Scotland!

Been busy the last week! I'll try to remember it all!

Last Wednesday we had another basketball game again the Lithuanian men! We started of the game losing as usual but then something amazing happened! I got to play! ...before we were losing by at least 20 points! I played along with the 3 other girls in the first half and at half time we were only down by 4! Then the coach put all the guys back in and we lost the game by 30 :( Oh well still fun! (The pictures are my friend Kristin and I after the intense game and on the right is us girls with the Lithuanian men.

Last Thursay we had our "Meet-A-Family!" This is a program where we can sign up to have a local family somewhat adopt us for the semester and I am also doing this with Kristin. We have a very adorable older couple that reminds us of our amazing grandparents! Tomorrow night (Tuesday) they will be picking us up from the manor and taking us back to their house to have a traditional English dinner! I hope it's yummy! They are very funny and cute! Our new mom LOVES wine and drank about half a bottle at our dinner and they both LOVE chocolate! So this should be fun!

Last Friday we left the manor at 8AM!!!! Then we drove for a veryyy long time to SCOTLAND! We stopped at the boarder rock and took some pics then adventures around Edinburgh for the weekend! Once we got to our hotel we headed out for a Scotch Whisky Experience! We rode around for 10 minutes in a big cut out barrel watching videos then we all went into a room and learned about the different scents in whisky and everything else there is to know about the drink! After we picked out our favorite scents we were able to have a little taste test, for this we went into another room that held the worlds largest whisky collection! Unfortunately I still do not have a taste for whisky...shocker. But the tour was still very cool!

After the whisky tour we went out for a very traditional Mexican dinner. So I have now have Chinese in London and Mexican in Scotland...after dinner we freshened up and headed out to find a quaint pub. Once there we discussed current events, politics, religion, and relationships. Not joking.

Saturday morning we had a nice brunch at the closest fast food place. Which just happened to be McDonalds! For the record their McDonalds are much classier than ours. They even boast about cage-free eggs. So Dad you need to get on top of that. After that we wandered around the city for the day. We checked out the National Gallery. Saw another castle and walked the Royal Mile. The Royal Mile is a road that leads from the Edinburgh Castle to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. All down the stone road are amazing buildings, restraurants, gift shops, and if you look down the little alleys, amazing pubs! But anyways we wandered down the mile and met up with some other friends. After that we decided to climb a mountain! Not really sure what the name is but I'm sure Kristin will read this and correct me :) After about an hour of hiking, sweating and heavy breathing we made it to the top. It was worth. Even with my cold and coughing most of the day.

Let's see after that we need a bit more shopping. Then we went and found the cafe where JK Rowling started and finished writing the Harry Potter series...would have been neat if I read any of the books. After that we had a nice Italian dinner, refreshed at the hotel and went out to t
his extremely popular pup. It was called Whistle Binkies and had 4 different bands playing live music throughout the night! I was hoping to hear some Scotish music..like in the movies but they played quite a bit of American music. It was still a super awesome place and I have a new found love for live music! After that we were in bed by 1! We're hard core partiers...

On Sunday we loaded up onto the coaches at 9 and headed out on the long drive home. We stopped at a famous wall...that was mostly buried...then we stopped for some lunch and made it back home around 6 last night! It was a very fun weekend! I could not explain it all in on post but I hope to go back someday!

On this weeks agenda, tonight I have a basketball game at a Royal Air Force, tomorrow is traditional dinner with the fam, Wednesday we have a day long field trip to another castle. Not sure where we are going this weekend but Sunday we have our first volleyball game at a prison! It's going to be a busy week! CHEERS!