Off to visit our neighbors.

This past weekend, four friends and I decided to do a little island hopin.  We went to Ireland. It was a trip I will never forget...

We made it to Dublin with no problem at all.  The one hour flight was over before I could finish a chapter of my book.  The bus ride to Galway was a bit longer, but it was completely worth it when we got there.  Perfect weather allowed us to enjoy our drinks from the most famous pub in Galway, The Quays (a recommendation from my Irish flat-mate), outside on the streets where we were able to take in all the people, shops, and night culture.  

Saturday we explored the town.  We went in the shops, ate delicious crepes, walked the dock by the sea, visited a market, and went to the Galway Halloween Festival (which included a re-make of MJ's Thriller video). 

         

  

Saturday night, Halloween, was great. There was a party at our hostel with lots of free snacks and drinks.  We played games with other travelers and met people from Australia, Finland, and all over-even a Michigander (who worked at the hostel). After that, we went back outside.  We heard there was some more of the festival activities, but we didn't really know what.  As we were walking down the streets, we somehow got swept up into this MASSIVE parade! There were people with these huge orange masks on, hundreds of different costumes, musicians, and just people dancing down the streets.  We joined them.  We danced for what seemed like hours and just had the best time ever.  As it was happening, I couldn't really believe I was dancing down the streets of Ireland in a halloween parade.  It was so good.

Now begins the series of not-so-fortunate events...

It all began with a curious look given to me by the man with a braid in his beard who asked me where the rest of my details were on my boarding pass as I handed it to him before entering the gates to walk to the plane.  I replied, 'what details?'  'Right here', he said, as he pointed to a few lines on my boarding pass that I didn't give a second thought to.  As a confused expression formed on my face, he started talking to the other Ryanair worker who was scanning the other line's boarding passes. After being told that I was missing some crucial information on my boarding pass that I really should have, the other worker told my braided beard friend that he should just let me go. As I again showed my boarding pass to the lovely flight attendant at the door of the plane and received no such scolding, I sat down and got situated on the plane.  When my other friends sat down and Andy told us that one of the flight attendants took his ticket, we were a bit confused.  We talked about the fact that we were missing the so-called 'crucial' information on our boarding pass from Aberdeen to Dublin, but absolutely no one said anything to us about it.

Just after we had fastened our seat belts and got comfortable after concluding that it was just a strange thing that happened, a lady with a too-tight bun and painted on smile said, 'You five need to come with me and talk to our captain.' I don't even know what I was thinking at that point.  We went up, were told we had to get off the plane, tried to argue a bit about the fact that this situation was being handled in two completely different ways since no one in Aberdeen told us it was a problem, being told that was their fault and they could all be fired, we got dropped off in the middle of the runway. We were let back in to the airport by a man in a bright orange vest that usually handles the luggage.  We wandered around the deserted hallways, talked to as many people as we could about the situation, ended up spending way too many euros on internet usage in the airport and way too many euros buying a new plane ticket and bus ticket for the next day.  

The following pictures document our airport camp sites for that evening as we had about 14 hours to kill until our next flight....

Truth of the matter is- the night was spent with a lot of reading, writing, good conversation, card playing (with guys from Finland that we met in the hostel who coincidentally had a flight at 1 AM that morning), i-pod listening, and humor.  Julie and I formed a new language and laughed at pretty much everything.

As I mentioned earlier, this is a trip I will NEVER forget.  Mostly for unbelievably wonderful reasons and a little because of some silly events that went down in the Dublin airport...

Awaken, Sleeper.

Every single day I walk through Seaton Park.  I take the same path to class through the same beautiful grass patches and flower beds and walkways canopied by trees.  After realizing we accidently left one hour earlier for classes (day light savings time can really mess a person up), Julie and I had to kill some time.  We decided to walk around the park.  The park we walk through every single day.  What did we stumble upon? A rushing river. Water flowing through bundles of red, green, and yellow reflecting the sunlight like spotlights on the leaves.

