Head in the Skye

Ok I officially suck at this. I seem to be getting worse at keeping caught up rather than better as I keep promising. But I believe I have a lot more interesting things to talk about than hospitals this time.

Picture of the fencing girls all dressed up. Me, Red, Wyoming, Blondie, Somebody's Girlfriend, and New York



The other night there was a plan for a nice quiet evening, involving me, Wyoming, and some Ben and Jerry's.... which resulted in fencers at mine until nearly 4am.... so much for plans... but we did get the B&J's and... an amazingly decent picture



Osprey showing us how much he loves us after he found out we weren't going to be back next semester



Yes, I know, I am in a skirt in TWO pictures here... this is the Christmas Ceilidh (Scottish dancing/party thing for those who don't remember) This is all the Sen No Kai group that ended up at it.



To give you some idea how intense Ceilidhs get when people know what they are doing.... just picture if hands slipped here.....



Sen No Kai in Cambusbarron, way more intense than the Uni club, but way fun... here is proof that I get my butt kicked in Cambusbarron, as well as proof that I have to still work on falling so I am less likely to break my arm.



This is at the start of the adventure to Skye. This is a river just outside of Dunkeld.



This is Wyoming attempting to skip stones in Loch Ness ... what can I say, we were trying to provoke an appearance out of Nessie



Kilt Rock... The rock in the distance there supposedly looks like a kilt... we are right by the ocean here, there are dinosaur tracks in the vicinity and lots of other cool things.

These are especially for Brandon, lots of the random stone shapes at Fairy Glen, the spiral in the middle is legit, everything else in view is not, but some are entertaining.

The "Fairy Castle" at Fairy Glen.... this place was beautiful, and slightly eerie, and definitely reverent.

Wyoming and I at the Haakan (named after a Norweigan King), and yes we some how ended up matching that day.

Hamish the Heilan' Coo (Highland cow obviously). Very touristy stop on the way back from Skye, however it has been one of my only photo opportunities for the local non baa-ing livestock

Ok as I said before I am horrible at this game, and if you just saw how long it took me to get those pictures up there correctly you would realize I am no better at that game either. Anyways where on earth shall I begin??? The beginning would probably be appropriate but I am not entirely certain I can remember that far back. So anyways, since I last wrote.... the 22nd... yeesh, you guys really should have yelled at me to write somewhere in there... because when I wait this long I have to clarify the events with dates which really just makes my job harder.

Anyways from the 22nd to the 26th was filled mostly with playing catch up on things that were supposed to happen the week before, practicals, practical reports, essays, etc. The 27th of course was Thanksgiving, here it was Thursday. I had my last class on the 24th, so it was like I was on vacation, but yet I was sitting in a computer lab with a project group all afternoon on Thursday. I did get a Thanksgiving dinner, we went to Texas's house for a "Scottish Texan Thanksgiving" as he called it, Haggis and beer was involved.... I was the bringer of the salad and salad dressing since I am one of the fortunate few to be in possession of real ranch dressing.

Friday the 28th there was great intentions to have a nice quiet early evening. Wyoming and I were going to celebrate having made meager progress on our project reports via a movie and some ice cream. Fencers, however, wanted us to come out, and when they found out we wouldn't, and where we were, they came to us. This was a lot of fun, but it resulted in fencers being at mine until 3:30 in the morning.

Saturday and Sunday there was the Sen No Kai grading... I got my yellow belt! Yay!!! Which was of course followed up Sunday by the pub, and then Joe's house for cake and other mischief, including playing in his yard, in our gis and sweatshirts, Nicky and I still look like Joe and Chris tossed us in the mud. Monday and Tuesday were mostly more project report writing, followed up by karate and pubs in the evening. Tuesday wouldn't normally be a Sen No Kai day, but I got invited to join Chris in Cambusbarron, which is a town not too far from here, unless you get lost.... which I did. As I have since found out Cambusbarron should be a 25 minute leisurely stroll from the bus stop in town. That day it took me a 1 hour power walk... I have NO idea how I got that lost. Anyways, that club has a much different outlook, and much different style than the Uni club, but it was tons of fun. And yes for those of you keeping track that was 5 days of Karate since Thursday, and something nearing 20 hours... and NO I couldn't hardly move on Wednesday.

Wednesday the 3rd was the Extreme Sports Christmas Ceilidh... which although Sen No Kai is not an extreme sport, half of the club is in Mountaineering which is considered to be one, so we were all invited, and several of my classmates invited me as well. This is I believe a record 4th time in a skirt for me this semester. This ceilidh was probably the most fun one I have been to, first of all due to the boy-girl ratio being much more reasonable, and second of all the majority of the people there had some idea what was going on.

Friday, Wyoming and I had an early start to the morning. We were headed off to join a tour group to see the Isle of Skye as well as many other very classic Scottish landmarks we hadn't made it to yet. The catch was that this tour left at 8 Friday morning... from Edinburgh.... which meant we had to be on the 6:30 am train to Edinburgh.... which meant we had to walk to the train station at 5:30 since buses don't start running from the Uni to town until much later. The tour was amazing, and well worth our money. It got off to a rough start when the gentleman behind Wyoming and I puked within 15 minutes of the bus taking off, however he was courteous enough to keep everything to himself, and so all was forgiven. That is what the hostel/tour company gets I suppose for hosting pub crawls the night before the tours. For 59 pounds, we got to see Culloden Battlefield, Inverness, Loch Ness, Isle of Skye, Portree, nearly saw Ben Nevis, saw Ft. William, Fairy Glen, and many other well known places, as well as others that were really cool that we never would have even heard of let alone gone to on our own. That seems like a lot, but another MacBackpackers pub crawl goer chose to sleep in rather than join the gentleman behind us and puke on the bus.... so he bought a train ticket and joined us in Skye... Just getting to Skye and back under those circumstances would have been more money than Wyoming and I spent on the tour, food, and lodging for the weekend. Not to mention all of the other locations that were included, as well as other perks, such as hot chocolate, and the local knowledge, history, mythology and Scottish music we got to hear along the way.

Since returning from Skye, I have had two exams, the first of which being nicer then I thought it would be after only 1 day of studying, the second of which being much more horrid than I thought it would be. My problem with the world is my brain has been trained to remember at best one paragraph on a subject, and here you have to write whole essays. Much more intimidating than you think it might be. However, the worst freak out I have had this week has not been over exams as it has been for many, it was when I was studying on Monday, and looked at a calendar, and realized 2 weeks from then I would be at home. Not entirely sure I am ready for that yet. Tonight was one of the last hurrah celebrations for several of the international students and Americans that I have befriended over here. Once again, not sure I am ready for things to come to an end.

For those of you wondering what the next few weeks look like, here is a Reader's Digest version. Tomorrow - Fencing Do

Saturday - Sen No Kai Do

Wednesday - Last exam

Hopefully throw in some post card writing, souvenir shopping and packing in there somewhere. Still need to see things like Loch Lomond and Campbell Castle, and definitely have to figure out the packing situation.... You have nooooo idea how much stuff I have acquired, ok maybe not that much but when your world has to fit in 2 suitcases.... its definitely a lot.

Saturday afternoon Wyoming, and my flatmate Alaska are going to head to Edinburgh to spend the night in the airport. We fly out by 9am on the 21st, get back to Denver 9pmish Wyoming time.

Once again any souvenir requests speak now or forever hold your peace. If you want to make plans for when I am back you probably have to wait till after the New Year, as I believe family has me commandeered until then. Any other general questions comments requests or just plain hello's I would LOVE to hear from you!!!! Miss you guys, and as shocking as it may seem, see you soon!!!