Heather here - Wow! Can't believe we hadn't posted anything since the 15th! That last week was quite busy!

While we were with the Pitlochry club, they took us to the theater. We saw The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. It was very well done and quite entertaining!

After a whirlwind couple of days in Pitlochry, we headed up to Avimore for the District Conference and the last leg of our trip.

Friday night we attended the dinner and listened to a little bit of history from Mary Queen of Scots, in her own words.

Saturday, Kylee and I made our trip to Loch Ness. We took the train to Inverness and caught a boat for a 3 hour tour on the Loch. It was a beautiful, but chilly, day to be on the Loch. It must have been too cold for Nessie though, we didn't see her at all! The sonar on the boat showed the depth of the Loch, nearly 800 feet in some areas.

Saturday night's formal dinner at the confernce was a lot of fun. The food was great, the company at the table interesting and the music lively (though a bit too loud for the size of the hall!). I got to put into practice some of the Scottish Country Dancing classes I'd taken!

Sunday morning we gave our final presentation to the delegatees. We had quite a large audience - very nerve wracking! But they were all friendly faces and quite a few of them were well known to us already from the clubs we'd visited. We each told a little bit about ourselves and something we'd learned or would take away with us from Scotland. Everyone loved Scott's lament of the midges, and also Karen's Scottish Vocabulary lesson. Who can forget words like dreich or braw?

So now we're home. I've been intending to get this blog done since Tuesday but apparently jet lag has hit me too much! My kitties were certainly glad to see me and they are sticking so close I can barely walk without tripping over one or the other of them. My horse was also glad to see me - until I saddled him up and made him work!

I thought that seeing people drive on the right side of the road, and actually driving again after a month, would seem strange and take some getting used to, but it really hasn't. Seemed perfectly normal to drive on the right! I have forgotten my phone numbers at work and where I put things for safe keeping before I left. Eventually I'm sure I'll get things reorganized!

It's good to be home, but I do miss Scotland already! Especially all the wonderful people we met, the green countryside, cool weather and awesome sights!

Heather here! I'll add one of my photos from Loch Brandy but I think Levi has the best. Hopefully he'll put one on! It really was quite a hike but absolutely worth the effort when we got to the loch. The water tasted wonderful!

My favorite part about Kirriemuir was that I got to go horseback riding!!! Karen and I went for a short hack (what we would call a trail ride) through town, up a hill and back down past an old quarry. It was really fun and I think I now have Karen sold on the English style of riding rather than just western :)


People have asked me what has been my favorite part of Scotland so far and that is just an impossible question to answer! We've had so much fun at all of our clubs that it has been very hard to pick any one thing that stands out as my favorite. If I really had to narrow it down, I'd say my favorite thing so far has been the people. We've met so many wonderful, generous, fun, helpful and kind people here that this truly will be the best thing I remember about Scotland!

I'm back!

Hi there, Kylee is back! Well I see Caitlin has beat me to the blog, so be sure to scroll down and read her entry after this commercial break. Ok, all jokes a side. I have been having the time of my life here in Scotland for real. The Kirriemuir club was great. I haven't drank and laughed that much in years. The whole club went well out of their way to show us a good time. Caitlin talked about our hike ( up Mt. Everest!) and the Burns theme dinner last night, well I'm not sure what one hurts more but I'm going with the dancing! It was great fun being swung around on the arm of a HOT guy in a Kilt! And... I tried Haggis for the first time and I actually liked it. It wasn't so scary after all! Kirriemuir is where the author who wrote Peter Pan came from and we were able to see a few of the monuments. On Saturday we were lucky enough to meet the Queen Mothers cousin, Mary Countess of Strathmore. It was by far one of the highlights of the trip. She autographed a book for each of us, and posed for pictures with our team. Today we landed in Pitlochry, and into the hands of great new hosts. We are now in the highlands, and the views are amazing! I'm looking forward to all the new memories to be made on our last week here. Catch you later, Kylee

Kirriemuir to Pitlochry

Hey there - Caitlin here.

We just arrived in Pitlochry today. I felt a little bad for our new hosts - I think we were all a little exhausted after the big day we had yesterday.