A perfect bench for the two of us.

A reminder.

Everyday is new.

Dear Autumn, I love you very much.

Let me just inform you: Autumn in Scotland = So so so extremely wonderful.

Favorite things as of late:

Shortbread (from Harbor House in St. Andrews)

Tea (!!!)

Winter hats

Lentil soup from the most small town diner you could ever find

St. Andrews University

Wool socks

Vitamin C

The fact that Scottish people are so tough. Ask me about this sometime.

As most of you know, My mama bear and Gus visited me this past week. On the day of their arrival I started to feel ill. Really fatigued, extremely sore throat, just plain old achy. I'm trying to find words that are not cliche.. but have not succeeded- In all honesty, it was SUCH a 'blessing in disguise'. One may think, "shoot my mom and step-dad just flew some 4000 miles to see me, and here I am being anything but perky and enthusiastic because I feel like CRAP!" But... it was more like "Thank the LORD that I am with my mom right now because when I am sick there is no where I rather be than embraced in her arms!" So, in actuality it was so great that I got sick at the same time they were here. I mean, it would've been wonderful if I wasn't sick at all- but if there was ever a time to get sick while I'm in Scotland, it was now... It would've made it a lot harder if I didn't have my mom's fabulous nursing skills here with me...

Despite my illness, with lots of tea and medicine I seemed to be pretty manageable during the day. It was quite amazing because we had THREE FULL DAYS OF SUNSHINE on our FULL days together! Friday we went to Inverness- walked around the town, hunted for the Loch Ness Monster and saw beautiful castle ruins that looked out over the loch. Saturday we went to Fyvie- ate a the most wonderful random diner next to a post office that we found out about by Gus asking a woobely old grandma walking down the street where a restaurant was, witnessed the most stunning autumn colors I've ever seen, explored a really sweet castle (where a wedding was taking place that very day), stopped at the lovely tearoom and had some strawberry sponge cake and took a beautiful wooded path to the beach by my flat. Sunday we went to St. Andrews- shopped along the awesome Market Street, got laughed at when we asked a store worker where the University was (he replied- "In America they buy a plot of land and build a university on it, but us... we've been building this place for 1600 years"), were blown away by the architecture of the university buildings, saw the St. Andrews castle and the world's famous golf course, spent a perfect fall day together and had the most delicious short bread EVER! Other than that we walked around Aberdeen, checked out some of the local restaurants, and saw my campus. And one time I just escaped from my chaotic flat and went to their cozy hotel room to simply rest under the warm covers.

I am SO lucky that I got to have family visit me while I am here. I am even more happy that I gave my mom an excuse to make her first trip to Europe. There were some extremely hilarious moments like when I found out that my mom and Gus had asked for the crappiest car possible (just in case) but instead were given a Mercedes or when my mom decided to feed some swans and the vicious creatures started attacking her so she grabbed a massive stick to swat them off (view pictures above). Despite the circumstances of me being sick and the difficulty that learning how to drive on the opposite side of the road and on the opposite side of the car proved to be for Gus, it was the best visit I could've asked for.

I feel nothing but thankful right now to have had that extremely beautiful time with mom and Gus, to be starting to feel better (I think...), and to know that one of my bestest friends is visiting me this weekend who is studying at this very moment in York, England!

Hope everyone is enjoying this Fall weather as much as I am (besides my friends in South America/ Australia of course),

with love,

Jess

New things are beautiful things

Right now I am missing the security of my classes back at Hope. As I sat in Cells & Genetics, Human Physiology and other classes of the sort I always wondered if I was missing out on the freedom given to students in art class or the theological challenge given to students studying religion. When things got really challenging, like during finals week, I wondered: would I be happier learning how to read and develop poems or in a class teaching me how to teach children dance? But now that I am in completely different courses than I have ever been in, finding myself SOLELY graded on 2 essays in each course, I have my answer.

