate meanings over here, so I wont mention them on here! Haha Another funny thing that I noticed is that they all assumed that I personally knew a lot of movie stars and singers because I was from America. They are all just as obsessed with Justin Bieber over here as they are in the States. Haha

My teacher does a lot of yelling in her classroom. Which is disappointing to me. They run all over her and the only method she uses to dicipline them is to yell. Now I know that I am a young education major that has never had a classroom of my own. Many would say that I am blissfully unaware of what the teaching world is like. Which is very true. Maybe I am naive, but I truly believe that yelling is not the answer. I can't wait until I get to have the class for a day and see how they react to me. They may eat me alive, but I think I can do it! Haha

I don't have much to say about the school yet because I have only been there for a few days! I am going to see if my teacher minds if I take pictures, but there is a good chance that she will say no. If that is the case then I am sorry, but if not, I will post some as soon as I can! It is bedtime for me here, Goodnight all!!

Monday May 30th

2011-05-30T14:58:00.000-07:00

We went back into Edinburgh yesterday (Sunday) and we got to look around a lot of the city on our own. One of the most amazing things that I've seen yet was Saint Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh. It was probably the most beautiful buiding that I have ever seen. The construction on the building started in the early 1100's and was not complete untill the early 1900's. Most of the architecture that we saw inside though was done in the 14 and 15th centuries. I couldn't take pictures inside because I did not want to pay to do so, but my professor did so I have just a couple of the pictures that he took for everyone to see!

While in Edinbugh, Dr. Wood (my professor) surprised us all with dinne at The Elephant House! This may not mean anything to any of you, but this is the coffee shop/restaurant where J.K. Rowling sat in while she was writing the Harry Potter series!!! I am a huge Harry Potter nut and this was very neat to me. The shop has a room that overlooks the Edinburgh Castle and that is what she looked at and got her inspiration from! There is also a cemetery behind the shop. I was told that she used names off of the tombstones for inspiration for the character's names!! I hear that Tom Riddle's grave is there! Which may or may not mean anything to any of you, but it is amazing to me! Haha

Pictures!

2011-05-28T16:09:00.000-07:00

This is the Falkirk Wheel! The second picture is a view from the top of it. We were in a boat and rode the wheel to the top.

This is me and a few friends having coffee in Falkirk! :)

This was the beautiful and historic Callendar House

You can look up more about it if you wish :)

I know I didn't have much information for you,

but I gave you what I knew!

Me and my friend Natalie dressed up like Roman Sodiers!

U.S.A. rugby team playing against Samoa

This was my attempt an an artsy shot of a cool clock we saw in Edinburgh.

(Kellum, this is for you ;) )

Saturday, May 28

2011-05-28T15:47:00.000-07:00

Ok everybody I am so sorry there haven't been any posts lately!! The internet has been really quirky for a few days and everytime I have free time to get online, it doesn't work! Imagine that. Hahaha

On Thursday, we went into the town of Falkirk (about 5 minutes from where we are staying.) We got to go around town and explore on our own for the first half of the day. We got to go in several shops and an indoor mall. The town itself isn't very big, so there weren't any huge culture shocks on that day. We stopped at a coffee shop to get some drinks and pastries, and discovered that it is cheaper to get your food take away, or "to-go" than it is to eat it in the shop! That was interesting to me. After exploring Falkirk, we ate lunch and went to the Falkirk Wheel. The Falkirk Wheel is the worlds only rotating boatlift. It was very cool. We got to get in a boat and ride the wheel up and hear a ton of "interesting" facts and history about the canal and the lift. I will post pictures after this post (if I can figure out how to do that haha) I'm the least technology savvy 22 year old you will ever meet! Haha

On Friday, we went to the Callendar house, also in Falkirk. This was a beautiful old house. Parts of it are over 600 years old, but it was rennovated and added on to in the 17th century. It was beautiful on the outside. I was disappointed in the inside of the house because I was hoping to see some history preserved. The inside had been moderized though and turned into more of a museum. At the house, we met with these women that taught us all about the Roman's influence over Scotland in history. We learned about how the Romans came to Scotland in search of natural resources and in attempt to expand their empire. We got to dress up like Roman soldiers and march. It was cheesy, but it was a program that they usually put on for their primary (elementary) age students. I learned a lot and had a blast!

