Jerusalem

     Well, I applied for the Jerusalem Center study abroad for Winter semester in July, and frustratingly, I got waitlisted.  But the wait is over.  Yesterday I heard back from the center and they said I got in!  Which means that next semester, from January 4- April 19, I am going to be living and studying in Jerusalem!  The center there looks amazing, it's 8 stories tall with separate living quarters and classrooms.  It looks beautiful.

     The Center itself is on Mount Scopus overlooking the Mount of Olives, the Kidron Valley, and the Old City.  So, the location is pretty incredible.  And the center itself seems really nice.  I will be living in a room with three other girls, with a view over the city and a private patio.  And the rest of the center has everything a school needs: classrooms, student housing, a library, a gym, a chapel, a cafeteria, and some beautiful gardens. 
     I will be studying the Old Testament and New Testament, Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Arab and Islamic Civilization, Israeli and Jewish Civilization, and Hebrew.  Also, we have a course for the field trips we take.  This semester we will be going to Turkey, Jordan, Galilee, and other parts of Israel on various excursions. 
     I think it will be fascinating to see so many different people of different cultures and religions, and to get to live amongst them and learn all their traditions and ways of life.  I'm sure it will be quite a culture shock, but in a good way.  
     So basically, now that I know I will be going, next semester cannot come soon enough!  It's going to be an incredible experience that I am looking forward to.

Back to BYU

    Well, school has started again, but this time I'm a Sophomore! It's super exciting to be back in Provo, one of the weirdest places on Earth, back with school friends and quite a few family members.  The second week of school just finished and I can slowly feel the stress mounting.  Lots and lots of readings and papers due every other Friday.  And most of the classes I'm taking are General Requirements so they're not too exciting.  And in my science and statistics class there are a lot of really unintelligent people.  I will give you just a few examples.  We were discussing gravity the other day and someone asked "How can gravity be constant?  I mean I weigh more than a rock so obviously I have more gravity."  Also, in my statistics class is quite frustrating because questions like "I don't understand what the mode is!" and "Is an experiment the same thing as an observation?"  It really makes me wonder how some people got into college. 
     But other than that slightly frustrating aspect of classes, BYU has been a lot of fun.  I've met a surprising number of new people in our apartment complex and have enjoyed the various activities we've done.
     Last weekend three of my roommates, our friend Jon, and I all hiked Y mountain, which knocked one item off of my BYU bucket list.  The hike really isn't that long, there are 11 switchbacks total, but it is steep.  Luckily I was able to blame my out-of-shape-ness on the alititude.  It took us a good hour to hike to the Y where we hung out for a while, just appreciating the view. 

                                  (I didn't take this picture, but this is what Y Mountain looks like)
     And then last night a small group of us went up to campus at 11PM and played night games for a few hours.  We played Commando, which is a game where one person designates three or four items in the area that you have to run to and touch before running back to base.  The thing that complicates this is that, while everyone is running, one person stays at base and shuts their eyes and counts to a certain number.  Once they reach that number they open their eyes and look for the runners.  If you get seen you are out.  So, it becomes a game of hide and seek, which is a lot of fun.  We also played sardines, which is where one person hides and everyone else seeks.  Of course these games are a lot of fun in daytime, but a certain thrill is added at night, when everyone is wearing black and disappears as soon as the game begins.
     So, BYU has been a lot of fun so far and I am really excited for the rest of the semester!

There's no Place Like Home!

