film from Scotland! (pt. 2)

town along the train tracks

Arberdeenshire

Dunnottar Castle

Isle of Skye

Highland road

Perth train station 

Dundee, Scotland

Dundee, Scotland

Dundee Port

Highland sky

film from Scotland! (pt. 1)

FINALLY! I sent home my 20+ rolls of film with Janelle when she left Scotland almost a month ago, and it's finally been developed and sent to me! When it was first printed, there was a wavy line that went through the top third of all of my pictures that scared the crap out of me. I was terrified that there was something wrong with my camera or my lens. It turns out there was just something on the printer when they were developed and I had them reprinted. Here, broken into two posts, are some of my favorite shots out of many many more to come!

Stonehaven, Scotland

Dunnottar Castle

Elien Donan Castle

Inverbervie, Scotland

Inverbervie, Scotland

Aberdeen, Scotland

Stirling Castle

Stirling Bridge

Banks of Loch Lomond

ScotRail, our means of transportation

the best 31 days of my life

Well, this is it. I’m sitting in Glasgow Central Station getting ready to board a train that will sadly take me out of the great Kingdom of Scotland. I can easily say that these past 31 days have been the best of my life thus far. I have seen sights and met people that I will never forget. Every single day was packed with adventures. Even the few days when I had to buckle down and do homework most of the day, doing homework in Scotland is still more fun that doing it in California. 

I have never been more proud to be Scottish. My proudest moment came at the Salvation Army in Glasgow with a very old women that remembers my family since the early 1900s. She told me that it brought her “such joy” that there were still members of my family living in this world, even if we’re not in Scotland anymore. I also was honored to meet my great grandfather’s cousin, Lily. 

I’m also proud of the history of Scotland, especially the history that my ancient ancestors were involved in. I’ve always love studying American history, but it’s different since I don’t think anyone in my family came to the USA before the early 1900s. While US history is a part of my history as an American, it’s not exactly a part of my family story. Where as the Scottish Wars of Independence, I know my ancestors in the MacFarlane Clan fought in those wars and others. I love America and everything she stands for, but I feel a different kind of connection to Scotland. Scotland is in my blood.

That’s why one of the most meaningful days of this trip was spent walking through the pass between Loch Lomond and Loch Long. Those were the old clan lands for hundreds of years. My ancestors lived and died for those lands. Being there, I could physically feel a connection to my forefathers. Their blood runs through my veins. We stumbled upon an old Clan MacFarlane Kirk and graveyard on the banks of Loch Long. I stood above the graves of my ancient chiefs, proud that I still resemble them. I’ve never disliked being a ginger, but I have occasionally felt out of place, not here. I am honored to have red hair and honored to pass on the traits that have been passed down to me by generations of Scots.

Seeing the isle of Skye was also a highlight of this adventure. I’ve seen pictures of it for years, and it surpassed every expectation I had. I can’t wait to go back and explore more of it; my dream would be to one day walk it. In fact, my dream is just to walk Scotland in general. The entire country is mapped out in trails that run up and down the coasts, zig zag through the highlands and lowlands, cutting through every hill and glen in between. If I was healthy enough, I’d walk this entire country. If I am ever healed of this back pain, the first thing I will do is fly back out here. It would just be me alone with God for a year, walking where ever He takes me. 

My faith has definitely been tested and strengthened this month. With my ever present back pain, I knew before leaving that this trip wouldn’t be possible on my own strength. It’s only been through Gods grace that’s I’ve been able to push through my pain and not let it stop me appreciating my homeland. At every corner I’ve had to fall back on Him to get through each day. He has been faithful on this trip even when I wasn’t. About half way through, while in Inverness, I was beginning to think I could do this trip on my own. I was getting too confident on my own strength and I was paying for it. My pain was getting worse and I was questioning how I was ever going to get through the next few weeks, let alone the next four months in Europe. That’s when I got an email from Westmont saying the live worship CD from our Chapel Band was out to buy online. I downloaded it and listened to it repeatedly on the long train from Inverness down to Stirling. It was the humbling experience that I desperately needed. There’s something extra special too about hearing my friends sing worship. The song that spoke to me the most was Healer, sung by my friend Jasmine Guerrero. It was exactly what I needed to hear, sung by my favorite person at Westmont. 

