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Published: July 19th 2015
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Good evening/good afternoon, lovely people! I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and preparing for a lovely new week that lies ahead. This week has been filled with a lot of down time for me, as I did not really have anything planned and so I stayed in Stirling for the week and this weekend. So even though I didn't really go anywhere this week, I'll still share my week with all of you because it's always a highlight of my week to write this blog and to keep you all informed 😊 We started our new classes for the second block this week, and since I only have class on Tuesdays I had a lot of time to do as I please, which I always enjoy. I know you're all thinking that I actually don't take any classes at all and that I just spend my time running about the countryside. In part, that is true. However my class on Tuesdays is three hours long. For all of my fellow WOU peeps, imagine how terrible it usually is to sit through a two hour lecture, and then add an hour to that. It's kind of awful, but thankfully this class
should be relatively interesting. It's actually a class that I have already taken a couple years ago at WOU, and so a lot of it is review for me. My professor is Scottish, which makes me happy. My professor during block one was Canadian, and I feel like I was robbed of the Scottish experience for the first block. I think the class will be interesting, and on the 31st we take an excursion to Belfast in Northern Ireland to experience different things about peace and conflict. I'm very much looking forward to that. Other than class this week, one of my flat mates and I went back to Edinburgh on Thursday with ISS for a day trip. Since we already went on the same trip during the first block, I had already decided that this trip would be strictly for souvenir shopping. I think that Edinburgh is one of my favorite cities, and so it was nice to be able to go back a second time. I also purchased probably my favorite thing so far that I have gotten on this trip. I bought a small set of bagpipes that are basically a toy and for little kids to
play with, but they are fully playable. And they are so awesome and I'm so excited to go home and play them and bug my family with them. It will be a fun time had by all! I also tried haggis for the first time. The taste was quite good, it just tasted like sausage. The texture, however, was not good. I don't know how to describe it, but you'll just have to take my word for it. I'm normally a pretty picky eater and to try some of the things that I've had here has been a big step, so I'm going to give myself a pat on the back since no one else is here to do it. We also went to a museum that has tons of really cool stuff and different themed rooms, and it was free which is always a bonus. We went into the animal room which was freaky and interesting all at the same time. The next day I had to go into town and buy a small duffel bag to take as an extra carry on during the plane ride home so that I had something to shove all of my souvenirs
in without adding extra weight to my suitcase. When I flew out of Portland, my bag was only a couple of pounds over the weight limit and unless I took things out to make it under 50 pounds, the charge was $100. I don't know how much it would be here, but I choose not to find out. So now I get to carry a big bag on the plane loaded down with lots of goodies. There are a lot of shops in Stirling, specifically candy shops, that are supposed to be "american" candy shops. It's funny to see how the States are portrayed here and to see how they view our culture. Given that they're all candy shops, apparently all they think is that we're all fat. I probably aided this notion by purchasing a bag of sour belts, but I'm alright with that. I've spent a lot of time this week in town just wandering around, because it's a cute little town to just wander around in and I've had a lot of free time this week. I don't know if I've mentioned this in previous blogs, and if I have then I will remind you all in
case you have forgotten. Every Wednesday morning around 10 or so, the fire alarms go off in all of the flats as a way of testing them (I think) and making sure they work. This happens even during the regular school year, and if I had to go through it for longer than 8 weeks I would be crazy in the end. They only stay on for about 30 seconds and we don't have to go outside unless they stay on for longer than two minutes. They are incredibly loud and high pitched and just all around terrible. They went off around 11 one night this week, and so we all had to go stand outside in the cold for about 5-10 minutes while security came to shut them off. No good ever comes from the fire alarms. I'm in a weird transition phase at this point in the program where I know that my time is very very quickly running out, and there are things that I miss at home that make me want to be home but at the same time I absolutely love it here and feel like this is where I belong and so I'm very sad to be leaving soon. It's all giving me very mixed emotions. Since I don't have any specific adventure to share with all of you, I've decided to make lists of what I miss from home and what I will miss when leaving here. I'm sure that you will all have mixed emotions by the end of the lists as well and then you will know my pain.
Things I miss about the States: Spark, burritos (for those who don't know me well, burritos are my favorite food group), driving, boxed popcorn (a thing that doesn't exist here), pancake mix (also doesn't exist), my nephews (and family, but everyone knows by now that in my family the nephews pretty much trump everyone else and it's just accepted), Josh, my own bed, no fire alarms every Wednesday morning, a shower with a constant stream of water (in the flat, the shower has a button that turns the water on that you have to push about every 30 seconds because it slowly turns off. It's a way of conserving water, but it also makes for a stressful shower), and a hair dryer, and good cider.
Things I will miss about Scotland: The castles, the scenery, the weather (the coolness), being able to jump on some sort of public transportation and be at the opposite end of the country in just a few hours, bagpipers just being out and about, people walking around in kilts, morning rolls, the bacon (bacon here is soooo much better than in the States), having a specified tea time, day drinking being acceptable and something that most people partake in, having a castle on campus, the friendly people, the architecture, being able to see the Wallace Monument from my flat, the ease of traveling throughout all of Europe, the culture, the Scottish Gaelic culture. And Scotland in general.
There are many things that I miss about home, but there are many things that will make it very hard to leave what has become my home in just 8 short weeks. I still have 3 weeks to see what I can and do what I can, and I plan on making the most of the rest of my time here (and trying not to buy everything that I see). I hope everyone has a wonderful week! It's been raining quite hard here the past few days, so I will do my best to send some of the rain back to the States.
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