     Well, I have discovered that I blog the same way that I journal.  I am pretty faithful about doing it for a decent amount of time.  But once I miss one day (or week) I just stop doing it for a while.  So, for all five of my faithful blog readers, sorry about that.  But anyways, as the title of this blog suggests I am home now.  So you may be wondering what happened the last three weeks I was in Europe.  Well, let me explain.
     The whole reason I stopped blogging is because my family arrived in Scotland!  YAY!  I was so happy considering we hadn't seen each other in two months.  But of course, that didn't last long as the usual bickering and room sharing problems began.  Basically, Katie and I (who had been there the longest) got kicked out of the house and spent our last two weeks in Scotland living in a caravan in my Granny's driveway.  But it's not as bad as it sounds.  Sure I woke up at 5AM with the seagulls and was nearly driven crazy when the rain was pounding in the roof.  And, maybe I was slightly terrified of having someone break in to the poorly secured caravan in the middle of the night, but other than that it was enjoyable.  I'm sure all of you understand now why I couldn't blog for the rest of our time in Scotland.
     But, I had a great time with the family in Scotland.  We went on all kinds of walks, fossil hunting, and basically relaxed.  I was still working some mornings, but it wasn't too bad.  We also went to see Transformers 3, which I really enjoyed, partially because I got to see some of it filmed when I was in DC.  And one day Rowan, Dad, and I went four-wheeling.  I had never been before and it was a lot of fun.  It was very bumpy, so we kept bouncing around.  And I don't really weigh enough to keep it down.  I almost got tossed off a few times, but it was very exciting.  We also visited a lot of family and friends and watched some classic British television.
     But, it seemed to end very quickly and on July 15 we all headed down for a week in England.  So enjoy, my very artistic final Scottish pictures...

 Granny and Katie at Rogie Falls

 Fossil hunting at the beach at Ethie

My dad and his incredible fire lighting skills

  Luckily, for our England trip, I flew down with Rachel and Granny and did not have to endure the 11 hour drive that the rest of my family had.  We spent a week in a cute 17th century Georgian farmhouse that reminded me very much of a house in a Jane Austen story, especially because it had no internet and no cell phone service.  It was called Wash Farm.  And it was connected to a riding school.  So there were horse pastures and stables right next to the house, which was a lot of fun. 

 

We had a lot of fun in England.  All of my dad's family was together, all five brothers the three wives and 8 grandchildren.  We went to go see the final Harry Potter movie, spent a day in Cambridge  walking around and punting on the river (where parts of Harry Potter were filmed), played kickball in the rain, played endless rounds of bananagrams, and read a lot.  
 

The Cutler family all together again

 One of the cute houses in the town of Clare.

 So, on this vacation I made it to town of the year, and more importantly, loo of the year!

 King's College at Cambridge

 Granny, Elliott (in the red), Owen, Rachel, and Rowan in Cambridge

 Punting on the river in Cambridge

 Cambridge's River

But, alas, all good things must come to an end, and our time in Europe certainly did.  We all flew home on July 22 with our fair share of delays and fatigue. And although we had such a great time in Scotland and England, I am so glad to be home in my own room and with my own bed.  And I am glad we have another month before we have to head out to school.

     This week I am in Washington DC with my family, the Hoopers, spending time with their 7 kids.  I spent a lot of time with them my first semester so it's great to see them again.  Tyler (the second oldest) just had surgery, so I am helping clean and cook and babysit.  But it's been a lot of fun.  

     And the rest of the summer should be equally exciting.  My cousin, Thomas, is getting married on August 5, I've got some back to school shopping to do, and back to school parties in a few weeks.  So, altogether, you could say it's a wonderful summer!

A Semi-royal Adventure

This past week we visited the beautiful Dunrobin Castle about an hour away from Fortrose.  It's the estate of the Sutherland family, which is cool because we also happen to be from the Sutherland clan.  We wear the same tartan as them, which practically makes us eligible to live in that castle.  It was a very attractive castle and very modern. 

They didn't let us take any pictures inside of it, but they had a lot of interesting interior design.  They had portraits of various family members on all the walls in the castle.  And where there was room they had many deer heads and even a few complete stuffed deers that they had shot.  It was kind of weird, but it certainly added to the slightly eclectic design.  We spent a few hours wandering around the inside of the castle before heading out to the gardens, which are usually one of my favorite parts of castles.  They didn't have any mazes, unfortunately but they did have a gorgeous yard and if you walked all the way back you ended up on the beach.  It was the perfect setting.  A castle on a hill by the beach.  You don't get more perfect than that. 

While we were in the gardens they did a falconry show.  This man had owls, eagles, falcons, and hawks and did a hunting demonstration with all of them.  He even got them to land gently on different people's heads.  IT was quite interesting.

