I am not in prison. Nor am I dead.

However, five days without internet about killed me. (And it might kill you because this post is LOOONNNNGGG.) It was a little scary how much I thought about the internet actually. I kept thinking "Ah! I just want to check my email!"

But, here I am (FINALLY) in an internet cafe in a tiny town (consisting of one street) on the Isle of Mull. The town is called Tobermory...ring a bell? We named our first Jack Russell Terrier after this town. The first time we were here we sailed to the island and stayed a few nights. It rained then, and it's raining now (which is why I finally convinced my parents to let me have some time alone with my Mac...haha).

I'll try to recap the past few days and highlight a some of the things that were truly highlights for me and my family!

Monday morning we left St. Andrews and went to Inverness, a town in northern Scotland (about a 3 hour drive from St. Andrews). On the way we stopped at Loch Ness and accidentaly snuck in without paying to Urquhart Castle...oops!

This is Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness (Complete with a sailboat in the background! Daddy was happy!).

We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast that is on a little farm...a place we stayed when we lived here in 2000. The owners of the B & B were still adorable and kind. They make such a difference living their simple lives because of their genuine kindness and love for their guests. It was wonderful.

This is the view from our Bed and Breakfast in Inverness. So pretty!

Tuesday we drove about an hour to The Royal Dornoch Golf Course where my dad played golf and my mom, sister, and I went to Dunrobin Castle. This castle, instead of being in ruins, has been preserved so people can walk through and see what it would have been like to live there hundreds of years ago. It was really interesting and there were paintings EVERYWHERE. This, obviously, made me happy :)

When we went back to Dornoch to pick up my dad, we ate lunch with a couple that my dad had played his round of golf with. They were Austrailian and are currently living in Dubai. Their stories were incredible and we had such a great time walking with them. They will be in St. Andrews (where we will be) all of next week so we're hoping to have dinner with them again. I want to go to Dubai and experience the crazy things they talk about!

The day (like every day) finished with a two hour dinner. Good food and good wine is burning holes in our pockets...everything is SO expensive here. However, we can't help but enjoy all the good food! (I think today is the first day our bodies have been mad at us for indulging so much! We've all slowed down a bit.)

Wednesday was a big day (so skim it if you want). We drove to the Isle of Skye (the island for which our second Jack Russell, Skye(balls) is named!). We did a hike that we did in 2000 again which was a lot harder than I remembered (apparently it is about 6 miles with a 1100 foot vertical rise). Despite the steepness, however, we all did very well and made good time. This hike made me want to go to Colorado again...

Anyway, the hike is called the Old Man of Stor. Which is a really weird name. But it is beautiful! Here are some pictures I took from the top!

This rock is the "Old Man of Stor." This was on the way back down and my parents are standing there looking cute.
My mommy, Kristin, and I.

This is a view from the top. I have about 6 more from the panoramic shots I took...after being up here, you know there is a God. (You can sortof see the path we took...through the trees.)

After hiking, we stopped at Skye Silver where we have gotten jewelry in the past. Kristin and I got beatiful rings and earrings there. (Like I need more rings...)

After dinner and checking into another Bed and Breakfast, we went to Neist Point...MY FAVORITE PLACE IN SCOTLAND. As I explain this part, I will try to keep it concise...I get a little excited inside about this particular evening.

I'll start with a picture.
This, my dear friends, is Neist Point. IT IS GORGEOUS. We hiked out to the point. Which was down, then up, then down, then a little bit up again.

