the latest

ok, now that I can sit for a moment...it's been the jolly rush since I landed. The time difference is one thing..the food is another. I had a really bad migraine yesterday and the smell of herring just about did me in. I muddled through the day and made it...but it was close, so last night I blew off the program for last night and just wrote-the first true work since I got here. I have gotten some really great feed back from my tutor/mentor, and ran into a girl from MSU- small world.
This place is like a melting pot, there's people from all over the globe, sometimes the language thing becomes an issue in the critiques but it all works.
The castle in yesterdays pix is Tantalon, which I just misspelled, but anyway...it is beyond cool. We took a train out and back, had true fish and chips at the place with the fish on the window...there was a parade of the pipers through town...the last group played my favorite- amazing grace, so of course we had to cheer em on.
The day starts out with breakfast in a very crowded diner- with all the kids its crazy, then in the lecture hall by 930 and out at 1030, time for tea....then to our groups, a break for lunch at 130ish. depending on the day we have master classes or other speakers...so much info its crazy.
The weather hasn't been bad- today is the first chilly day.
I'm still trying to finish my classes at WMU soooooo. new pix will be added then its back to work. more later-

there was a wedding here the day we visited- talk about a lil girls dream!

not quite to loch ness

yeah it does say abbey road.

more pix

These were all at Castle Edinburgh

I dont want to know if its a real hoof

the castle

ok, so we get there and there's a hike to get in but the feeling in the air is almost magical. The place exudes the sweat and tears of its long and varied places in history. I had goose bumps- part of the reason I wanted to do THIS program is that back in the day- like 6-7 generations, my grandmother was a Campbell, Edinburgh castle is the stronghold of the Campbell clan. it was so cool to be wandering through a place that at some point in time, she may have walked on also. I was able to look it up after I got here too to verify what we had found before which was even better. In the morning I'm off to see Loch Ness, my plan for today was to veg out, do homework,etc......but the highland games are going on and three of us are off to see the sights there.
The people in the program are really nice, there's only one that everytime she opens her mouth I want to hurt her- she has the most condesending voice. There's a batch here from Fla., one of the women brought her husband and 1 yr old son- he's our unofficial mascot and he is just too cute, last night at the caldihl he had on a tiny kilt- he's always all smiles...makes me miss my girls. we were "invaded" by 2000 American highschoolers who are here for the Fringe- part of the theater events...they kept trying to sneak in to get the free beer and dance...I'm kinda mad- I broke my toe on monday...yeah I know. I did it coming off a bus. but there's more coming so hold on and check out the pics. :)

pics,pics,pics,and more pics

this is the staircase at Castle Edinburgh...can you imagine running up those in battle??

nope it's not a torture device, its the door at the castle

our ice cold lecture hall

yeah, once again-a church and strange blue lights.