Come Dine With Me

Picture it...Elise and I have traveled all day and finally make our way to our Glasgow hotel on our journey to the rest of Scotland. After settling in, I realize I'm pretty hungry. I am flipping through the channels on our TV (the first TV I've watched since being in the UK) and I stop at one channel that looks similar to the Food Network. I was intrigued...and hungry so I continued watching the unknown show. I really thought it was a British cooking show, but turns out I was only half right. 

It was Come Dine With Me.

Little did I know what I was getting into.

This show has a basic premise. I'll just take it from IMDB to save time. "A group of five strangers, each an amateur chef, compete to host the best dinner party, each party solely for the competitors and to be held on consecutive evenings. Each host's menu must consist of at least a starter, a main and a dessert. At the end of each party, each guest rates the party on a scale of one to ten. At the end of the last party, the competitors find out who wins and the winner receives £1,000. By the end of the last party, each competitor gets to know their fellow competitors a little better. Some may become friends for life, while others wish they had never met."

Yeah, so it was more than a little addicting. A lot of times, each dinner party (of the 5) are half hour episodes. So to see what happens, you have to watch 5 episodes! They know how to get you. We watched a few that night in Glasgow.

We didn't have a TV for awhile after that, but in the next hostel that had TV, what did we find? Come Dine With Me. And after that we found that it's on ALL THE TIME. It was crazy. I probably watched 40 episodes on this trip. Okay that's an exaggeration. Maybe 20. 

There are also celebrity versions of this show, which is funny to watch because the celebrities there mean nothing to me.

I learned from this show that "pudding" as I knew it, is not pudding.

I learned that a lot of people are crazy on this show. Some episodes had normal behaving people. And then some had insane people trying to cause fights with the competitors. 

I'm glad it comes on a channel I do not get back home because I would probably end up watching it too much.

Round and round we go.

Even though I'm not "Bethany in Scotland" anymore, I still have some thoughts about some things that I would like to share. A lot of times in previous posts, I didn't have time to go into detail about certain people, events, or whatever so if I think of things, I'll just continue on this blog.


The United Kingdom might take a bit to get used to when it comes to driving and dealing with traffic. Most everyone knows about the difference in driving on the left side of the road instead of the right. But there's more than just that.

Roundabouts. 

They are everywhere. 


Seriously.


It does cut down on the stop and go aspect of traffic lights and getting that dreaded red light, so that's a plus. It's probably way less expensive than traffic lights as well. It seems like they have figured things out when roads meet. 


The signs for upcoming roundabouts were sometimes confusing. I saw so many of these.

Ignore the place names. I couldn't find one I took so I got this somewhere online.

Another thing I noticed was in the traffic lights. There is the typical red, yellow, and green lights. Like the US of A, the lights go from green to yellow to red to indicate stopping. Unlike here, however, from red it goes back to the yellow then the green. So you have a yellow warning light before the green to go. I never got to drive there, and experience this as a driver, but I think I would LOVE it. It reminded me of drag racing and the countdown they get before they take off. I want our traffic lights in America to be like that.

We should get started changing all of them now.

Last leg!

I'm home! It feels good to be back! 


Yesterday was one of the longer days in my life. Not the usual 24 hours. I got a bonus 6 hours!


My flight out of Manchester (to Atlanta) began the day of travel. And Phoebe was on the same flight! We asked the man next to her if he would mind switching seats and he was more than willing. Thank God for him, because being with her made the trip so much better! In ATL we parted ways (sad) but it was one more step closer to home. My flight to Birmingham got delayed slightly and I figured out it would have been quicker to drive home from Atlanta than to fly to Birmingham. The joy of flying.


Dad picked me up and we got home about 7:45. I was already really tired at this point but I wanted to stay awake as long as possible to try to get rid of jetlag. After catching up with the family and dispersing gifts from good ole Scotland, I finally got to sleep. Yay!

Operatic thoughts

Debriefing weekend is underway!

We had a train yesterday morning to Manchester. On the train, we were sitting in 2 of the 4 seats that are around the table in the middle of the car. The ride was about 3 1/2 hours long and we spent most of it talking with the people next to us! They were from Scotland going on vacation to Greece. We swapped music and everything. The guy next to Elise is now the biggest Goo Goo Dolls fan in Scotland I think. And they bought us snacks! It was great getting to know them.

Elise and I arrived in Manchester via train yesterday around 2pm and everyone else came and picked us up. It was good to see everyone again! I will miss these people greatly. We had our team in Scotland. Tara and Phoebe in Wales. And Daniel and Sam in Ireland.

Yesterday, we had a couple of debriefing sessions and then went out for a celebration dinner. It was this Italian place and we had like the family deal or something and so they brought us the food out and we passed plates around and stuff. It was so much food and was crazy but good! 

Today, we had another session and now, we are at a mall near our hotel. This place is huge and has so many different things. Earlier there was a show going on in the food court. Just so you can see it (since I can't get you pictures now) go to the wikipedia page here. 

We're meeting John and his team here for lunch in a little bit and spending the afternoon here. There is talk of us playing laser tag later. HIMYM anyone?

I guess that's the point of debriefing, but yesterday and today has been really good to sit and process what has happened over the last month and focus on what God has done with my team and myself and get prepared for life back home. And to hear what God has done with the other teams is awesome too!

Tomorrow we part ways. My flight is out of Manchester at 10:10 local time and I'll be back in Birmingham, AL at 5:31 local time!

Oh another concert is starting in here. It's getting dramatic. Like we are in the final scene of an opera. I feel underdressed. 

Mar sin leibh!

We're now back in Glasgow for the night. We had a 6am ferry from Stornoway to Ullapool. From there we travelled by bus to Glasgow. We just walked around the city a little and did some tourist shopping. I met a girl who goes to Auburn in one store! Small world!

Sunrise as we left Stornoway this morning.