Kirriemuir Rotary Club took us to the Guide Dogs training centre in Forfar (we made it onto the front page of the newspaper with one of the dogs!)


and then we went on a gorgeous hike in Glen Clova to Loch Brandy. This is about an hour and a half hike uphill but it was sooooo worth it. This was my favorite place so far. Kylee filled her empty bottle with water from the loch and it was crystal clear spring water - delicious! It was a little weird drinking water directly from a lake but it was really good.

We hurried back down because our hosts were waiting at a pub at the bottom and we each deserved a wee dram after all of that :)

After getting cleaned up, we attended a Burns night. We ate haggis after it was blessed in the traditional way with a Robert Burns poem, toasted with whisky, and danced the night away. Nothing like red wine and whisky followed by Scottish men flinging you around in circles. I'm not going to lie, my body hurts today!

We were delivered to our Pitlochry Rotary Club hosts this morning and we went straight into the meeting to do our presentation. Afterwards, we all went back with our host families to relax. Kylee and I may have shopped a little bit...

Tomorrow is a vocational day followed by an evening out at Pitlochry theater.. I'm excited for a fancy night out!

That's all for now!

Caitlin

P.S. Pictures will come soon...

P.P.S. Attn: My fellow GSE Team - please insert pictures above!! I don't have my camera cord :) XOXO

last day in Fraserburgh

We had another very active day in Fraserburgh. In the am, we enjoyed the MacDuff Marine Aquarium so I had to include a photo of my favorite...the cuttle fish. It seems as though he is a distant cousin to the octopus. Can you see the resemblance?

Already it was time for lunch so we headed over to Banff And Buchan College, where they have the Dept. of Hospitality and Catering. The students practice their skills as wait staff, maitre de, chef, etc within their in-house Wallace Restaurant. The food was delicious and came with an outstanding presentation. Many Rotarians from the Fraserburgh Club came to join us for lunch.


Afterwards, Ann(Heather's host) and John(Levi's host) drove us over to Hackley Bay between Colliston and Newburgh for some free time on the beach. This beach is pristine, as it is within the confines of a nature reserve. We practically had it to ourselves once we made the the trek down the cliff and on to the beautiful white sand. The hike was well-worth the effort...yup, we are having as much fun as it looks, even though the water is cccccold!

Fri am we are on the move again. We had a great time visiting Fraserburgh area and its Rotarians, as well as Debbie (Kylee's host), who visited New York as a previous GSE team member. It is difficult to move on, but we are certain that history will repeat itself in providing us with wonderful Rotary hosts, friends and great experiences. Karen

Heather here! Thought I would add a little bit to Caitlin and Karen's blog for today! It truly was a very pleasant day for the weather. The beach walk was a bit windy and brisk but enjoyable. We've seen some wildlife while we've been here. Birds of prey, seals, horses, sea gulls galore... And I did actually see a wee highland coo yesterday - that's a little highland cow for those of you back home! But the cutest wildlife so far came to visit us at my host's home tonight. She was outside having a smokie (cigarette) when the doorbell started to ring furiously. When I went to the door, Ann told me to grab my camera and pointed to a little ball on the ground. Turns out it was this guy - a hedgehog! He came skittering over from the neighbor's yard and stopped long enough for a photo op, then toddled off again.

Adventures in Fraserburgh

Hello!

This is Caitlin and Karen in Fraserburgh (pronounced Frazer-bura). Today was a lovely sunny day, in fact, the nicest day since our arrival in Scotland. We started the day with an extensive tour of a massive fishing boat with the skipper, Andrei. Fishing is the leading industry in Fraserburgh and fresh fish, including herring & haddock, is readily available to the locals.



After a nice walk on the beach, we went to the nearby village of Gardenstown for hike through the hills. The views of the countryside were unbelievable - see for yourself!





The boys didn't make it into the water again today but here's a shot of Scott in the North Sea yesterday..



Our group presented at the Fraserburgh Rotary Club last night. At my table (Caitlin), the Rotarians were talking about the sport of curling. It would have been interesting had I been able to understand a word of it - they were speaking in Doric. This dialect is ridiculously hard to understand as an outsider.

Karen was sitting next to the club president, Pauline, who is a general dentist so they were able to talk shop. All in all, the evening was a great success!

Tomorrow we are off to the Macduff Aquarium and then to a college for a catered lunch prepared by culinary students - nice!

That's all for now - Haste ye back!