     After the falconry demonstration we visited the museum they had on the edge of the grounds.  I don't know what I was expecting, but my first glance around as I walked through the doors definitely freaked me out.  The walls were absolutely covered by animal heads.  There were gazelles, a crocodile, an elephant head, and all other kinds of African wildlife.  And right in the middle of the room was a giraffe neck sticking out of the ground.  And to the side of that was an elephant leg made into a trashcan.  It was so weird.  And the museum was full of the Sutherland's other hunting victories. 
      We left the castle shortly after that and on our way back stopped for the ever popular fish and chips, just to complete a great day.  Visiting castles is one of my favorite things to do when we are in Scotland.  I have always had this dream of someday being rich enough to purchase a castle and renovate it.  It probably won't ever happen as it is a bit expensive to buy a castle, and I don't really know how to go about marrying into a royal family.  But, you never know, if I get my way, you may one day see me living there.

Tennis, Travels beyond Tarbet, Theatre, and Travails

     Well the past week or so has been quite busy.  We have been in Scotland for almost four weeks now and we have settled into routine now.  Our days begin around 9:30 or 10 when Katie and I wake up (if we aren't working in the morning).  We eat breakfast, hang out around the house, and then have a late lunch at 1 or 1:30. Then we go out for a walk in the afternoon and enjoy the weather as much as possible before coming back for tea time.  After tea, we generally read or watch TV while Granny and Katie work on their tapestries and I do a puzzle.  Then it's time for dinner, which is always delicious.  And then dessert while we watch a movie or TV show before heading to bed and starting the whole cycle again the next morning.
     However, this week quite a few notable things happened.  First off, tennis tournaments began.  First we watched the French Open, our eyes flicking back and forth and back and forth and back and forth across the screen.  We sat in front of the TV rooting for Englishman Andy Murray, who unfortunately lost, and watching Granny yell at the players on the screen.  We just laughed until it appeared that her words actually affected the players.  When she got really angry they would do whatever she told them to do.  But of course, once she was satisfied and no longer annoyed with them they went back to their old ways.  However, the tennis has been really enjoyable.  We have also watched a lot of the Queens tournament, which had two Englishmen in it, two in the semi finals and Andy Murray who is in the finals today.  Of course, the commentators were more excited about the fact that Pippa Middleton was sitting in the crowd than the tennis that was being played, but that's only to be expected.  I mean that's why I watch tennis, to hear about the celebrities in Britain.
     But other than tennis, we have been doing more exciting things this week.  On Monday morning the weather was nice so Katie, Granny, and I headed out on an adventure.  We drove about two and a half hours over to the west to Tarbet where we caught a ferry to Handa Isle.  I say the word ferry here, but what I mean is a pathetic little boat with two benches stretching down the middle.  The benches had five or six backrests that made up the seats.  So we basically straddled the benches and leaned against the backrests, it was kind of like horseback riding, which was an odd feeling as we sped across the water.  Luckily, it was only a ten minute ride to Handa Isle, a nature reserve with thousands of birds and other wildlife.  We had a quick meeting in the small visitor's center (and by center I mean "hut") before heading out on the trail.
     It was beautiful.  The scenery on the isle was amazing.  It looked so untouched except for the small trail that we were on.  There were birds nesting all over the grounds.  The nests were mainly those of the Great Skuas, which we were warned to stay away from because apparently they are quite vicious (more than one innocent tourist has been dive bombed when they wandered to close to a nest).  I felt like I was in one of the places a Jane Austen novel takes place, when the heroine stares out over the wild landscape and the high, rocky cliffs to the deep blue ocean.  I only needed to be wearing a long dress and have a British accent, to be just like Elizabeth or Emma.
      We got to the cliffs after about an hour of walking and were immediately overcome by the stench of bird.  It's a disgusting smell, to say the least, when one bird is around.  But multiply that by 9,000 and it just gets ridiculous.  But anyways, we got out our binoculars and sat down along the edge of the cliffs just watching the birds and looking for the puffins.  Katie and I have been in love with puffins since we saw them in Iceland as little kids.  And then of course we watched the Swan Princess which has a heroic puffin as a character.  So, in my imagination I was seeing this.