Yesterday was a fun filled day as our last official day on our assignment. We got a couple interviews and other random footage. We had planned on meeting with our Gaelicaholic friend in the afternoon, but he never showed so we just had to miss out on that. Instead we went see Ronnie from the loom center. We had to talk about the Scotland flags, of course! We spent a lot of the afternoon with him and had a lot of fun. When we left, he got us to sign his guestbook. He only lets "honored" visitors sign it so we felt special! He kept saying he would never forget us! I know I won't forget him. I was so sad to leave him! 

Another thing I want to mention. I have never felt more like a stalker/creeper/whatever word you want to use, in my life than on this trip. I'll explain. As you would guess, people act different when they know a camera is around (excluding interviews). So when I tried to get "real life" on camera I found it to be very hard. Either no one was around in remote areas (like you've read in other posts) and so to get people on camera I had to quickly get them on the street. Or other times, like for example, in a restaurant, I can't just start filming people sitting at the table next to me because they would be weirded out and yeah you get the idea. So whenever I had a chance to film people it had to be in a semi undercover way that they wouldn't notice. It's harder than it looks! It means I get pictures and video like this:

Elise and I decided I am an experienced creeper now. I need a badge.

Tomorrow is more travel for us. What else is new? We have a train in the morning to Manchester. Travel prayers are appreciated!

Steòrnabhagh

Stornoway is so unlike all the places we have been on this trip so far. I mean seriously! I admit that in other places, we have really had a hard time finding people to talk to, let alone interview them. It was really hard at first and we just came to the realization that’s just the way it is here. Its not America. There isn’t going to be people on every street you turn on. Don’t get me wrong, once you find people here, in general, they are super super nice (as you have read about the people we’ve met). That part is great! But without waltzing right in someone’s house, it was hard to find people to connect with. Even in places like Leverburgh where opportunities were better, we still had to go seek out people more than you would think.

Stornoway is another story altogether. For my American city self, it is much more like what I am used to so automatically I feel more comfortable. But there are people everywhere all day (well from 9-5) and some places are even open until 9 or 10 at night. That’s totally crazy compared to other places we have been. And it’s so weird to me because in the US, that is early! We have places open 24/7! Cultures are different and it has been so interesting to me to see the differences within Scotland between bigger places like Stornoway and Glasgow and smaller areas like Castlebay, Leverburgh, South Galson, and Lochmaddy. And on top of that to see the difference between Scotland and the US, which is of course a big difference.

Today we did a small bit of touristing. I don’t know if that’s a word, but I used it. But we had seen a sale in one of the stores, so of course we had to check that out. Later on after lunch, we went to check out a local loom shop we had seen earlier. I don’t know how much you know about Harris Tweed, but it’s famous and made in Harris! The shop was so cool and had fabric laying everywhere and stuff was plastered all over the wall about the history of the island.

We went in just to look, but it turned into a 2 hour exploration of the shop and conversation with the man named Ronnie who ran the place. He had so much history to tell us about the island and Stornoway and Harris Tweed and anything else! So I decided to ask him a question I had had since I got to Glasgow. What is the difference between the two flags I have seen around Scotland? I know one (the blue and white cross one) was the official one, but there is also a very popular one that is yellow with a red lion on it. And he didn’t know the answer! So he just got up and walked down the street to ask people if they knew. He was just stopping people as they walked by. It was hilarious. We never found out on the street but I looked it up a minute ago. Here is the best answer I found, if you want to know:

http://www.scotlandlogue.com/the-cross-and-the-lion-the-two-flags-of-scotland.html

After that we walked into a religious book shop (that was literally the name of it). We talked with the lady there and she said her husband would love to do an interview for us! So later on tonight he came over to the hostel and we talked with him. He had SO MUCH information. And he sang us a Gaelic psalm! Score. 

Good day. Tomorrow is our last day here and we are going to be chauffeured around town by Donald, the man we met last night.

Stornoway Harbor

A lot has happened now that I think about it...

I apologize in advance for this post being borderline novel.


Continued from my last real post which was oh so long ago (light years in internet world)...we were in Lochmaddy on North Uist. The bad weather continued into Sunday (June 26). That morning we slept in because church didn't start until 12. Late! We walked there in the rain. I don't recommend wearing dress shoes in that situation. I was surprised to see a lot of cars in the small lot and on the street. We made it inside and were greeted and showed to our seats. There were over 50 people there so it was pretty full in the small room. This church was similar to the Welsh church we visited the other week in that there was absolutely no talking before the service started. Once it started, there was some singing of psalms, prayer, and scripture reading. Then the minister gave a message. They were having communion too so we thought we were going to get to experience that but when it came up in the service, they only passed the plate and cup to the pews that had white cloths on them, which was about the front half of the pews. So we didn't get to partake and were confused for a little bit, but we got to watch at least. Afterwards, something we noticed was that everyone got out of the church very quickly. No waiting around or fellowship at all. It was really raining by now and a really nice lady offered to drop us off so we didn't have to walk in the rain. Very thankful for that. 


Sunday night, we went and talked with the man that the hostel keeper woman had told us about. She was very helpful actually because she called him for us and let him know about everything without us even asking! His name is Norman and he was great. The interview went well and then we just sat around and talked for an hour. He had a lot of stories! He was a military man back in the day. He also told us about this geneology place on Harris that we should check out. That was exciting to hear because in each new place we have a hard time getting leads on where to find people. 


Sunday night, I got to finally talk with Emily! Shout out! I owe that to Skype, my long lost friend. But let me back track one day for a second. Saturday, I went to a hotel near us that advertised free wifi. We first saw this promoted Friday night and went and ate dinner there. Well, Saturday I went and used the internet again. After awhile the head lady person came out and told us we couldn't use their wifi unless we had bought something at their restaurant/bar and she would change the password on the network if we kept using it. It was quite scary because she sounded really ticked off. I understand where she was coming from, but I was just annoyed that they advertise it as "free" when it's not at all. Rant over. Anyways, that night I used internet to talk to my family. Shout out! I hope you guys had a fun reunion! I wish I could have been there! Sunday we went to the same hotel except we bought something right away to not cause any confusion whatsoever. That same lady was there though and was making me nervous but we made it through...


