Today marks the end of our third week of classes. School is great, but not nearly as interesting as a couple of adventures that still need to be blogged. First, on the Saturday just before classes started, Sarah and I trekked all the way to the top of Arthur's Seat, a giant hill on the east side of Edinburgh. We didn't really know what we were in for; we thought it would just be a nice, long walk - but we nearly had to crawl to the top because of how tiring it was (well, at least for me). The weather was beautiful, so it provided for some of our best pictures yet. They're in the picasa thing on the right side of this blog thing. Then later that week, Sarah and I went for a run around Holyrood Park (the park in which Arthur's Seat lies). We thought we knew where we were going, but I guess we took a wrong turn. And so -- it was one of the longest runs of my life... We mapped it out and it was about 5 miles. It was pretty exhilarating because we had no idea where we were going; we just ran. But it was a good way to see the city at least; we even ran so far as to see the sea!
Sarah: Haha, and in the middle of our run, at a stoplight I think, we met this kid Lennon (after John Lennon he told us.) He was about 7, and super rad. He is missing his front teeth and he supports the Rangers football club. He goes to school every other day and he just really wanted us to stop running and play football with him. So we did, until the light turned green.
One of our biggest adventures so far was to the Aberdeenshire area in Northeast Scotland. It was our homestay visit, organized by IFSA-Butler (our study abroad program). Both of us stayed with families in an area around the small town of Insch. We left on Friday, September 26th, via bus with the other 10 or so people who were staying with families around Insch. To start off the trip, we got really lost on the way, which was amusing. Our bus driver just had a post-it note on his dashboard that said "Insch" on it, and that was all the information he had in order to get us there. I thought it was fun, but once we got to our families, the true fun started.
Sarah: Ya – Plus we couldn’t really understand anything the bus driver was saying, except for when he was cursing at the cars passing us … anddddd he had a curly mullet Anyway, we stopped for directions about 14 times and in the end, the families actually had to send out a search party (my super-awesome-dad-Norm-who-was-way-better-than-Hugh) to find us. We had a good laugh about it anyway…
I stayed with the Sutherland's, an amazing family. Hugh (the father) is an aircraft engineer and his wife (Ann) is a school teacher. Though it's not as relevant, I can't resist pointing out that they have a horse! I stayed there with two other guys in the IFSA-Butler program, Tim from Silicon Valley, California, and Sam from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Immediately after we settled in, Hugh and Ann gave us three whole pizzas and... beer. All three of us felt like it would be rude to say 'no' to anything, and we ended up stuffing ourselves, which pretty much happened all weekend. Sarah stayed with a couple who live on a farm; Norman grows barley, and his wife Allison is a social worker.
Sarah: Just to reiterate Norm’s general awesomeness – He is a 6th generation farmer on the same plot of land. He grows barely, that he sometimes sells to whiskey distilleries, and he raises cattle. He has a stone circle in his backyard. He speaks Doric and Scots (whole different Scots-Gaelic languages), and he knows everything there is to know about everything - except American football. And - we ate potatoes from his farm for lunch. The end.
The weekend was packed with a lot of fantastic memories. On Saturday, we went to the Glenfiddich distillery nearby, which has been owned by William Grant & sons since 1876! It's supposed to be the number 1 whiskey in the world. It's also perhaps the number 1 stinkiest place we've been to so far... all that yeast and stuff was RANK.
Copper stills at Glenfiddich
Whiskey tasting, cheers!After Glenfiddich we went to a small castle that was pretty cool. After the Edinburgh Castle, though, we have pretty high standards for castles.
After the castle we went to an old stone circle, which was neat but it started to rain and we were looking forward to being indoors.
Another amazing thing about Saturday involved food. For breakfast, Ann & Hugh made us a true Scottish breakfast, involving fried eggs, sausage logs, baked beans, tomato, a bread roll, mushrooms, and black pudding. Black pudding is made with various fillers, but it usually includes some kind of meat, bread, barley, oatmeal, and blood (usually pig's blood). I loved it! (You can't taste the blood, of course.) The other American kids were less thrilled. Then, I had a true Scottish meal for dinner, as well! We had a sausage, leek, and potato casserole as the main course, and our sides were salad, beets, and haggis! Haggis is also fantastic, which includes a lot of stuff that I still don't really know, but it varies from chef to chef. The traditional recipe is "sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally boiled in the animal's stomach for approximately three hours" (Wikipedia). After dinner we hung out with other families and study-abrod kids who came over to Hugh's and Ann's house; we watched the Bourne Ultimatum, which made it seem less like a Scottish experience and more like my home.
On Sunday, we drove to a seaside-town and walked along the shore of the North Sea. 
A pic from Norm's car.
A pic from Norm's car.We saw some old fishing communities on the coast, collected some interesting rocks, and had a picnic.
NORM!We had one last meal before we went back to Edinburgh (this time it was lasagna). And I saw my first furry animal on the trip too! (I like furry animals.) Which leads me to a sneak preview of our next adventure (and our next blog post):
I know the many questions that are quickly piling in your head like moldy trash piling in my 12-person flat: What is that beast? What does it do? Do people ride it? Do people actually eat it? Is it dangerous? What the heck are you doing so close to it? Wait, where the heck are you? Is that even real? And is that another one in the background? ...TO BE CONTINUED...
Until next time,
Zach
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