So, it was nice to refresh my mind on what puffins actually look like (although it's not too far off from the Swan Princess)

     It took a while and a couple of movements along the cliff, but eventually we found where the puffins were.  The were all nesting on top of the "Great Stack" which was an enormous rock formation sticking out at least 100 feet above the ocean.  And then, Katie saw that there were a few nesting just 10 feet from where we were sitting.  It was so cool.  We just sat and watched them for about an hour as we had a little picnic.
     But, eventually we had to move on so we could catch the boat back in time.  We walked for another two hours to get back to the visitor's hut.  In that time it started to rain a little bit, so of course I had to slip and fall over a rock.  Just my luck, right?  So I spent the rest of the time walking around as a cold and muddy person.  But, it was worth it.  The scenery was so beautiful and we got to see a lot of different birds and rabbits and other wild life.  By the time we got back to shore and our car it was dinner time.  So we drove about an hour to Ullapool and ate at the local "Chippy", which was delicious.  The scenery on the drive back was as stunning as it was on Handa Isle.  There are mountains everywhere and lots of cute small villages with very old fashioned houses.  It was an amazing day.
   And the rest of the week was just as fun.  Thursday night I saw my first opera, Rigoletto. It's a tragic opera by Verdi about Rigoletto, the court jester, and his daughter, Gilda.  Rigoletto is jester for a duke who is a bit of a womanizer, who goes too far when he makes fun of the devilish Monterone who puts a curse on Rigoletto.  Gilda, his daughter, has been kept secluded all her life because Rigoletto wants to protect her, but she meets the duke at church and he follows her home and uses here naivety to make her believe he loves her.  His friends then kidnap her for him and he seduces her.  When Rigoletto finds out he hires Scarafucile, an assassin, to kill the duke.  However, before Scarafucile kills the duke, his sister falls in love with him and begs him not to.  Because Scarafucile doesn't want to cheat Rigoletto, he decides to kill the first man that comes to his house and give Rigoletto that body instead.  Gilda hears him say this and disguises herself as a man and goes to their house to sacrifice her life for the duke's.  She goes to Scarafucile's house and he stabs her, and gives her body in a bag to Rigoletto.  As Rigoletto walks away with the body he hears the duke singing in the distance.  Horrified, he opens the bag to discover his daughter there dying.  They sing one final song together and she dies.  The End.  Obviously, it's quite tragic, but the music was beautiful and the singers were really talented.  I enjoyed the opera but I had a few problems with it.  First off, it was quite long, over two hours and it's hard to pay attention to constant singing for that long.  But the other problem was that they were singing in Italian which I don't know, other than saying "ciao" and "grazie".  So they had surtitles which were above the stage.  So I was constantly looking up and back down to the actors, then up again every time a new line came up on the screen.  It was just like watching tennis, looking up and down and up and down again.  So sometimes it was hard to keep track of exactly what they were singing about and who was saying what.  But overall, it was a fun experience.
       The only other thing of note I did this week was work.  I spent one night waitressing, which was pretty fun.  I have gotten to know quite a few of my coworkers fairly well by now.  So it was fun to joke around and catch up on all the kitchen gossip.  And I did get £17 in tips!  Which is approximately $28.  So, it was an enjoyable night.  Plus, we get free meals when we are working, and they are delicious.  The other four days I worked this week were spent doing housekeeping, which is not quite as exciting.  It means making beds, cleaning bathrooms, vacuuming, and sweeping for 4-5 hours in the morning.  Luckily, I am done by 1:30PM at the latest.  And I enjoy working with Kim, she's fun to talk to and she works as quickly as I do.  So overall work is not a painful experience, and I don't mind going, which I can't say about any other job I have tried doing (babysitting and Water Country, and sometimes piano lessons).
      So, this past week or so has been a lot of fun.  I love being here in Scotland with Granny.  Playing banana grams and scrabble, or rummikub and other card games, or going on long walks by the seaside.  Scotland is a beautiful country and I am enjoying every minute I am here.

