October 13, 2008

I arrived in Aberdeen, Scotland after a seven hour train ride filled with catching up on sleep I had lost the night before and music on repeat from my ipod. Jenny who goes to Edinburgh and is the daughter of my host mom greeted me at the train station. Jenny is a senior at university and is studying zoology. She came home for the weekend for her friend, Vicky’s 21st birthday party. We hopped into the car where Jenny’s mom was waiting for us. It was then time for dinner, which Annie and I grabbed at a lovely restaurant in the center of Aberdeen. Jenny couldn’t join us because she was late to meet up with her friends. After dinner, we headed to a traditional Scottish Cehilidh for Vicky’s birthday. At first, I had no idea what a Cehilidh was. Annie told me it is a night filled with traditional Scottish music and dance. She also told me that I would be sweaty and sore by the end of the evening. At this point I wasn’t too thrilled about attending the event. However, once we arrived I was greeted by a rather large group of Jenny’s friends from university who were so welcoming and kind. The dance began around 8 o’clock and didn’t end till midnight. At first, when Annie told me I had to participate in at least one dance, I immediately didn’t want to. I had no idea what was going on and was a bit nervous that people would think of me as the stupid American who didn’t know what she the hell she was doing. My fears were shortly erased when Jenny’s friend Billy asked me to dance with him. He led me through the entire dance and I ended up picking up on the steps rather quickly. The music was beautiful and the whole atmosphere was really enjoyable. When I wasn’t dancing, I was taking pictures attempting to document the event. At the end of the night, I was sore and most definitely ready for bed. Annie lives 45 minutes away from Aberdeen and I almost fell asleep mid conversation a handful of times in the car. Jenny’s mom opened her home not only to me but also to all twenty of Jenny’s friends from school to stay the night at her house.

I woke up Saturday to a breakfast of cereal and tea; not so much of a culture shock there. We then drove to Vicky’s house for her birthday lunch where her friends and family were present. From my window I saw rolling hills for miles on end. The sun was out and so were the cows and sheep. Vicky’s home was really beautiful and the lunch her mother made was delicious. The dessert was even better—hot sticky buns with pudding. Yummm. Annie and I then dropped off Jenny and her friends at the train station who were heading back to school. Afterwards, we drove home and it was about time to start preparing dinner. I tried to help as much as I could but mostly just watched Annie cook for fear of messing up the recipe. We had croustade for dinner, which consists of lots of vegetables, potatoes, and a breaded crust. It was so good. Our evening was filling with good food, good wine, and good conversation. I don’t think there is anything much better or more enjoyable than that. Annie is a very intelligent, well-spoken, outgoing, and kind person. We talked about music, education, art, the election, tattoos, boys, style, films, her family, my family, traveling, and everything in between. She introduced me to new artists such as Richard Thompson, Ismael Lo-Jammu, and Mary Black. After dinner we started to watch a movie called, Two Days in Paris, but rather quickly turned it off. It was pretty bad.

The next day Annie’s son, Joe and his girlfriend came over to take me on a hike of a wooded area near their home. I love hiking so it was the perfect afternoon for me. The views were awesome. After the hike, we went home and were greeted by a beautifully prepared lunch of fish pie and baked apples. The fish pie wasn’t my favorite but the apples were really good. It was a long afternoon so Annie and I decided to just watch some TV before heading back to the train station for my departure. I really had an eye opening experience in Scotland thanks to Annie and the rest of her family. I feel like I learned so much about the world, life, and myself in such a short period of time. I will forever be grateful of my homestay in Scotland and hope to see Annie again in the future. I will forever think of her as my second mom. I plan on sending her a cd of pictures that I took over the weekend along with some music that I think she will enjoy. I could write pages and pages about my experience but I think I’ll stop here. I wouldn’t want to bore anyone too much. Here are just a few random selections of photos I took this weekend. I'll post more later on.