Update!

Our time here in Scotland is drawing to a close and we’ve been doing a lot of reflection over these past couple weeks. One of the things that we have discovered about ourselves during this experience is something that may come as a shock to everyone back home…we’re not bloggers! So we apologize for to those of you who were looking forward to a well maintained and often updated blog – we have done the best we can and we hope that you accept this quick update of the past couple months as our sincere peace offering!

So we last left off when Drew’s mom was still here visiting and we had just gotten back from London. The weekend following London Drew, his mom and CarlyFaith headed up to the highlands for a four day trip with the students from the program here. Unfortunately I was on duty over the weekend so I was unable to go with them. They packed a lot into four days: Culloden battlefield, Fort William, Duone Castle, Urquhart Castle, Eilan Donan Castle, Glencoe, Isle of Skye, Inverness, Dewars Distillery and much more! It was over 1000 miles on a bus…I think Drew was pretty impressed at how well CarlyFaith handled the distance, given that all the adults on the bus were getting pretty antsy towards the end of the trip.

A few short days after Carla and CarlyFaith left, Kyle and Erin came to visit. It was really great to see them again. About halfway through their stay they went to Paris for a few days which ended up being perfect timing because it was the end of the semester for the program here and I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. When Kyle and Erin returned from Paris things were a little more low key and we were able to spend more time with them. We hiked to the top of Arthur’s seat, toured Mary King’s Close and completed the Edinburgh Pub Crawl. Also during this time, Drew and I were visited by a friend/former supervisor of mine and her husband as they toured through Scotland. Unfortunately, they were only in the Edinburgh area for two days and, though they stayed at the house where we live, it was the last day of the program and we didn’t get to spend a lot of time together. Nonetheless we were able to go out for dinner in Edinburgh and catch up on all the River Falls gossip!!

After Kyle and Erin left Drew and I snagged some last minute, cheap flights to Krakow, Poland and flying back from Berlin and, once we were able to find some couchsurfers for our trip, we hit the road! We flew into Krakow late on a Thursday night, just in time to touch base with our couchsurfer, have him help us with our plans for the next day and then get to bed. We woke up bright and early on Friday and headed out to see the Auschwitz-Birkenau camps. After getting off the bus too early and having to walk a couple miles to the camps (with an extremely overfilled bladder) we finally arrived at the camp. We went first to the Birkenau camp that is very hard to describe. You look out into a field and just see rows upon rows of brick chimneys. The chimneys are all that remains of the wooden barracks that once stood at the site. After Birkenau we went to the Auschwitz camp that, unlike Birkenau, was made mostly of brick barracks so many of the building are still standing. Most of the buildings are used for different types of exhibits. I think I was most blown away by one room that, as you walk in, you discover an entire wall is a glass case full of human hair that was used from prisoners to make different types of textiles. Drew and I left the camps at a loss for words. We were both really glad that we had gone to see the camps that we have read so much about but struggle very much with trying to get our minds around what exactly happened at those camps.

After the camps we caught a bus back into Krakow city centre and met up with Damian, the guy we were staying with. We were catching a train out of Krakow that evening so he gave us a quick tour of the city. He brought us out to eat at a traditional Polish restaurant and ordered perogis which incidentally (along with the bread plate they were served on) ended up feeding us for much of the remainder of our trip. Traveling around Krakow with Damian was like traveling with our own personal photographer. Damian has a girlfriend and told us he can’t stand when they travel together and don’t have any pictures of the two of them…he was determined that we didn’t find ourselves in the same predicament! He pretty much took my camera off me and, every few meters, would stop us to take another picture. So Drew and I have about as many pictures of us together in Krakow as we do on our wedding day (okay, might be a bit of an exaggeration…). I really enjoyed Krakow, I thought the city had a great atmosphere and a lot of personality. Drew wasn’t as impressed by it but, hey, we were only there a day and then we were on our way to Prague!

So…first things first, Drew and I definitely recommend that you Czech out Prague! Okay, now that I got that out of my system…Prague really was an amazing city and was pretty much the reason why we had planned this quick, fly by the seat of our pants, trip (I didn’t make it to Prague when I was here as a student before and was determined to make it there this time around). We arrived in Prague in the early morning and were able to spend some time soaking up the city before there were too many people around. A little later in the day we took a free walking tour of the city (we’re obsessed with this company, New Europe, and their free walking tours…If ever you are in Europe you must check them out!). We were really impressed with Prague’s history, specifically in terms of its resistance to Soviet occupation. After the tour we spent a good day and a half just taking our time exploring the city. Along the way we found some great statues to take some silly pictures with and a sports bar where the tap was right at your table and kept track of how much beer you were pouring…Drew was quite impressed!