 The path across Handa Isle

                                                    The view from the visitor's hut

 

Handa Isle's Visitor's Center

 

Granny and Katie walking up toward the Puffin Viewing Area on Handa

 Granny and me puffin watching

 

The cliff face where seabirds are nesting on Handa

 

Thousands of birds- skuas, gulls, kittiwakes, etc- on the Great Stack

                                                          The Fairy Glen in Rosemarkie

                                                  The view of Fortrose from the hill
 

Just Another Rainy Wednesday

Well, as suggested in the title of this post, the weather still hasn't improved.  I have been here two weeks now and every day has been rainy and windy with patches of sunshine where one quickly gets up the courage to venture outdoors before the next downpour.  But despite the misery that is Scottish weather, I have been really enjoying myself.  It has been a really relaxing week.  I worked Friday night as a waitress and won't work again until tomorrow when I am back on maid service.  But I enjoy waitressing, I am good at memorizing orders and am fast learning how to use the cash register's weird system.  Plus, talking with the customers is usually enjoyable.  And the people in the public bar are REALLY friendly.  I have been complimented by several men and one man went so far as to say that I was the sexiest woman he had ever seen.  To which I promptly asked him what his wife sitting next to him thought of that, but he was lucky and she just laughed.  So, it's not too bad.  However, maid service is just so boring.  We clean bathroom after bathroom and bedroom after bedroom before vacuuming and dusting the entire building.  So it's like Saturday chores for five hours.  But luckily I am done by 1 or 2 in the afternoon, so there is still a lot of time left in the day to do whatever I want. 
     But this past week when I wasn't working was quite nice.  I have now done four puzzles, which may not sound interesting or relaxing to many people, but I really enjoyed doing it.  Two had 1000 pieces and the other two had 500.  Granny finds all of this immensely impressing, but she didn't see what I did before I came out here.  Eleven 1000 piece puzzles in 10 days is much more impressive to me.  So while Katie and Granny have been working on their tapestries I have been puzzling away.  We have also had plenty of time to watch television and movies.  And nothing is better than British television.  We have gotten hooked on the British version of The Apprentice every Wednesday night.  Katie and I also watch Dr Who every Saturday.  And we have been watching the classics, too.  We watched Sense and Sensibility and are half way through Charles Dickens' "Little Dorritt" which I really like.  We have also watched a four part series called Lost in Austen which was pretty funny.  It's about a modern girl who gets stuck in the world of Pride and Prejudice and all the trouble she gets up to there.  It basically makes fun of a lot of classic Jane Austen characters and has totally ruined the book for me, but we all enjoyed it.
     Also, we have now attended the first party of the summer, to which I can honestly say Katie and I were the life of the party.  Everyone there was at least 30 or 40 years older than us, so it made for an interesting night.  The party was at Priscilla's (a family friend) new house.  Her house got burnt down last year and has just been rebuilt.  It's a  really nice cottage with a lovely garden.  So she invited all of the family and friends over to break in her new house.  It started off pretty awkwardly since Katie and I are not really their age and often don't have a lot in common.  But we made the rounds.  By the end of the night I had my introduction memorized.  "Hi, my name is Rebecca Cutler.  I'm Florence's granddaughter.  I'm 19 years old and just finished my first year at university.  I go to BYU and plan on studying international development or something related to that."  But we soon settled in the younger room with the people that were only 30 years older than us instead of 50 or 60.  The room was mostly full of different cousins and other family friends and I actually quite enjoyed myself there.
  So other than the parties we have gone shopping a few times and plan on going into Inverness to do some serious shopping within the next week or so.  Tonight we had dinner with Michael and Maureen, some sort of first cousin once removed or second cousins, I am honestly not sure, but they live next door to us and we see them quite a bit.  They were really nice and we had a lovely dinner and conversation before coming back just in time to catch the Apprentice.  So it's been nice.  And the weather is supposed to get better this weekend and for next week.  So Granny, Katie, and I are planning to go to Handar Isle to see the puffins and other sea birds at a National reserve, which will be fun.  We are also going to the opera on the 9th to see Rigoletto which should be quite good.  So it's shaping up to be a good week.
   But while here so far, I have found out my five favorite things about Scotland.