My sister Janelle was also a huge blessing on this trip. She hans’t let me put any pictures of her on my blog, but she has been with me basically every step up the way. I was sad to see her go on Wednesday, she was the extra motivation I always needed. Occasionally I got frustrated with her because she likes to really take her time getting to places, but I really appreciate that now. It forced me to slow down and take in my surroundings. I’m so grateful I got to spend this much time with her! She lives in San Francisco now, and I don’t think we’ve ever spent more than the few weekends I’ve visited SF alone with her! We defiantly bonded and grew a lot closer as brother and sister. That might be the longest impact of this trip actually, our relationship. 

I’m now on the train back to London (first class, free wifi… booyah!). I’m watching the Scottish countryside fly past me, knowing soon it will be English and not remotely the same. I probably only have an hour or so left. It’s an extremely strange feeling leaving here. First because I’m not on my way home! My trip to Scotland is about to end, but my trip to Europe is still just starting! My semester abroad begins on Friday, and I still have three months of Europe and an entire month of Israel ahead of me! The adventures will continue! 

Secondly, I know that it won’t be very long before I’m back in Scotland. It was almost six years in between my last trip to Scotland and this one. I know that my next journey will come much sooner. I’m leaving this country with an plan to do graduate school here. It’s something that has been on my heart every day here. I figure, if I’m going to study International Relations, why not go international! We visited a handful of Scottish colleges, and I’m confident I’ll be at one of them getting my masters in a few years. St. Andrews University is definitely my first choice, but University of Glasgow is a close second. I’d also consider Aberdeen, Dundee, Stirling, Edinburgh… as long as it’s in Scotland, I’m down.

I guess this concludes my log of Scotland. I am so unbelievably blessed to have journeyed here, I will never forget it. 

“You can take a man out of Scotland, but you can never take Scotland out of a man.”

Cheers Scotland! See you soon

Glasgow grand finale

Well, I’m down to my final days in Scotland. Janelle left early Wednesday morning and I’m officially on my own in my homeland! It’s a strange feeling being alone this far from home, but it’s so awesome (sorry mom). There’s just something freeing about not knowing a single person currently in the same country as me. Well technically Brian Archambault is somewhere on the east coast or highlands by now and Matt Bennett is on a train up here, but you get the point. I’ve been on my own before, but this is a completely new level. Unfortunately I don’t have a ton of ‘free’ time being free. I stupidly put off most of my pre euro semester work until the now, the week before. I spent basically all day today inside writing. Luckily I relocated after Janelle left to a quieter hostel really far outside Glasgow, much less distracting than city center. And it’s been raining relentlessly the past two days, limiting most outside activities or adventures anyway. 

Honestly, it really sucks that I only have two more full days here (wow, I’m just realizing that while writing this). That’s depressing, I don’t wanna think about that. I get back to London on Sunday, and on Monday I get to hang out with two of the coolest girls I know! Sara Reinis and Whitney Pierson are spending the night in London on their way home from Wales. AKA, we’re gonna rage. After that, Erica gets there on Wednesday (IF she doesn’t get lost in the airport, and that’s a huge if) and we meet up with our team on Friday afternoon. 

Let’s see, what else is new… 

I haven’t shaved in 30 days, that’s old news actually. I can’t shave until Erica gets here, her orders. It’s getting bad, but I love it. A picture of Benjamin Bisson surfing just rotated onto my desktop background. I miss that kid, and the ocean. I haven’t seen it for over a week now. For someone like me that has basically always lived with an ocean view from every house and every school, that’s a long time! My road trip was the longest I’ve been away from the ocean (a grand total of 15 days). The almost two month stretch between France to Italy is going to break that record. If you haven’t noticed, this last paragraph is basically whatever thought jumps into my brain. Carrie Underwood just came up on my ipod, nice! 

Ok ok, back to Scotland. It was a real adventure getting to this hostel yesterday. I decided to pretend I was a local and only use public transportation to get to somewhere I had absolutely no clue was located. I ended up getting half way here on the Glasgow underground, then jumped on the wrong bus that took me right back to city center. Then got on a wrong bus again that put me in east end instead of west end. Normally I’m actually quite good at navigation, but I was just all turned around yesterday. It probably was due to the fact that it was pouring rain so I just jumped on the first buses that showed up. And because I always use the ocean as my point of reference, West, and there’s obviously no ocean in Glasgow, just a dirty river. I finally just gave up and took a taxi (like I probably should have from the start, seeing as I didn’t even know what side of the city I was trying to get to). I arrived to my hostel soaked from head to toe, and the guy that answered the door just laughed at me… jerk.

