I am not sure if it is one of the effects of jet lag or the fact that the hours of daylight are different here, but each day here feels so long. I had to check the date of my last blog before writing this one and I could not believe that it had only been posted five days ago.
Our field trip this past Wednesday took the four of us into the Highlands for the first time. We did not travel with Jimmy this week but another gentleman from the church named Gram was our guide. When he arrived at the church to pick us up he asked if we were alright with visiting a medieval castle this week. You can imagine our excitement. Somehow we all crammed into Gram's car and set out for Castle Doune. This castle has been famous in pop culture by being the site of the French Guard scene in Monty Python. Yes, this is the castle where King Aurthur and his brave knights were assaulted by flying farm animals by those unruly Frenchmen. [insert Monty Python quote here]. If this was not enough to tempt a traveler to this lesser known castle, it would certainly be worth visiting for the historical value and obvious beauty. It is only five pounds to enter the castle and be directed about by an audio guide. After departing from the castle, Gram had planned to take us to a historic church in the area but the fickle Scottish weather prevented us from stopping at that site. We pressed on, however, to Loch Katrine. This Loch supplies the water not only to Airdrie but to many other surrounding towns and cities. The little car then took us through Queen Elisabeth Forest Park, each bend in the road (and there were many) brought us to a new scene of God's intrinsic artwork. We were even so fortunate to see some of the hairy highland cows along the road. Our last stop before heading back to Airdrie was in the town of Aberfoyle. This small town is home to a wool factory that we explored. The charm of such towns as Aberfoyle is indeed a credit to Scotland's character.
We finished out our first week of "real classes" and began our weekend right. Thursday was Graci's birthday and Friday night nearly the entire CY (youth group) joined us for dinner in Glasgow. We rightly embarrassed her by having the entire restaurant sing to her. Afterwards we broke up into four groups for the CY's Photochallenge. If you have been a member of the Bridge (or AYF for us oldies), you will remember how teams of us high school students would race around town with a camera trying to capture random images. It is like a picture scavenger hunt. No winner has been announced as of yet since all the pictures are still being judged. Once we were done we all met up at Starbucks and discussed our surprise at the fact that none of us were thrown out of any of the stores.
Yesterday Graci and I were able to bum a ride off of our friends Audrey and Debbie to Tessco. This time we decided to do all the shopping for the week in one attempt so we went to the BIG Tessco in Glasgow. By "big" what I mean is there was an escalator in this grocery store. With the return of the all knowing internet into our lives, we were able to look up recipes that were in both our skill level and price range to add to our repertoire. We made out quite well with the exception of our almost purchasing of a skillet costing 50 pounds. Once we brought our plunder back to the house Audrey and Debbie invited us to the cinema with them. The four of us set out to Falkirk to see One Day. Let's just say we didn't see it coming and most of us needed tissues once it was all said and done.
Sundays are becoming our busiest days. We go to Bible study in the morning at 10, have prayer meeting at 10:30, church runs from 11 until around 12:30, we are hosted by one of the families in the church (hospitality) for lunch which ends somewhere between 2 and 3, then we go home and piddle around until we decide to make something for dinner, then it's back to evening service at 6:30 and finally off to someone's house for bant'r. Not that I am complaining; rather I enjoying spending the Lord's day with so many people and having good bant'r. Right now I need to change out of my sweats into something presentable for evening service. I hope to have my next post up on Thursday (reasons to be explained later). Until then, go quote Monte Python with someone!
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