Isle of Skye!

This weekend I went to the Isle of Skye, which means nothing to you most likely so I will explain but first:

Getting Here Part 2.

Apparently there are questions about my daily life that have not been answered, so I am going to give everyone a little walk through of my castle-y world.

1. I have tried Haggis. Yes, I know it's cooked in a sheep's stomach, and yes I know it's made from the bits of sheep left over like the heart and the lungs, but IT IS DELICIOUS. Seriously, it's like a mix of stuffing and sausage. But for all of you picky eaters who won't try it because you think it sounds just TOO gross, Your loss. Like I said, I really enjoyed it.

2. The weather here is actually a lot like Wisconsin. Everyone said it would be "a different kind of cold" a "damp cold" but it's kind of spring here, like, right now, and my wonderful mommy keeps the house back home just above freezing anyways, so I haven't really noticed a difference. But like I said, SPRING HERE. I saw snowdrops (the flower) this weekend at a latitude the same as the bottom of Alaska, so, ha. It has rained a bunch, but it really isn't like everyday. But I have noticed that it seems to get misty and drizzly almost every night but that only adds to the Scottish atmosphere. Its a half hour walk to Tesco, which is the closest big grocery store around here (Lidl, which IS Aldi's, is only like 6 blocks away, but they close at 8 and don't have everything), and I love walking past the gorgeous stone houses with the tiny yards to get there in the fog. I always feel like I'm in a movie.

But, Average Day! I get up most mornings at about 7-7:15 (this is 1am for all of you in the Midwest) and go down to breakfast. We are always given breakfast here, but on the weekends it's self-serve. I have class at 8:30 on mondays and wednesdays until about 5pm, but only 1 class at 10:30 on tuesdays and thursdays. Also, no class friday. I love my professors. I only have one Scottish professor, and that's because this program also gets professors from the UW to come live here and teach, so I'm not learning from the Scots so much. But my English professor IS from England, and he taught ESL in Samoa, and he knows like everything, so he's got the best stories. The only problem is all of my English classes are in Classroom 20, which means nothing to you but will soon. Why? Because I'm about to tell you. Classroom 20 is the coldest room in the house. It has an awesome Harry Potter ceiling, all stone with this big seal in the center but it hemorrhages heat. So stories of the South Seas are a little less delightful that they could be, but more amazing. (Meaning they suck to hear because I'm shivering, but sound like a beautiful dream) Apart from school the rest of the day is my own. The castle doesn't have a curfew, and we got to choose our own quiet hours, which no one actually enforces because we are all pretty good, considerate kids. I have been out to the pubs a few times, and I went on one pub crawl which was a lot of fun (I do recommend it for anyone coming here) but BEWARE THE AUSSIES. I had a lot to drink because my Australian tour guide did not believe me when I said that I shouldn't do a shot of that blue stuff that tastes like candy. I'm telling you this for your own good. Aussies don't believe in limits.

The house is on like 500 acres of land. I didn't actually pay attention to the real number. If you are that curious, google it. And the grounds are BEAUTIFUL. There are a ton of trails going through the woods and by the North and South river Esk, and through fields and little glens. I go for a walk around about once a week, and I'm sure that number will rise as it gets warmer and as I find people who want to go. There's a path down by the river that has a super creepy tunnel along it. I ALMOST went in, scolding myself about being a coward, but about four steps in I heard something hiss at me and I RAN OUT OF THERE. It was mostly comical.

But! I must address this before I move on to my weekend up north (a phrase they do not use here), the bathrooms are shared, there is one on every floor. I don't use the second floor one (Remember, that's 3rd floor to the Midwesterners) because it's scary and there's an animal skull on the windowsill outside it. The showers are not big open, public ones like in high school gym class, they are all in the same room, but they are separate. And, drum roll please, there IS A BATHTUB!!!! Two, actually, but it's in a dingy little room all by itself. It does the job, yes, but it makes me miss the well lit, clean, toilet included bathroom I had at home.

Okay, that's a run down of my life here. If anyone has any pressing questions, just ask me and I'll try to include it in my ramblings about, well, everything I do.

And now, the moment we've all been waiting for. What did I do this weekend? Well....

I went on a MacBackpackers tour of the Isle of Skye. For anyone who is geographically challenged, or map-ally challenged as you really could have just looked this up yourselves. Lazy. It's off the west coast of Scotland, so I was a little bit closer to my home in Wisconsin! And it was awesome! We had to be a the hostel in Edinburgh at 8am, so we left the castle at 6:15! We really didn't NEED that much time, but there were 16 of us going so we broke up into groups to get there early and not clog up the bus system. After waiting in the hostel for about a GAZILLION hours for everyone to get there we got a minibus and stared driving north. We stopped at a little town who's name escapes me and we went to a beautiful cathedral by a river. It was the loveliest place I've ever seen. The grass was green and the river was clear and the trees around it made it all seem like it was a made up place in a painting. We drove through the highlands and I got to see wonderful snow-topped mountains (and if they weren't mountains I DON'T CARE! I gave up calling the Bluffs "hills" a long time a go, so these were DEFINITELY mountains.) To be totally honest, I don't remember a whole lot of the trip driving up there as I was running on a teensy bit of sleep. We stopped at Elieen Donan, a castle that has been in the Highlander movies and Made of Honor, and we were there at twilight too, so the castle was lit up and the sky was all pink. Seriously, it was impossibly beautiful. We drove over a huge bridge and got to the island. After checking into our hostel (it really wasn't that bad. The rooms were nice, and our whole bus got a private house with a door code that I STILL HAVE MEMORIZED!!!!! Mike said I wouldn't be able to, but I still know it. I will until I die. My last words will be "C3467Z. Suck it Mike." and my family will HATE me.) We went to the pub "Saucy Mary's" and had supper and listened to a one-man band for a while. Then the single girls, actually all of the girls, were getting hit on and a bunch of guys wanted us to go to the other pub so we could see their friend DJ there. WE SHOULDN'T HAVE. He was the worst DJ ever. He was literally throwing beats together on Garage Band. Suck and a half. So finally a bunch of us, tired, sick of listening to the same 'boom boom pth boom' walked back to our hostel and went to sleep.