Monday, we went out and got our last minute stuff of Lochmaddy. I got some b-roll of the village and we went to the art center/museum/store thing to talk with the manager to see about an interview. He was more than willing! We did that and then also bought a few things from the store there. They have tablet there (which Scotland is known for apparently) and we got some vanilla kind. It's so awesome! It tastes like every good vanilla cake and ice cream mixed into one. Another thing about that place...it was called "Taigh Chearsabhagh" but every time I looked at it, my American brain said "cheeseburger," so that's what I called it to myself. And "taigh" is "house" so it was cheeseburger house! Far from it's actual purpose but amusing to me.


Monday night. Repacking. Ugh. 


But the weather was clear all day so the sunset was pretty much awesome! I decided to run outside and get a timelapse of it. I set the camera up near a fencepost and got it going. It was going for a while and then out of nowhere this horse came running up from the field that the fence is surrounding. It came right up on the camera and us standing there and almost knocked it over so the timelapse was cut short but then we got to play with the horse so it was all good. And a little colt too! Oh and we saw two otters in the water outside our window later that night! OTTERS ARE SO CUTE.


Tuesday, we caught a bus to Berneray to get on a ferry to Leverburgh on the Isle of Harris. We found our hostel and we liked it right away. It looked so cool inside. I definitely took some pictures of it. But after that we went and walked around the village. They had a Co-op! So we felt like we had so much variety to choose from when we shopped for our food compared to where we had been before in Lochmaddy. That night, we walked around some more and finally got to experience true Scotland weather. What is that, you ask? Well, I'll tell you. That's when one minute it's sunny and bright and then the next it's raining cats and dogs. And cold. So naturally I wasn't dressed for the occasion and my shoes and jeans got soaked. Fun times. But it really was fun (minus the fact I was scared that my camera was getting soaked too) because we saw a bunch of sheep doing funny things. Like during the rain, they totally just stood there and stared, completely still as rocks...but still chewed their grass. It was a funny sight. And I got video of it so it can be a funny sight for you too! 


Wednesday, we walked to Northton, which is about 3 to 4 miles from Leverburgh. That's where that geneology/exhibition/visitor center that Norman told us about is located. When we got there, we talked to the wife of the man who started this place (really she co-manages it) and she agreed to do an interview later that afternoon. We didn't want to walk an hour back Leverburgh just to walk another hour back to Northton so to waste time until then, we walked to a beach nearby. It was huge and the dunes were probably a mile wide. It was so crazy! And it rained on and off. That is the theme of this location, I think. Also, here we have seen WAY more sheep than on any of the other isles. My sheep picture count skyrocketed. And it doesn't help that all of their faces remind me of my dog. After frolicking in the rain and sand dunes, we came back to talk with the woman, Chris, and it went really well! She is a native Gaelic speaker and had a lot of opinions on Gaelic and its culture so I think it was worth the effort of getting to this place. After the interview we talked with her for an hour and swapped stories. It was a good time indeed.


That night we went for another little walk (this time hoping it wasn't going to pour like it did the previous night). Well, it didn't pour, but it did rain. But this time it was sunny while it rained. It was wet but it was still such a beautiful sight. Elise and I wished there was some way to capture that moment of being there for others to experience it. Pictures and even video don't do it justice at all. And for weather, the conclusion I've come to is always be prepared for sun, rain, cool, cold, and colder. Someone in the hostel said there's a saying here "there's no such thing as bad weather. Just bad clothes." True that. 


Back at the hostel, we talked awhile with a couple from mainland Scotland staying there. For being just hostel-mates, I'd say we got to know them really well and I enjoyed being with them! 


Thursday, we went to the elementary school in Leverburgh to see if there were any possible interviews of Gaelic teachers we could get. We didn't know, but it was the last day of school (gosh, I would have hated going to school until the very end of June) so there wasn't a lot going on which was good for us. We actually got to talk with 2 of the Gaelic teachers there and they both agreed to an interview. Success!


After the school, we were going to walk to some of the churches around the area. They have 3 within a mile of each other. As we walked up to the first one, a woman from out of nowhere came up and started talking to us and told us the churches were locked during the week and we wouldn't be able to get in. After we told her what we were doing in Scotland with the video stuff and just wanted to check and see if the churches were open, she mentioned that she was a Christian and that we should talk to a lady named Diane who worked at the post office who was also a Christian. So our next stop was given to us just like that! 


We then talked to Diane and she agreed to do a video interview. Since we knew she was a Christian, a lot of what we asked her was more surrounding the religious aspect of Scotland and the Gaelic culture. We just sat in the post office and filmed her and then after it was over we just sat there and hung out with her until she closed. It was really fun to just hang out with her! She acted like we had known each other for years. 


So Leverburgh was good for us and God definitely showed He knew what was up the whole time especially when things came together Thursday. And on the whole, our time in Lochmaddy really discouraged Elise and me with just the way things were happening so it was a very needed reminder of who is in control. 


Friday was another travel day. By this point I think we were both slightly tired of these days (since we have like 10 of them!) but this time, all we had to do is bus travel, so that was a plus. The Isle of Lewis is the same land mass as the Isle of Harris so I'm not sure why they are called separate isles. You can google that. But anyway, we arrived in South Galson around 2. Our first impression wasn't a good one in terms of getting video footage because of how small it was. It is basically one street, about a half mile long of houses and then our hostel (which is a house). Not a lot to choose from. Then our attention quickly turned to food and where we were going to buy some for the coming days because we didn't see any place to get any and had no means of transportation except our own feet. We found out the nearest local grocer was in the next village, 3 miles away so we walked there to get some. Little geography tidbit: Harris is relatively mountainous and hilly. Lewis is the EXACT opposite. It is so flat and there are probably only 32 trees on the entire island. So as I was walking along that road to the store, the sight was crazy, especially for me, considering I'm from a part of America so different from this. I kept thinking it really looked like Davy Jones' locker in Pirates 3 except instead of sand on the ground, it is green and brown mush stuff. 