Today, we took a train to Edinburgh. It was about a 30-40 minute train ride. We went to the rugby Super 7's world series. I don't know much about rugby, but I had a blast and I learned a lot just from watching. Unfortunately, it rained off and on the whole day. That has been a normal occurance throughout our visit though. Oh well! I'm in Scotland right?! Haha We cheered for the US team even though they lost both games pretty miserably. We were sittin on the first row and we had an American flag to show our country support! After both USA games, we tried to get the team to come over and take picures with us and our American flag, but they refused. I was very disappointed in them considering we were the only Americans I saw all day and we cheered our little hearts out for them. Oh well though. After a whole day of rugby, we went into Edinburgh and I had my first Fish and Chips meal! I'm not a huge fish fan, but this was delicious! We walked around and saw some awesome buildings and then headed home. We will be going back to Edinburgh tomorrow and we will have more time to walk around and explore. We are also going to visit our first castle tomorrow I think! Anyways, I know this is long and I'm sorry!! I'm doing my best with the internet situation! Now I am going to try to load some pictures on here so bear with me if they don't work! haha I hope you are all enjoying this because I sure am!

Wednesday May 25, 4:35

2011-05-25T08:51:00.000-07:00

I made it! After 9ish hours of flights today, I made it safely to Scotland! We left New Jersey last night at 8pm eastern time, and we had a 6 and a half hour flight and arrived in Scotland at 7:30 am their time. Ideally, I would have slept the 6 hours on the flight and woken up bright eyed this morning ready to start a new day (even though I lost 6 hours due to time zones). That of course is not what happened. Anyone who's ever been on a plane before knows that it is nearly impossible to get a good nights rest on an airplane. I did sleep for an hour and a half or so, but that was my night's sleep. We were told that if we could just hold out until time for bed tonight, that our sleep patterns would get back to normal soon. It is quite comical though seeing us all walking around like living zombies!
This isn't a very exciting post, but its the first day and all we've done so far is exchange our money and we went to the grocery store. Not too excting yet, but I know we have a fun filled weekend ahead of us! We will be going to the Super 7's Rugby tournament. If I understand correctly it is like the world series of rugby. I know I have not posted pictures, but I will soon!

Preparation

2011-05-17T20:39:00.001-07:00

Hello all! As you all know I am going to Scotland for 6 weeks this summer. I will be leaving on May 24th and I have decided to (try to) keep up with a blog while I am over there!

I am going to be doing some of my student teaching in the Falkirk elementary schools in a second grade class over there! I absolutely can't wait to meet my kiddos. I am more of a Kindergarten girl, so second graders make me a little nervous, but I think that it will be good to get out of my comfort zone. Who knows, I may fall in love with it. :) Most days I will be like a teacher's aid and I will just be helping her do whatever she needs done, but several times I will be in charge of preparing the lessons for the day.

While I'm in Scotland, I will be taking 2 classes (one of them will be my teaching in the schools) Monday-Thursdays. On Thursdays, our group of 12 girls, 2 guys, and our professor Dr. Wood will travel all around Scotland! I get to go to St. Andrews and stay at the University and tour the golf course, we will go to the Highlands, the Isle of Skye, and the bigger cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. I will be staying at the Callendar House in Falkirk, Scotland if anyone wants to look it up. It is a beautiful and historic mansion in Falkirk, Scotland. (be jealous!) haha

After my 6 weeks in Scotland are up, I will be backpacking Europe with 2 or my girlfriend's and my boyfriend Seth! He will be in Italy for the same 6 weeks that I am in Scotland for a school trip as well. He will fly up to London and we will meet him there on June 28th to start our 2 and a half week trek across Europe. We will start in London and work our way to Paris, Munich, Prague, and then we will head all the way down to southern Italy and work our way up! If anyone has any advice or must see places that they've been to I'd love to hear them!