Highland Games and a Day Off

Hello everyone, Levi here. So we just got to go to Braemar yesterday for the Highland Games. This is in the area of the Balmoral Estate, where the Queen sometimes spends a few weeks. She is a patron of the games at Braemar and often attends. We were lucky to be present when she arrived and I took this very blurry picture.



You can see some of the beauty of Scotland that runs right through Braemar here. The surrounding area is an amazing combination of woodland and hills of heather.



Here you can see the caber in mid-toss. The gentleman was successful in his toss of the heavy caber. Called the Braemar Caber, it is 19' 9" and weighs 132lbs. The goal is to get it to go end over end, in a straight line. Some cabers are heavier, but this one is particularly long and that makes it more difficult than it already is. Until you watch it, you think it is purely brute strength. But after watching, you realize the timing and skill involved.



This is the inter-service tug-o-war competition. The effort required is immense. It is a fierce competition and requires 100% effort from everyone involved. This picture is of special importance to me. It captures a memory that I will never forget. While this tug-o-war was going on, there was a group of singers on the stage in the background to the left of this image. The group is called Highland Heartbeat, and the music was haunting and beautiful. The strange dichotomy of the beautiful music and violent struggle just seemed to epitomize the essence of Scotland. Beauty and struggle, hope and despair, victory and defeat. It was almost overwhelming...


A day off.


So yesterday afternoon, after the games we checked into the Thainstone House Hotel. It is a very handsome building with attached grounds that make you feel a thousand miles away from anything.



We went for a few walks around the grounds and discovered many wonderful areas.



Including an ancient looking door from the woods, into more woods.



Tomorrow we are off to new hosts in Fraserburgh and new adventures. The time off was very nice and relaxing... Talk to you soon.

More Aberdeen

Hello All, Karen here. First time ever writing on a blog, which is in keeping with all the "firsts" of this incredible trip the GSE team and myself have been fortunate enough to be experiencing. Today was again so much fun! We have all been looking forward to going on a tour of a whisky (Scottish spelling...no "e" in whisky) distillery and today was the day. The distillery was named Glen Garioch (pronounced Glen Geery) in Oldmeldrum, Aberdeenshire. We learned all about the process for creating whisky, which ended in, you guessed it...a generous tasting of a dram of whisky. The process is quite interesting and the tour was educational for all of us, possibly with the exception of Levi, who is already a whisky expert extraordinaire.

In Inverurie,Aberdeenshire, we visited Castle Fraser from the 17th century, with all it's intriguing history and ghost stories. Some of us even heard unexplained ghostly sounds! We were allowed to wander around inside this very large castle but, sorry no photos were allowed.

We ended the day with a wonderful celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Rotary Club of Oldmeldrum. This was quite the event with kilts and bagpipes and champagne and as many as 26 visiting clubs present to participate in the celebration. It was an absolutely beautiful and thoroughly enjoyable evening. This club is impressive with all of it's accomplishments in such a short period of time. I can't wait to share their story with my club at home. The speakers were so full of humor that my cheeks actually hurt from laughing so much. There was the perfect mix of humor and pride in Rotary accomplishments (and wine) to round out a perfect celebration. Congratulations to Rotary Club of Oldmeldrum and thank you for inviting the GSE team to join in the festivities. The photo includes the GSE team along with current president Hilary Gordon, Gordon McNally, Past R.I.B.I. President and RI Director, current DG Bill McFarlane Smith and Andrew McCartney, current AG. The evening ended at around midnight, which is why this post is entered on the following day.

Tomorrow we are off for a day at the Braemar Highland Games where the Queen will also be in attendance. Another great day to look forward to!

Aberdeen !

Hi again, It's me Kylee. I just wanted to let everyone know that we had a fantastic time in Cupar. " IT'S SUPER IN CUPAR!" We were able to get to know our Host as well as each others Host pretty well. I had a hard time saying good by this morning. They really went the extra mile for our whole team. I had Nikki who was an amazing chef! Our BBQ with Diane, Sandy, and the rest of the club was a lot of fun. We played many games and drank quite a bit! I was able to finally spend some time on the beach, and Marley the Lercher had a blast! Levi and I went with our Host families to Edenbough and hit up the pub after seeing all the sights. I even got to play dress up in an local antique shop!
Today we rode the train to Aberdeen where we were greeted by our new families. Everyone here seems nice as well. I have to say good night for now, I think I have picked up a cold and need my rest.
Kylee