What I love about Scotland

1.   Tea time

Tea time is one of the meals in a traditional Scottish day.   It comes after lunch but before supper at approximately 4 or 4:30.  Whenever I talk about it I feel a bit like a hobbit talking about the multitude of meals we eat a day, although I never have had second breakfast or elevenses.  But tea time is my favorite.  We basically sit in the living room with a hot drink, coffee or tea for Granny and hot chocolate for Katie and me, and have cake.  What could be better?  Just when you need a pick me up in the afternoon we bring out the cake.  And it's always delicious cake, whether it's carrot cake or chocolate, or best of all, chocolate orange!  I don't know how I have survived without it in the past and I have now decided that when I get home I will institute it in our house. 

2.   The history

I love America, but one of the things I wish it had more of is history.  America is such a young country and doesn't have the extensive past of the UK or that feeling of connection with our ancestors.  I love wandering around the castles and ruins that are in Scotland and feeling connected to the history of the country.  I love the stories of hauntings and the wars and the kings and queens of old.  I can imagine the life with the royals in old palaces and in the big estates with tons of servants.  I can see the worlds of Jane Austen and the other famous writers of her day and imagine how they lived.  To me, there's an elegance and romance to their world that will never die.

3.   The romance 

Just the idea of Scotland where my Granny lives is very romantic.  It's a little coastal village that feels very disconnected to the big towns and cities.  A lot of the houses are designed in a very old-fashioned manner and the main street has ten or so shops and that's it.  Plus they have an old graveyard that's been around for centuries and an old church to go with it.  Then there's the sea.  It's such a deep blue and looks so wild a lot of the time.  And if we walk about a mile down the road we arrive at the point where the lighthouse is and where many people go to see dolphins and seals.  I just feel like a character in a novel just living here.

4.   The accents

Although often hard to understand, I love Scottish accents.  And there are so many different kinds.  There's the really thick one where the words are really hard to understand and only half the consonants are heard.  But there's also the more posh ones where everything is said very properly and sounds very elegant.  And you get the highland accent, and the more English ones, and everyone sounds so different, but so cool.  I have decided I need to learn how to at least fake it to impress all my friends at home.

5.   The landscape

The landscape of Fortrose is perfect.  First off it's right on the sea.  We can just look out the window and sea the beach.  It's a rocky beach with an ocean of deep blue water.  You can walk along the beach for miles in either direction to the harbour and lighthouse.  And just a short distance from the beach is the farmland.  Walk up the road and you can see sheep or cows or horses in their pastures.  And you can hike up the hills across the fields or pastures.  And of course there are a lot of woodsy areas you can hike through looking at the flowers and trees.  And one of my favorite places, is of course, the Fairy Glen.  It just seems like a magical place.  You go into the woods and walk along the trail right next to a river.  You can climb over fallen logs across the water and skip rocks in the pond.  But my favorite things in there are the waterfalls.  They aren't huge, but they look gorgeous with the surrounding backdrop and sound really magical in the backdrop.  I think that is one of my favorite things when we come over here, the hike through the Fairy Glen.  It brings back memories of the fairy hunting we would do and that excitement we felt whenever we saw something move out of the corner of our eye and the hope that someday we would actually see the most magical part of the glen.

Week 1

Well I have officially been here one week as of today, although it feels a lot longer because we have done rather a lot.  And I have learned a lot too, which can be broken down into 5 major things.

