Week 4 - Scotland

Wednesday, 23 June, 2009 12:14PM Bus to Helensburgh, Scotland

Wow, so it’s been a week already. I am amazed that I still haven’t been able to get this on the internet, I have contacted some people through phone and email, but not near as many as I had hoped. I don’t feel as busy, but I feel really tired, I haven’t been getting enough sleep because I am trying to spend time on the computer or phone when I have free time.

I went to Saltcoats, it’s beautiful there. It was just a one night stay, unfortunately. My host family lived next to the water, and had a springer spaniel dog. It was nice, because she reminded me of my old dog. The boys really liked her as well. They aren’t used to having a dog as a pet, so they usually back up at first so we just have to explain that they wont eat us. The family I was with is going to Canada for a vacation in 3 weeks, and spending 3 days in Vancouver. They asked me to give them a list of places to go. They already had a book telling them to see Stanley Park and Granville Island, I also suggested the Capilano Suspension Bridge. They had a younger daughter who likes to shop so I told her about Robson Street and Metrotown, she was quite excited. The dad was really into talking about food, so I told them to stop by Red Robin if they get a chance.

I’ve been getting really travel sick being on the bus. It seems to be getting worse. I have travel bands and pills but they don’t seem to help at all. I know I won’t throw up, but I really feel like it, or like I’m going to faint. Like I said before, we’ve got a few kids who do get sick, my neighbor is one, she asked me for a bag so I’m hoping she wont need to use it, but I sure feel like I might need to. I’m only 15 minutes into the hour drive too. We are stopping half way to have lunch, but I don’t know if that will be a bad idea.

I’m now leaving Largs, a 3 night stay. I was originally going to have 5 boys, and some were a bit rowdy, so I was hoping it wouldn’t be too bad, but last minute it got changed to just 3. I chose who the 3 would be, and I chose wrong. It wasn’t horrible, but the one boy brought out the misbehaved side of the other 2 that I had had before and were quite well behaved. My family was really nice, they were an older couple, the dad was really funny.

We took the children to a famous ice cream shop called Nardini’s. They really enjoyed it, but I think they enjoyed watching the ferry boats even more. They seem to be fascinated by boats, they could spend hours watching them. I had really good food at this host family, a chicken stir fry and then an alfredo pasta dish. It was a really nice day yesterday so we took the boys to the beach. They had a blast. Then some boats were going in the water so they spent the next hour staring at them.

Tomorrow is my 2nd day off, I’m not sure what I will do, I’d like to go somewhere, and also maybe find some wireless internet somewhere so I can get this out there.

I feel terribly sick now, I’ve been typing very quickly so I can close this, the air from the window isn’t really helping.

My bus partner (her name is Nompie) is sleeping, so hopefully she won’t wake up until we stop :)

Thursday, 25 June, 2009 4:44PM Helensburgh, Scotland

It’s my day off, yippee! It’s really nice outside as well.

My host took me for a drive along the coast and showed me the marine base, there’s an incredible view, my camera battery is dead and my charger is on the bus. It’s got a special battery with its own charger.

I did a bit of shopping for the children, got some cute pajamas and shirts. I also got an ice cream.

Saturday, 27 June, 2009 12:25PM Kirkintilloch, Scotland

On the bus again... seems like I can get this done then, otherwise I’m sleeping. It feels like morning to me because we got to sleep in this morning. We just had a one night stay. It seems that my one night stays are really nice host families, and I don’t like having to leave them so quickly.

We are on our way to Aberfeldy for a 4 night stay. I’m really really excited. We don’t usually get 4 night stays, 3 is the most. So this is a treat. The way it works most weeks is Sunday night we have a concert (but not always) and stay 3 nights, Monday is school, Tuesday is school and Wednesday we have school in the morning and then leave in the afternoon for the next venue where we will stay 2 nights. We sometimes have a concert Wednesday night, and then Thursday is rehearsals, so I’m off that day because I’m not musically involved. Sometimes Tuesday will be rehearsal and Thursday will be school. Then we leave Friday for the next Venue for a concert that evening and a one night stay, and Saturday is the same. We pretty much always have a concert Friday and Saturday night. That’s my week for the most part.

I like 4 night stays because you can really get to know the host family and the town. We also get more time to do fun things with the kids.

Aberfeldy is about 2.5 hours from me, or that’s what I heard. The children are watching Aladdin right now, it’s a treat for them. They aren’t allowed to watch TV in host families (we don’t want them to lose their creative minds and there can be some really bad things on nowadays.)

The lady from the host family I was with last night is going to Vancouver for work, so I told her a few places to go and told her I would write them down, and I totally forgot, I feel really bad. I left her my email address in her guest book, so maybe she will email me and I can tell her. They invited me to stay with them if I’m ever back in Scotland.

It’s cloudy out today, but still warm. The weather was really great the last few days.