A little later, the other people sharing our room came in and it was the same people we had roomed with in Leverburgh 2 nights ago! Small world! And small islands. They are a mother and a grown son from mainland Scotland. We had a TV (I had forgotten what that was...) in this hostel so we watched Wimbledon games all afternoon with them. Fun fact: I forgot that I really like tennis and need to keep up with it better and play more in real life. Back to blog: For dinner she made haggis and potatoes for her and her son, but she gave us some too so we could trhy. I decided to give it another chance to see if I really didn't like it or that other time was a fluke. It still had that same stale chef boyardee sauce taste though. So the verdict on haggis is (drumroll please): I can keep it down and would be okay if someone forced me to eat it, but I would choose many other things in place of it and would be fine never eating it again. After all that, we explored the beach area nearby. It's really beautiful. I would never think "beach" when I think Scotland but this trip has changed that definitely. At least the islands of Scotland. 


Saturday, we had made plans to go to Callanish to see the standing stones there. They're older than Stonehenge! Look them up. Based on experience from last weekend (Saturday and Sunday especially are dead days unless you're a tourist), we were going to do a little sightseeing while still keeping an eye out for anyone to interview while there. So I figured out the buses we had to take and we set out. Our first bus was 7 minutes late however. Problem. That made us miss our next bus (and another wasn't going to Callanish for another 3 hours) so we went into a gas station nearby and got some candy to keep us busy for an hour. That's when the next bus to Stornoway was. So our plans changed to an afternoon trip to Stornoway. By the way, Stornoway is the largest town in the Outer Hebrides and at that time was our next (and last) stop. We scoped out the place so when we got there later we could know where to start. We went to the library (this is when I blogged my last post saying I was in the library). 


Back in South Galson that night, we had a movie night and explored the beach some more. Only here you can watch 2 movies and walk around for hours, doing all this after 7pm and it still be light outside the whole time. But yeah one British channel plays a lot of movies so that's usually what we had on. 


There was no church near us at all...well, in terms of walking distance. So Sunday we pretty much stayed in a lot of the day and worked on stuff. I did some video stuff and watched the Wimbledon final. I figured out Nadal reminds me of Taylor Lautner for some reason so that means I like him. Later on, Elise decided to go into the water at the beach because she told someone she would. Of course, that turned into me filming her getting into the really cold water. And this beach isn't a beach like what I'm used to. It was basically all rocks and stones in place of sand and there were a lot of rocks in the water too so when the tide is in, it's super rocky. So getting in the water didn't look like fun at all. But she did it! 


Monday, we were ready to get some things done after being on hold for the weekend. We got on a bus to an area called Ness, a few miles north of South Galson, near the very northern tip of the island. There are about 3 communities really close together that we wanted to explore. First, we stopped in Habost at a small historical society museum. It was all local history of Ness and was really interesting to read about that. We even got complimentary tea (gross) and candy (yay!). After we looked through all the museum, we talked with the woman there which led to an interview! Once we finished there, we just wandered around the villages seeing what we could find. We came up on a sports center in Lionel and we talked to the lady at the front desk for awhile. Once she heard about us wanting to talk to people about Gaelic and that whole thing, she was on the phone calling everyone she knew that might be able to help! She was so willing to help! It was crazy! But she did call one man named Donald who drove right over and did an interview for us! And in his interview, he talked a lot about Christianity and I got the feeling he was a Christian from what he was saying. I was very happy we got to talk to him. 


Next, in hopes of talking to more people, we decided to walk to a school nearby that had a historical exhibition going on. Well, God had other plans. As we were walking along the road, we passed a house where an older woman was gardening in her front yard (by the way, a lot of the houses here have gates or walls of some sort around their front yards). Her two border collies were out there in the yard with her too so I noticed that cuteness right away. As I have done with everyone here (because I learned really quickly this is just what people do here no matter what), I said hello and waved. Normally, people just wave back or say hi and leave it at that. This woman said hi and then some! Also one of the dogs jumped up on the gate to try to get us to pet him. So cute. But she asked if we were tourists and then we told her what we were doing there with Gaelic and stuff. Then within like 1 minute of knowing us, she invited us in for tea to refresh us on our way! We went in her house and she made the tea and gave us some cookies and cake as well. Then we sat around for about an hour talking. Even some of the talk was in Gaelic! It was so awesome! I didn't even notice (well, too badly) how much I hate tea as I gulped it down to not be rude. Being there definitely made Elise's and my day! After we left her house, we thought about how that would have been a great interview. But I was thinking, I know that is so trivial in the grand scheme of things. Even on this trip, video is secondary. Our main goal is always to share our lives with the people and be an example of Christ to others and I think us sharing this time together was a great part of that. Plus, she said if we ever came back we were welcome there. Pretty good deal if you ask me. AND I got my border collie pictures finally. Ryley will be proud. 


One other thing about yesterday: I got to experience the wonderful thing known as the stinging nettle (something else you can google). It is this plant here in the UK that John first told us about in Wales. And the first thing he said was to stay away from it. Well, as you can tell from the name, it stings. I accidentally touched one with my leg (of course on the only day this whole time I decided to wear shorts). And it was insanely painful! It looked like 100 mosquitoes had bitten me in one area. I survived though. No worries. So I have that experience checked off on my life's to do list. 


