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Gus, one of the Rotary guys, took me on another roadtrip with him. He's the insurance guy who took me to the crazy castle last time. This time we went down to Dunblaine. He told me there was gonna be a Cathedral there and and then ride back up through Whisky Distillery Country.

So Gus picks me up early in the morning and we head out. This is the day after I get back from New York for my brothers graduation. I am super tired and super jet lagged. But I go anyways. We stop at Brechin Castle and have tea in their tear room on the grounds which was really nice. We passed through Kirriemur where Peter Pan was written and headed to do Gus' insurance claim which only took maybe 20 minutes. Then we headed into Dunblaine. It was such a quaint little town, as you can see from the photos below. I would live there right on the river in a little house if I could.

We went into the Cathedral which was breathtaking. Did you know in Scotland that in order to be a city you have to have a Cathedral? Are there even any cathedrals in the United States at all? I thought that was interesting. So anyways we walk around there and take photos and whatnot then head out again. We walk around Dunblaine which is so nice and then we drive past a school that Gus tells me had a school shooting in it.  It was in 96 and led to them banning handguns. Apparently it was a cub scout leader who did it. How awful.

After that we headed back on the road. We stopped for lunch at the distillery of the Famous Grouse which was really cool. I'm not a huge whisky fan but Gus has a pretty big collection so we went into the gift shop and I was absolutely shocked by the price of this stuff. There was a 40 year old bottle of Highland Park Whisky that cost 899.99 pounds. I thought this was insane until I saw the 1965 Glenforest one that was 25,000 pounds. REALLY?? That is SO much money. Now the lady said theyre not even going to sell that, but thats how much it WOULD be if they were. Why is it SO much?? I dont really understand.

Then we kept driving and went up to the Crieff Hydro which was a big temperance hotel where monks used to work (I think, my memory is fading). This was pretty cool as well. Gus had stayed in this hotel before which must have been amazing.

On the drive back I kept falling asleep. I felt awful and so embarrassed. But I was just SO tired from jetlag and so exhausted from not sleeping a lot in New York. Gus didn't seem to mind but I'm sure he thought I was being super rude. I tried my hardest to stay awake but it was to the point where you literally cannot keep your eyes open. So embarrassing. Poor Gus.  Overall thought it was a great experience and its so nice to just get out of the city and out into parts of Scotland I haven't seen yet.

When I was at my host club's Rotary meeting on Monday I was handed a copy of newspaper that hand an article on a speech I gave.  I decided to look to see if it was online to send to my mom (she would be so proud).  Although I couldn't find that article, I actually found a few other articles written, so I figure I'll post some here so you can see what I've been up to in someone else's words. 

http://www.aberdeendeesiderotary.org.uk/news.asp?intent=viewstory&newsid=26106

FIRST FOR DEESIDE
26 March 2010
History was made at The Rotary Club of Aberdeen Deeside when for the first time a husband and wife were admitted as members.Peter and Sylvia Robinson of Cults joined the growing membership that meet in the Cults Hotel. Now retired following a career as a Management Lecturer at the Collegeof Education and a senior role with Shell Peter continues to remain active with an interest in Sociology balanced by a dedication to Everton Football Club. Peter’s interest in Merseyside activities is as a result of his early life there when he was acquainted with both Paul McCartney and John Lennon. Sylvia has had a colourful career in the arts including lecturing in drama and appearing both on television and the stage and now uses her considerable experience as a presentation and voice coach.

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Also visting the club was Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar Julie Kenneally from Boston, USA. Julie who is presently a Post Graduate student at the University of Aberdeen where she is studying for an Msc in Strategic Studies. Julie’s studies to date have revolved around the actions, motivation and background of female suicide bombers.When she returns to the United States Julie hopes to work for an NGO or charity dedicated to improving the lives of troubled women.
Pictured are Rotary President Mike Craig, Julie Kenneally and Sylvia and Peter Robinson.

