Once in a lifetime experiences

1. Hiking in the Trossachs: I woke up early for the 2 hour bus ride to the Trossachs. The group stopped for lunch in the town of Callander, a cute town with lots of little shops and restaurants. Meg and I went to Mohr Bread and got turkey sandwiches and pastries. Before getting back on the bus, we also got delicious Scottish strawberries—some of the best I’ve ever tasted! We then continued to our destination and started the hike. It started out pretty easy but quickly got more difficult. The rain started after about 15 minutes but then stopped as quickly as it had come. Unfortunately, this created quite a bit of mud and my shoes were soon soaked through. It was so gorgeous, though. The views as we were hiking were incredible.
As I hiked, I also got to talk to other students and it was easy to make instant friendships as we bonded over complaining about the rain, the strenuous hike and as we marveled over the views. We finally came to the peak of our hike and were able to eat our lunches. Again, the rain started to come and the wind picked up, so we then started hiking back to the bus. My shoes, socks and pants were basically soaked through, but it was a very enjoyable experience. The pastries tasted even better after the hike since we had to work for them! I passed out on the bus ride on the way back after an action packed morning.

2. Crags: We went to dinner at a nearby bar and got to watch some of the World Cup games. The bar had a deal running for a burger, chips and a cider for £3.75—a steal! It was the crew again with Ken, Meg, Duc, Ben and me. It was a very American bar and I enjoyed it a lot. After dinner, we headed back to the Pollock halls for our next activity of the night.

3. Scottish dancing: Our program directors hosted a “Third of July party” for us. We arrived early and almost immediately jumped into the Ceilidh dancing. It was basically like square dancing and was pretty easy once you learned the steps. It was a great way to meet new people and sort of struggle through the dance. I had such a fun time spinning and dancing. So many people participated and we were all dancing around the room. A few guys in the program bought kilts and made people laugh.

4. Experiencing the night life in Edinburgh: After finishing up the dancing, the group headed into town to find a club. We ended up, along with half of the PKP program, at a club called Espionage. We basically took over the dance floor and got to hear a good blend of American music and strange remixes. We ran into a group doing a “stag night,” which is a bachelor party. There were also several bachelorette parties going on as well. Finishing the night at the club was a perfect ending to an action packed and super fun day.

July 3