Day 2! We left at 8 am, which wasn't so bad, and went to a magical stream. At least thats what Ewan told us. Who is Ewan, you ask? Well I'm horrified I haven't said anything yet. Ewan was our tour guide and an EXCELLENT one at that! He filled our trip with stories about the history of Scotland, told us about the geology, he went to the pub with us, he was wonderful. He even gave me a Valentine's Day present! We also found out that he wasn't following an itinerary, he was just showing us the places in the Highlands that were historically significant and amazing. He brought us to an ancient burial ground that is older than the pyramids. OLDER THAN THE PYRAMIDS!!!!! THAT'S REALLY OLD! I got goosebumps there, and many other places he took us. Back to the story, Ewan took us to a magical stream where, if you hold your face in the water for 7 seconds, you can be healed of ailments, have good luck, and ensure yourself long life. Naturally we did so. Miraculously, the freezing water DID make my nose feel less stuffy, and it was SO peaceful. Jake, a friend of mine, and I were saying that we didn't hear anything once we were in the water. It was just us and the river, and it was magical. Ewan took us up the hills to a place where there was a heart-shaped loch, and cliffs overlooking the shore. We saw a waterfall that we got to climb around and I fell in the mud. (But falling in the mud is in my blood, so I'd like to make a shout out, HEY MOM) We also went to a harbor town where we got to see a old look-out tower and visit some shops. There was a necklace that I fell in love with, but had to let go because of lack of the 27 pounds it would have cost. That's like $45! But I did get a lot of good pictures and a heavenly bacon sandwich. We went to the northernmost tip of the Isle and saw the Lava flows that are the same as Giant's Causeway in Ireland, and he told us about the geology there. We went to a castle where an evil man's baby got thrown out a window (it was a sad story). But the BEST PART was

I got to see the ocean! I've never actually seen it before, since our flight was at night and, um, I can't actually see things in the dark. So we went to a castle, and instead of looking at it extensively I went down to the beach. It wasn't really a beach though. It was a big slab of rock covered in barnacles and kelp and TIDE POOLS. The tide was out so I got to play in tide pools and poke sea anemones and I found a hermit crab and a ton of snails. I got a couple of seashells too, which is just so cool.

We drove back to our hostel and went out again. I went to a really good Indian restaurant and i had a paneer that was so good i'm craving it right now. Afterwards I went to Karaoke at Saucy Mary's and had a great time with my house mates. I found out that the Scottish find American accents sexy, just as we melt for theirs, and I gave a hilarious rendition of "Somebody to Love" for the pub. Truly comedy in a song. AND LIKE EVERYONE STARTED DANCING WITH ME. Since I had had a few pints the night before (I wasn't drunk Judging McGee, I'm not going to drink myself under a table in a foreign country) I was sticking to water that night. But suddenly Ewan, our amazing tour guide, grabbed me and stared twirling me around the dance floor. We tangoed and waltzed , and then he grabbed Jake and then Jake stared twirling me around. Brit tapped my shoulder to cut it, and I was like, "Woo! I can stop making a fool of myself" except she wasn't cutting in for Jake, she was cutting in for me! She tried to spin me, but being shorter than me, ended up clotheslining me in the face. It was as smooth as butter, I tell you, and I looked like the fooliest fool out there. But it was SO FUNNY.

The next day we left the Isle and saw Glen Coe, a gorgeous valley with the most beautiful river I've ever seen running through it. Libby and I scampered up and down the hills exploring and avoiding the seemingly endless piles of sheep poop everywhere. We stopped at Hamish the Hairy Coo (He's 16 years old) and took pictures with him. Hamish is a very large cow. Then we took our final stop at the Wallace Monument and climbed the STEEPEST hill and I nearly lost a lung in the process. I also found out that Nick and Libby are half-giant and take the longest strides ever. I have long legs, mind you, but I'm not as abnormally gigantic as they are. And then FINALLY we were home!

Which is weird. Because, see, I'm not home. The two wonderful packages of candy and Ramen noodles and Valentines Day cards waiting for me proved that. It's a weird place to be, not wanting to leave but wanting to go home SO BAD. I miss home, but I am having the time of my life. I didn't even include everything I did on this trip to Skye! (1. Y0u are probably VERY tired of reading this and 2. I am VERY tired of writing this) It was a fantastic adventure and I got to see some of the most amazing things ever. I have made lifelong memories (other than door codes) and I can't wait to go back to the Highlands. Until next time!

Fun fact: St. Patrick, the Irish icon, was born in Scotland. Boom, mind blowing.