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http://www.kintorerotary.co.uk/news.asp

KINTORE CLUB WELCOMES AMBASSADORIAL SCHOLAR
18 March 2010

At their weekly meeting on Thursday 18 March, members of the Rotary Club of Kintore welcomed Julie Kenneally, a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar, and her Host Counsellor in the UK, Jim Couper of the Rotary Club of Aberdeen St Nicholas.
Julie, originally from Massachusetts, USA, explained that the Ambassadorial Scholar Programme allowed students to visit other countries to study for a limited period of time in order to experience other cultures and promote international understanding and goodwill.

Although born in Massachusetts, Julie studied Political Science and International Studies at Elon University in North Carolina, the subject of her Thesis being Female Suicide Terrorism. She then worked for a year at the US Census Bureau in Washington DC before being sponsored by the Rotary Club of Summit, North Carolina to attend Aberdeen University to undertake an MSc in Strategic Studies.

As an Ambassadorial Scholar, Julie had fully immersed herself in some of the service projects of the Rotary Club of Aberdeen St Nicholas, including working for a day in a Charity Shop in Aberdeen. She had also given a number of talks and attended meetings of Rotary Clubs in the area. She explained that, when she returns to the United States in June, she would also be visiting and talking to Rotary Clubs there about her experiences as a student in the North East of Scotland.

After a lively question and answer session, Kintore Rotarian Jim Thomson thanked Julie for her informative talk and wished her well in her studies in Aberdeen and her future career on her return to the United States.

The photograph below shows Jim Couper, Julie Kenneally and Kintore President Jim Smith.

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Volcanic eruption. Who would have thought?? Not me.

An interesting event happened while I was here.  A volcano in Iceland erupted.  I'm sure by now everyone reading this has heard what happened, but I'm going to just share how it effected me and my thoughts on the event. 

I woke up on morning and checked the news like I normally do and saw all the articles about a volcano erupting and how all the flights were being canceled because of an ash cloud.  I immediately ran to the window like a child on Christmas but was disappointed to see that it was actually a completely clear sky, not a single cloud.  Confused, I went back and read more about the ash cloud.  Firstly, the cloud wasn't really as far north as Aberdeen.  Secondly, the ash is super high up in the atmosphere, around plane level, which is why planes were having trouble flying.  The ash particles are so small that they can't be picked up on radar, so planes can't see the ash cloud and navigate around it.  If ash gets into the engine it destroys it.  So all the planes were grounded. 

This was a persistent ash cloud.  It got stuck here because of a high pressure system that wasn't moving. Because of this, all flights were canceled for like a week and half. This normally wouldn't be that big of a problem or affect me at all, except it was the end of the three week Spring Break. Which meant everyone who went somewhere (not me) couldn't get back. My best friend here, Catie, for example, got stuck in Sicily for an extra 7 days. People who were in Aberdeen got stuck here as well.  My dutch friend Hasse had 5 friends come up all staying in his tiny dorm room.  They only got stuck an extra 2 or 3 days, but poor Hasse was so tired and exhausted of hosting 5 extra people by the end of it.  Plus the 5 of them had to spend so much extra money trying to change flights and even just on the extra food and living costs.  Luckily they were sleeping at Hasse's for free, because I've heard all the hotels raised their prices to get some extra money out of the stranded passengers.  Not cool. 

Our professor got stuck in Paris and therefore our classes were canceled for an entire week. It was a nice little break I guess.  But after 3 weeks of Spring Break already off I was ready to go back to a normal schedule.  Overall the volcano was just an interesting idea.  Its so strange to me that after all the technology we have.  After all the progress we've made.  After everything we feel we've accomplished, something in nature that no one can control throws the world off balance for a week or so.  We can get hundred-pound planes in the sky flying across huge oceans, but one natural disaster and everything is thrown off.  Thousands of dollars are lost and people's lives are disrupted for days on end.  Its a funny, humbling experience.  I think it kind of makes you realize how much we still have to accomplish and how small we all actually are.