Tuesday, today, finally caught up! Today, we left South Galson and headed to our final stop, Stornoway. Stornoway is really not that big of a town at all, but compared to the other places we have been, it seems like New York City. Since we had already had a afternoon in Stornoway in place of the Callanish stones on Saturday, we decided to go see the stones this afternoon after we got settled in the hostel and got food. Even though they are just stones standing in the ground, it was neat to see them and all the history there.  


Later on after dinner tonight, we were hanging around at the hostel and a guy came to collect our pay to stay there. It was slightly weird at first because we are already paid for and it was confusing but we worked it out and then talked with the guy about what we were doing here. After learning about our interest in Gaelic, he stopped us and told us he had just the guy for us. He got out his phone and called him right then! And then the man he called said he would be over in 5 minutes! Completely crazy! Things are just falling in our lap now! We talked with him and went to a pub next door to talk some more. He is totally a Gaelicaholic. I just made that word up. It's fun to say. But I think it sums him up. He is also a storyteller so that's an interesting twist. He offered to be a tour guide of sorts around Stornoway tomorrow and he works at the Gaelic radio station and invited us there too. I think he is going to be awesome to say the least. Things are going well for our last few days and God has definitely provided us with opportunities that we couldn't even have imagined and for that I am and will always be thankful. He's way more creative than I am anyway... 


We'll be here in Stornoway until Friday morning. Then we'll travel by ferry/bus to Glasgow and stay there Friday night. Saturday to Monday, we'll be in Manchester for debriefing with all the video teams and then home sweet home! 


If you have read this far, I commend you greatly! And you deserve a hug from me. You may cash it in the next time you see me.

I'm still alive

So internet has been scarce...

We are now in South Galson, Isle of Lewis. I have a running blog draft on my phone because it's easier to carry it with me and write, but I can't post it unless I have wifi (in order to get it off my phone). Right now (because of some bus schedule mishaps) we are in Stornoway for a couple hours and found a library with computers with internet so I am not using my own. Instead of trying to rewrite the entire week's worth of stuff and forgetting stuff, I'll wait a couple more days until I have wifi to post everything in depth. Supposedly, we have wifi in our next hostel that we will arrive at Tuesday.

So this is to say I'm alive, things are still going, if you haven't heard from me, I don't hate you.

God is good though and I can't wait to share!

Until more reliable internet...

Millennium Forest: I don't exist.

Today could be seen as a very unproductive day, but at the same time productive. Why you ask? Well, for starters it's Saturday. I know for some people that means go out and do things in town, etc. but here that means stay home and have fun there. Second, it has been rainy/windy all day so no one is out because of that too.

We were going to take the bus at 11 to the other side of North Uist to a cafe there in hopes to find some people there. We set out this morning to the bus, stopping at the post office and the church here. We are planning on going to church there tomorrow so we were going to stop by and see if anyone was there. The door was unlocked and no one seemed to be around inside or out so we looked around a little. They had some Bibles and things in Gaelic so that was cool. Unlike Castlebay, this church is a Free Church of Scotland so I'm not quite sure what to expect. We'll find out tomorrow though. So after getting some footage there we went to the PO which is in this art museum/store/cafe thing. The ladies there told us that we should come back Monday and interview the manager. I hope we can because that sounds like it would be good! On to the bus stop...oh by this point it's raining pretty bad. Well not really raining, but heavy heavy misting. Like my face was dripping wet. It was crazy. Also I, for some unknown reason, didn't wear my rain jacket. I just wore my semi-rain jacket thing. Mistake. It was totally wet. So we got to the stop and then decided not to go to the cafe because there probably wouldn't be anyone there anyway, it being the weekend and all. We turned back and decided to go back to the hostel and regroup.

The mist was so bad that you couldn't see past a certain point. It looked like a white sheet was covering a 20 foot radius around me keeping me from the outside world. This was the first really rainy longlasting bad weather we've had though since being in Scotland  though so it's been better than what we thought.

After lunch, we went back out. This time the rain had been replaced by the wind. It was so strong! The birds flying had trouble going anywhere. It was like they were flying in place. I felt bad for them. Last night after dinner, we went on this path that is near our hostel. It takes you to a bridge (which is pretty old and scary looking) and then to a place that had a "hut of shadows" and the "millennium forest." We found the hut and it was cool looking although we didn't know what its purpose was at all. We joked and had a theory that it was the entrance to the secret underground pub that all the locals go to. That way, they can get away from all the tourists and leave the hotel bars for them. This theory would explain why no local people are out ever and why we only find tourists. Anyway, the place we walked around was really beautiful and in parts it even looked like pictures I've seen of the west in America. We got to see the sun set too! The only problem was that there was no forest anywhere in sight so I think something might have been wrong with the "millennium forest." And as I thought about forests I realized there were like no trees on Barra at all and only a few on Uist. I thought that was strange. But anyways, this afternoon we ventured back to that little path and walked around again. This time though, Elise figured out what the hut was. It was like this old camera hut thing! It had a hole in the wall with mirrors and whatnot and inside the hut on the wall you can see the picture from outside. So cool!

Also, I saw a border collie on the path but it was with it's owners and I didn't want to take a picture of their dog and it be creepy so I am still on the hunt for a picture of one for Ryley.

Later on, we went back to the art museum/store/cafe thing and looked around in the galleries and museum. I really liked the museum and learning about the history of North Uist. They have it set up really well. They had a map of Scotland in there divided by all the clans. It was cool!

Lastly let me tell you about the bees here (Barra and here in Uist). They kind of divebomb you. Seriously like 10 times we have been walking and a bee has come out of nowhere and buzzed right past our heads and hovered. It's quite crazy sometimes.

Tomorrow is church and then I don't know what because everything is closed here on Sunday. Literally. It's okay though because I know God will provide what we need when we need it!

Sunset in Castlebay from last Monday (I now have internet fast enough to upload!)

Castlebay

Our ketchup packet, Craig

Con Artist Cat

Scary bridge in leading to hut

The hut of shadows

Sunset in Lochmaddy

Sunset in Lochmaddy

Bye Barra! Hi Uist!