My mind is going to be stretched this semester. It's only week two and I am learning how poets and philosophers responded to the French Bourgeoisie Revolution of 1848, where the idea of morality comes from, and who the Celts really were. (thankfully I do have some Medical Sociology =] )

I miss the certainty of how the myosin and actin filaments slide as you move your muscles or how myelin sheath between axon terminals and dendrites all work together to fire signals down your nerves to make your body function. I miss learning about the different stages of life and how your cognition and motor skills progress and re-shape throughout those stages. I miss having little quizzes every week to make sure I am understanding the key concepts of how a left sided brain injury would affect the rest of your life or even the intellectual challenge that comes with cramming for an exam in Chemistry! But the truth is- I cannot MISS these things anymore. I am in a new place in a new time. These new classes will broaden my awareness of past events, allow me to read important pieces of literature, and tone up my library researching skills. Ella told me her mom always says- "Bloom where you are planted" I want to bloom here in Aberdeen. Although I am walking in unfamiliar territory, I will no longer think of the safe things or the ways of the past, but will truly immerse myself in these waters. The more I write about it, the more excited I am for all that lays ahead of me.

Another really exciting thing is that I am taking Spanish! It is not a course that will give me credits that transfer back to Hope, but is a part of the Language Centre and continuing education here at the uni. It meets once a week for two hours in the evening. I had my first class tonight and it was wonderful. I really love the Spanish language and have a deep desire to enhance my skills. I am really looking forward to working on my communication skills as we will spend most of the time just talking. With the huge Spanish- speaking population in Chicago area hospitals and the prospects of one day using my love of physical therapy to reach spanish speaking countries, I know this will come in great use. I would be extremely naive to never learn it. This will help me reach even more people.

This weekend in Aviemore was incredible. The town was beautiful, the food was ridiculously delicious, and the people were kind and loving. We were able to hike up to a green loch (lake) despite the rain and winds. I love being outside more than anything in the whole world. Scotland is such a beautiful country and I am happy for all the chances I have to just simply be outdoors. For example, today I walked about 10 minutes to the beach to find a nice cozy bench amidst the trees just to read. I need to do this as often as I can until it starts to get really, really cold. Crisp autumn air has already been with us for a while.

with all my love,

Jess

Firsts

I have survived my week of many firsts, but I have a feeling this is just the beginning of many, many firsts to come. I like it this way. A lot.

-First time in a hostel (loved)

-First time seeing a furry highland cow

-First time standing in a cloud

-First time attending uni (college) in a different country

-First time taking class at a medical school (I had to drop my psych class because of conflicts, so I enrolled in "The Social Influences on Health & Illness", turns out it's in the med school (first thing I've been nervous about through all my travels), turned out sooo great though )

-First time at a Ceilidh (traditional Gaelic social dance originating in Scotland & Ireland - I wish social dance was still this way... I'm quite positive it would solve our nation's obesity problem)

-First time doing Capoeira http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt9Yt8lafYo (we are learning how to play the instruments that you see in the back and the songs as well. I am looking forward to learning more of the history of Capoeira. A girl briefly told me it came to Brazil by African Slaves who needed to train for battle, but weren't allowed to so they kind of hid it by turning it into a form of dancing? Not sure how accurate that is... hopefully I will learn soon... all I know is it is very fun and I love it and will now being doing in every Tuesday and Thursday from 7-9)

-witnessed two of my flat mates having their first taste of peanut butter (I know...insanity)

-First time ever not having class on Fridays (!!!!!)

-my very own first ever jar of Nutella.... completely consumed

This weekend I'm off to Aviemore for a retreat with some of my friends and New Life International Church (and a bunch of other people from around Scotland, I think). If you'd like to see it on the map or read info about it click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviemore. I'm really excited. I need to learn some new words for excited. It's all I am lately.

Until I can report back some more firsts...

CHEERS