And, in addition to an amazing sunset...
...there was a little surprise at Neist Point for me! When we walked over the last little hill, before my eyes were HUNDREDS of rock towers that had been built there. The rocks in this area (obviously this whole point is made of rock...hint: the cliffs) are really squarish/rectangular in shape. Which makes it easy to build towers...here is what the towers looked like:
Photographs simply don't capture the expanse of them...oh well. This may not excite you much, but I still cannot not get over how happy I was the moment I saw these things. Why? Because we were in my favorite place on this side of the Atlantic, and there were sculptures EVERYWHERE! Not only were they sculptures, they are a specific kind of sculpture...a form that is so beautiful to me. To push this idea further, I will show you a picture of a tiny rock tower I made earlier this summer. Yes, it's on a shoe, but you get the idea.
Anyway, I was absolutely thrilled with these scultpures. The coincidence of me loving stacks of rocks recently (haha) and THIS did not seem so much a coincidence...I thank God for little joys like this. My response to this beauty: I built my own!
Here is the sculpture I made with hundreds of others in the background.

One more thing. I love that I have no idea who built these little gifts from God. There is so much mystery...It could have been one person who came last week and built 200 sculptures as he/she watched the sunset (though doubtful). It could have been one person fifteen years ago who built one, and then the next year someone saw it and built one more, and so on and so on until there were tons!! There is just no way to know. This point is not a popular destination...it's rather hidden, which makes this even more exciting for me. A select few people have seen/built these pieces of art.

HOORAY!

Ok, moving on. We played cards that night in the B & B and reminisced about our manic day that was almost too good to be true. I haven't played Solitaire with my daddy in a long time...it felt good (to beat him).

Thursday involved lots of driving...car ferry riding...driving on the windyest-scariest-stomach-upsettiest road ever...another car ferry...and finally Tobermory!!
Thank goodness for views like this...or that road would have killed me :)
This is the cute, colorful town of Tobermory. It is a harbor town and has awesome fresh fish. We had dinner in a pub...and my parents and I had the best seafood chowder EVER. Seriously.

Today we slept in (till 9...which is sleeping in compared to when we have been getting up the last week). We took it easy this morning...which invoved a tour of the Tobermory Scotch Whisky Distillery (my dad's favorite whisky). This is hilarious to me...we had our drams of whisky at the end of the tour...before noon!

This brings us again to this afternoon in Tobermory. It is rainy so we have been taking it easy. We walked to a castle and a little art gallery, and now are each lounging in our own ways. Kristin is sleeping, my parents went for a walk, and I'm in an tiny tea house with a big pot of tea.

Thanks to all who have emailed. I really do miss you my other family (a.k.a. you know who you are)...it's weird to be loving it here and missing home at the same time.

Hopefully I'll write more soon.

Congratulations if you read this whole thing...sorry :)

Today, I'll put up some pictures. They are more interesting anyway. :)

This is Jane in front of her adorable house with the puppies: Freddy and Polly.

This is Boots Pharmacy. The flat directly above it is where we lived in 2000! The little door to the right of the Pharmacy was the door that led to the stairs up to our flat. 111A Market Street...so many memories!

Scottish countryside, complete with sheep. :)

My mom, Kristin, Jane and I (along with three puppies) went for a walk today on the ocean. It was breath-takingly beautiful.

Sisterly gin and tonic at Gran's (Jane's mother) house!

Tomorrow we head north into the highlands for the week (Loch Ness, Inverness, The Isle of Skye, Oban, and Tobermory)! More to come...

goodnight! goodmorning?

Greetings from Scotland!!

We arrived safely at the Edinburgh airport today around 1pm Scotland time. I was barely functional because I didn't exactly think through the well known truth that "people need to sleep to function." We left Grand Rapids around 3pm yesterday and flew to Detroit. We boarded the plane to Amsterdam around 5pm and I read Cold Tangerines and watched three movies (like a normal person would when they are free and at your disposal). At this point, I started getting sleepy and was ready for bed or at least to attempt sleep in the more-uncomfortable-than-usual airplane seats. Right as I was closing my eyes (around 11pm my body's time), the cabin lights came on, the flight attendants said "Goodmorning!" to everyone, and passed out Egg McMuffiny things. Crap. I did not anticipate that I would completely skip night. Shortly thereafter we got off the plane, found our gate in the huge/busy Amsterdam Schiphol airport, and were sitting again in uncomfortable plastic seats.