What I learned this week

1.  Jet lag is a lot easier to get rid of as a kid

     If I had to choose one word to describe this week it would be "exhausting".  I go to bed sometime around 11:30 at night and have a hard time waking up any time before 11:30 in the morning.  It's ridiculous.  I have to set an alarm and force myself to get up every morning.  I don't get it.  Every other time I have come here I have adjusted to the time change very easily and had tons of energy to go on all sorts of walks and play sports and basically run around like a gazelle. But I am getting old, I mean I am 19 now.  I fell asleep at 9PM the other day watching a documentary about Dame Shirley Bassey, that says something about me.  Soon, I am going to be complaining about creaky joints and my bad memory.  But actually, it's okay that I am not feeling wonderfully energetic because the weather seems to be reflecting that.  It has been rainy and windy and cold all week long, which means that hikes are out of the question, and a short walk everyday is all that can be managed.  So, hopefully I will be back to my usual self by the time the weather becomes nice again.  And in the mean time I plan on relaxing as much as possible and doing other fun indoor activities such as crosswords, puzzles, card games, and going to the theater. 

2.   I can actually speak Scottish

      Now I don't mean that I have perfected the accent yet or that I ever will be mistaken as a native, but I have learned some of the vocabulary that is necessary to live here and understand people. For instance, I have learned that most people don't ask for "ketchup", but rather "tomato sauce".  And people over here call a small town a "hamlet".  And you throw things away in a "bin", and instead of being a testing proctor you are called an "invigilator".  It's a complex language to get a handle on, but it's something everyone here needs to know in order to understand each other.  But even with this knowledge there is some difficulty in translating the accent, but I feel that I am improving.  Of course you always hear those people who just sound like they are making various sounds and speaking gibberish.  We went out for dinner the other night and were sitting next to a man who sounded like he could not have been speaking english, but rather a long slur of vowels with the odd consonant thrown in.  If you would like a demonstration of this I would advise you watch this SNL clip and no further explanation will be necessary.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/215177/saturday-night-live-british-movie

3.  Goujons= Chicken Strips

     So the other day Granny, Katie, Aunt Betty, and I went to the Beauly Art Gallery and shop.  It was a rather posh store with a nice restaurant inside.  We went to eat lunch at the restaurant and while looking at the menu I saw the words "goujons with chips".  Well I didn't know what goujons were but there were chips, which I liked, and goujons sounded like a rather sophisticated French word so after being told it was a chicken dish I ordered it.  I was feeling quite proud of my mature adult decision when the waiter came out with my large plate of chicken strips and fries and all of my pride vanished.  I felt like my brother who, when we go to any sort of nice restaurant asks if he can have chicken nuggets or if fries come with his meal.  So, slightly emberassed, I ate my delicious chicken strips and pondered the lesson I learned.  Goujons are not sophisticated, I should always just stick to traditional fish and chips.

4.   Seal War II has begun- the saga will never end!

      Anyone who has heard about our families trip to Scotland two years ago must have heard of the seal war between Katie and me.  It all began with our little French cousin Elliot who, when out shopping with Granny decided he simply must have this huge, horrifyingly ugly plastic seal.  Then, of course, he couldn't take it back to France with him at the end of his vacation, so he left it in my bedroom at Granny's house.  Well, along came Katie and I that summer and we found this seal and I decided to use it to scare her. So I stuck it under her bed covers one night and waited patiently in the bathroom to hear her cry of terror (although it ended up being more of a squeal).  After I had heard her discover it I went back to our room only to discover that she had quickly retaliated by hiding it under my pillow to scare me.  And thus the Seal War I began.  Quickly we found more creative spots to hide the seal, under chairs, in drawers, on top of the door positioned to fall when the door opened.  It became a challenge that soon involved terrifying our mother and Granny.  Of course we took many pictures to document the event and it was tragic when we had to leave the seal here and head home.  But, one of the first things I noticed when I walked in my room this time was that the seal, although slightly flatter and a little worse for the wear, was still here and that Seal War II would begin.  The seal has already been outside Katie's door, under her pillow, under my bed covers, and outside my door.  It's my turn to make the next move, and all I know is that by the end of this summer, Victory will be mine!

5.   Pirates of the Caribbean+ fish and chips= an Excellent day
      Katie, Granny, and I went to go see the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and I was very pleasantly surprised by how it turned out.  The movie was really funny with all the action you would expect from a Pirates film.  And of course they had a healthy dose of romance and the supernatural.  It surpassed everyone's expectations and made for a fun afternoon.  And then of course, we all headed out to The Snow Goose for dinner where we had our first traditional Fish and Chips of this vacation.  All together I would have to say it was one delightful afternoon.

