Aye!

Hello blog world!

Well...I'm afraid I need to be honest with you all (all 14 of you). I promised to blog about Italy and Spain, but I have gotten very distracted and am now losing the stamina to recall all of the adventures. BUT, in other exciting news...Jason has arrived and it has been nothing short of lovely. We have traversed much of the Scottish countryside and even took a few days to visit Edinburgh and St. Andrews. We leave for Paris in 2 days! I must admit i'm a bit nervous about the Parisians and they're obvious feelings about Americans, so i'll just let Jason do the talking. Here is a few pictures of our recent adventures:

Cheers, Mate.

Well, it has been quite awhile since my last musing on the world wide web. So, here I am again...back in Scotland after almost a month of travels around the great land of Europe.

I'm afraid I should preface a few things now: First off, I am no Leo Tolstoy and therefore will have to break up the last month of adventures into several different blog posts. Second of all, my memory is not something I would put on my resume under the "Strengths" columns, so bear with me on the details. And lastly, I have nothing against Tolstoy.

Many days ago, Kalee and I left Scotland on a train (our first of many, MANY trips on public trasportation) headed towards the great city of London. Once we arrived we situated our stuff at the hostel, A.K.A locked everything valuable we own into lockers so that the 12 other strangers sleeping around us didn't steal our belongings, we headed out to meet up with some blokes that Kalee met in Sally Loo's. After our first beer at a London pub, we went to a Noah and the Whale concert (which was so awesome). Then, in London fashion, continued the night at some more pubs and clubs. The next day we went and saw everything that had an animated picture on our map that was within walking distance: i.e. Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, The National Gallery, explored both sides of the river and even indulged in an afternoon nap on the Queen's front lawn. We ended the night by seeing Les Miserables which to our surprise had Nick Jonas as a guest star for the night. What are the odds??

The next day we met up with the blokes again (don't worry, it is a non-offensive term for "friend" in Britain) and went to the Tate Modern Museum and a bunch of other places that are failing my memory. We also had traditional afternoon tea...that is, if by "traditional" you mean out of styrofoam cups from a random cafeteria. We called it an early night due to the fact that we were rising at 2 am to start our journey to Italy the next morning.




Journey to Italy: To Be Continued....



Kalee's confusion over the tube routes...


You can see the Queen in one of the windows to the right. Look hard, She's waving!


The blokes!


Trafalgar Square


Noah and the Whale!

I couldn't post all the photos I wanted in the last post, so here are some more.



Gotta love self-timer.



Kalee loves them. She misses her job a lot too. Maybe too much?




Loch an Eilean



A neat looking tree worthy of posting on a blog? I hope so.



My aunt and her children. I'm in the bright green jacket. I hear it's the latest style...

And The Plot Thickens...

Well hello again from the distant land of haggis and whiskey!

The days have been filled with lots of scenic walks and the occasional pub. A couple nights ago we went to a tavern that is right next to the hostel and where we suspected we would find many young travelers who we could befriend. When we walked into the tavern, there were only a handful of middle aged people. We sat outside for a bit drinking some lovely beer and soon met three Norwegians who were around our age. Everything was well until people started to bash on the U.S. of A. After a bit of haggling, we decided to call it a night. The next day Kalee and I watched the world cup game at a "local sports bar," the people didn't seem too into the sports though...Needless to say, the night life here isn't quite what I had expected from the infamous "Europe."

Some interesting news on the home front... I will be acquiring another travel partner! Jason Chung is coming to visit!! What started as a joke answer (You should come over here) to the occasional "I miss you so much" turned into a plane ticket in the beginning of August!! I could not be more excited for his arrival and am excited for the adventures we will have. We decided to go to Paris the last week that we're over here, which should be nothing short of amazing. Kalee and I have also decided to expand our travel plans as well. In contemplating the adventure ahead of us, we decided that we should take advantage of being on this continent as much as we can, so after we spend 2 weeks in Italy, we're taking a €7.00 flight to Barcelona and spending a bit of time over there before we head back to Inverness for the Belladrum Festival.

It's late, and I sense that i'm losing my wit, so I think I'll end this post with some photos of our latest adventures. Hope all is well on the home front! Miss you all.

A castle in the middle of Loch an Eilean.

This one's for you, Chung.

A used bookstore with a cafe on the second floor. We met some Swiss-Germans here that we followed around for a bit...

A Scottish cat!! <3>

Kalee's favourite animal?

They call me "Cheeky"

Well, I have arrived! After experiencing 5 different cities, 4 different airports, 4 different planes, 3 different time-zones, and ultimately losing my luggage, I have settled into Inverness! It was quite the adventure, and while I was quite nervous about traveling on my own, I managed fair enough.

After a long day and a half of travel, I had some lovely dinner with my Aunt and her family and then went to sleep for a good 14+ hours. After waking up(not by my own choice) we set out for a walk to town. Turns out my Aunt's house is in PRIME location! It's right near numerous parks, woods, rivers, ponds, downtown area, and islands (yes, Islands). The downtown is just short of magical and filled with many shops and many years of history. I will be back there many more times to explore.

As for the title of this post, I've also learned some new vocabulary. Cheeky is a term for someone with a sassy attitude, donner is what my family uses to describe the teenage hoodlums in the area, skive is when you are truant from school, and people "scurry along" quite often here.

It is now 12:45 in the morning here and if I ever hope to rid myself of this jet lag, I should probably scurry along to bed now. I miss all you back in the states very much. Please know that I think of you all very often and wish that all of you could share in this adventure with me. Here are some pictures for some visual aid!

Note to reader: My luggage has been found!

Some beautiful stairs in an alley way in town.

My cousins.

Inverness castle/courthouse

Burn road (where I am living)

The river that is 5 minutes from my Aunt's house.

I Promise I'm Not Self-Absorbed

I've had quite the aversion to blogging for awhile out of fear for being conceived as self-absorbed and narcissistic, but alas here is my blog. Among several reasons, one of the reasons I've opened this can of electronic worms is because there are a lot of dear people in my life and I want them to be able to share in my life this summer. Because of time differences and limited resources to communicate with everyone, I supposed that this would be the best way to keep in touch.

I'm not sure what else you put on a blog, but if you are interested in sending me snail mail or stalking me from Google Maps Street View my address for the summer will be:

3 Burn Road

Inverness IV24NG

Scotland, UK

Also, I'd love to send you a postcard if you would be so kind as to give me your address.

I suppose this is just the beginning.