Week 5 - Scotland

Thursday, 2 July, 2009

It's my bithday! My day off as well :) Happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canadians. (People here don't understand that we celebrate Canada Day, they are missing out.)

I'm in Auchterarder (Oct-ter- ar-der) They laugh when I say it because I don't have the accent or the rolling r sound. It's a very nice town from what I've seen. I will be going into town after I write this. The font size has changed because I am writing this directly, the other times I was writing on my laptop and pasting. I'm using my hosts computer so I won't be able to do it that way. I can't seem to make the size the same. It's easier to read when it's larger, right?

Funny thing, my host family is on vacation right now, so I'm home alone. They had the dates mixed up for when we were arriving, so they had to get a friend to come in and host us, she is working right now. She works at a famous hotel here, very expensive. The house is wonderful, I've got my own suite, and they have boys so there's a lot of toys and books for them to play with.

The most expensive houses in Scotland are in Auchterarder, I think they are near where I am as well. That's what I was told by someone. Can't say much about this place yet, as I have just gotten here.



I just came from Aberfeldy, which was our 4 night stay. It was wonderful. It's in the country, and very beautiful. I had a really great host family. I got to know the mom really really well. We had lots of long chats. She really didn't want us to leave. We had 2 concerts there on the weekend, and then she came to the concert we had last night as well because her husband was away so he missed them.

The father was an architect and built the home on stilts with no doors except the front foor and the bathroom. It was very cool looking, it has been in many housing magazines as well as a book.

My room had 3 walls (one being a window) and the 4th was a curtain. Because of having no doors you could hear everything in the house, and there was little privacy. I had wireless internet, which is why this has now been posted, but I didn't get to phone anyone because my free time was when the children were sleeping and I didn't want to wake them. I was also very tired because I was up late speaking with the mom.

I was with 4 of our girls, and the family had 2 girls that were 8 and 10, all 6 of them got along so well. It was great. We had 2 other host families on the same road, so we got together on the last evening and had a BBQ, it was really nice. The kids got into their bathing suits and made a waterslide in the backyard. Aberfeldy is another place where everyone knows eachother in the town, it was nice to have the children going back and forth between the homes to play with other children.

My hosts found out today was my birthday and were very upset they couldn't spend it with me, they bought me some herbal tea, chocolates and also gave me a card with some money. She drank herbal tea with me the whole time. ( I bought some on my last day off, but she had some) I felt comfortable to tell her that's what I preferred. I also told her my body wasn't reacting well to all the bread I have been eating. I'm not sure if I mentioned almost every meal includes bread, and I don't normally eat a lot of bread, so I haven't been feeling that great. She gave me some healthy crackers and cheese instead. It was so much nicer, and I feel a lot better as well. I am really going to miss them, but we will keep in contact. We also might be going back there in a few months if it can fit into our schedule and they can work it all out. It seems that, like Carstairs, everyone loved their host families and would really like to go back.

Oh, I almost forgot. The hosts paid for us all to go to a place called Active Kids. It's an ourdoor play place in the country, it's in Perth I believe. So there are tons of things to play on and a small farm as well, I've got pictures. The children really had a blast there.

Anyway, the day is getting later, so I'm going to go out.

The weather has been amazing for the last few days. Yesterday was unbearable heat, the church didn't have air conditioning. I can't imagine what Dubai is going to be like....

I'll probably get a tan from walking around today, I think I'm going to wear my shorts :)