Scotland: Day 4

I'm not convinced that any of you are reading my Scotland journals, but I know they're long and not filled with humorous anecdotes. I'll cut you some slack. I still want to post them, so I have them up for my own purposes and reference. Sadly, I hardly took any pictures once we got to Aberdeen (why, oh why?), but I did take 2 (count 'em) with some of our new friends from the city. Click here to see them.

Day 4: It is 12:40 on Monday afternoon, and we are on our train that will take us to Glasgow. We’ll have to walk to a different station in Glasgow to hop on the train that will take us to Ayr. Yesterday was a long day, but we were not particularly busy. Emma Slack met us outside our flat at 9:50. We either set the alarm clock wrong or Chris turned it off in his sleep because we didn’t wake up until 9:30. But since I took a shower the night before, we still got ready in time. We took the bus to Cults, where the church is, but Karen picked us up to drive us the rest of the way to International Baptist Church. Cults is a wealthy suburb of Aberdeen, and it is unlikely that we would live too near the church. Everyone at the church was quite friendly. We met the pastor and his wife: Andrew & Laura. We also met Gene and Lynda Kay Wilson, the owner of the Aberdeen Drilling School and the flat where we stayed. There are quite a few couples from Texas at IBC that are in the oil industry, but most do not live here as long as Gene & Lynda Kay (30 years). Gene is a hoot, very friendly, gracious and generous. Sunday School is not typical in Scotland; the service was about an hour and 15 minutes long. After the service each Sunday, there is coffee and tea in the sports hall, and we met a very nice couple: David Welsh and his wife. David is British and his wife is Polish. She has relatives in Chicago! They are not members at IBC, but go to a church in Bridge of Don (prob. a completely wrong spelling). They were both very nice, and I’m sure my dad would have done a fine job of embarrassing me by trying out some Polish words if he were there.

After church, Scott McDonald drove us to Emma’s house where she had cooked a delicious meal for us. She is such a gracious hostess and tried to cook with distinctly Scottish foods. We had roasted beef brisket, potatoes, parsnips, green beans and Yorkshire pudding – a beloved treat that is a bit like Aunt Mary’s popovers. They were very good. We had some yummy fruit and REALLY good ice cream for dessert. Afterwards we just hung out at her flat and watched Wimbledon: something every Brit does, though most don’t really like tennis. Rachel told us that around the time of Wimbledon, everybody gets in a bit of a tennis frenzy, but it then dies off shortly. She even took up tennis lessons one year. J

Rachel brought us back to the church around 7:00 where they were having SNAC (Sunday Night After Church) – mostly teens and sometimes college/young adults. We watched the World Cup Final on the big screen in the auditorium. To say that football (Am. Soccer) is popular in Britain is a gross understatement. It was a good game to watch, but we were so tired that we got a ride home half way through extra-time. We made it back to our flat in time to watch the penalty kicks and were glad that Italy won. Rachel kindly gave us an international calling card that she had, so I was able to call home and talk to my mom for a good 20 minutes. Luke was napping, as it was about 3:30 there, but it was so good to talk to her and hear that Luke is doing great and having a blast. Of course I knew that he would have lots of fun. He saw his first fireworks last Friday night.

This morning we left the flat around 7 and took a bus to the university where Chris had a meeting arranged for 8:30 with Simon Gathercole. I had heard that he was quite young, but he is even younger looking, so it is quite shocking. He was kind and gracious, and I think it was very helpful for Chris to meet with him for a short hour. At 9:30 we had a tour of the campus, which was semi-helpful. It was nice to walk around the whole campus and know what all of the buildings are. We didn’t go in many though.

We picked up some McDonald’s on our way back to the flat, which isn’t making me feel too great now. It’s probably because we had to high-tail it to the rail station to catch our train. Anyways, the train ride along the North Sea down to Stonehaven was breathtaking, and now we are passing though beautiful countryside. I plan on writing the postcards that I have bought and enjoying the view. Once we get back to Ayr, I’m sure we’ll be kept quite busy.

Night Note: I think I will pick up a Scottish accent. I’m finding myself doing it already. I rather fancy it. Brilliant, actually.