So, those are the five biggest things I have learned so far although I have learned a lot at my new job.  That's right, I am now a working woman!  I work at a little hotel in the village called The Anderson.  I started on Saturday, just two days after we arrived.  From 9AM-1:30 I was doing maid service which basically comprised of cleaning bedrooms and bathrooms and making sure everything looked nice.  It's not the most exciting of jobs, but it will be okay.  And then last night I was working my first night as a waitress in the hotel.  I actually enjoyed that work.  It was taking orders, delivering food, and making sure everyone was enjoying their night.  Luckily it wasn't too crazy there last night, but we had plenty of customers.  But I got the hang of most everything fairly quickly.  I had to learn to use the cash register to put in someone's order which was the hardest part because there are just so many things you have to remember to do.  You had to put in the table number and the clerk number before putting in all the orders.  Then you send that to the barman who brings out their drinks and the cooks who begin making the dinners.  Then basically the waitresses just bring out the food and take all further orders and set up/clean up tables.  But I was working with some really nice people who all helped me out when I needed it, so it all worked out rather well.  And I met one man who was able to guess just from hearing me speak that I was from coastal Virginia.  I was very impressed by him even though he probably studies language and accents or something related to that.  Not everybody was as interested in me as I guess he was, but I got quite a few "Where are you from?" and even one "Americans!"  But most people were accepting of me and my strange accent and I figure I will just use that as an excuse if I ever mess up.  "Oh I'm sorry but it's not my fault!  I'm American."

Day 1

Well today is definitely a busy and stressful day.  Currently I am in the Boston Airport waiting for the next three hours for our flight to London.  Then after that our flight to Scotland where I will be spending most of the summer with Katie.  We will be staying with my Granny in the beautiful seaside town of Fortrose.  Of course, we will both be working, so it won't be quite as relaxing and carefree as you think.  I have the most arduous task of being a maid in a small local hotel.  It will be just like my Saturday chores I used to do at home as a kid, except I will be getting paid for it, which of course makes it more worthwhile.  But that won't be starting til next week sometime.  For now, I am sitting in the airport on the second leg of our journey and I already am getting really antsy to be in Scotland and asleep in my bed. 
Since getting back from my first semester at BYU, summer break has been pretty busy.  Katie and I got back on Easter and basically ever since then I have been packing, unpacking, and repacking.  I spent last week in Florida with my really good friend Kat Grosshans.  We did all of the typical Orlando things which meant we basically spent all day every day in some park.  The first day was Epcott, the second was Universal Studios, and the rest of the time was spread out between Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios.  It was a lot of fun, although we did so much walking.  Just getting out of bed and walking around the hotel room was a challenge by the second day.  And Florida was ridiculously hot, it reminded me of why I spend most all of my summers indoors.  But it was a fun trip.  We got to go to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter which was incredible.  And we got in an hour early so there were no lines.  So we wandered around Hogsmeade and all over the castle.  It was very well done.  But once the people started coming in it was ridiculous.  The lines were so long that if you did not have a fast pass it was hard to wait for them.
And all of the other parks were the same way, lots of long lines for rides and lots of strollers.  I felt slightly overwhelmed by the number of strollers that were parked on the various paths around the parks.  I was constantly having to stop to avoid running over small children, and sometimes on occasion I still hit them.  And some of the parents there would just let their kids do anything from running and knocking innocent bystanders down to throwing temper tantrums on the ground.  But luckily, most kids were tired enough that they left the park around dinner time so the parks cleared out a lot at night.
But even with crazy lines and annoying children, we had a blast in Florida.  But I basically spent the rest of the week unpacking, washing clothes, packing my bags for Scotland, and hanging out with some friends.  And now we are off!  Off for about 10 weeks in Scotland! So, this is going to be one amazing summer.

Kat and me in Epcot

Kat and me with Alice

 

The amazing hotel we stayed in

Hogwarts Castle in Universal Studios

 

Me in Hogsmeade

Fireworks in Magic Kingdom

 

Me with Mickey in our hotel