Adventures Ahoy!

My, what a whirl-wind it has been! The past week has absolutely flown past in a manner in which I am beginning to think the rest of the semester will soon follow! Since last I posted, I have been hill walking, dancing, cooking, exploring, planning… oh yes, and studying a bit too ;).

Wednesdays in Scotland, I have decided, are decidedly lovely. Each of the Wednesdays I have been here has been sunny for at least some portion of the day, and as I have no class, it is beautiful to walk around the city doing errands or exploring cafes with a good book. There are simply dozens of charming little places in Old Town (the city centre) and I am starting to develop my favorites… don’t worry; I haven’t put a toe into Starbucks (though we do have 2 or 3 in the near vicinity). In the evening I checked out a Theatre Society and gave Indian food another stab… I’m not sure if I completely agree with the British fascination with this particular cuisine, but perhaps, in time, I will learn to appreciate it.

I met my small group on Thursday and spent an enjoyable evening discussing Philemon and defending my American heritage against quite an amusing, though inquisitive, Scot with the help of one other ex-pat-- at one point national anthems were even sung, and when ended with a resounding “play ball!” every Brit in the room looked at us quite puzzled. Ah the beauty of cross-cultural education!

Friday was another beautiful day spent mostly in exploring parts of New Town and catching up on some reading (school must intrude on the visit occasionally I suppose!). My fit of good work ethic did not last long however and in the evening I met up with a friend from C.U. to make tuna casserole and biscuits (she’s actually from the south though a full-time student in Edinburgh) for a couple she knows. I must say that the concoction didn’t turn out quite so well as we’d hoped, but then again, adapting recipes for the metric system and improvising the ingredients does make things a bit harder. From dinner we went to a city-wide C.U. meeting called “Unite” and got the chance to meet students from 4 other universities which was really fun. After that we headed to StreetEvange with the accompanying “study” before hand. This week was much warmer than last, but also a bit slower, so we ended up doing a lot of chatting amongst ourselves in between waves of hot chocolate drinkers which was nice. I didn’t get in until about 3 am though, which made getting up at 6:30 that same morning a bit of a difficulty.

The reason for my early awakening was the fact that a friend and I went “hill walking” with some members of her church on Ben Lomond. Before I go any further, let me just preface this story with a bit of vocabulary. First of all, “Ben,” in Scottish, means “mountain, “hill walking” means “mountain climbing,” “good shoes” means “attachable ice treds,” and “warm clothes” means “ski gear.” Needless to say, I was unaware of this rather crucial vocabulary before I set out, but was made quickly aware of it as we started the ascent. Before we began, the woman in charge pointed to a snowy mountain-top obscured by fog and clouds saying, “That’s where we’re headed!” … And so the adventure began!

The hike was magnificent. As we climbed we saw more and more of the surrounding countryside and Loch (not Lake) Lomond, which is a body of water stretching for roughly twenty miles and dotted with islands of no mean size. As it was a bit overcast that day, the cloud formations became quite breathtaking, especially when mirrored in the lake beneath. Luckily for us, the clouds merely looked menacing, while saving their dousing for other victims! I’m sure we had quite enough to be getting along with with the ice, loose rocks, and steep, narrow path without adding rain to the mix! In total, our party made about 13, half of which were experienced hill walkers who knew quite a bit about the surroundings and were eager to share both their knowledge and their hot tea with an avid audience when we made periodic stops to gather in the stragglers and take in the fantastic view. In all honesty, I don’t know a better depiction of God’s power/majesty than the view from various points on a 3,000 foot tall mountain! As we neared the top, the real excitement began.

First off, we had to scale a nearly vertical cliff before we could access the “paths” to the summit, whilst avoiding the bits of black ice that covered the best footholds. We soon learned that the grass tufts were our safest bet and made quite ridiculous spectacles of ourselves in order to reach them. Once we reached the summit path we also had to contend with the wind that had, to that point, been more of a hair-knotting nuisance than anything, but had increased in strength so much that at one point I was leaning into it at a 45* angle and still being blown sideways. At times, it was actually helpful because, if angled appropriately, one could almost sit into it to take a break … that is until it gave a particularly good gust at which point the unfortunate rester would be shoved head-first into the snow… not that I’m speaking from experience of course.

I was the first of our group to reach the summit (after having taken victory pictures at 3 other “summits” in turn—its rather a deceptive mountain) and reveled in the excitement by hunkering down behind a trig post to keep from being blown off the mountain, peek past the clouds at the valley floor, and wait for the rest of the group. The whole trip took us about 5 hours up and back not including the two hour drive from Edinburgh. On the way down we had the benefit of being able to slide down great portions of the ice and snow which made it quite fun, though didn’t give enough of a break for tired ankles to rest. I don’t know how many times they (or my running-damaged knee) gave out on the way down, but it couldn’t have been good for them! At the bottom we toasted our success with hot chocolate at a nearby lodge with a huge wood-burning fire. When I got home, a long bath and a good book send me to a very restful and happy sleep.

Sunday morning found me up a bit earlier than I’d have liked to check out another church with the same girl who took me hill walking. The service was nice, and a bit closer to what I am used to, though without the spunk of a worship band. I’m afraid the classical music, though really beautiful, had rather a tendency to set me nodding than worshipping. : ( After the service we were invited for Sunday lunch with a family of four kids under the age of 13 which was tons of fun though unbelievably loud! We chased them all over the house playing games and puzzles and even feeding the gerbil, affectionately named Smudge. I got back to the flat at about 6, ready to spend a bit of time chilling with the flat mates before starting a new week.

So far this week has been relatively mild and dry (a welcome change, I assure you) and rather uneventful. I checked out the gospel choir- something I’ve always wanted to do- and found the group a blast, and other than that, I’ve spent a fair amount of time with my flat mates: editing papers, planning trips (Paris, Amsterdam, and the Shetland Islands are top of the list at the moment) watching movies, learning to make Ratatouille, and generally enjoying our shared experiences. I must dash now because I’m to go swing dancing in a bit. I hope all is well with all of you! Check out the pictures from hill walking on the left-hand side. If you click on them you can see the album a bit bigger. Cheers for now!