10 & 11 September

Well, the tenth was a relatively normal day. It was Wednesday, so we had super long Scottish History, which is somehow not interesting at all. After that, at the back of 9, Leah, D and I went to Kabob Mahal. It was delicious, as always. I can't remember if I have posted about this yet or not, but I have made friends with most of the staff of KM. They wave at me when I pass in the street, and they are all very friendly and nice. They have given good tips and advice on where to go, and are actually some of the more easy to understand Scots in the area, so that has been nice. Everyone here makes fun of me for it, and I am always the one with a new story to tell about someone I met at some bar or on the street, but I think it is really interesting. To be honest, I didn't come here to hang out with a bunch of people from Minnesota and Wisconsin, and most people are perfectly friendly if you just go right up to them and ask them a question. That is really how I have learned the most about Scotland so far.

While my kabob was grilling, we went over to the store and bought some cider to bring back. After that, we went back to the palace and watched Braveheart with a small group. It was Leah, D, Pearce, Jason, John (our Assistant Director) and me. We had a good time. I really like that movie. People here seem to like it and hate it at the same time. They like it because it really sort of put Scotland on the map in pop culture terms, but it really slaughters their history of the War of Independance. Almost everything is fictionalised, and there is actually very little written history about William Wallace, but there are a lot of myths. My favorite contradiction in it is where all the faces of the warriors are painted and they run across a valley to fight the English (although in reality they were not only fighting the Engligh, but also Wales and even some Scots loyal to Edward I. Look at me, I'm a history whiz!!) and it is supposed to be the battle of Stirling Bridge, but in actuality, the only reason Wallace won that battle was because it was literally on a bridge, and the English could only cross it two by two, so the Scots took them down. They would have been terribly defeated had the battle been on the ground because the English had twice the number of soliders. Enough of a history lesson for today.

The eleventh was another low key day. We had class, and then we packed for the Highlands, which we leave for on Friday. After that, Leah, D and I, along with Sara, Jamie and Julia went to Tesco, which is like Wal-Mart. They are open 24 hours, and have really anything you could need. We took the bus out there (it is in Dalkeith, but about an hour and a half round trip walk). While we were waiting at the bus stop, we were mooned by passerby. Somehow, even without saying anything, they know we are American.

After shopping for a wee bit, we came back to Dalkeith (nearly missing the last bus of the night!) and met another group of students hanging out in the dining hall playing drinking games (we did not participate in those). We hung out with them for a couple hours, but they were all fairly pissed, and were doing some stupid stuff like playing basketball at two am which woke up the caretaker, and someone, although no one will admit who, threw up on the floor and our Director, Patty, had to clean it up. She was not happy, not that I can blame her. It's not often that I feel like the responsible on, but here we are.

That is about it, the next post is going to be a long one about the Highlands. It was a ton of fun, and I'll put up alot of pictures. Thanks to everyone for reading, I look at all the comments, so keep them coming. If you have any questions, just post them and I will answer them. So thanks to Mom, Erin (Drew is single, but young), Aunt Mary (Good luck to Roger for American football) and Aunt Patty and everyone else who is reading!

Cheers, Traci