I’ll try to pick up where I left off with my last blog. Wednesday night, we went to one of the hotels in Castlebay (like a 5 minute walk from us) where they have dinner at their restaurant and also free wifi. Elise got this chicken stuffed with haggis dish and I tried some of the haggis. I don’t know if it tastes different inside a chicken than just eating it straight up, but either way I had a bite. It wasn’t my favorite. To me (which I thought was so weird) it tasted like stale leftover Chef Boyardee sauce from a can. I had the shrimp and those were wonderful. 

Thursday we went to the Heritage Center in Castlebay. They have a cafe as a part of it and we ate there for lunch. I had like the best baked potato ever (or maybe it felt that way because I hadn’t had one in awhile). At the table next to us was three old ladies who looked like they met here often and this was their usual hangout. After hearing them talk a little bit, I came to the conclusion that they were not speaking English. I knew it was probably Gaelic but I couldn’t make out any words. After we finished, we went outside to wait for them (which is really hard to do without looking like a creepy stalker). They came out finally and we talked with them and they had all grown up on the island and were native Gaelic speakers. We asked to interview them, but as soon as they heard the word “video” they didn’t want to be interviewed. It was still nice talking to them though. I came to the conclusion that they are the Gaelic Golden Girls. I'm glad we met them! (Even if it was stalkerish).

Thursday night, yesterday, we went to the Castlebay school summer ceilidh, which was like a talent show of sorts. It was really neat! They had a whole bunch of music and dancing stuff. The kids were so talented. Aalso, one would think that a performance like this would be formal kind of. But this was totally not. People were getting up the whole time and it was like a party or something, but everybody was okay with that. I thought it was funny. I felt like such an outsider though because the village is so small that I'm sure everyone knew Elise and I weren't from there. We saw one of the Golden Girls there too, so that was good to talk again. They are so nice! 

After the ceilidh, we went back to the hostel and repacked. That is quickly rising to the top of my "things I hate to do" list. In order to procrastinate, I played with the owner's cat. Pause. Let me tell you about this cat. It's a con artist cat, as called by the owner's mother. One time this cat totally stowed away on the ferry to Oban and got lost there and someone sent it back! That's crazy! Unpause. Okay back to packing.

Oh another thing, Wednesday night, at the hotel, we didn't know exactly where to pay (one of those do you pay up front or at your seat? type places) so we just passed time by playing a game with a ketchup packet where you flick it back and forth trying to get it to stop halfway on and halfway off the table. We played this for awhile and names the ketchup packet Craig (after the hotel) and decided to bring him with us and document his journey though Scotland. It doesn't take much to entertain us sometimes it seems...

This morning (Friday) we had a 7 am ferry to Lochboisdale. Then from there we got a bus to Lochmaddy, where we are staying until Tuesday. On the ferry, I pretty much slept all the way so it went by fast. Once we got into Lochmaddy, we went to find where we are staying. It looks like we are two of four people staying there, for tonight at least. It seems so empty compared to the hostel in Castlebay, which was always full and lively. From our initial walk around Lochmaddy, it looks even smaller than Castlebay. There is one school with 2 teachers and 20 students. There was like no one out and about, which worried me in terms of getting interviews. Right when we got to our hostel though, the owner told us about a house nearby where two men are that we need to talk to and interview, so that seems like a possibility and I was glad she suggested it!

There is a hotel near us (it seems a a little weird that there are hotels, but not much else in the village to me) that has free wifi, so hopefully I can come and update over the next few days. 

Oh sidewalks! I need to mention this about sidewalks. Here there are sidewalks generally, but they always go a little bit on one side and then just stop and there is no more. You have to walk to the other side of the road to get back on. It's so weird.

Wednesday in Castlebay. That rhymes!

Yesterday, we talked with the Volunteer Center place here in Castlebay about anybody they knew who could speak Gaelic or have input on the culture and the lady working there gave us a lot of names. It actually worked out though, that they knew of a few Gaelic speakers/teachers who they could get to come to meet us so we were excited about that possibility.

So today, we had two goals: get those interviews and also go to the Catholic church here and see if we could talk to the priest.

Before we set out though, we had a little switching around time in the hostel. The couple who runs the hostel was out and their mother was doing the booking today except she couldn't read the handwriting of the records. Anyway, it had us moving into another room tonight and then again tomorrow. She finally figured it out though and we ended up leaving our room with our German friend and going to another room for the next two nights. It's better though because it's just us in the room so that's good!

So after that, we set out to the church and we did get to talk to the priest. He couldn't interview though because he would have to check with his superior and whatnot about what he could say and all that so we didn't get any footage. It was nice meeting him though!

Next was the volunteer interviews. We got two interviews; both of them were Gaelic speakers. I think it went really well and I'm happy we met them!

This afternoon, we finally washed clothes (the first time since I left Alabama). They smelled so bad. I don't know how much you know about dryers here, but they pretty much don't exist where I have been so everything is hanging to dry.

Today has been the first day that the weather wasn't sunny and warmish (here that means 60s) too. It's been raining most of the day. Tomorrow is our last full day here and we're going to the Heritage Center to talk to more people.

Also, I forgot to mention this back when we were in Glasgow! We had a TV in the room there and you want to know the first thing I watched in Scotland? Cheaper by the Dozen. I thought that was funny. And then there was a show (that was quite addictive) where a group of 5 people each cooked a meal each night of a week for each other and got scored on it by the others. It was like a cooking reality show. Later on though, Braveheart came on and I have to say that watching that in Scotland feels a little different than in America...

Errr...what's that place's name again?