After two days in Prague we continued on our way to Berlin. Our train to Berlin was like nothing I have ever experienced. We were crammed into every possible crevice of the train and the windows wouldn’t open so we were all dripping sweat and miserably hot…it was such a relief to finally arrive in Berlin. Our first day in Berlin we took a (you guessed it!) free walking tour of the city (Berlin is actually home to the original free walking tour). One of the highlights of our walking tour was at the very beginning when our guide pointed out Berlin’s most expensive hotel, the same hotel that Michael Jackson hung a baby out the window of! Berlin is an absolutely amazing city with incredible resilience. 90% of the city was destroyed after World War II so it is almost impossible to find an old building. Yet Drew and I were lucky enough to be able to stay in a beautiful apartment that dated back before World War I with an amazing couchsurfer, Gabi. Gabi was the first “older” (not really that old…she was like my parents age) couchsurfer that Drew and I stayed with and we really enjoyed the experience. On our second night in Berlin she took us to a movie premiere for a film titled ‘Whiskey and Vodka.’ The movie was entirely in German so it was quite an interesting experience. Drew was able to pick up on parts of it and I was able to follow along. The food that was served at the premiere was also quite the cultural experience…we had our choice of pickled fish sandwiches or ground (raw) hamburger sandwiches…Drew and I were daring (well, I was daring…Drew eats anything) and tried both and enjoyed them very much. On our last night in Berlin we cooked a nice dinner with Gabi and her boyfriend, Helmut. Overall, Gabi was a great host…she let us stay in her bed while she stayed at her boyfriends and let us use her bikes to get around the city. When not hanging out with Gabi Drew and I just relaxed in the city. It was really warm and sunny during our stay so we took some time to soak up some sun in the park.

When we returned from Berlin we met our friends, Jim and Lauren, at the airport. Jim, a descendant of Scotland’s MacGregor clan had always wanted to visit Scotland and Lauren had always wanted to see London so they were able to work in both of their dreams in one trip! They stayed with us for a few days during which time we were able to climb Arthur’s Seat, again and do the Edinburgh Pub Crawl, again (hmmm…maybe we need to get more original things to do with our guests!) Anyway, it was really great to see both of them and we had a lot of fun while they were here.

The day before Jim and Lauren departed the new students for the Wisconsin in Scotland summer program arrived. There are only eighteen students in the group (compared to fifty-nine in the spring group) so it is a completely different feeling around the house. They are a really great group of students and we’ve really enjoyed getting to know them and spend time with them.

A couple of weekends ago we headed up to Milngavie (just north of Glasgow) for some authentic Scottish Highland Games. The games had a highland dancing competition, pipe band competition, battle reenactments, bmx bike shows, heavy events (think stereotypical giant Scotsman wearing a kilt and throwing a giant log as far as he can) and, the best part, the Haggis Hurling World Championship. Haggis is a traditional Scottish food and the tradition of haggis hurling comes for the days when wives used to have to toss lunch out to their husbands at work. Anyone could compete in the competition and I am proud to announce that Drew won third place in his age bracket (16 and over males)…he is the 3rd best haggis hurler in the entire WORLD!!! And, not to be undone, I should also tell you that I threw my haggis right behind Michelle McManus. That’s right, you have no idea who that is but she was the official ‘host’ of the games and she’s a pretty big deal here…winner of Britain’s Pop Idol so, basically, I was within a couple feet of Britain’s Kelly Clarkson!!!

This past weekend Drew, myself and Naomi (the assistant director of catering that I’ve been working with in my time here) headed up north for a final farewell to the highlands. We took a bus to Inverness on Thursday night and then, early Friday morning, headed up to the Orkney Islands off the northernmost tip of Scotland for a day tour. While on Orkney we got to see: Skapa Flow where boats full of oil have been anchored for two months waiting for oil prices to go up, the 5,000 year old settlement of Skara Brae, two sets of ancient standing stone circles and the ‘Churchill Barriers’ which are bridges connecting the islands but surrounded on both sides by sunken ships that, when the tide is low, rise out of the sea.

On Saturday morning we took a bus from Inverness to Fort William and, from Fort William, headed out on a 14 mile hike to Kinlochleven. The path we were hiking was the West Highland Way that connects Milngavie to Fort William in a 95 mile path. The path was absolutely beautiful as it wound through the mountains and glens…there were no roads around, no planes flying overhead, only sheep and, occasionally, other hikers. We took it slow (especially since we were all carrying our backpacks) and stopped plenty of times to fill up our water bottles from the fresh Scottish springs. It was an absolutely amazing experience and I wish we could do it again. On Sunday we really just took it easy in Kinlochleven…we did one more small hike up to Grey Mare’s Waterfall in Kinlochleven and spent the rest of the day hanging out at the loch until we had to come back to Dalkeith and back to work!

When we’re not traveling, working or hosting guests Drew and I have really just been trying to make the most of the rest of our time here. The weather has been absolutely amazing and, just last night, we had a bonfire with some of the students and when we finally came in from the fire at about 12:30 a.m. it was still light outside…it has stopped getting dark here, once the light starts dimming at one side of the horizon it starts getting bright at the next!

We’re also looking forward to our next (and last) big trip that we leave for on Saturday. We’ll be flying into Bologna, Italy and taking some time to explore Ravenna and Venice. From there we’ll be heading to Athens where we are taking a cruise of Greece and Turkey. After the cruise we head back to Italy to explore Rome and Vatican City and then we’ll be going back to Scotland for our last couple of days and then back to the states.

See you all in less than a month!!

New Photo Website

New photo website http://picasaweb.google.com/kelseym1011/ we ran out of room at http://picasaweb.google.com/drewmclean2486/