The Hockey Ball is an event at the end of year in which the girls and guys field hockey teams come together and have a ball.  I'm not sure how much I've talked about the hockey team before, but they drink a lot.  I really don't drink much, if at all, so I was a little nervous about how this night would turn out.  But I went anyways and it turned out to be a lot of fun and a bit of a cultural lesson. 

The event took place at the Hilton, but the girls and guys teams met separately before to get everyone together.  The girls met at Korova, a bar that sponsors us, at 5 pm. Then around 7 we got on busses and headed to meet the boys at the Hilton.  We got there and all sat down at the formal table settings with white tablecloths.  We ate and had our typical formal Scottish 3 course meal of carrot and coriander soup and rolls, chicken and potatoes and veggies, and sticky toffee pudding. There were 5 bottles of wine on the table for 10 people, plus a glass of wine as you walked in.  As usual for any meal I've had here that I've not cooked myself, it was delicious. 

We all ate and then the ceilidh dancing began with a three man pipe band. These are typical Scottish dances, one being called the Dashing White Sergeant, for example, that are very formal type dances. I wouldn't really say ballroom dances because they aren't ballroom style like we would think of in America. But I found partners who knew what they were doing so they helped me learn each different.  It was pretty fun/funny to watch everyone maneuver around the dance floor with their partner trying to remember the steps to all these dances. I felt bad for the band they just looked defeated trying to help us learn them.  There was one where the girls were in one line across the floor and the guys were facing us on the other and the couple at the end would lock arms and spin around for awhile then work their way down the line spinning around with each different person.  It was a dizzy-ing experience, but so much fun. 

Overall the ball was exciting.  I love dressing up and Scotland has given me plenty of opportunities to dress in nice dresses.  The boys were all wearing kilts which is still funny to me (sorry Jim, I know you will comment on this later).  I think it is the nights like these that really give me a glimpse into Scottish culture.  I have never been to such an event like this in the United States.  I guess a wedding would be the closest thing I would go to, or maybe a debutant ball that some people had in North Carolina while I was there.  We don't really have these kind of formal events and I realllllly wish we did.   Its so fun to dress up really nice and go eat a nice meal and do some traditional dances. 

Easter Sunday, what an exciting day. I woke up Easter morning and made some breakfast and then went downstairs to wait for Jim and Jean to come pick me up and we were off to do some sightseeing.  We head to Crathes Castle. What a beautiful day out. Everyone else had the same idea as us, though.  Although it seemed like it would be too crowded most of the people were on the grounds for an Easter Egg Hunt, so we were free to wander around the castle at our leisure.  It was so fun.  This one was a little more educational than the castle tour with Gus because it isn't a private house.  So in each room there were workers to answer our questions, pamphlets with information, and explanations under all the paintings and photographs.  It was so nice.  The grounds were beautiful and there was a little maze in the hedges.  It was lovely.

After touring through it we go down to the cafe for tea and people watch all the families out for some fun on Easter Sunday.  We then leave to head back and start discussing dinner.  Jean wanted to make a roast but we didn't think we would have enough time to cook it so we decided to go out for fish and chips at the Ashvale.  This is alleged to be the best fish and chips in the UK, and I would have to say its the best I've had so far.  The portions were pretty big but I, of course, managed it all.  Then we went back to Jim and Jean's for some dessert and tea and chatted about the day.

This is very different from how I normally spend Easter.  We usually just stay at home and have my grandmother come to us, or the 5 of us would go up to her house and stay there.  The day normally would involve my mom slaving away at a huge meal or ham or roast beef while the rest of us would watch tv or my brother and I would play some sport outside.  We would eat our meal around 3 or 4 then spend the rest of the day lounging around.  I really liked how I spent Easter this year though. Easter always has such nice weather and it seemed really fun to go out with the family and enjoy the weather and do something together that you probably don't have time to do normally.  I may bring this back to my family next year.

Hope everyone else's Easter went well!

Julie