Today we set out on our first bus adventure on the island to hopefully find people to interview. It's a relatively small place so I knew that the bus rides would be short. But we made our way up to the north part of the island, Eoligarry. I could never remember the name of the place though.There is a really beautiful coastline there. It was pretty remote but then again, most of this island is. Castlebay is the most populated area and even that is like the Stars Hollow of Scotland. So we began to think that going up to this place was a bad idea because there was no one around and if there was, they were tourists. Soon after that though, this couple was sitting on the rocks watching the sea and we decide to go talk to them. They were very nice and we got an interview with the woman! It was great. Even after the interview we talked for a while so that was nice. They didn't speak Gaelic but I think it was still a good time. After that we explored a bit more and got on the bus for the way back to Castlebay. By this time, we had seen the entirity of Barra pretty much.

Last night, we ate dinner at the hostel (grilled cheese and soup. go college students!) We were at the table with our roommate. We talked for about an hour about a ton of stuff. She is from Germany and here for a 2 week vacation. After dinner, she invited us for a walk to a beach on the west side of the island that she had been to earlier. We were going to watch the sunset. It was so pretty! Even if it was 10:45 by the time it finally got close to setting. Very beautiful!

Castlebay, I'm finally here.

Yesterday, Sunday, felt like another one of those long days. We left our hotel in Glasgow around 9 and had a train to Oban at 9:55. We arrived in Oban around 1ish and had a ferry at 3:40. So we had some time to kill. I had a shrimp sandwich from the "seafood capital of Scotland" and it was pretty good if I do say so myself. We walked around a bit in the town, but it wasn't totally ideal because we had all our stuff. A LOT TO CARRY. The ferry was almost like a mini cruise ship. I have only seen things about ferries on like TV or movies and this wasn't what I expected. They had a restuarant, tv lounge, dog area, stores, and multiple decks. It was really beautiful scenery too so I spent a lot of time sitting on the side deck with my camera. It was super windy so it got cold but I liked it. I only got semi sea sick one time so I went and fell asleep to make it go away. The ride was about 5 hours long and we got there in the 8 o'clock hour. Once in Castlebay on the Isle of Barra, we went to our hostel to get settled in. We are in a room for 4 and one other roommate was in there when we got in. After that we went to explore a bit of the town. It wasn't much though because it was like completely dead at this hour, but it was weird because it was so light outside. The sun doesn't go away til maybe 11:30, 12...Later on in the hostel, our last roommate finally came in, except he and his friends were completely drunk and they woke the entire hostel up. Some people yelled at them though and it was taken care of.

Today, our first full day in Castlebay, we went around town to see who we could meet and potentially interview. There is a church here and we wanted to talk to the parrish but he wasn't here today so we'll try again later in the week. We met a guy in this Toffee Shop (which has the best toffee ever by the way) and he is from Glasgow. He doesn't speak any Gaelic though so that was sad, but it was nice talking to him either way.

Right now, we're at the library, which is in the school here so that's a little weird but they have free internet. I think we may go to the post office after this to find out more stuff. Tomorrow we're taking the bus to the northern part of the island...I can't remember the name of the place...starts with an E. Anyway, it's near the airport here. The beach is the airport at low tide. Just so you know what type of place this is.

We stay in Castlebay until Friday. Then we'll travel to Lochmaddy, North Uist.

Glasgow

So yesterday was the last full day here in Wales for me. And it was a full day indeed. And it rained all day too. It was a lot of getting final details and final sessions on things. In language class, we went over some of the last bit of the cassettes. John also gave us a little packet of language stuff. It was intense. Later on, we had a session on personal evangelism. I thought it was really relevant because we focused first on why sometimes our evangelism strategies don’t work. I feel that way all the time, so it really hit home. Instead of placing emphasis on the presentation we give people, we should just live a life that is so reliant on God and Christ’s resurrection is so alive in our lives, that things just come out of our lives in the relationships we have with people. I realized that’s why I have always been terrified of evangelism. I might say the wrong thing at the wrong time or in the wrong way...but if I focus on my own relationship with God and make sure my life is what He wants it as, evangelism will happen through my life. 

Later on we did a lot of cleaning to get ready to leave. Another group is coming in today. After cleaning, the PLL fans gathered around and watched Pretty Little Liars, which I was very excited about. We were huddled in the office in the dining area though and anytime a person walked by it made a shadow on the wall and scared everyone. It was fun. I think I’ve laughed more in this week than in the past month combined. Like really. 

Elise and I left at 7 before everyone else this morning, so a lot of goodbyes happened last night. We have two debriefing weekends, so some of us will see each other again, but some won’t. It was sad to see the end! We meet all these awesome people and then have to leave! We all wished we could be one big team for each of our own assignments. Reunions will happen though.

So onto Scotland. We left for Glasgow at 7 this morning. We had a train out of Bangor, Wales to Glasgow. We are staying a night here and tomorrow heading up to the Isle of Barra. We walked around the area by our hotel this afternoon. It was raining the whole time, but still really pretty!

Yesterday we met to go over logistics for our trip specifically and it was a giant amount of information. We had like a box of stuff, while most everyone else had a pack of papers. It’s because we are traveling so much in a short time though. We stay in 5 different locations, not counting Glasgow. We will be seeing a lot!

Escaping conversation

Thursday...we’re getting near the end of the week. I feel like I’ve been here with all these people for like a month now though (And I mean that in a good way). As Molly put it, we are all so different and each are a nutcase in some area but work together so well. We could be a really good sitcom if we were filmed. I agree. Totally prime time ready. 

Let’s see, Gaelic class was good today. I like this TV/workbook thing we have but my only complaint is that they sometimes include stuff early on that is of no relevance to me. For example, like right after learning the basic “how are you?” etc. it goes on to name my wife, my children, and stuff like that, never mentioning sister, brother, mom, dad...It’s basically stuff I don’t want to fill my head with right now because there are more pressing phrases I feel like I need to know. But there actually is a set of cassettes that go with the program and it has way more stuff on it than the video. And today we found that the cassettes go further and continue on while our book’s lessons end. We’re going to make sure to get good words/phrases tomorrow. It was funny because one of the sections on the cassette was called “saying goodbye / escaping conversations.” You don’t hear that phrase a lot and I pictured someone elusively escaping a conversation and it looked funny in my head.

