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Published: September 30th 2008
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So I have officially started classes here at University. They are all interesting and decently well taught, though they are taught on a rotating basis with a teaching team of around five professors over the semester. My Archeology of Scotland course is easily the most interesting right now, but when we start studying geophysical events I know that Natural Hazards will take it. Yes, physics. I know. But it's those darn undersea landslides causing mega-tsunamis that just get me every time...(If you think I'm kidding, ask my family. they make fun of me mercilessly) I have to leave at least 45 minutes to an hour before class to avoid being late. Yay for long walks! Sometimes they're lovely, but then I have days like this morning when I have to walk in a downpour.
The people in my classes are all mostly younger than me, and I'm afraid I know very few of them well, In fact most of the people I know here are Americans. It's not a horrible thing, we're a very nice bunch of people, and oddly enough I don't feel that I'm missing out all that much. Others that I've talked to feel the same
way. We think that it's because the people here that are willing to make friends are the freshers, who are looking for their friends for a full four years (which we won't be here for), and all people our own age have already formed into these fairly tight cliques. Suddenly I understand why all the International students in the States tend to hang out together! Though people here do have that 'stiff upper lip' british mentality- not as gregarious as the states at all, which can be nice sometimes, it certainly teaches poise. Social observations are wonderful, aren't they? 😊
All that being said, I was really looking forward to our Homestay this past weekend where we'd get to live with a Scottish family. It's a required part of the program, probably for the reasons listed above, that we just don't get as much of an interaction with the locals when coming over as part of a program. We lined up outside the main dorms at 5:15 to get on our buses to our individual locations. I was traveling with 10 other students to a small area of Aberdeenshire called Insch (1 hour away from Aberdeen). We got on
the minibus, got situated etc. Then our driver got on. He looked like one of those evil Leprechauns. I mean Suspenders, craggy face, incomprehensible accent and a grey curly mullet. A MULLET. That should have warned us right there. We were on the bus for two to three hours and then he pulled over at a gas station. Not for gas, but to ask for directions. It was getting dark and we were driving into the increasingly rural section of Northern Scotland. We would eventually discover that his sole directions to the meeting point in this rural area was a post-it note that said Insch. He continued driving, occasionally asking directions and then not paying attention to them. We were panicking slightly, and frantically calling our contact who, after a grand total of four calls, and countless mispronunciations on our part, managed to get us to the right place. This was done by asking the bus driver "Sir, uh, sir, you need to turn around again." Followed by a long pause and an aggravated sigh from him, during which we began to wonder if he was, as Jaime said, "about to pull over in a field, drop the accent, and
brutally murder us all". Thanks for that image Jaime.
Luckily, he didn't. And we managed, after four plus hours in the bus to get to the meeting place where we met our families. Rowan, Kim and I were all in one house, and one of the sons, Robert, came to pick us up. His mother Roberta was putting on a pot of delicious soup as we came in. We had been expecting a small house or old farmhouse, but nothing could have prepared us for what awaited us. It was a home known in the family as "the mansion"... apparently the farmhouse was just up the hill. When we asked, we found out that it had been built by one of their ancestors only a couple hundred years ago. ONLY. There were amazing portraits of said ancestors all over the house. Think Pride and Prejudice's house, modern, with a Murrano glass chandelier in the dining room. Yeah. It's that cool.
It was also an honest to god farm, with fields of carrots, barley and 1000 head of sheep. The farmer himself, Callum, was in Germany working on a project to breed his sheep, which have short hair, with
Hot Liquor
The signs were awesome... some that had darker skin, in an effort to develop a breed that can survive in Africa. Pretty cool. So though we didn't get to meet him, we had a great time with Roberta and the rest of the gang. Roberta was thrilled to have girls in the house, as her daughters had already married and moved away, and her three sons were self described adolescents ranging in age from 25-38. She cooked us the most amazing food we'd had since we'd been here. Lamb, Coq au Vin, Soup, desserts... yum. And she's been hosting students for at least 14 years, so she'd definitely had some experience.
On Saturday we travelled as a big group (all 11 of us plus drivers) to the Glenfiddich distillery. The region where we were staying, though officially known as Aberdeenshire, is part of the whisky region Speyside. Its where there are specialty distilleries all over the place. Glenlivet was just down the road. We had a great tour and tour guide that showed us through the entire facility, taking us from Barley to whiskey. There was a tasting at the end when we got to sample the final product. I tried the newly
produced whisky liqueur made with honey and spices. I also had a small sip of the whisky itself, unwatered. It's got potential. An interesting note for the non whisky drinkers that think that it tastes like "licking a log"
MOM ... you aren't entirely wrong. Our tour guide told us about the ways that some distilleries make them taste more like peat, because some people like that.
Just up the road from the distillery was Balvenie castle, where we had the entire place to ourselves, and basically ran around taking pictures and making faces (see most of the pictures). It was basically amazing. Driving through the countryside to get there was amazing as well. It doesn't seem like it should be allowed for people to live in a place that is so beautiful. One of the features that I loved (and surprised myself by loving) was the wind turbines. They were surprisingly majestic against the setting of fields and sky. Now I have absolutely no clue why people in the states are pitching such a fit about them destroying any sort of view. They were really lovely, and further proof that Scotland (the capital of oil in the UK) is trying very hard to become fully energy independent.
The next day we drove up to the North coast, where we saw another ruined castle and enjoys some peaceful walks in the countryside and along the harbor. Roberta told us some funny stories about when her kids were still kids and showed us a beautiful guest book dating back to 1923. She had us sign our names and let us look through it. The house had held people during the evacuations of the south of England during the bombings of world war II. One woman wrote in the address column "None. Thanks to Mr. Hitler". Apparently they had also hosted members of the Canadian army, some of whom came back later to show their wives where they'd been decades before, and they'd been able to find their names inscribed there.
Alas the weekend has ended far too soon. And now I have begun to get back into the swing of things, like class and notes. Ah well. I'm hoping that my next trip will be to Belfast or Iona! Probably I'll write before then. Thanks for reading! Love, Me
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Mom
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WOW!!!
Oh, MB, you can sure tell a story! As usual the photos are a delight, and it sounds as though the homestay was a success in spite of an inauspicious beginning. But, that's what good stories are made of, aren't they? I'm glad classes are going well, and yes, I know how much you are looking forward to Natural Hazards. Don't let our teasing put you off--Creation is ongoing, and awesome, and you're right to love it! Love and xoxoxo's