Well that’s about it. I’m trying to decide if I should stay up to watch the GOP presidential debate online, I probably wont. Mainly because Rick Perry isn’t participating. I just read that he’s officially going to announce he’s going to run on Saturday, so stoked. Mark my words, Rick Perry will be elected President of the great United States of America in 2012. I miss the idea of being in America more that physically being in Los Angeles or Santa Barbara I think. I miss being in one nation under God. I miss the land of the free, and the home of the brave. Anyway, patriotism aside, I love being abroad. While my pre-Europe adventure is drawing to a close, my actual Europe adventure is about to begin. The only thing that stands in my way is finishing a few essays and a WWII timeline. Well, back to work on that. This post has been basically one big distraction from my sociology essay, classic. 

Dry family legacy in Glasgow

Apparently I've got a very famous family (not just in this town, but all over the UK), at least within the world of the Salvation Army.

Arthur Dry was my great grandfather's older brother, and was a very influential and loved bandmaster for the Govan Citadel Band. His picture (the one above) still hangs in the band room at the Salvation Army in Govan, Glasgow. My great grandfather, George Dry, was also in the band and is still remembered by many older church members.

This morning Janelle and I attended the Sunday service at the Salvation Army in an attempt to learn as much history about our family as we could, and also find out if we had any relatives still living in Glasgow. EVERYBODY in the church knew our "famous" last name and wanted to talk to us. One of the majors (this is an 'army' after all) announced us as relatives of Arthur Dry at the beginning of the service, and there was a crowd surrounding us the moment the service ended. Most people wanted to say hello and give us a very warm welcome, but there were some that had information about my family. A woman approached us and said that her mother, who was downstairs, was a cousin of Arthur - therefore a relative of ours somehow! We immediately went down to meet her and she was the funniest old woman I have ever met.

Her name is Lily and she is the oldest member of the church at 97 years old. Her mother and Arthur and George's father (my great great grandfather) were brother and sister. She remembers my family very well and she told us stories and jokes about our shared relatives. She was with her daughter, her granddaughter, and baby great granddaughter (Four generations of women living, just like in my moms family!). We met all of them and shared our life stories. 

After talking to Lily, we were introduced to the second oldest member of the church. Her name was Betsy (I think) and she also clearly remembered my family. She said her oldest memory of my family was when she was a child. She knew George and Arthur well, and she knew their mother and even remembers their grandmother! Meaning: she remembers my great great great grandmother (I think). Betty remembers asking her mother why Granny Dry was always kneeling at the mercy seat in church, and her mother responded, "because she's showing everybody what to do." I'm so fascinated by all of this, I can't get over it! One of the best moments of the day was when Betty said that it made her very happy that their were still Drys left in the world, apparently my family had a big impact on her life. 

We asked everybody if they knew if any of our family was still living in Glasgow, but unfortunately no one had any information. Arthur's son used to live in town, but everybody seemed fairly sure he either moved or was dead because he "hasn't been around for a long long while now". I'm still so glad we got to meet the people that we did, it was by far the best day of the trip! 

Throughout the afternoon, members of the band, both young and old, came up to us and told us how influential Arthur and my family were to the Salvation Army and the band. I don't think anyone in my family has attended that church for decades, but they still have a lasting legacy. They told us he was buried at the Glasgow Cathedral Necropolis, and we went there later this afternoon. Apparently the Necropolis is one of the largest of its kind in Europe, with thousands of Glaswegians buried there. Even though I spent two hours searching for Arthur, I couldn't find him anywhere. I want to go back later in the week when the information center is open and maybe they can help us. Here are a few more pictures of our afternoon at the Salvation Army, Govan. 

Arthur's picture hanging on the wall in the band room

 They let me hold it

The inside of the church. 

Isle of Mull (for Sarah Mull)

After braving the rain on the ferry, we finally made it to the Isle of Mull! The rain cleared for a little, but eventually returned harder than ever. We took a bus to the main town on the island, Tobermory. It was yet another beautiful fishing town (Scotland is just full of them!). We had a fun few hours on the isle just walking around an admiring it. Rain is finally back in Scotland, and is forecasted to stay for a while, and I'm so excited!

a wet trip to the Isle of Mull

During the 45 minute ferry from Oban to the Isle of Mull it was pouring for almost the entire time! I wanted to stay outside on the top to take pictures, but my camera was getting way too wet. Janelle braved the storm, but regretted it later after she was completely soaked from head to foot. Here are a few pictures I managed to take during the first part of the ferry while we were outside.