Tomorrow all the different teams will be presenting a song that they came up with in a mini talent show of sorts. It can be an original, a parody, a well known song with different lyrics...whatever really. Today we used team time to work on those songs. Mine and Elise’s is pretty good and I’ll share it with you tomorrow.  

Tonight in our devotional time, we went over the story of Jesus’ resurrection. It was a continuation on from yesterday’s story of the crucifixion of course, but it was interesting having the stories broken up like that. It is neat to break them up into separate things because often we read the crucifixion and resurrection just straight through as one thing. Separating it really gives a sense of the real time that took place in between the events and the feelings people had in that time.

Tonight, with some of the leftover throwaway dough from something John cooked, some people decided to have a dough war. They went to a field on the campus here and played some kind of war like game. I didn’t play but it was really funny to watch because it looked for awhile like a Narnia battle...with dough balls. I half expected someone to yell out “And for Aslan!” really loudly with a fistful of dough.

Tomorrow, all the teams are meeting with John to go over logistics for each of our assignments and where we go from here. I’ll have hopefully all the details of what’s ahead!

Gnip gnop

So I need to first say: that ping pong game is called gnip gnop. Now I feel better about that. 

Secondly, last night after everything, we were all in the girl’s building an we had an impromptu dance party in the dark. Well everyone except Alex who was already asleep. And since she was, we then proceeded to go in her room and dance while she was asleep. It was really funny. Even I (who is definitely not a dancer) thought this was fun. Dancing ballet to the Biebs’ “Down to Earth” is always fun. 

Today’s schedule was similar to the rest of the week. Our language class today was a little like yesterday except this time I was tired because of staying up later the night before. We learned more about saying things we like, etc. Coffee and tea in Gaelic are pronounced “coffee” and “tea.” Too bad I will never want to order that ever so the easy words are wasted on me. I just need to know how to say water and will be fine. Water is pronounced “ooshka.” 

Team time was a bunch of games again. This afternoon, John talked to us about storying again and also about dealing with children in the UK. There is so much different here that I would never even think about. It’s crazy. During free time, a lot of people took naps because today we were allowed to take them for the first time since being here (because of jet lag). Molly and I sat outside and went through a bunch of Disney songs and had some Disney moments. It was a good substitute for a nap. 

Dinner tonight was quite American. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, and what John called “special squash.” First let me say, “squash” here is like a juice. It’s orange or blackcurrant. I don’t really like the orange but the other is okay. They are both not as good as juice in the US to me so I haven’t drank a lot of it. Anyway, our “special squash” was code for soda. So we had coke tonight. Then ice cream for dessert. Very good.

At dinner, we had  a special guest, Rhys, the pastor of the Welsh church we visited Sunday. He is not very old, maybe like mid 20s. He talked to us about Wales and the culture here after dinner. 

Tonight we also had another storying session thing. This time, we spent part of it going over the crucifixion story and making our own storyboards of the story. This is a method in learning to recite a story. It was hard because there is not a way to draw out every line of a story. This resulted in me frantically drawing planes with a man in it for Pilate, and crowns for kings, and palm trees for paradise. Fun times.

Internet hour is over. Until next Internet hour...

Toilet bowl tag

Tuesday, June 14. So I’ll recap yesterday for you now because yesterday I couldn’t really get online to blog. See, we are allowed an internet hour from 9-10pm here so naturally we are all on it at that time eating up all the good internet. I could barely open Facebook for a little while so yeah...this is why you get it today.

So what did Tuesday, June 14 in Wales consist of for me? Some of the same stuff as Monday. Breakfast, worship time, discussion groups, another Gaelic class. Today in Gaelic we continued on with our video series/workbooks. I don’t think I mentioned that about Monday actually. We are going through a “Speaking our Language” series so that’s what is actually teaching us the pronunciations and such. It’s a really helpful thing and it’s very funny because it acts out different scenarios to put the phrases to use we are learning. One scene was at a bank where a woman was writing a check and she dated it 1993. That can tell you a lot what this video looks like. The fashion is wonderful. AND THE HAIR. Even in Scotland, they had a 90s look. Language-wise today was a little harder for me for some reason. I knew the old stuff from Monday pretty well, but learning anything new wasn’t sticking for some reason. I’ll get it though.

The afternoon consisted of an hour of team time. We played a bunch of variations of tag and other little games. My favorite was toilet bowl tag. When you got tagged you had to kneel on one leg and put our arm out for another person to come by and sit and flush it. It was a funny sight to see all of us doing that.

Our first video/photo session was today. It was more of a general thing, but it was good to get started thinking about it. There are 6 of us on video teams: 3 two-people teams, one going to Wales, one in Ireland, and one in Scotland of course. 

After dinner, we talked about working in schools here in the UK, in case any of us went into schools to connect with people. Following that was another Bible story thing and a prayer time. Tonight, John’s dessert to us was sopapilla. I really feel as if I am on a trip getting gourmet cuisine or something. He can really cook well. 

Oh forgot to mention, free time today consisted of a lot of ping pong playing. But it’s not normal ping pong. I don’t know the name of the game, but it’s like a lot of people can play it and the net is down on the table. You all are in a certain order to hit and you go around and try to make it hard for the person getting yours. I’m explaining it really bad so I should just stop trying. The point is, it’s really fun and we played a lot today. And not to brag or anything crazy like that, but I made the most awesome play ever. It was my turn to hit and the ball was in a really hard spot like I was turning and I thought it was impossible. But somehow I stuck the paddle under my leg while twisting and hit it back to the table. Don’t ask me how I did this. But just know it happened. Too bad there isn’t instant replay slowmo in real life.

I almost wish there was that as much as I wish there was “control-z” in real life.