After once again being in the airport in Amsterdam, I have come to the realization that I like Europeans. For one thing, shallow as it sounds, I love the way people look. Every man (and woman for that matter) between the ages of 20 and 35 is attractive, in good shape, and well-dressed. European style is so great. The Schiphol airport is full of scarves, crazy colors, unique shoes, big belts, and classy jeans. I felt like a complete frump wearing comfortable athletic pants and a t-shirt. Women don't flat iron their hair much, which is so natural and pretty! Men have tossled hair instead of clean cut styles. I like it. And the other thing I love so much are the abounding languages! The voices around me were music to my ears. Romanian, Spanish, British accents, German, French, Dutch, and everything in between could be heard everywhere I walked. It was a wonderful noise. One of my favorite things is the overhead-intercom...especially when Spanish is spoken in a Dutch accent. Beautiful :)

Back to the story. The bottom line is...by the time we got to Edinburgh, Scotland's capital, around 1pm (a full '24' hours since we had left Grand Rapids), I had slept about 2 hours. I should have planned that one better and forgone watching New In Town, Last Chance Harvey, and I Love You, Man.

However, despite fatigue that I hope will magically disappear before tomorrow, Scotland warmly greeted us with the familiar accent that makes me so happy. We waited in line two hours for our wheel-on-the-right-side rental car and then drove around round-abouts, on narrow two lane highways on the left side of the road, and through quaint Scottish towns until we arrived in our previos home.

When we got into St. Andrew's, the town my family lived in when I was twelve, we went straight to our friend Jane Hunter-Blaire's home (which is also a Bed and Breakfast where we will stay part of this trip). We were warmly welcomed with hugs, tea, muffins, two greyhounds, and a sunny back garden full of wonderful conversation. Jane's two girls, Gabi and Coco (who some of you met when my family came to visit SMR in 2007), are two and three years younger than me and are so witty and cute. It is so good to see them again.

I took a nap in the afternoon followed by a long, drawn-out European dinner. I absolutely love the leisure and company of meals in this country. I missed that and truly felt at peace around a table overlooking the garden with wine and slow courses of fresh food: homemade mushroom soup, french bread, salad with avocado, rice with curry, and vanilla ice cream with huge rapsberries. Heaven. Food is the best community builder. :)

It is a blessing to be in a home with friends and family feeling comfortably full, relaxed, and ready for bed...in a bed!

Cheers!

P.S. Here is a list of things about Scoland that I forgot about and that made me happy today: Aerosol spray deodarant, Irn Bru (a wierd flavored soda), chips (fries) and mayonaisse, round-abouts, the phrase "that guy/bloke/chap is so fit (refering to someone who is "hot")," european outlets, roads lined with stone walls, fields that look like a Settlers game board, Cadbury Cream Eggs, popped collars, gravel driveways, and stone houses that look like tiny castles.

ah! the time has come...

'Tis Thursday, and tomorrow I leave to spend three weeks with my family in Scotland.

It's a very strange experience to be preparing (mentally and physically and with lots of STUFF) for a semester-long trip to Ghana that begins in three weeks. It is strange primarily because every other time in my life, no matter how long I anticipate being gone, I pack the night before. Seriously. Interim, Spring Break, a Semester...it doesn't matter. That's just how I roll. I can't do it unless I'm under the pressure of time. So...to prepare so far in advance is making me crazy! I just want to get there...

Scotland will be wonderful, I'm sure. However, it seems so weird to have three more weeks to anticipate and worry and calm myself down about the upcoming semester in Africa. Now that I've started thinking tangibly about going to Ghana (a.k.a. it is becoming real) and have my mosquito net and every medication you could imagine, I can't stop thinking about it. So pray for my sanity! I hope that Scotland is restful and enjoyable. And brings my quirky family together :)

You all don't know how much you mean to me. Thanks for reading this!

Annica